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THREAD: We’re excited to announce the launch of the Struggling Regions Initiative, in partnership with the @RockefellerFnd, to delve into the issues facing struggling regions across the U.S. and will develop new ideas to foster broader economic growth. strugglingregions.com 
@RockefellerFND While a select few metropolitan areas are seeing massive growth, the rest of the country is experiencing stagnation and decay. Take the following stats:
(1)Over half of total U.S. GDP is produced by only 20 metropolitan areas. (2) The New York metropolitan area alone accounts for over 10 percent of the nation's output in any given year, and with only 6% of its population.
While some metropolitan areas are experiencing local inequality, rapidly rising rent, etc. other once-vibrant areas are struggling with population decline and the collapse of industries and opportunity.
It’s within this context that our poverty and welfare program will expand its focus to local issues, Based on the theory that regionally concentrated distress is fundamentally a problem of arrested economic development. So here’s what we’ll be working on:
1). Opportunity Zones: We’re developing new quantitative tools to evaluate the impact of the Opportunity Zones program, a promising new method for channeling financial capital into low income communities, both urban and rural.
2). Public Finance: Our broken system of fiscal federalism is unfair to the residents of poor states. The Initiative is thinking through reforms to state and federal systems of public finance to rectify existing imbalances.
More by @JoshuaTMcCabe on how poor states with tighter budgets can do less to invest in human capital and infrastructure, slowing their convergence with rich states: nationalaffairs.com/publications/d…
3). Public Investment: Strategic public investments, whether in the form of major infrastructure projects or grants that push the technological frontier, are essential for long-term economic growth and diversification.
But federal support for research and development has also declined, and we’re feeling the consequences. The societal benefits of robust research/development investments are large and compounding, yet the fruits from any particular project can take years to materialize.
We’re focused on proposing solutions that remove the roadblocks and encourage strategic R&D investment. An R&D focused development bank is one option. Increasing support for research universities is another. And we’ll be bringing more solutions to the table very soon.
4). Tax Incentives: It’s clear that tax incentives aimed at bringing big businesses into town are inefficient, economically costly, and distortionary...but politicians still use them so that they can take credit for attracting investment and opportunity into their region.
The national competition for Amazon’s #HQ2 provides a clear case in point, but is just the tip of the iceberg. Estimates of total state and local expenditures on such subsidies range from $45 to $90 billion a year, according to @NateMJensen and Edmund J. Malesky.
This needs to stop, and stronger disclosure and transparency rules provide an important place to start. When citizens understand the trade-offs involved with development incentives, they are better equipped to judge whether the benefits are worth the costs.
(For more on tax incentives check out this conversation about #hq2, #taxincentives, and #inequality with @MattGrossmann, @NateMJensen, and @econsense). soundcloud.com/user-735940457…
From the best response to deindustrialization to the inclusive development of cities, our project takes a holistic view of place-based policy and evaluates the good, bad, and ugly of the tools available. Thanks to @hamandcheese and @robertorr for making this project a reality.
Also - for more information on these specific policy topics and other issues relating to inequality and regional economic growth, be sure to check out @capturedecon, @brookingsmetro, @InnovateEconomy, and @innovgovernance.
