Urban across the Country

Urban’s researchers partner with state and local leaders to provide the evidence, tools, and support they need to improve lives and strengthen communities. This work includes strategic advising to translate research into action, program evaluations to measure effectiveness, and research and data analysis to inform decisionmaking. Our experts develop custom data tools and modeling to support equitable resource allocation and lead community-engaged research and convenings to ensure policies reflect local priorities.

Use this page to explore Urban’s work. Search by region to see examples of our research, and filter by evidence and products to narrow results by topic or type of work.

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Explore our work by state
Research Report Building and Operating Neighborhood Indicator Systems
In the 1990s, a number of local institutions built self-sustaining information systems with integrated and recurrently updated data on neighborhood conditions in their cities. With the theme of democratizing information, they facilitate the direct practical use of the data by city and community
Brief Incentives for Early Retirement in Private Pension and Health Insurance Plans
The U.S. labor market will soon experience a shock coming from three merging demographic forces: an increase in life expectancy, a decrease in fertility rates, and the retirement of baby boomers. Until recently, the baby boomers' movement through the work force hid the long-term impact of the first
Brief Obligating Dads
This brief provides statistical information about poor noncustodial fathers and their children and suggests a variety of ways in which to enable these fathers to take financial responsibility for their children. In doing so, the author first lists the negative aspects of the current child support
Brief Options for Administering Individual Accounts in Social Security
Individual accounts have become a popular feature in Social Security reform proposals during the past several years. However, the precise meaning of "individual accounts" is unclear, as approaches vary greatly in their financing, management, and structure. The diversity of approaches reflects
Research Report Is Budget Planning Sequence Fatally Defective?
It used to be that the budget planning sequence went from proposal to estimate to soundbite. Today, however, we have a new game in town. Now we get estimates of the cost of a proposal before the proposal itself has even been designed. And the estimates themselves are made primarily to fit into a
Research Report The Private Pension Issues Raised By 'USA' Accounts
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle describes the many related issues that Congress will have to address if it decides to develop legislation to try to encourage the expansion of private pension assets along the lines of a government match.
Testimony The Treatment of the Family and Divorce in the Social Security Program
Despite the vital importance for almost all families and the hundreds of billions of dollars in annual spending involved, family issues for the most part have remained on the sidelines in the Social Security debate. These family issues derive from the adjustments that Social Security makes to