Latest Urban Institute Reports

The District of Columbia has undergone many demographic and economic shifts over the past decade. While high rates of home foreclosures and unemployment persist, sustained population growth and development of neighborhoods continue to change the face of the city. This report is an update of the Urban Institute’s 2008 neighborhood report prepared for the D.C. Office of Planning. It provides a comparative analysis of the following: demographics; jobs and income; housing; education; health; family, youth, and seniors; safety and security; and the natural and built environment and transportation (new to the 2010 report).

The Constitution that Kenyans adopted in September 2010 represents an important step in the process of national reconciliation and an important attempt to make Kenya's public sector more efficient and more accountable through devolution. The new Constitution assigns a prominent role in the public sector to county-level governments, as it transfers detailed functional responsibilities to the county level and provides that at least 15 percent of national revenues are to be shared with county governments. This IDG Policy Brief discusses whether the implementation of the Constitution will bring about a sea-change in intergovernmental fiscal relations and public empowerment in Kenya, or whether the changes in Kenya's intergovernmental structure in practice will represent a smaller and more incremental step towards a more decentralized governance structure.

Sweeping policy changes and scapegoating caseworkers after high-profile cases of child abuse are not the best way to enhance the safety of young people, says child welfare expert Olivia Golden. Taking lessons from the airline industry and elsewhere, Golden lays out why clear-headed, evidence-driven examination of the resources, conditions, and communication that guide workplace decision making should be the center of attention.

The federal income tax is replete with tax expenditures, provisions that grant special benefits to selected taxpayers or for selected activities. Exclusions and deductions reduce taxable income, preferential rates cut the tax on specific types of income, and tax credits are subtracted directly from tax liability.

This forum will explore the extent of limited food access in the United States, the health implications of living far from affordable nutritious food, innovative ways to provide healthier food choices, the divide between nutrition education and dietary habits, and more.

In Beyond Privatopia: Rethinking Residential Private Government, attorney and political science scholar Evan McKenzie explores emerging trends in private governments and competing schools of thought on how to operate them, from state oversight to laissez-faire libertarianism. The most common analyses see CIDs from a neoclassical economic, positive point of view. HoAs, this strain of analysis maintains, are more efficient and frugal than municipalities. And what could be more democratic than government of the neighbors, by the neighbors? But scholars coming from institutional analysis, communitarianism, and critical urban theory frameworks see possible repercussions. These include a development’s failure leaving residents on the hook for crippling sums, capture or extension of the local state, and convergence of public and private local governments

A promising approach to reducing and preventing crime at the neighborhood level involves addressing both immediate and long-term risk factors for crime. This strategic plan outlines a collaborative Neighborhood-Based Crime Prevention Initiative (NCPI) that combines law enforcement-led crime suppression activities with human and social service efforts to address longer-term risk factors for crime. This plan focuses on the initiative's structure, and data and administrative requirements. Objectives, associated suppression and prevention activities, and performance measures are related to initiative goals and measurable crime outcomes. This sets the stage for an initiative that could be monitored and ultimately evaluated.

Richard W. Johnson, director of the Program on Retirement Policy, explains the financial and health challenges women commonly face with age, what retirement looks like for women in the 21st century, and policy recommendations to help women in their golden years.

Increasing parental choice has been a leading theme of recent education policy intended to enhance the academic achievement of low-performing students in the United States. These policies aim to "level the playing field" in access to high-quality education for disadvantaged students who cannot otherwise afford higher-quality schooling options. Public school choice programs in D.C. are successful; disadvantaged students are able to attend higher-performing schools than their neighborhood public schools, even with prolonged commutes. Overall, the findings provide evidence that the relatively advantaged students are taking advantage of public school choice programs. However, choice exacerbates student quality disparities between low- and high-poverty schools, casting some doubt on the benefits of such programs.

Though the nation's manufacturing sector has decreased significantly over the past half century, these businesses remain critical to the strength of the innovation economy and the mobility of low-income households. A large portion of small manufacturers are clustered in urban areas, but federal policy has neglected or hindered these valuable assets. This paper identifies ways that government can facilitate the growth of small-scale urban manufacturers within a greater economic development scheme. Government agencies can utilize this sector by first identifying the unique manufacturing assets of local and regional areas and prioritizing them within policy, regulation, and public investment.