For Immediate Release
Contact: Matthew Frankel/Katherine Lister (202) 547-0001

Browse the report Early press coverage

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) and Case Western Reserve University's Center for Regional Economic Issues released a report today, entitled, "The Metropolitan New Economy Index: Benchmarking Economic Transformation in the Nation's Metropolitan Areas," which assesses the degree to which each of the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas are making the transition to succeed in the Information Age. The report may be obtained by going to www.ppionline.org or contacting PPI's communications office at (202) 547-0001.

Co-authored by Robert D. Atkinson, vice-president and director of PPI's Technology and New Economy Project, and Paul D. Gottlieb, associate director of the Center for Regional Economic Issues at Case Western Reserve University, the index uses 16 economic indicators grouped in five subcategories -- knowledge jobs, globalization, economic dynamism, transformation to a digital economy, and technological innovation capacity -- to rank the metro areas on the extent to which they have made the transformation to the New Economy.

"It is important to realize that a New Economy has emerged in the last decade, one that is more information based, more global and more dynamic," co-author Atkinson stated. "And beyond the rise and fall of the stock market or the success of any dot-com, this New Economy is here to stay and our metropolitan areas need to understand and adjust to these new challenges. Our report shows how well our metros are doing within this New Economy and explains why some are making the transformation and others are lagging behind."

The Metro Index Top 50:

These metros account for approximately 60 percent of the nation's workforce. Some of the indicators used in the study include number of initial public offerings (IPO's), workforce education levels, broadband telecommunication providers, dot-com domain names, patents issued, and the number of science and engineering graduates from area colleges and universities.

"Other recent reports that rank U.S. cities on their technology status focus entirely on high-tech employment or provide technology-oriented business climate information to a largely private sector audience," stated co-author Gottlieb. "This is the first benchmarking report to develop a comprehensive theory of the New Economy that includes not only technology jobs, but also key development factors like digital infrastructure and entrepreneurial culture."

Along with the rankings, the report recommends an innovative public policy framework that metros should follow to succeed in the New Economy. In particular, the report argues that it's time to replace the Old Economy goal of simply getting bigger, with the New Economy goal of becoming more prosperous. To do this, the metropolitan areas need to shift their focus from providing businesses tax breaks and other subsides to investing in the skills of the workforce, a vibrant infrastructure for technological innovation, and suburban quality of life.

"Too many city benchmarking reports simply provide information that allows the top-ranked cities to crow, and the bottom-ranked cities to start wringing their hands. We felt it would be irresponsible for us to rank metropolitan areas on their participation in the New Economy without providing at least a rough blueprint for improving their performance. This report is targeted at an audience of national and regional policy makers, in hopes of better advancing the metropolitan agenda in this New Economy," Atkinson stated.

Specifically, the report advises metropolitan areas to:

• Know your region's economic function in the global economy
  Metropolitan areas should carefully analyze their economy to identify and assess the competitive position of the key industry clusters in order to craft a metropolitan-wide economic strategy for the New Economy.
• Create a skilled workforce
  Metropolitan-area governments need to adopt policies, such as K-12 reform and regional workforce development programs, to ensure that American companies have the skilled workers they need to be productive, while simultaneously ensuring that American workers have the skills they need to navigate, adapt, and prosper in the New Economy.
• Invest in infrastructure for innovation
  Metropolitan areas should support research universities and technology commercialization programs, encourage modern telecommunications infrastructure and expand access to the Internet in order to foster technological innovation.
• Create a great quality of life
  To make a region more attractive to knowledge workers, metropolitan areas should take steps to boost forward-looking amenities like outdoor recreation facilities and new urbanism, improve public safety through technology innovations like wireless communication systems, and reduce road congestion by among other things, expanding road capacity and deploying new intelligent transportation systems.
• Foster an innovative business climate
  Government should recognize and celebrate public and private innovation and support the formation of high-tech business councils to encourage networking and learning, and should reinvent and streamline land processes to have a functioning real estate market.
• Reinvent -- and digitalize -- government
  Governments that succeed in the New Economy will be entrepreneurial and innovative, relying heavily on information technology, performance standards and accountability, and encourage public and private partnerships.
• Take regional governance seriously
  Metropolitan areas are now the fundamental competitive units of the New Economy, and New Economy governments should form strategic visioning and managing partnerships, across local government boundaries, with all the key players in a region (private sector, universities, labor, community organizations).

To view the report, web users may access The Progressive Policy Institute Online, at www.ppionline.org, or contact PPI's communications office at (202) 547-0001.

PPI's Technology & New Economy Project mission is to educate federal, state, and local policy makers about what drives the New Economy, and to foster policies that promote technological advances, economic innovation, investment, and entrepreneurship. The Center for Regional Economic Issues is a policy think tank at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. The center organizes economic development policy in the New Economy around four areas: science and technology, education, amenities, and organizations and leadership. The Metropolitan New Economy Index builds on PPI's work in two previous studies, The New Economy Index: Understanding America's Economic Transformation, and The State New Economy Index: Benchmarking Economic Transformation in the States.