Bartik provides evidence showing that investment in quality preschool education provides economic payoffs, particularly in lifetime earnings.

Early childhood programs, if designed correctly, pay big economic dividends down the road because they increase the skills of their participants. And since many of those participants will remain in the same state or local area as adults, the local economy benefits: more persons with better...

Leading Policy analysts examine the challenges facing U.S. labor market policy and propose concrete steps to make American workers and employers more competitive in a global economy.

This paper considers how a state such as Michigan can increase the economic development benefits of higher education. Research evidence suggests that higher education increases local economic development principally by increasing the quality of the local workforce, and secondarily by increasing...

I thank Claire Black and Wei-Jang Huang for assistance in preparing this paper. I appreciate the comments of George Erickcek on a preliminary version of this paper. This paper was previously presented on November 20, 2009 at the 57th Annual Economic Outlook Conference of the Research Seminar in...