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Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT
What stands in the way of recovery? On Wednesday, November 18, Alan Berube and Politico Senior Editor David Mark answered questions in a live web chat about how the nation’s large metropolitan areas—including Washington, DC—have fared in the downturn.
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Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT
A United Kingdom based organization Centre for Cities released a new interactive map that follows the downturn and recovery of the UK’s major urban areas over the last 20 months. Alan Berube identifies that what a U.K. metro area did before the downturn had a big impact on its performance during the downturn.
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Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Despite the economy’s expansion in the last quarter, many American workers still lack jobs, the confidence to spend or a home to call their own. A team of Brookings experts began tracking data early this year to assess various dimensions of national and international well-being. The second quarterly "How We’re Doing" index looks at forces that stand in the way of a strong rebound and asks, "where are we going?"
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Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:39:00 GMT
Despite the economy’s expansion last quarter, many American workers still lack jobs, the confidence to spend money or a home to call their own. Brookings scholars have been tracking data on various dimensions of national and international well-being since early this year. Karen Dynan and Alan Berube examine the findings in the second Brookings “How We’re Doing” Index.
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Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT
The nation appears to have entered a fragile state of recovery, with the worst recession since the 1930s at an end. After four straight quarters of contracting economic activity, the Commerce Department reported this morning that the economy grew in the third quarter of 2009, fueled by government spending on cars and homes. Experts from around the halls of Brookings responded to this news.
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Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT
As the $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time home buyers nears expiration, congressional leaders are considering an extension and an expansion of the program. However, Alan Berube argues that this is not only poor tax policy but also, because of regional variations in housing prices, potentially inflationary.
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Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:55:33 GMT
Alan Berube, research director of Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy program, says the second MetroMonitor shows an uneven recovery, that economic gains in some regions of the country have been offset by an increase of financial instability in others.
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Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT
The second in a series of interactive quarterly reports, the MetroMonitor ranks the nation’s 100 largest metro areas—which generate three quarters of U.S. output—on key indicators of economic performance. This edition of the monitor reveals that, amid signs at the national level that job and income losses are slowing, metropolitan economies continued to perform at highly variable rates through June 2009. While several metro areas may have reached a turning point, there are many others that still have not touched bottom, as well as a few that have almost fully recovered.
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Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Margery Turner and Alan Berube explore how federal policy-makers—particularly at the Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development—can promote local innovations that address the myriad connections between schools and housing, and provide better residential and educational environments for lower-income parents and students.
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Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Most California cities are experiencing the worst economic downturn since the Depression; most Texas cities are not. Based on a new Brookings analysis on the nation's largest metropolitan areas, Alan Berube explains that “a lot depends on what a metro area's firms and workers do, and what its housing market did in the lead-up to the crash.”
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Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:35:00 GMT
Brookings scholar Alan Berube discusses the “MetroMonitor,” which examines the economic health of the nation’s largest metro areas; Darrell West discusses how technological innovation can make government more responsive to citizens; and the man on the street ponders unrest in Iran. All on our podcast, @ Brookings.
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Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:52:06 GMT
When it comes to the U.S. economy, not all areas of the country are created equal. A new Metropolitan Policy Program report on the health of America’s metropolitan economies reveals that different parts of the country are experiencing the recession in different ways. Alan Berube says the study shows that broad-based recovery efforts are not the only answer to the complexities of the recession.
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Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT
The detailed FY 2010 federal budget reveals many elements of the administration’s strategy to achieve needed reforms in schooling and worker skills. Alan Berube analyzes the significant steps in the departments of Education and Labor budgets toward a national economic strategy that invests strategically in human capital to improve our collective prosperity.
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Wed, 13 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT
At the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership meeting in Minneapolis, MN, Alan Berube outlined strengths and limitations of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act from a metropolitan perspective.
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Fri, 08 May 2009 10:21:07 GMT
Alan Berube says community colleges offer educational opportunities to a growing number of students and are a critical part of the national economy and our metropolitan areas.
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Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT
America’s national economic crisis is also a metropolitan crisis, because metropolitan areas are the true engines of the national economy. So it matters intensely how well the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) empowers metropolitan leaders to boost prosperity. This paper finds that although ARRA is limited in its support for creative metropolitan-area implementation, it delivers critical investments in what matters to metros and holds out significant opportunity for metropolitan empowerment and problem-solving.
