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Journal Article
Small Business Performance in Industries in LMI Neighborhoods After the Great Recession: Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles
Small businesses are essential to the economic infrastructure of both lower-income and higher-income neighborhoods. In this report, we compare small business performance in lower-income vs higher-income areas. Findings offer some directions for growing small businesses in LMI and ethnic/minority neighborhoods
Journal Article
Resource Utilization among Black Small Business Owners in Detroit: Results from a Questionnaire
One of the most important ways for small businesses to access capital is through connections to resource networks. Business networks are the set of arrangements and information platforms that business owners use to increase exposure and sales, gain knowledge of their markets, develop financial management skills, and familiarize themselves with sources of financing. Networks can also connect people to other service providers, such as nonprofit organizations and professionals that support business owners through technical and financial training, referrals, legal services and procurement ...
Journal Article
An Analysis of SBA Loans in Lower-income and Black neighborhoods in Detroit and Michigan
In this article, we analyze the extent to which the Small Business Administration (SBA) 7(a) loan guarantee program helps facilitate flows of credit to small businesses in the city of Detroit, and to black and low- and moderate-income neighborhoods in Michigan. In an environment of financial austerity and constrained small business credit, federal government programs like those administered by the SBA can facilitate lending to businesses. The SBA administers several programs designed to encourage lenders to provide loans to small businesses that might not otherwise obtain financing on ...
Journal Article
Developing small businesses and leveraging resources in Detroit: an informed discussion among financial institutions, policymakers and Other stakeholders in Detroit
In October 2012, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Michigan Bankers Association and the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan co-sponsored a symposium in Detroit that brought together business experts, business owners, policymakers, funders and bankers to explore issues around access to small business credit and financing in Detroit. As Alicia Williams, vice president of the Community Development and Policy Studies (CDPS) division, explained in her opening remarks, the symposium was a follow-up to meetings hosted around the country by the Federal Reserve System?s Community ...
Journal Article
Minority-Owned Banks and Their Primary Local Market Areas
In this article, we analyze the experience and performance of MDIs in their primary local service areas in recent periods, including before, during, and after the 2008 financial crisis. We provide a review of the sector, highlighting key policies and initiatives pertaining to and affecting these institutions, and provide a brief review of previous research. We document trends in the sector, including: 1) the characteristics of the locations where MDIs tend to do business; 2) the changing landscape of MDIs in terms of openings, closings, and mergers by ethnic ownership; and 3) the performance ...
Journal Article
Do labor market activities help predict inflation?
The authors conduct an empirical analysis of the role of labor market activities in inflation and conclude that wage growth is not very informative for predicting price inflation. But price inflation does seem to help predict wage growth.
Journal Article
Strategies for improving economic mobility of workers: a conference report
The issue of economic opportunity for the disadvantaged has grown in importance. We?ve witnessed healthy job creation rates in recent years, and by almost all measures American workers, overall, have gained economic ground. Yet, at the same time, it?s also well known that inequality in economic outcomes has increased. Those at the bottom of the income distribution have not grown as fast as those on the top, and may even be stagnating. These trends imply that segments of the labor force have relatively more limited chances for economic mobility.
Journal Article
The relationship between Hispanic residential location and homeownership
This article asks two basic questions. First, is homeownership more or less likely for Hispanics who choose to reside in an ethnic location; and second, is the location decision jointly or endogenously made with the homeownership decision? The findings suggest that, indeed, the location and homeownership decisions are jointly made. Furthermore, the decision to reside in a Hispanic enclave has a positive, significant influence on the likelihood of owning a home.
Reviving the Restaurant Corridor in the Greater Chatham Neighborhood of Chicago: Challenges and Opportunities
Greater Chatham is a 15-square-mile area in the city of Chicago that includes the largely African-American neighborhoods of Avalon Park, Auburn Gresham, Greater Grand Crossing, and Chatham. Greater Chatham is a mixed-income community with relatively high levels of human capital (figure 1). In this community, the idea that restaurants can act as an economic anchor has been the inspiration for various public and privately funded programs to support food-related businesses. Greater Chatham describes itself as the soul food/Caribbean/West African food district of Chicago. Its 75th Street ...
Newsletter
Developing small businesses and leveraging resources in Detroit
On October 16?17, 2012, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Michigan Bankers Association, and the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan co-sponsored a symposium that brought together business experts, business owners, policymakers, funders, and bankers to address the issues of small business credit and financing in Detroit.