A decade after the onset of the Great Recession, the economic recovery nationally has been uneven, with some cities responding to the downturn with policies designed to share the benefits of economic growth more broadly, a report from the Urban Institute finds.

Funded by the Kresge Foundation as part of its American Cities Practice program, the report, Inclusive Recovery in U.S. Cities (117 pages, PDF), offers an empirical analysis of the relationship between economic, racial, and overall inclusion in two hundred and seventy-four of the largest cities in the country. Through extensive data analysis and discussions with local leaders, the report identifies trends across cities as well as lessons for how economic turnarounds can support inclusion and the building blocks of inclusive growth across different geographical contexts.

According to the report, which covers the period 1980 to 2103, all cities ranked in the top ten for overall inclusion in 2013 were economically healthy in all the years of the study, while several cities that performed poorly with respect to economic vitality received high scores on economic and racial inclusion, and vice versa. Nevertheless, there was a strong relationship between a city's economic health and its ability to promote inclusion for all residents.

The report further examined the five years between 2008 and 2013, a period during which eleven cities moved from "other" economically — having been "distressed" at some point prior to 2008 — to "recovered," and found that seven had also improved on their overall inclusion scores. According to the report, inclusion gains across the post-'08 sample of recovered cities occurred largely as a result of increased economic rather than racial inclusion, with every city that moved up in the overall inclusion rankings registering a larger increase in economic inclusion than in racial inclusion.

According to the authors, the research highlights a number of possible strategies for promoting inclusive economic growth at the municipal level, including the need to develop a shared vision early and get buy-in from local stakeholders; recruiting partners in multiple sectors; building voice and power within traditionally underrepresented or disenfranchised communities; thinking and acting regionally; reframing inclusion as a strategy that is integral to economic growth; and adopting policies and programs that support inclusion.