Pacific Research Institute


The Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy is a California-based free-market think tank which promotes "the principles of individual freedom and personal responsibility" through policies that emphasize a free economy, private initiative, and limited government. PRI was founded in 1979 by British philanthropist Antony Fisher.

Policy areas

The organization is active in the policy areas of education, economics, health care, and the environment. It operates the Center for California's Future, which has a goal of "reinvigorating California's entrepreneurial, self-reliant traditions" and the Laffer Center, which is "focused on educating people on free-markets and supply-side economics."
From 1996 through 2009, the organization published an annual Index of Leading Environmental Indicators, which tracked environmental trends worldwide. PRI started the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, a New York-based think tank focusing on health policy.