The Brookings Institution, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Alfred Herrhausen Society and TIME Magazine host the Global Metro Summit: Delivering the Next Economy, a two-day programme exploring the drivers of urban economic transformation The Global Metro Summit featured new economic trends analysis and research, unveiling a powerful vision for the post-recession economy that is export-oriented, low carbon, innovation-fueled, opportunity rich and ultimately led by metropolitan areas.

Over 500 people attended Summit bringing together over 50 innovative speakers including half a dozen mayors, leading policy makers, representatives from the White House, academics and philanthropists from around the world to discuss the next urban economy.

The “Great Recession” has dramatically disrupted the lives and livelihoods of millions of global citizens and upended global markets and key sectors of the economy. With a stubbornly sluggish recovery, brutal fiscal challenges, new energy and environmental imperatives, and sweeping demographic changes, our nation needs a new model for growth that creates jobs in the near term while restructuring the economy for the long haul.

What would this reset look like? Top economists, such as National Economic Council Chairman Larry Summers, think the shape of the next American economy must be more export-oriented, low carbon, innovation-fueled and opportunity rich. This is a vision where we export more and waste less, innovate in what matters, produce and deploy more of what we invent, and deliver an educated and skilled workforce.

The organizers of the Global Metro Summit also believe that the next economy will be led by metropolitan areas. They are the hubs of trade, commerce and migration and the centers for talent, capital, and innovation. They contain the infrastructure to move people, goods, ideas and energy efficiently and the institutions to educate and train the workforce of the future. To build the next economy, the United States must connect the macro global vision to the metro reality – the macro to the metro. To further expound on this vision, the Global Metro Summit gathered leading thinkers and practitioners from around the globe to explore the future of the next metropolitan economy.

Listen and engage as we:

• Unveil an affirmative vision of the next economy — one which must be more export-oriented, low carbon, innovation-fueled and opportunity rich and ultimately led by metro areas.
• Showcase a “pragmatic caucus” of leaders —private sector, civic, local elected, and nonprofit— who are coming together to build that post-recession future, including those who have build bottoms-up “metropolitan business plans”.
• Learn from successful metropolitan leaders from Europe and Asia to show that intentional regional economic transformation with state and federal partners is possible and can have positive outcomes.

UIC’s Great Cities Institute and LSE Cities at the London School of Economics are honored to present this very special event:

A pre-summit discussion leading into the Global Metro Summit to be convened at the UIC Forum on December 6 in Chicago by the Brookings Institution, Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society, London School of Economics and Political Science, and TIME Magazine.

Monday 6 December 2010 | 12:00-14:00

Room 302, UIC Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted (directions)

Lunch provided

This panel discussion will foreground issues of urban inequality and poverty, and how the ‘next urban economy’ has the potential to address these issues. While the Global Metro Summit will focus on the economic significance of cities, and how the qualities of cities position them to lead us out of the current recession, this panel will focus on ways to ensure that these benefits can be more widely shared.

The format will be interactive. Each panel member will discuss the primary factors within their respective areas of expertise (urban educational systems, municipal government law) which contribute to poverty and inequality. We also hope they will offer some prescriptions for decision-makers for overcoming these challenges and moving the economy toward more equitable outcomes.

Panelists:

• Andrew Altman, CEO of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, London 2012 Olympics
• Alan Berube, Senior Fellow and Research Director, Metropolitan Policy Program, The Brookings Institution
• Gerald Frug, Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
• Nik Theodore, Director of UIC’s Center for Urban Economic Development
• Pauline Lipman, Professor of Educational Policy Studies, UIC
• Karen Mossberger, Professor of Public Administration, UIC
• Xavier Nogueras, President, Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of Chicago

Chair: Michael A. Pagano, Dean of UIC’s College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs and Interim Dean of UIC’s College of Business Administration

Please join us over lunch in a free-flowing and lively discussion addressing the issue of how a sustainable, global, and productive metro economy has the potential to lessen the material and social inequalities of vulnerable households and neighborhoods.

A number of European and Asian cities have demonstrated sustained growth over the past three decades. Breaking free from historical dependencies, they overcame challenging crises to show progress in economic development. LSE Cities carried out in-depth research of four metro regions in the Europe and Asia, focusing on Munich, Torino, Barcelona and Seoul to identify the processes, governance arrangements and interventions through which economic transformation has been achieved.

Learning from global metros: download summary or full paper.

Conference guide

• Complete Conference Guide: A full summary of conference materials. » PDF

• Delivering the next American economy: An overview of how major American cities and metro areas can lead the transformation of the country’s economy. » PDF

• Global MetroMonitor summary: Discussion on the findings of the Global MetroMonitor. » PDF

• • Metropolitan business planning in three US regions: An introduction to the business plans of Seattle-Puget Sound, Cleveland-Northeast Ohio and Minneapolis-St. Paul. » PDF

  • Seattle-Puget Sound profile. » PDF

  • Cleveland-Northeast Ohio profile. » PDF

  • Minneapolis-St. Paul profile. » PDF

Global MetroMonitor

• An analysis of international metropolitan economic performance before, during, and after the recent recession, profiling 150 metropolitan economies. » PDF

Metropolitan business plans

• Framing document: introducing the concept of metropolitan business planning and describing how three very different regions—Northeast Ohio, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, and Puget Sound—are currently piloting the process. » PDF

The global financial crisis of the late 2000s precipitated an economic downturn of such magnitude and reach that many now refer to the period as the “Great Recession.” According to the International Monetary Fund, global economic output, which had grown at an annual rate of 3.2 percent from 1993 to 2007, actually shrank by 2 percent from 2008 to 2009. A precarious economic recovery is now underway.

