Next50 Knowledge Labs

Artificial Intelligence and Employment Equity Knowledge Lab

Explore the knowledge building that changemakers need to harness technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), to advance employment equity. As employers turn to AI to inform and facilitate employment decisions, technology is transforming how organizations recruit, hire, and evaluate their workforce. Though algorithmic hiring could reduce bias from human decisionmaking, analytical models based on past hiring decisions could reproduce existing patterns of discrimination. Some employers are also deploying AI to identify and correct pay disparities or remove language in job advertisements likely to discourage applicants from diverse backgrounds. Can we establish a framework and practices that promote equal opportunity in AI design and implementation?

Chairs:
David Autor, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Kristen Clarke, President and Executive Director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Organized by Urban Institute scholar and expert:
Khuloud Odeh, Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
Jenny R. Yang,  Senior Fellow

Education Equity Knowledge Lab

Explore the knowledge building that changemakers need to dismantle the structural barriers that have historically kept many students of color from accessing high-quality K–12 and postsecondary educational opportunities. Research shows that school integration matters for the educational and socioeconomic outcomes of students of color, yet schools remain segregated. A college degree can be the ticket to economic mobility, but black and Hispanic students do not complete college at the same rate as their white peers. Participants in this session will discuss how education policy can address the historical barriers that underlie these disparities. What data and analysis would help policymakers and school leaders transform a system that is largely separate and unequal into one that is integrated and equitable?

Chairs:
Ellen Alberding, President, The Joyce Foundation
Freeman Hrabowski, President, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Eduardo J. Padrón, President, Miami Dade College

Organized by Urban Institute scholar: 
Matthew M. Chingos, Vice President, Education Data and Policy

Effective Taxation Knowledge Lab

Explore how and what we should tax to create a 21st-century economy in which everyone can thrive. Our nation’s challenges are inspiring bold and ambitious policy proposals. Proposals from the Right include tax cuts and more national security. Proposals from the Left include free college, Medicare for All, expanding refundable tax credits, and a Green New Deal. The US relies largely on local government to educate Americans for the future of work and on state governments to repair and rebuild resilient infrastructure. Every level of government faces funding shortfalls for the retirement and health care needs of an aging workforce. And we seem increasingly comfortable putting off paying for today’s spending. Are we stuck with the same choices we have made in the past? Should we revisit fundamental choices of how best to shoulder and share the burdens of equitable and sustainable growth?

Chairs:
Heidi Heitkamp, Former Senator, North Dakota
Chris Hughes, Cochair, Economic Security Project
N. Gregory Mankiw, Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Organized by Urban Institute scholars: 
Donald Marron, Institute Fellow; Director, Economic Policy Initiatives
Mark J. Mazur, Robert C. Pozen Director, Tax Policy Center; Vice President, Tax Policy

Financial Well-Being Knowledge Lab

Explore the knowledge building that changemakers need to harness data science to improve broad-based financial health and well-being. Providers and policymakers pursuing credit building, savings, safe credit, and upward mobility for low- and moderate-income consumers often start from a unidimensional understanding of consumers’ needs and circumstances. Participants will discuss how new access to massive data and sophisticated analytic tools could create multidimensional and differentiated portraits of Americans’ diverse financial lives; support changemakers in developing trusted, well-tailored financial products and services; and inform public policies that improve financial well-being.  

Chairs:
José Cisneros, Treasurer, City and County of San Francisco
Mary Miller, Former Undersecretary for Domestic Finance, US Department of the Treasury

Organized by Urban Institute scholars: 
Alanna McCargo, Vice President, Housing Finance Policy
Signe-Mary McKernan, Vice President–Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population; Codirector, Opportunity and Ownership initiative  
Caroline Ratcliffe, Senior Fellow

Health and Social Needs Knowledge Lab

Explore what changemakers need to know to reduce health inequities and control medical costs by meeting the health-related social needs of consumers (e.g., nonmedical factors that affect health, such as food insecurity, housing instability, or lack of transportation). Health plans and public payers are increasingly well positioned to identify enrollees’ social needs. They can also observe the influence of social needs through the lens of medical costs. But to the extent that the health benefits of addressing social needs are realized outside the medical care system, payers and plans may have weak incentives to address those social needs. Pioneering plans and public programs are exploring new ways of meeting social needs even though the return on investment may accrue in part to the child welfare system, schools, the criminal justice system, and other sectors. What data and analysis would help innovative plans and public programs align incentives to improve health and lower costs by targeting social needs?

