The purpose of its research and other activities is to enable scholars and leaders in business, labor, and government to work together on problems of common interest.

Through this process of scholarship, analysis, and informed debate, the Levy Institute generates public policy responses to economic problems.

Blithewood, a Georgian-style manor at the campus's western edge, is the institute's main research and conference facility.

The house and grounds, which includes an Italianate garden overlooking the Hudson River, were incorporated as part of Bard College in 1951.

The board of directors includes Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College; Bruce C. Greenwald and Joseph Stiglitz, both of Columbia University; Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute; Martin L. Leibowitz, managing director of Morgan Stanley; William Julius Wilson of Harvard University;[2] Pavlina Tcherneva, President of the Levy Institute; and Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, President Emeritus of the Levy Institute, Jerome Levy Professor of Economics and executive vice president of Bard College, and managing director of Bard College Berlin.