Place-based policies for shared economic growth

Depending on where they live, people across the United States experience drastically different economic outcomes. However, to effectively design policies that will provide greater economic opportunities for those living in struggling communities, it is necessary to understand why some communities have thrived and others have not. Mindful of the ways in which many existing place-based policies have failed, it remains imperative to explore new, evidence-based policy options that can ultimately yield more broadly shared economic growth, including: employment subsidies, educational interventions, and more appropriately targeted federal grants.

On September 28, The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution hosted a forum to explore the most effective policy options to foster place-based policies for shared economic growth. The forum featured introductory remarks by Jason Furman, professor of the practice of economic policy, Harvard Kennedy School, and a fireside chat between Deval Patrick, former Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and David Leonhardt, associate editorial page editor and op-ed columnist for The New York Times.

The forum also included three roundtable discussions featuring: Rebecca Blank, chancellor, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Shaun Donovan, senior strategist and adviser to the president on Allston and campus development, Harvard University; Maurice Jones, president and CEO, LISC; Frederick Wherry, professor, sociology, department representative, sociology, Princeton University; Louise Fox, chief economist, USAID; Tracy Jan, race and economics reporter, The Washington Post, among other distinguished scholars and experts.

The forum coincided with the release of a new book of Hamilton Project policy proposals titled “Place-Based Policies for Shared Economic Growth,” on topics including: how policies of racial exclusion have shaped regional outcomes, the potential for universities to support local economic growth, how federal policies could help places with limited fiscal capacity and resilience, how the federal government can help struggling places by subsidizing employment, and lessons from development economics for place-based policy in the United States.