Inclusive Economic Growth in America?S Cities: What?S the Playbook and the Score?

43 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2016

See all articles by Xavier de Souza Briggs

Xavier de Souza Briggs

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Rolf Pendall

The Urban Institute

Victor Rubin

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: June 22, 2015

Abstract

This paper defines economic inclusion as the ability of all people, including the disadvantaged, to share in economic gains, that is, the conditions that allow for broadly shared prosperity. Beyond the ?right? to access consumption in cities, and beyond relatively standardized safety net policies that support economic security, inclusion demands intentional, flexible, context-appropriate strategies aimed at shifting the dynamics of local land and labor markets, public education, and other institutions. The paper analyzes the varied contexts for designing and supporting such strategies in a rapidly changing society, where urban regions have long been critical to incorporating a broad cross-section of people, including immigrant newcomers. Four dimensions are particularly crucial: an urban area?s level of economic growth, the quality of its jobs, its demographic profile, and its geography of opportunity (degree and form of spatial inequality). Economic inclusion is particularly urgent in America?s strongest local markets, which are pricing out the lowest-wage workers and showing a disturbing tendency to import rather than grow the talent needed for the emerging, innovation-driven economy. But weak-market regions face important challenges?and a range of options for leveraging demographic and other changes?as well. And for now, in all types of cities, innovative and promising strategies remain small in scale, in part because they are competing for support with entrenched, underperforming systems.

Keywords: Urban Economic Development, Peri-Urban Communities, Economic Theory & Research, City to City Alliances, Regional Urban Development, Urban Economics, Municipal Management and Reform, Industrial Economics, Urban Partnerships & Poverty, National Urban Development Policies & Strategies, Urban Communities, Urban Governance and Management, Economic Growth

Suggested Citation

de Souza Briggs, Xavier and Pendall, Rolf and Rubin, Victor, Inclusive Economic Growth in America?S Cities: What?S the Playbook and the Score? (June 22, 2015). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 7322, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2621876

Xavier De Souza Briggs (Contact Author)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( email )

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Rolf Pendall

The Urban Institute

Victor Rubin

affiliation not provided to SSRN

No Address Available

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