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881. Making Sense of Clusters: Regional Competitiveness and Economic Development

Author:
Joseph Cortright
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
In recent years, "cluster strategies" have become a popular economic development approach among state and local policymakers and economic development practitioners. An industry cluster is a group of firms, and related economic actors and institutions, that are located near one another and that draw productive advantage from their mutual proximity and connections. Cluster analysis can help diagnose a region's economic strengths and challenges and identify realistic ways to shape the region's economic future. Yet many policymakers and practitioners have only a limited understanding of what clusters are and how to build economic development strategies around them.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
United States

882. One-Fifth of the Nation: America's First Suburbs

Author:
David Warren and Robert Puentes
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
One of the more encouraging metropolitan policy trends over the last several years is the increased attention on America's older, inner-ring, “first” suburbs. Beginning generally with Myron Orfield's Metropolitics in 1997, a slow but steady stream of research has started to shine a bright light on these places and begun to establish the notion that first suburbs have their own unique set of characteristics and challenges that set them apart from the rest of metropolitan America. Since then first suburbs in a few regions have assumed a small, but significant, role in advancing research and policy discussions about metropolitan growth and development.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Migration
Political Geography:
United States and America

883. Firm Sizes: Facts, Formulae and Fantasies

Author:
Robert L. Axtell
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
Recently discovered facts concerning the size distribution of U.S. firms are recapitulated—in short, these sizes are closely approximated by the Zipf distribution, a Pareto (power law) distribution with exponent of unity. Interesting consequences of this result are then developed, having primarily to do with formulae for the distribution's moments, and difficulties of reasonably characterizing a 'typical' firm. Then, a leading candidate explanation for these data—the Kesten random growth process—is assessed in terms of its realism vis-á-vis actual firm growth. Insofar as it has fluctuations that are quite different in character from actual firm size variability, the Kesten and related stochastic growth processes qualify more as fables of firm growth than as credible explanations. Finally, new explanations of the facts are proposed by considering firms to be partitions of the set of all workers. Assuming all partitions to be equally likely, the observed distribution of firm sizes is hypothesized to be the distribution of block sizes in the most likely partitions. An alternative derivation of this distribution as a constrained optimization problem is also described. Given that these calculations involve unimaginably vast magnitudes, it seems just short of fantastic to consider them relevant empirically.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
United States

884. The Affordability Index

Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
This brief describes a new information tool developed by the Urban Markets Initiative to quantify, for the first time, the impact of transportation costs on the affordability of housing choices. This brief explains the background, creation, and purpose of this new tool. The first section provides a project overview and a short summary of the method used to create the Affordability Index. The next section highlights the results from testing the index in a seven-county area in and around Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. To demonstrate the usefulness of this tool at a neighborhood level, the third section projects the effect of transportation and housing choices on three hypothetical low- and moderate-income families in each of four different neighborhoods in the Twin Cities. The brief concludes with suggested policy recommendations and applications of the new tool for various actors in the housing market, and for regulators, planners, and funders in the transportation and land use arenas at all levels of government.
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, and Government
Political Geography:
United States

885. Principles for a U.S. Public Freight Agenda in a Global Economy

Author:
Martin E. Robins and Anne Strauss-Weider
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
All the products consumers use and all the products businesses use get to market via America's freight system. And though Americans are utterly dependent on the freight system and its carriers, there is little understanding of the system's impact on our daily personal and business lives on either the macro level—as the gate- way to the global economy—or the micro level—as deliverer of e-commerce purchases. Freight also affects the nation in other ways. U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) statistics show that truck traffic makes up more than 30 percent of the traffic on about 20 percent of Interstate System mileage and is expected to grow substantially over the next 20 years. 2 And the dynamics related to some freight businesses have, in many locations, consumed inexpensive greenfields on the suburban fringe, lengthening trips, and exacerbating existing congestion problems.
Topic:
Economics and Globalization
Political Geography:
United States

886. The Vital Center: A Federal-State Compact to Renew the Great Lakes Region

Author:
Britany Affolter-Caine and Justin Austin
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
The Great Lakes region of the United States is a unique economic, social, and cultural area made up of all or part of 12 states, including the western portions of New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia; northern Kentucky; all of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin; and eastern Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri. Home to 97 million people, this region is defined by a shared geography and natural resources, a dynamic political and economic history, and strong principles of social organization that together have shaped its growth and development. One of the largest industrial production centers and consumer marketplaces in the world, this highly urbanized “mega-region” is a vital global hub of economic activity and growth.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
United States, New York, North America, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia, North Kentucky, East Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri

887. Finding Exurbia: America's Fast-Growing Communities at the Metropolitan Fringe

Author:
William H. Frey, Alan Berube, Audrey Singer, and Jill H. Wilson
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
Beyond the suburbs, at the far edges of metropolitan areas, communities both new and old are developing the capacity to house large flows of incoming residents.
Topic:
Demographics, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
United States

888. Charting Maine's Future: An Action Plan for Promoting Sustainable Prosperity and Quality Places

Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
For all its challenges Maine stands within reach of a new prosperity—if it takes bold action and focuses its limited resources on a few critical investments. The moment is urgent. After decades of industrial restructuring and drift, the pace of transformation is quickening, and the slow replacement of the old order is yielding a new one that may bring better lives for Mainers. New population growth is bringing new people and new wealth to the state.
Topic:
Economics and Government
Political Geography:
United States

889. The Economic Potential of American Cities

Author:
Bruce Katz
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
The relationship between the federal government and American cities is intricate and complex. Majoy federal policies on tax, trade, transportation, and immigration have a substantial influence on the health and vitality of city economies and the shape of metropolitan growth and development. Other federal policies on education, job training, wages, financial services, health care, and housing help shape the life opportunities of urban residents, particularly those who earn low or moderate incomes. Each of these policies influences and is influenced by the nation's changing demographic and economic reality, which in turn has significant implications for cities.
Topic:
Demographics, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
United States

890. Reforming Tax Incentives into Uniform Refundable Tax Credits

Author:
Lily L. Batchelder, Jr. Fred T. Goldberg, and Peter R. Orszag
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
The federal tax code provides about $500 billion each year in incentives intended to encourage socially-valued activities, including homeownership, charitable contributions, health insurance, and education. The vast majority of these incentives operate through deductions or other approaches that link the size of the tax break to a household's marginal tax bracket, which means that higher-income taxpayers receive larger incentives than lower-income taxpayers. Such an approach is often appropriate for provisions, such as deductions for business expenses, designed to measure income or ability to pay. But such an approach for incentives intended to promote socially-valued activities excludes more than a third of America, and misses an important opportunity to increase efficiency and economic growth.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
United States