Chairs:
Margaret Hamburg, Foreign Secretary, National Academy of Medicine
Kathy Hempstead, Senior Policy Adviser, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Organized by Urban Institute scholars: 
Genevieve M. Kenney, Vice President, Health Policy; Senior Fellow
Timothy A. Waidmann, Senior Fellow

Inclusive Cities Knowledge Lab

Explore the knowledge building that changemakers need to harness growth in US cities to power a more inclusive economy. Cities fuel economic growth, and their progress can either harden existing inequities or expand opportunities. Many local leaders are determined to use their resources and political will to move toward a future of shared prosperity. Participants will discuss how some communities are designing shared prosperity strategies. What analytic resources, shared insights, and new modes of work will help local leaders achieve inclusive results? 

Chairs:
Henry Cisneros, Cofounder and Chairman, Cityview
Rip Rapson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kresge Foundation

Organized by Urban Institute scholar: 
Erika C. Poethig, Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer; Institute Fellow

Prison Reform Knowledge Lab

Explore the knowledge building that changemakers need to infuse transparency, accountability, and innovation into the prison sector to create more humane, inclusive, and rehabilitative communities. State correctional leaders want to improve the lives of people housed and working in their institutions, promote more humane conditions, and enable incarcerated people to pursue activities of self-betterment and lead productive and law-abiding lives in the families and communities to which they return. Advocates share these goals and are eager for more transparency on conditions of confinement. How can prisons be supported and provided incentives to collect, analyze, and disseminate better data on prison conditions, climate, and practices? How might we work with incarcerated people and corrections officers to test and assess strategies to improve America’s prisons? 

Chairs:
Jeremy Travis, Executive Vice President, Arnold Ventures
John Wetzel, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections

Organized by Urban Institute scholar: 
Nancy G. La Vigne, Vice President, Justice Policy

Supporting Older Workers Knowledge Lab

Explore the knowledge building that changemakers need to ensure that older adults can generate income through well-paying jobs with good benefits and opportunities for career advancement. Adults ages 55 and older make up nearly a quarter of the nation’s workforce, but they often struggle to find rewarding, stable employment. Many older workers who lose their jobs never work again, and those who remain employed often find themselves in dead-end jobs with stagnant earnings. These challenges are particularly common among low-wage workers, who are disproportionately women and people of color. How can policymakers, employers, and others expand traditional and nontraditional employment opportunities for older workers and reduce economic inequality across racial, ethnic, and gender lines? How can programs and services be personalized to meet the needs of different segments of the older population?

Chairs:
Lisa Marsh Ryerson, President, AARP Foundation
John Wallis Rowe, Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy and Aging, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University

Organized by Urban Institute scholar: 
Richard W. Johnson, Senior Fellow; Director, Program on Retirement Policy

Zoning Innovation Knowledge Lab

Explore how to build and use data and evidence on local land-use regulations to accelerate solutions to the nation’s affordable housing crisis. Many local land-use regulations drive up housing costs and further segregation by limiting the construction of new housing that meets the needs of residents at all income levels. Cities and states are exploring local reforms, but progress is hindered by a lack of reliable, comparable data on zoning or evidence on what reforms are most effective at unleashing the supply of housing for families who need it most. Participants will discuss how communities can partner with data scientists, technologists, and researchers to answer critical questions and help develop an evidence-backed agenda that can spark change. Our Next50 catalyst brief and web feature on housing previews some ideas on this topic. 

Chairs:
Shaun Donovan, Former Director, Office of Management and Budget
J. Ron Terwilliger, Chairman Emeritus, Trammell Crow Residential 

Organized by Urban Institute scholar: 
Solomon Greene, Senior Fellow