Howard Wial is executive director of the Center for Urban Economic Development, associate research professor in CUED and the Department of Urban Planning and Policy, and a nonresident senior fellow of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. His research focuses on manufacturing and urban and regional economic development. He is also an expert on labor and employment policy, workforce development, innovation, productivity, and competitiveness.
He was previously a resident fellow of Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program. Prior to joining Brookings, he was research director of the Pennsylvania-based Keystone Research Center and the Working for America Institute; an economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Technology Assessment, and General Accounting Office; a professor of economics at Swarthmore College, Brandeis University, Carleton College, Brown University; and a professor of labor and industrial relations at Pennsylvania State University.
He is a coauthor of New Rules for a New Economy (Cornell University/ILR Press, 1998) and a co-editor of the series Urban and Regional Policy and Its Effects (Brookings Institution Press). He has also published widely in the areas of labor and regional economics. Wial received his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his J.D. from Yale Law School.
Contact
Office: 412 South Peoria Street, Room 431
Phone: (312) 996-7194
Email: hwial@uic.edu
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RECENT PUBLICATIONS INCLUDE:
“Locating American Manufacturing: Trends in the Geography of Production” (with Susan Helper and Timothy Krueger), Brookings Institution, May 2012.
“Why Does Manufacturing Matter? Which Manufacturing Matters? A Policy Framework” (with Susan Helper and Timothy Krueger), Brookings Institution, February 2012.
“Economic Shocks and Regional Economic Resilience” (with Edward Hill, Travis St. Clair, Harold Wolman, and others), in Urban and Regional Policy and Its Effects, vol. 4: Building Resilient Regions, edited by Margaret Weir, Nancy Pindus, Howard Wial, and Harold Wolman. Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2012.
Urban and Regional Policy and Its Effects, vol. 4: Building Resilient Regions (edited, with Margaret Weir, Nancy Pindus, and Harold Wolman). Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2012.
Urban and Regional Policy and Its Effects, vol. 3 (edited, with Nancy Pindus and Harold Wolman). Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2010.
Urban and Regional Policy and Its Effects, vol. 2 (edited, with Nancy Pindus and Harold Wolman). Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2009.
Urban and Regional Policy and Its Effects, vol. 1 (edited, with Margery Austin Turner and Harold Wolman). Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2008.
“Responding to Manufacturing Job Loss: What Can Economic Development Policy Do?” (with Patricia Atkins, Pamela Blumenthal, Adrienne Edisis, Alec Friedhoff, Leah Curran, Lisa Lowry, Travis St. Clair, and Harold Wolman), June 2011.
“Accelerating Advanced Manufacturing with New Research Centers” (with Susan Helper), Brookings Institution, February 2011.
“The Consequences of Metropolitan Manufacturing Decline: Testing Conventional Wisdom” (with Alec Friedhoff and Harold Wolman), Brookings Institution, December 2010.
“Strengthening American Manufacturing: A New Federal Approach” (with Susan Helper), Brookings Institution, September 2010.
“Strategy: A National Innovation Foundation,” Democracy 14 (Fall 2009): 37-42.
“Creating a National Innovation Foundation” (with Robert Atkinson), Issues in Science and Technology 25 (Fall 2008): 75-84.
“The Changing Industrial Composition of Manufacturing-Based Regions, 1980-2005,” in Labor and Employment Relations Research Association Series: Proceedings of the 60th Annual Meeting, ed. Adrienne Eaton, pp. 84-91. Champaign, IL: Labor and Employment Relations Association, 2008.
“International Responses to an Aging Labor Force: Lessons for U.S. Policy” (with Charles Jeszeck, Tony DeFrank, Katharine Leavitt, Jeffrey S. Petersen, Janice Peterson, and Yunsian Tai), in Work Options for Older Americans, ed. Teresa Ghilarducci and John Turner. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007.
Boosting Productivity, Innovation, and Growth through a National Innovation Foundation (with Robert Atkinson), Brookings Institution, April 2008.
“The Implications of Service Offshoring for Metropolitan Economies” (with Robert Atkinson), Brookings Institution, February 2007.