High-quality early learning experiences—those filled with stimulating and supportive interactions between children and caregivers—can have long-lasting impacts for children, families, and society. Unfortunately, many families, particularly low-income families, struggle to find any affordable early childhood education (ECE) program, much less programs that offer engaging learning opportunities that are likely to foster long-term benefits. This post…

“Holistic development” is the watchword when setting educational goals for students. However, what this means in practice differs from country to country and culture to culture. The underlying sentiments, though, are similar: We all want to ensure that our young citizens are equipped to think critically and creatively, and to solve problems in an increasing…

For many of us, COVID-19 has completely changed how we work. Remote work might have its advantages for some, but when the kids are out of school and libraries and museums are closed, juggling two roles at once can be a challenge. What is a parent to do? As two developmental psychologists dedicated to understanding…

I am a “glass is half full” kind of person. While uncertainty and fear from the coronavirus epidemic is of course top of mind, I have also seen many acts of human kindness on social media and on trips to the supermarket, library, or just walking my dog that give me hope. One of the…

Under normal circumstances, children spend 80 percent of their waking time outside the classroom. The COVID-19 pandemic has quite abruptly turned that 80 percent into 100 percent. Across the U.S., schools and child care centers have been mandated to close, and children of all ages are now home full time. This leaves many families, especially…

Over the past two decades, the Santiago Metropolitan Region has emerged on the global stage. Accounting for nearly half of the nation’s GDP, Santiago contains a significant set of economic assets—an increasingly well-educated workforce, major universities, and a stable of large global companies and budding start-ups. These strengths position it well to lead Chile’s path toward a more productive, technology-intensive economy that competes in global markets based on knowledge rather than raw materials.

For the past five years as part of their economic development strategies, 28 U.S. metro areas have been developing global trade and investment plans. These metro areas have devoted substantial energy and resources to this process, motivated by the conviction that global engagement will have a significant impact on their economies. But things often change once plans are released: The conviction that fuels the planning process doesn’t necessarily translate into the resources required to put these plans into action.

Scanning the departures and arrivals board on the way home from launching metro Atlanta’s new foreign direct investment strategy under the Global Cities Initiative, it was easy to understand why local leaders remain focused on finding strategies to better leverage their airport as a unique infrastructure asset for global economic opportunities.

A dilemma surrounds global trade and investment efforts in metro areas. Economic development leaders are increasingly convinced that global engagement matters, but they are equally (and justifiably) convinced that they should use data to better determine which programs generate the highest return on investment. Therein lies the problem: there is a lack of data suitable for measuring export and foreign direct investment (FDI) activity in metro areas. Economic theory and company input validate the tactics that metros are implementing – such as developing export capacity of mid-sized firms, or strategically responding to foreign mergers and acquisitions – but they barely impact the data typically used to evaluate economic development success.

Fighting inequality is not only a global and national concern; it is also very local,” remarked Ángel Gurría, secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), last month at the Washington launch of the OECD’s Inclusive Growth in Cities Campaign.

I recently moderated a panel on metropolitan competitiveness and inclusion in the global economy, and was struck by these panelists’ resolve to promote the twin aims of competitiveness and inclusion through public-private collaborations.San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor was also slated to join, but due to severe weather, she was unable to leave her home state. Afterwards, I had the chance to ask Mayor Taylor about her vision for an inclusive, internationally-competitive San Antonio. Below is an edited version of our conversation.

On May 2, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted a discussion with former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. In his remarks, Brzezinski offered perspectives from his new book, Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power (Basic Books, 2012), on how the United States and Europe can…

On May 4, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted former European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana for the seventh annual Sakıp Sabancı Lecture. In his address, Solana offered perspectives on security, stability and democracy in a changing world, and discuss how these changes…

On May 8, the Center for the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted R. Nicholas Burns, former under secretary of state for political affairs, for the fourth annual Sakıp Sabancı Lecture. Ambassador Burns focused his address on the future of U.S.-Turkish relations. In March, Ambassador Burns retired as the under secretary of state…

Richard C. Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and vice chairman of Perseus LLC, delivered the third annual Sakip Sabanci Lecture. He was the chief architect of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, ending the war in Bosnia; assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian Affairs (1994-96); U.S. ambassador to Germany (1993-94); assistant…

Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, delivered the second annual Sakıp Sabancı Lecture. Prior to assuming leadership of the world's largest source of aid to developing nations, Mr. Wolfowitz spent more than three decades as an ambassador, educator, and senior government official under seven U.S. presidents.To establish a prominent forum for exploring Turkey's increasingly…

On May 2, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted Kaushik Basu for the ninth annual Sakıp Sabancı Lecture. In his address, Basu discussed the persisting global economic crisis and the policy challenges facing emerging countries. Kaushik Basu is senior vice president (Development Economics) and chief economist of the…

