Regional economies play an important role in shaping opportunities and outcomes for low-income residents and people of color. Broad trends in the U.S. economy—such as the decline of traditional manufacturing, the growth of high-tech industries, and the rapid expansion of low-wage service jobs—occur unevenly across the nation’s largest metro areas. To better understand the implications of these trends for advancing regional equity and shared prosperity, this report presents a typology that classifies the 150 largest U.S. regions based on (1) the growth of advanced industries; (2) the decline of manufacturing jobs; and (3) the quality of service-sector jobs that generally do not require a BA degree. Understanding the connections between these factors can help local leaders identify and develop tailored strategies to grow good jobs, create accessible career pathways for people of color, nurture equitable entrepreneurial ecosystems, and improve job quality for all workers. Download the report, methodology, and summary.

To illustrate how these interrelated dynamics manifest at the local level, the report is accompanied by three case studies of diverse metropolitan areas representing different regional types: Charlotte, North Carolina metro; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania metro; and Stockton, California metro.
 

Public funds, established by legislation, ordinance or resolution, to receive specific revenues dedicated to affordable housing development. (2004)

This alternative property ownership model encourages permanent affordability and wealth-building. (2004)

How to implement TOD -- compact, mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented communities located around new or existing public transit stations -- in a way that achieves equity goals. (2008)

In recent years a national discussion has been underway about the causes and effects of growing inequality, but one cause that has received little attention is the role of the U.S. tax code. The individual tax code contains more than $1 trillion in tax subsidies known to policymakers and economists as tax expenditures because, like spending programs, they provide financial assistance to support specific activities or groups of people. Of these subsidies, more than half a trillion, $540 billion, support some form of savings or investment (e.g., higher education, retirement, homeownership).

In theory, tax code–based public subsidies should help all families save and invest, but instead, wealthier households receive most of the benefits. In fact, a recent analysis of the largest wealth- building tax subsidies found that the top 1 percent of households received more benefits from these tax code–based subsidies than the bottom 80 percent combined.

The new brief answers key questions about tax expenditures: What are they, how do they work, and who benefits? In addition, since the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not collect tax data by race, the primer uses data related to the distribution of benefits by income quintiles and the demographics of each quintile to provide a rough approximation of how different racial and ethnic groups do or do not benefit from the different categories of tax expenditures.

Houston-Galveston is characterized by overall economic strength and resilience, but wide racial gaps in income, health, and opportunity coupled with declining wages, a shrinking middle class, and rising inequality place the region’s economic success and future at risk. Our analysis showed the region already stands to gain a great deal from addressing racial inequities. If racial gaps in income had been closed in 2012, the regional economy would have been $243.3 billion stronger: a 54 percent increase. You can also download the summary and addendum.

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Ensures that healthy local businesses owned by people of color are a basic component of strong, sustainable communities. (2004)

Ordinances that ensure the employees of public contractors, private contractors receiving public sector funding, and public employees are paid wages at pace with regional cost of living measures. (2004)