This is an important report that pulls together a lot of thinking about how the federal government can help deal with the problems caused by spatial inequality. Highly recommended! https://twitter.com/kenanfikri/status/1356942443535601666

So, this draws in part on my work advocating federal block grants to distressed local labor markets, which has now been proposed in the Build Back Better bill by @RepDerekKilmer & the @NewDemCoalition

But it also discusses the proposals to decentralize high-tech growth to more high-tech hubs, such as has been proposed by @MarkMuro1 & @RobAtkinsonITIF , as well as @jonathangruber1 & @baselinescene : https://www.brookings.edu/research/growth-centers-how-to-spread-tech-innovation-across-america/

And it also includes promotion of @InnovateEconomy ideas such as their Heartland Visas to empower local areas that want to attract more immigrants: https://eig.org/heartland-visa 

Overall, this report does an excellent job in (1) providing data and maps to document the spatial inequality problem; (2) calling for the federal government to both: (2.1.) adopt a new philosophy that is place-sensitive; (2.2) put some resources behind that new philosophy

What would I add to this? I am all in favor of a new federal philosophy & funding to address place-based inequality. On the other hand, (1) this may not happen to the extent needed; (2) we also need bottoms-up initiatives from state and local areas.

So at @UpjohnInstitute , in part because we are non-DC based, we tend to spend a lot of time thinking about state and local policymakers can, on their own, improve employment policies, including place-based policies.

Our place-based research initiative, which I co-direct w/ @BHershbein & @mmilleradams , is trying to come up w/ practical programs and solutions that state and local areas can adopt, and which have a high bang for the buck in this time of limited resources.

We use our annual reports to share ideas for "what works" that state and local areas can use. We now have 2 annual reports w/ usable ideas, and are working on a 3rd. https://www.upjohn.org/major-initiatives/promise-investing-community/research/annual-reports

Forgot to include a link to the @NewDemCoalition set of proposals, which also should be part of this debate: https://newdemocratcoalition.house.gov/imo/media/doc/NDC%20COVID%20Relief%20&%20Stimulus%20Priorities_012721%20(for%20release).pdf

and the latest version of my thoughts on a block grant that would target BOTH distressed local labor markets AND distressed neighborhoods: https://research.upjohn.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=up_policypapers