Mitchell works to promote active government economic policies and the use of fiscal deficits as a tool to enhance well-being and environmental sustainability.

Its mission statement is to advance research and policies that can restore full employment and achieve a society that "delivers equitable outcomes for all".

[5] Mitchell opposes neo-liberal economic theories and practices; he disputes the "revisionism" of History ostensibly perpetrated by mainstream or conservative economists, especially in relation to the policies of the New Deal.

[7] His work in childcare industrial cases in Victoria and New South Wales influenced the realignments in the relevant State and Federal Awards in that sector.

It offers an urgent, provocative and prescient political analysis of our current predicament, and lays out a comprehensive strategy for revitalising progressive economics in the 21st century.

"[13] His book Eurozone Dystopia: Groupthink and Denial on a Grand Scale (May 2015), provides "a critical history and analysis from the perspective of Modern Monetary Theory of the European economic crisis that started in 2009.

"[14] Full Employment Abandoned: Shifting Sands and Policy Failures (2008), co-written with Joan Muysken of Maastricht University, traces the theoretical analysis of the nature and causes of unemployment over the last 150 years and argue that the shift from involuntary to so-called "natural rate" concepts of unemployment are behind an "ideological backlash" against state intervention as notably advocated, within the frame of the free economy, by Keynes in the 1930s.

[15] In November 2023, he was listed as one of 44 academics in Australia across all disciplines that were considered to be 'Living Legends' by a Special Research report published in The Australian Newspaper.

[18] Mitchell often refers to the economics discipline, and especially the academia, in disparaging terms,[19] stating, only half-jokingly, that his work as a musician does less damage to people.