Preface

Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs is devoted to publishing forward-looking research on urban policy issues in an accessible manner. The collaboration between the Wharton School and Brookings Institution in this endeavor represents an effort to draw on resources and personnel in both academia and the policy community. We hope and expect that the journal itself will be of interest and use to an even wider audience that includes policymakers and their staffs, interested parties in the private sector, journalists, students, and others.

This journal's existence owes much to the efforts of key people at both Brookings and Wharton. Brookings president Strobe Talbott continues to support this project. Bruce Katz, director of the Metropolitan Policy Program, has been a loyal supporter of the journal and its goals, and his program provides major financial support.

At Wharton, Peter Linneman and Joseph Gyourko, former and current director, respectively, of the Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center, have supported this undertaking intellectually and financially from its inception. We also have received financial support for the past four years from the Penn Institute for Urban Research,which is co-directed by professors Eugenie Birch and Susan Wachter. We look forward to the continued support and participation of both institutions. The chair of the Department of Business and Public Policy has made an important contribution by allowing Janet Rothenberg Pack to adjust her workload to organize the conference and edit the volume. Gary Burtless, who holds the John C. and Nancy D. Whitehead Chair in Economic Studies at Brookings, serves as co-convener of the conference and coeditor of this journal.

Several people made vital contributions to the conference, where drafts of this volume's papers were first presented, and to the volume itself. Teresa Brown and Kathleen Kruczlnicki at Brookings took charge of conference logistics and managed the paper flow. Sarah Anders and Pavel Svaton, also of Brookings, provided splendid assistance in helping the coeditors fact-check the submissions and prepare summaries of the major articles. The authors and discussants deserve special thanks for making extra efforts to draft their arguments in a clear and accessible manner. Janet Walker of the Brookings Institution Press has managed the production of the conference volume both creatively and efficiently.