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Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Changing demographics—where people live, educational attainment, aging of boomers, diversity in population growth, poverty rates—raises key policy and program issues for the new government in Washington. In view of that, the Metropolitan Policy Program has compiled and detailed important trends that are shaping the nation’s engines of economic growth and opportunity.
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Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Alan Berube analyzes how President Obama's first budget places hopeful new emphasis on graduating more students from college. Community colleges enroll increasing numbers of students, but for several reasons fail to graduate most of them—particularly those from lower-income backgrounds—through to a degree or certificate.
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Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
A historic fiscal experiment in this country will evolve in the weeks, months and years ahead as a $790 billion stimulus package is spent to revive America’s economy. Metropolitan Policy Program experts suggest how this money might be strategically deployed to invigorate our nation’s metropolitan areas, the sources of national prosperity.
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Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
The final House-Senate compromise on the economic recovery package offers no boost for HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program, established last year to help state and local governments mitigate the impact of foreclosures. Alan Berube and Alan Mallach argue that additional funds for the program (part of the House proposal omitted in the final bill) would provide much-needed assistance to local communities.
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Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Enrollment in community colleges is surging, driven by a tough economy and increasing skills requirements for gainful employment. Sarah Goldrick-Rab and Alan Berube explain that this environment, as well as longer-term economic growth imperatives, calls for a focused federal commitment to community colleges in order to boost educational attainment.
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Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Alan Berube urges policy-makers to evaluate short-term opportunities and set long-term strategies in order to help Cleveland’s next generation of residents overcome the challenges of concentrated poverty.
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Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT
At a forum hosted by the Federal Reserve Board to discuss a new joint Fed/Brookings report on concentrated poverty in America, Alan Berube discussed the importance of focusing on policies that can help poor people in very poor places, particularly in the context of a severe downturn and in light of the significant stimulus/recovery package being created to boost the economy.
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Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT
The Federal Reserve System and its 12 member banks partnered with the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program to produce a new, in-depth look at concentrated poverty in America. The two-year study profiles 16 high-poverty communities across the United States, investigating the historical and contemporary factors associated with their high levels of economic distress.
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Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:14:38 GMT
In a new report, Alan Berube and Elizabeth Kneebone explain that following a dramatic decline in concentrated poverty in the 1990s, the number of low-income workers and families living in high-working-poverty neighborhoods rose by a striking 41% in the first half of this decade. Alan Berube says that help for high working-poverty communities will come from stronger national and regional economic growth—plus targeted efforts to protect neighborhoods of choice and connection.
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Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT
After dramatic declines in concentrated poverty in the 1990s, the number of low-income workers and families living in high-working-poverty neighborhoods rose by a striking 41% in the first half of this decade, according to a new report from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. The report's authors draw on data from the IRS to measure the change in rates of “concentrated working poverty” nationally and in many of the largest metropolitan areas across the country.
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Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT
The United Kingdom has moved aggressively at the national level over the past decade to strengthen the performance of its major cities and urban areas. In light of their success, Alan Berube and Chris Webber outline several lessons for American efforts to create a smarter metropolitan policy that will bolster U.S. economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.
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Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Slowed economic growth and rising prices for necessities like food, transportation, and child care threaten to exacerbate the challenges already facing America's low-income workers and their families. The federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) could do more to help close the growing gap between stagnant wages and rising prices. "Metro Raise" demonstrates how an expanded and modernized EITC would benefit families and communities in the nation's major metropolitan areas.
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Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Alan Berube and David Jackson urge the federal government to think long term about global competitive advantage by focusing efforts towards the three I’s—Innovation, Infrastructure and Intellect.
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Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT
On the cusp of Ohio's crucial primary, Bruce Katz and Alan Berube posit some key questions on the candidates’ long-term plans for the Ohio economy, which has lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000 and contains four of the nation’s top 20 metropolitan areas in home foreclosure rates.
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Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT
The economic stimulus package before Congress may provide temporary relief in the short-term, but, ultimately, bolstering America’s long-term economic growth depends on the “three Is”- innovation, intellect, and infrastructure. Alan Berube, research director and fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings discusses America’s major metropolitan areas hold the key to economic health for the long haul.
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Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT
As presidential candidates continue to campaign in Florida and across the country, they are forsaking a real opportunity to speak directly to the prosperity challenges facing America's states and metropolitan areas.
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Sun, 11 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Cleveland ranks 19th among global metropolitan areas in per-capita income, just ahead of Portland and right behind Paris. Such a ranking reflects that America's metropolitan areas—the nation's collections of cities, suburbs and counties—are our economic centers.