Aggregate views of the global economy, however, mask the distinct experiences of its real hubs—major metropolitan areas. Metro areas, which are economically integrated collections of cities, suburbs, and often surrounding rural areas, are centers of high-value economic activity in their respective nations and worldwide. And because metros form the fundamental bases for national and international economies, understanding their relative positioning before,during, and after the Great Recession provides important evidence on emerging shifts in the location of global economic resilience and future growth.

The Global MetroMonitor examines data on economic output and employment in 150 of the world’s largest metropolitan economies, located in 53 countries, from 1993 to 2010.

View trends for individual metropolitan areas »

Though European metros on average weathered the recession slightly better than U.S. metros, they are struggling in the recovery, with metros such as Dublin, Athens, and Riga still losing employment and income from 2009 to 2010.

View Slideshow

U.S. metros were most heavily affected by the Great Recession.  Many rebounded strongly in the rankings in the recovery period due to robust income growth, but continued to post modest employment losses.

View Slideshow

South American metros were only lightly affected by the global downturn, and all eight ranked among the 32 best-performing metro areas in the first year of the global economic recovery.

View Slideshow

The Africa/Middle East region contained high performers in the North African metros of Cairo and Alexandria, but also metros struggling in the recovery including Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Dubai.

View Slideshow

Emerging-market metros in China and India ranked among the top performers in all periods, and higher-income metros such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, and Seoul posted above-average rankings throughout.

View Slideshow

The Brookings Institution, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Alfred Herrhausen Society and TIME Magazine host the Global Metro Summit: Delivering the Next Economy, a two-day programme exploring the drivers of urban economic transformation The Global Metro Summit featured new economic trends analysis and research, unveiling a powerful vision for the post-recession economy that is export-oriented, low carbon, innovation-fueled, opportunity rich and ultimately led by metropolitan areas.

Over 500 people attended Summit bringing together over 50 innovative speakers including half a dozen mayors, leading policy makers, representatives from the White House, academics and philanthropists from around the world to discuss the next urban economy.

The “Great Recession” has dramatically disrupted the lives and livelihoods of millions of global citizens and upended global markets and key sectors of the economy. With a stubbornly sluggish recovery, brutal fiscal challenges, new energy and environmental imperatives, and sweeping demographic changes, our nation needs a new model for growth that creates jobs in the near term while restructuring the economy for the long haul.

What would this reset look like? Top economists, such as National Economic Council Chairman Larry Summers, think the shape of the next American economy must be more export-oriented, low carbon, innovation-fueled and opportunity rich. This is a vision where we export more and waste less, innovate in what matters, produce and deploy more of what we invent, and deliver an educated and skilled workforce.

The organizers of the Global Metro Summit also believe that the next economy will be led by metropolitan areas. They are the hubs of trade, commerce and migration and the centers for talent, capital, and innovation. They contain the infrastructure to move people, goods, ideas and energy efficiently and the institutions to educate and train the workforce of the future. To build the next economy, the United States must connect the macro global vision to the metro reality – the macro to the metro. To further expound on this vision, the Global Metro Summit gathered leading thinkers and practitioners from around the globe to explore the future of the next metropolitan economy.

Listen and engage as we:

• Unveil an affirmative vision of the next economy — one which must be more export-oriented, low carbon, innovation-fueled and opportunity rich and ultimately led by metro areas.
• Showcase a “pragmatic caucus” of leaders —private sector, civic, local elected, and nonprofit— who are coming together to build that post-recession future, including those who have build bottoms-up “metropolitan business plans”.
• Learn from successful metropolitan leaders from Europe and Asia to show that intentional regional economic transformation with state and federal partners is possible and can have positive outcomes.

UIC’s Great Cities Institute and LSE Cities at the London School of Economics are honored to present this very special event:

A pre-summit discussion leading into the Global Metro Summit to be convened at the UIC Forum on December 6 in Chicago by the Brookings Institution, Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society, London School of Economics and Political Science, and TIME Magazine.

Monday 6 December 2010 | 12:00-14:00

Room 302, UIC Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted (directions)

Lunch provided

This panel discussion will foreground issues of urban inequality and poverty, and how the ‘next urban economy’ has the potential to address these issues. While the Global Metro Summit will focus on the economic significance of cities, and how the qualities of cities position them to lead us out of the current recession, this panel will focus on ways to ensure that these benefits can be more widely shared.

The format will be interactive. Each panel member will discuss the primary factors within their respective areas of expertise (urban educational systems, municipal government law) which contribute to poverty and inequality. We also hope they will offer some prescriptions for decision-makers for overcoming these challenges and moving the economy toward more equitable outcomes.

Panelists:

• Andrew Altman, CEO of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, London 2012 Olympics
• Alan Berube, Senior Fellow and Research Director, Metropolitan Policy Program, The Brookings Institution
• Gerald Frug, Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
• Nik Theodore, Director of UIC’s Center for Urban Economic Development
• Pauline Lipman, Professor of Educational Policy Studies, UIC
• Karen Mossberger, Professor of Public Administration, UIC
• Xavier Nogueras, President, Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of Chicago

Chair: Michael A. Pagano, Dean of UIC’s College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs and Interim Dean of UIC’s College of Business Administration

Please join us over lunch in a free-flowing and lively discussion addressing the issue of how a sustainable, global, and productive metro economy has the potential to lessen the material and social inequalities of vulnerable households and neighborhoods.