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.

Dive deeper into your state and community with our data tools. View highlighted tools below, select “Data tools” under “Filter by Product Types,” or head directly to our data tools page.

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State and community data tools
Explore our work by state
Brief Wage Inflation? Not to Worry
[Washington Post] Economists long have warned of the inflationary dangers associated with very low unemployment rates. From their perspective, the Fed's latest move is an attempt to help international markets but at the cost of increasing the potential for inflation. In fact, a close look at the job
Brief A Brief History of State and Local Fiscal Policy
While the era of big government may not quite be over, government is unlikely to grow rapidly in the foreseeable future. This brief explores the spending patterns of state and local governments and takes an in-depth look at education and Medicaid -- which accounted for the majority of state and
Brief Eight Pathways to the Government We Deserve
The authors discuss citizens' increasing estrangement from government and propose eight pathways to a government more attuned to current and future needs: (1) freeing the fiscal future; (2) giving social insurance a modern face; (3) making a government for all ages; (4) improving everyone's chance
Research Report Analysis of Affordability of Cost Recovery
This analysis compares the housing-utility burden of Russian households under the current (1996) subsidized rate scheme with the burden they would experience under a full cost recovery scheme. Special attention is given to the relative impact of the new scheme on households in different expenditure