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Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Henry Cisneros underscores the importance of our Metropolitan areas to our national prosperity by grounding them in human experience and American history.
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Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Though most do not recognize it as an "urban" program, the Earned Income Tax Credit provides significant benefits to families in cities and suburbs, and stimulates local economic activity. In this presentation to Congressional staff organized by Living Cities, Alan Berube examines what Members can do to maximize the benefits of the EITC for lower-income families and communities in their districts.
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Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Alan Berube's testimony on on economic opportunity and poverty in America before the Committtee on Ways and Means on Income Security and Family Support.
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Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMT
During the first half of the current decade, the proportion of the U.S. population living below the poverty line rose, albeit with key differences across metropolitan areas. Notably, this report finds that for the first time in 2005 there are more po
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Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT
In this presentation at the North American Regional Science Council, Alan Berube presents findings from a new Brookings report that provides a comprehensive look at where exurbs are located in the United States, who lives there, and what factors may
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Wed, 01 Nov 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Local and regional leaders across the U.S. have come to view the Earned Income Tax Credit as a critical investment in their economies. This paper explores the benefits to families and communities that can result from actions to realize the full potential of the credit.
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Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT
In this presentation at the Ford Foundation, Alan Berube reviews the importance of understanding public program participation among eligible families and how better coordinated research could assist growing efforts to connect workers and their famili
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Sun, 01 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Despite the hullabaloo from political analysts, media, and local growth activists, just 6 percent of large metro area residents live in an exurb, and these exurbs vary from affordable housing havens, to ranchettes for the wealthy, to hopscotch project
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Thu, 28 Sep 2006 00:00:00 GMT
In this presentation to the Cambridge-MIT Institute's workshop on poverty and place in the United States and United Kingdom, Alan Berube reviews recent trends in the spatial distribution of poor populations in the United States, discusses how place a
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Wed, 06 Sep 2006 00:00:00 GMT
In this presentation to a citywide convening hosted by Fresno Works for Better Health, Alan Berube examines the causes of concentrated poverty in Fresno, the city with the deepest neighborhood poverty nationwide as noted by Census 2000.
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Sat, 08 Jul 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Increasingly in N.Y., there are rich and poor ? and nothing in between.
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Mon, 26 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT
One novel approach from the Bay Area may hold lessons for the rest of urban America.
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Thu, 18 May 2006 00:00:00 GMT
In this presentation to the Downtown Denver Partnership, Alan Berube examines demographic trends in downtowns, compares Downtown Denver to its West Coast peers, and explores future opportunities for downtown residential growth in Denver and elsewhere
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Sat, 01 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Alan Berube examines American and British policies addressing the ?neighborhood effects? of concentrated poverty as part of Going Places: Neighborhood, Ethnicity, and Social Change, a new volume published by the Institute of Public Policy Rese
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Wed, 01 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT
The third volume in the Redefining Urban and Suburban America series describes anew the changing shape of metropolitan American and the consequences for policies in areas such as employment, public services, and urban revitalization.
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Wed, 08 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT
In this presentation to the European Union Labour Counsellors, Alan Berube discusses how the EITC works, whom it benefits, what effects it has on work and poverty, and what issues surround the credit as it enters its 31st year.
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Thu, 02 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT
In this presentation to KIDS COUNT grantees, Alan Berube discusses the potential value of using IRS data to describe changing state and local economic conditions and the well-being of children and families.
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Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT
In this report, Alan Berube examines how receipt of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) expanded nationwide from 2000 to 2003 in response to a weakened economy.
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Mon, 14 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT
In this presentation at an Institute for Public Policy Research forum convened at the UK Treasury, Alan Berube discusses the evidence from the United States on social mobility, the potential role of neighborhoods in influencing that mobility, and implications for UK policies designed to enhance mobility for disadvantaged individuals and communities.
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Thu, 10 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT
In a vibrant city like Washington, concentrated poverty is inexcusable.
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Sun, 23 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT
The conditions that exacerbated the New Orleans disaster--deep, segregated urban poverty--still exist in Louisville, and in most major American cities today.
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Sat, 01 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT
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Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:00:00 GMT
New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that on population, at least, recent declines in Milwaukee leave it outside the top 20 cities in the United States for the first time in decades.
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Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:00:00 GMT
In this presentation delivered at the National Council of La Raza 2005 Annual Conference, Alan Berube discusses the role that income supplements like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) play in making housing more affordable for lower-income Latino families. He also highlights potential strategies for enhancing its capacity to reduce the housing cost burdens that these families face in many metropolitan areas.
