REFRAMING THE METROPOLITAN GROWTH PROPOSITION: PREDICTING METROPOLITAN GROWTH AND PROSPERITY THROUGH AN ECONOMIC INCLUSION SIMULATION

Abstract

Abstract In terms of income, the cities of the United States now have the greatest income inequality than any other democratic nation in the developed world. However, if you assess the economy of the United States through the lens of traditional indicators—inflation, unemployment, increases/decreases of the Dow Jones average, and gross domestic product—the country in general, along with great cities of the country display optimistic economic growth (Pre-Covid-19). The disconnect between traditional notions of economic growth and many families’ well-being/prosperity remains a by-product of an inefficient wealth distribution eco-system. This study/simulation at its core attempts to assess various causal conditional propositions and increase the knowledge regarding these relationships in regards to the creation and distribution of income. The intent of the study is to provide policy makers with needed insight to assist with the development of a solution to these social and economic problems by taking an in-depth look at the historical business investment and income distribution of two geographical sectors of the country—Michigan and New Mexico metropolitan regions. By creating an unique economic inclusion simulator that links correlation with quantitative based models, the question presented is whether a correlation exists between various growth, prosperity, and economic inclusion variables and the potential future impact on the economic growth of various metropolitan statistical areas, federal, state and local tax revenue receipts. The most important contribution of this research is the reframing of the issue that the business phenomena (metropolitan economic low growth) rest in the markets failure to effectively incorporate/include a large share of the cities’ population into the wealth and capital creation process—a business proposition for long-term growth and prosperity for metropolitan areas could be impacted significantly by public policies that enhance economic inclusion. This simulation will demonstrate various levels of impact with the goal to enhance the knowledge and practical application of economic and taxation growth models at the metropolitan level. This model will use growth and prosperity variables as they relate to economic inclusion variables to achieve this goal, quantifying why or why not successful economic inclusion will increase the economic growth of the metropolitan sectors of America.