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
Testimony Restructuring Medicare
The discussion of "Restructuring Medicare" is really a question about how to make the market work well for Medicare beneficiaries and for taxpayers. Sadly, it is not as simple as setting the market absolutely free, for completely unregulated health insurance markets have not performed well for the
Brief Middle-Class Votes Bring a New Balance to U.S. Federalism
The author discusses political debates that have revolved around the question of whether our intergovernmental system should move toward the state-dominant or the Washington-dominant extremes. He reviews the history of state-dominant federalism (1789-1933) and Washington-dominant federalism (1933
Brief How the New Welfare Reform Law Affects Medicaid
This policy brief discusses the four principal changes made to Medicaid eligibility by the welfare reform legislation: decoupling welfare and Medicaid eligibility; narrowing Medicaid eligibility for disabled children in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program; terminating access to Medicaid
Brief Devolution as Seen from the Budget
This analysis finds that welfare reform is unlikely to make much difference in total public assistance as a share of Gross Domestic Product. The financing of safety net spending could become increasingly centralized at the federal level, even while responsibility for design and implementation
Brief General Assistance Programs
General Assistance (GA) programs share two defining characteristics. They are funded and administered entirely by the state, county, and/or locality in which the program operates. And they provide benefits to low-income people who are not eligible for federal assistance. The Policy Brief provides an
Brief Variations in Medicaid Spending among States
This brief explores variations in state Medicaid programs. It concludes that the federal matching formula, which provides more generous matching funds for poorer than for richer states, reduces interstate disparities. The brief finds that long-term care expenditures vary to a greater degree than
Brief Diversity among State Welfare Programs
This brief depicts the diversity of state AFDC programs prior to passage of TANF. It concludes that states with low benefit levels under AFDC may have the hardest time implementing the new work requirements included in TANF. They will have fewer federal resources per family to prepare recipients for