Every day since the COVID-19 pandemic began surging, The New York Times and other sources have reported the size and geographic scope of coronavirus cases. But in addition to these raw numbers, it is useful to know the key demographic attributes of places with the most cases, in comparison to those with lower (but likely…

There are two small business crises in the United States. The first—the sudden shock to small businesses induced by COVID-19—is acute and immediate. Our recent analysis indicates that over 50% of small businesses with employees (an astounding 4 million establishments) face immediate or near-term risks due to the pandemic. The second crisis—the structural racial and…

Will the coronavirus change everything? While that sentiment feels true to the enormity of the crisis, it likely isn’t quite right, as scholars from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program have been exploring since the pandemic began. Instead, the COVID-19 crisis seems poised to accelerate or intensify many economic and metropolitan trends that were already underway, with huge…

There is a stereotypical view of the places in America that COVID-19 has affected most: they are broadly urban, comprised predominantly of racial minorities, and strongly vote Democratic. This underlines the public’s perception of what kinds of populations reside in areas highly exposed to the coronavirus, as well as some of the recent political arguments…

The COVID-19 pandemic has already shown a dispersion away from the nation’s most urban and densely populated counties to suburban, somewhat whiter, and less politically Democratic parts of the country.  Yet the group of counties that newly qualify as areas with a high prevalence of COVID-19 cases are even more dispersed, and represent places where…

Several economic studies, including many of our own (here and here), have found evidence of a significant downturn in human well-being during the midlife years—the so-called “happiness curve.” Yet several other studies, particularly by psychologists, suggest that there either is no midlife dip and/or that it is insignificant or “trivial.” We disagree. Given that this…

The release of the IMF’s World Economic Outlook provides an initial country-by-country assessment of what might happen to the world economy in 2020 and 2021. Using the methods described in the World Poverty Clock, we ask what will happen to the number of poor people in the world—those living in households with less than $1.90…

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, America has begun to open up for some business and limited social interaction, especially in parts of the country that did not bear the initial brunt of the coronavirus.  However, the number of counties where COVID-19 cases have reached “high-prevalence” status continues to expand. Our tracking of these…

Amid the many plans and projects that have been set awry by the rampage of COVID-19, spare a thought for the world’s census takers. For the small community of demographers and statisticians that staff national statistical offices, 2020—now likely forever associated with coronavirus—was meant to be something else entirely: the peak year of the decennial…

Over the past month, President Trump has fired one inspector general, removed an acting inspector general set to oversee the pandemic response and its more than $2 trillion dollars in new funding, and publicly criticized another from the White House briefing room. These sustained attacks against the federal government’s watchdogs fly in the face of…

Since its peak in late March, public approval of President Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has slowly but steadily declined. Why is this happening? Will his new guidelines to the states for reopening the country’s turn it around? What will be the impact of his latest tweets, which call on his supporters to “liberate”…

Most state governors and cannabis regulators were underprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, a crisis is affecting every economic sector. But because the legal cannabis industry is relatively new in most places and still evolving everywhere, the challenges are even greater. What’s more, there is no history that could help us understand how the industry will endure the current economic situation. And so, in many…

For America to minimize the damage from the current pandemic, the media must inform, science must innovate, and our government must administer like never before. Yet decades of politically-motivated attacks discrediting all three institutions, taken to a new level by President Trump, leave the American public in a vulnerable position. Trump has consistently vilified the…

President Trump threatened during an April 15 pandemic briefing to “adjourn both chambers of Congress” because the Senate’s pro forma sessions prevented his making recess appointments. The threat will go nowhere for constitutional and practical reasons, and he has not pressed it. The administration and Senate Republicans, though, remain committed to confirming as many judges…

As news began to leak out that the White House was thinking about winding down the coronavirus task force, it was greeted with some consternation. After all, we are still in the midst of a pandemic—we need the president’s leadership, don’t we? And then, in an abrupt turnaround, President Trump reversed himself and stated that…

On Jan. 14, 2017, the Obama White House hosted 30 incoming staff members of the Trump team for a role-playing scenario. A readout of the event said, “The exercise provided a high-level perspective on a series of challenges that the next administration may face and introduced the key authorities, policies, capabilities, and structures that are…

While the country’s attention has been riveted on the COVID-19 pandemic, the general election contest is quietly taking shape, and the news for President Trump is mostly bad. After moving modestly upward in March, approval of his handling of the pandemic has fallen back to where it was when the crisis began, as has his…

For the past three years the Republican Party leadership have stood by the president through thick and thin. Previous harsh critics and opponents in the race for the Republican nomination like Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Ted Cruz fell in line, declining to say anything negative about the president even while, at times, taking action…