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Discussion Paper
Venture capital investment in secondary cities: issues and opportunities for impact
Venture capital has been one of the major drivers of the U.S. economy. Using the State of the Inner City Economies database of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, we found that secondary cities ? which we have defined as cities outside the 40 largest U.S. metro areas ? have received far less than their proportionate share of private equity deals and dollars. By failing to attract capital at similar rates to larger cities, secondary cities are missing a major engine of job and wage growth. Notably, however, a number of secondary cities have managed to assemble the right combination of ...
Discussion Paper
Small businesses in Springfield, Massachusetts: a look at Latino entrepreneurship
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has been collaborating with community leaders in Springfield, Massachusetts, on exploring revitalization strategies. Latino entrepreneurship is playing an important and increasing role in Springfield's economic development?providing new jobs and services and maintaining storefronts that might otherwise be vacant. An analyst in the Fed's community development unit, Ana Patricia Muoz, has recently completed a discussion paper on this topic, "Small Business in Springfield, Massachusetts: A Look at Latino Entrepreneurship." Among the implications: if ...
Journal Article
Servicer performance in processing HAMP loan modifications: a survey of Massachusetts-based counseling agencies
The Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP) attempts to help homeowners avoid foreclosure by compensating servicers that allow borrowers to modify the terms of their mortgages. To understand the seemingly troubled HAMP process, the Community Development unit of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank of Boston administered surveys to loan-modification counselors. The results indicate that the process takes much longer than the guidelines indicate and that servicers frequently claim the applications are incomplete. The surveys were run twice to assess any improvements.
Journal Article
Panning for gold in inner city markets
Chakrabarti discusses how the Institute for a Competitive Inner City has a long history of shining light on investment opportunities in the inner city. Through their Inner City 100 competition, they have collected an impressive database of EDM companies. But their greatest opportunity to bring investment to the inner city might be to expand the database and mine their existing data more deeply. More data in the form that investors need holds the potential for bringing even more capital to EDM companies.
Discussion Paper
Reinvigorating Springfield's economy: lessons from resurgent cities
As part of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's commitment to supporting efforts to revitalize the economy of Springfield, Massachusetts, this paper analyzes the economic development approaches of other mid-sized manufacturing-oriented cities during the past half century. From among a comparison group of 25 municipalities that were similar to Springfield in 1960, the study identifies 10 "resurgent cities" that have made substantial progress in improving living standards for their residents, and that are recognized as vital communities in a broader sense by experts on urban economic ...
Journal Article
A new look at the CRA
Discussion Paper
Towards a more prosperous Springfield, MA: what jobs exist for people without a college education?
This paper analyzes projections of Massachusetts employment opportunities by occupation to address concerns about a shortage of jobs for those who lack a college education. While occupations requiring a college degree will grow more rapidly over the period 2006-2016 than occupations that do not require college, replacement needs will ensure large numbers of job openings that do not require college. Wage levels in jobs that do not require college are generally low, however. The exceptions usually require meaningful training of another sort, such as long-term on-the-job training or courses in ...
Discussion Paper
Housing policy and poverty in Springfield
This essay considers whether housing policies may have contributed to the concentration of poverty in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts ? a question that emerged in conversations with local leaders. Springfield is not alone in having large numbers of lower income households living downtown. This pattern is common in American cities. Recent research emphasizes the role of public transportation in causing lower income households to live closer to downtown. However, spillover effects and government policies, including housing policies, have reinforced this tendency. The essay reviews federal ...
Journal Article
Anchors Aweigh: Why Do Anchor Institutions Matter?
In many cities, the expectation of civic leadership from a few large corporations headquartered downtown has ebbed. Instead, cities are looking to nonprofit anchor institutions, such as universities, hospitals, and museums, to support economic development and other goals. As Eugenie Birch, co-director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research and one of the panelists at a Reinventing Older Communities session on anchor institutions, put it, ?Universities are the factories of the 21st century.?
Journal Article
How loan modifications affect credit scores
Homeowners who receive loan modifications and successfully avoid foreclosure may face another issue, one that is not well understood. It turns out that participation in loan-modification programs may adversely affect credit scores. 1 The magnitude of the impact is unclear because many factors affect what lenders will report about borrowers who seek modifications, and other factors affect how much the credit-reporting agencies, credit-score providers, and lenders will penalize borrowers who have loan modifications on their credit reports. Although both the U.S. Treasury and credit-scoring ...