Placelinking: An Emergent Approach to Improving Economic Mobility Outcomes

Neighborhoods, including their schools, housing stock, access to jobs, and social capital, impact the long-term economic success of children. Thanks to Raj Chetty’s and Nathan Hendren’s groundbreaking research, the ability to quantify this impact is now possible. Their analysis of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data shows the causal relationships between where a young person grows up and their future earnings. For example, a young boy raised in Baltimore City can expect to earn 28 percent less in household income as an adult than the national average… We believe policymakers and researchers should pay greater attention to a potential middle category between place-based initiatives and housing mobility programs, a model we refer to as placelinking. Placelinking seeks to improve existing, isolated neighborhoods by better connecting these communities through improved transit, parks and recreation, and other forms of infrastructure and amenities.