While the state’s economy has expanded substantially since emerging from the Great Recession, in an age of immense technological disruption, this growth has not translated into larger economic participation and prosperity. Wages remain depressed and many in the workforce have found themselves excluded from these gains.
This fact presents a long-term liability and threat to Michigan as the state looks to sustain economic growth into the future.
Taking Michigan’s Center Stage, Amy Liu, vice President and director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings Institution, shared the strategies and best practices other regions like Chicago and Indianapolis have adopted to better create more inclusive, sustainable economic outcomes.
Following her address, Liu was joined by a panel including Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, Hudson-Webber Foundation President and CEO Melanca Clark and Mackinac Center for Public Policy President Joseph Lehman for a more in-depth discussion of how specifically Michigan can close the opportunity gap. The panel was moderated by Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley.
The keynote address and panel session tie into the Conference panel of increasing economic opportunity.