In the United States, a long held expectation is that, over time, living standards rise and each generation does better than the generation before.  However, over recent decades, economic growth has slowed and average real wages have stagnated. Additionally, intergenerational rates of economic mobility are low by international standards. In order to reverse these trends, policy makers have focused on increasing human capital, through initiatives such as primary and secondary school reform, expansion of early childhood education, and increased support for post-secondary education and training. However, there are other approaches available, including efforts to adopt “place-based” strategies to revive local economies by targeting specific sectors and groups of workers.

The Initiative on Inequality and Place - also known as the Place-Based Policy Initiative - is building a research ecosystem around our world-class faculty working on issues of local and regional development, promoting collaboration within the O-Lab and UC Berkeley, partnerships with researchers outside Berkeley, disseminating these ideas to policymakers and stakeholders, and contributing to the broader intellectual and practical debates prominent today in the U.S. In addition to supporting faculty and graduate student research, the initiative is establishing new lab meetings and workshops, coordinating research and policy convenings, and strengthening the communication channels between researchers and the policy community.

AFFILIATED FACULTY