WORKING PAPER | A report by SCEPA researcher Bridget Fisher and co-author Flávia Leite analyzes New York State’s proposal to redevelop Penn Station using a version of value capture financing.

ARTICLE | Value capture schemes sound simple in theory – future revenues pay debt issued to cover upfront costs. But in practice, these financing mechanisms are highly complex and, as a result, can have unintended consequences on municipal finances.

POLICY NOTE | Tax increment financing (TIF) is a long-standing and popular public financing tool in the U.S., but it’s starting to jump its borders.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | SCEPA's research finds nearly 1.5 million low-income older workers would benefit from an expansion of the popular Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program. The report—released by our Retirement Equity Lab (ReLab)—finds without expanding the EITC, the program actually lowers wages among non-educated workers, especially those over 55.

POLICY NOTE | Since March 2020, the size of the retired population in the U.S. expanded beyond its normal trend by an additional 1.7 million people.¹

RELAB POLICY NOTE | After a partial recovery between May and August, older workers’ labor force participation rate fell continuously, reaching its lowest point of the recession in January.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Working longer is often proposed as the solution to the retirement crisis caused by older workers’ lack of retirement assets, but new research from SCEPA's ReLab shows this assumption doesn't match older workers' real experiences in the labor market.

WORKING PAPER | TIF’s self-financing rhetoric can be used to shift risk onto taxpayers.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Unemployment rates for workers 55 and older exceeded those of mid-career workers for the length of the pandemic — the first time since 1973 such an unemployment gap has persisted for six months or longer.

WORKING PAPER | While tax increment financing (TIF) is a common tool for municipalities to fund economic development, it is responsive to the legal, political, and economic environments of the locality in which it is implemented. 

RELAB POLICY NOTE | 2.9 million older workers left the labor force since March. These workers are at risk of having to retire involuntarily due to increased health risks coupled with decreased job prospects.

REPORT | Tax increment financing (TIF) is a popular but controversial financial tool used by local governments to fund economic development.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | An additional 3.1 million older workers will fall into lifelong poverty in retirement. Overall, the 67 million older workers and their spouses in the U.S. will suffer a decrease of 7 percentage points in their retirement replacement rate.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Policy proposals to cut Social Security benefits by increasing the normal retirement age from 67 to as high as 76 ignore the persistent physical demands older workers face.

RELAB WORKING PAPER | Workers across the country face a retirement crisis. However, workers in Philadelphia are faring worse than average.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Economic shocks, such as job-loss, have particularly adverse effects on retirement savings of workers in low-income households, exacerbating retirement savings inequality.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Financial necessity is an important reason low-wage households are more likely to make pre-retirement withdrawals from their 401(k) plans.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Inadequate wealth accumulations reflect well-known design flaws in the 401(k) system.

WORKING PAPER | The framing of the redevelopment of Manhattan's Hudson Yards as a self-financed project hides the public trade-offs.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Despite spending $100 billion a year in retirement tax breaks, the U.S. faces a retirement income security crisis.