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Fri, 17 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion
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Mon, 06 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT
Continued support for low-income taxpayer outreach and volunteer tax preparation can spread important messages about the alternatives to high-price, low-value commercial tax products.
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Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT
As part of a series of Tax Policy Center papers on tax policy and low-income working families, Alan Berube, William Gale, and Tracy Kornblatt examine the potential of the federal tax code to help lower-income households in cities.
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Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 GMT
In a new paper, Matthew Fellowes and Alan Berube examine the dollar value and use of food stamps among the eligible population, finding that, in 97 large metropolitan areas across the country, $9.1 billion was disbursed to 9.8 million individuals.
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Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 GMT
This report examines Britain's interest in promoting the development of economically mixed communities, and what the country might learn from American experiences in transforming severely distressed neighborhoods with mixed-income strategies.
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Mon, 25 Apr 2005 00:00:00 GMT
Many commercial tax preparers offer poor advice, charge unconscionable fees and sell expensive "instant refund" loans to families already short on cash.
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Fri, 01 Apr 2005 00:00:00 GMT
Report
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Fri, 01 Apr 2005 00:00:00 GMT
The EITC provides critical financial support to working immigrant families and their neighborhoods.
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Mon, 01 Nov 2004 00:00:00 GMT
An overhaul of the widely-recognized metropolitan classification system by the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will refashion the both research and federal spending.
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Sun, 01 Aug 2004 00:00:00 GMT
This new analysis of census data concludes that middle-class households did not abandon American cities over the past 20 years, although most locations increasingly lack the nation's full income diversity.
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Mon, 21 Jun 2004 00:00:00 GMT
Alan Berube's presentation to the EITC Funders Network outlines why outreach campaigns organized around the Earned Income Tax Credit have taken root in a growing number of communities across the U.S.
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Sun, 01 Feb 2004 00:00:00 GMT
Low-income working families live in large cities and rural areas in nearly equal numbers, IRS data show.
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Thu, 30 Oct 2003 00:00:00 GMT
This powerpoint by Alan Berube, presented at the Knight Center's ""Cities, Suburbs, and Beyond"" seminar, examines four major trends impacting U.S. cities in the 1990s, and offers a typology of city performance and attendant implications for policy.
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Wed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:00 GMT
This survey offers new evidence on how federal and state Earned Income Tax Credits benefited working families in 27 cities and rural areas. The report presents examples of how local leaders can leverage these credits for their communities.
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Tue, 01 Oct 2002 00:00:00 GMT
This report finds that while 72 of the 100 largest cities grew over the decade, the bulk of city growth occurred in ""outer-ring"" neighborhoods near the suburban border, while very little took place in ""inner-core"" neighborhoods around the downtown.
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Sun, 01 Sep 2002 00:00:00 GMT
Long Term Welfare, Cities, Urban Center, Brookings Institution
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Thu, 01 Aug 2002 00:00:00 GMT
This paper examines poverty rate trends in the nation's largest metropolitan areas over the 1990s, and finds highly uneven outcomes in a decade of strong economic growth.
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Sat, 01 Jun 2002 00:00:00 GMT
In many of America's poorer neighborhoods, storefront tax services are a common seasonal sight. Touting fast cash and hassle-free filing, these outlets lure millions of working-poor customers each spring.
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Wed, 01 May 2002 00:00:00 GMT
This new report details, for the first time, how the use of tax preparation services and "fast cash" refund loans is concentrated among working poor families and neighborhoods
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Fri, 01 Feb 2002 00:00:00 GMT
City Families and Suburban Singles: An Emerging Household Story from Census 2000
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Thu, 01 Nov 2001 00:00:00 GMT
A report examining the impacts of the earned income tax credit on metropolitan areas
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Thu, 01 Nov 2001 00:00:00 GMT
The federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) will boost earnings for over 18 million low-income working families in the U.S. by more than $30 billion this year. This survey finds that the EITC provided a $737 million boost to the Chicago regional econ
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Mon, 01 Oct 2001 00:00:00 GMT
A report examining the impacts of the earned income tax credit on metropolitan areas
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Fri, 01 Jun 2001 00:00:00 GMT
This survey series uses IRS data to analyze the spatial distribution of working poor families in 29 regions across the US. It finds that the EITC is a significant federal antipoverty investment in cities and their regions, and that in most regions a