The Economic Institute produces economic policy analyses on Bay Area and California issues, and economic impact analyses for public and private sector clients. A chronological list of the PDF versions of Bay Area Council Economic Institute publications appears below with the newest reports listed first.
Chronological List of Publications
- Tracking the San Francisco Bay Area’s Pandemic Recovery
The Bay Area Council Economic Institute and CBRE’s Tech Insights Center are partnering on a three-year, three-part series of interactive reports to evaluate and track key indicators of economic recovery in the Bay Area. The first part of this analysis, published below, tracks jobs, people, investment, economic activity, and affordability measured by: 1) an economic index tracking recovery across the nation’s 25 largest economic regions; and 2) a deeper dive into our region’s economic recovery.
—Ongoing (View the webpage) - Evaluating the Case for the East Solano Plan
The East Solano Plan seeks to create a new, mixed-use community at the heart of the Northern California Megaregion with homes, businesses, and civic uses organized into medium-density neighborhoods. At full build out, the plan has room for 400,000 people. The plan includes a commitment to bring 15,000 jobs to Solano County in the first phase of development, along with $500 million in community benefits such as downpayment assistance for Solano County residents and a $200 million fund to invest in revitalizing existing downtowns throughout Solano County. At full build out, these numbers increase to $4 billion in community benefits and $800 million for Solano County downtowns. While there are many details still to be resolved regarding how the East Solano Plan will address the new city’s infrastructure needs—and those details are vitally important to the success of the plan—this analysis focuses solely on how a new city could augment the economy of Solano County and the broader Northern California Megaregion if completed.
—July 2024 (PDF: 28 pages, 8.7 MB) - Harnessing the Private Sector: Opportunities and Challenges for Incentivizing Market-Based Uses of Woody Biomass in the East Bay Hills
This report aims to share lessons from the East Bay Hills to advance the conversation around collaborative agreements and working structures between jurisdictions, and, inform work relating to incentivizing the use and monetization of excess woody biomass. The East Bay Hills represent a particularly interesting area of study for several reasons. First, the region is very familiar with wildfire, having experienced one of the greatest urban firestorms the West has ever seen. Second, the region is highly fractured, crossing two separate counties and comprising over thirty local jurisdictions and fire districts. And third, in response to the Firestorm, the region set up a variety of local initiatives, as well as collaborative efforts between jurisdictions, to improve wildfire suppression and prevention planning efforts, but community leaders and fire officials agree that additional collaborative efforts are warranted.
—June 2024 (PDF: 30 pages, 9.2 MB) - Bay Area Council Conversations: Innovation and Global Startups in the San Francisco Bay Area
This conversation summarizes one of fourteen forums organized by the Bay Area Council during APEC (November 13-17, 2023). Designed to introduce global partners to the startup and innovation environment in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley Bay Area, it brought together leaders from venture capital, venture finance, accelerators and universities for a discussion of Silicon Valley’s origins and of key trends shaping its present and future.
—February 2024 (PDF: 8 pages, 2.9 MB) - Luxembourg: Space, Finance, and the Bridge to Europe
Luxembourg, positioned in Northern Europe between France, Germany and Belgium, plays in role in Europe that belies its small size. With 2,500 square kilometers and a population of only 645,000 (of which 304,000 are foreign residents), its economy has grown in specialized directions that make Luxembourg a global factor in a number of key sectors. Most important are banking and financial services, and space. It has also positioned itself as an entry point for U.S. companies looking to test the European market. This report details this positioning, strengths, and opportunities for Luxembourg, the Bay Area, and the U.S., moving forward.
—October 2023 (PDF: 14 pages, 3.4 MB) - The EU–US Tech Relationship In a Changing Global Economic Order
In the recent past, the EU and the U.S. have released analyses of their strategic dependencies and proposals of actions to mitigate them. Both identified semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, batteries and ‘rare earths’ as strategic sectors with vulnerable supply chains due to their highly concentrated reliance on a small number of suppliers. The need for such action plans is motivated by a changing world economic order and were accelerated through the COVID pandemic, as well as Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. In addition, China’s ambivalent position on the war in Ukraine has brought new light to its mercantilism and the dangers implicit in the rise of techno-nationalism and competitive autarchy, as the conflict has accentuated the autocracy-democracy divide. At its highest level the war has also brought home to Europe, the United States, and other democracies the issue of strategic dependencies. The new impetus to transatlantic unity with the TTC as its vehicle should help the US and EU address these issues and move towards a more stable and collaborative relationship. Will this happen, and how might trans-Atlantic relations evolve? This report in collaboration with EIT Digital will address these questions by developing future scenarios and assessing their implications.
—March 2023 (PDF: 32 pages, 6.4 MB) - Seismic Shift: Economic Growth and Strategic Alignment Between the Bay Area and India
The San Francisco/Silicon Valley Bay Area has long benefited from a unique relationship with India. In November 2009, the Bay Area Council Economic Institute produced its first report on India, Global Reach: Emerging Ties between the San Francisco Bay Area and India, which documented the historic relationship between the two economies, the economic contributions of Indian Americans, and emerging fields of business opportunity. Ten years later in June 2019, a second report, The Bay Area-Silicon Valley and India: Convergence and Alignment in the Innovation Age, carried the story forward, focusing on economic initiatives by the Modi Administration, accelerating digitalization, and the business opportunities these developments present. This report updates the narrative again, as India’s economic growth continues, spurred by an explosion of startups and venture investment, and as strategic imperatives have deepened political ties. As the alignment between India and the United States grows, the Bay Area will continue to hold center stage as both countries build closer ties through technology, innovation, and investment.
—March 2023 (PDF: 62 pages, 9.4 MB) - The Economic Benefits of Removing the Potter Valley Project Dams
The Potter Valley Project is a hydroelectric facility constructed in the upper Eel River watershed approximately 20 miles northeast of Ukiah. The Project owner, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), is currently working to surrender its federal license to operate the Project and decommission the facilities. While negotiations surrounding the fate of the Potter Valley Project continue, this report seeks to provide an understanding of the economic impacts associated with one likely result of the decommissioning process: that PG&E will remove both Scott and Cape Horn Dams.
—February 2023 (PDF: 23 pages, 2.5 MB) - Seizing the Semiconductor Opportunity: How California Can Increase its Competitiveness and Capture CHIPS Act Funding
The Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act of 2022 (CHIPS+Science Act), signed into law on August 9, 2022, was derived from parallel bills in the House and Senate – America COMPETES in the House and USICA (the United States Innovation and Competition Act) in the Senate. In addition to its provisions on semiconductors, the Act more broadly invests in scientific research, the commercialization of leading-edge technologies, and STEM workforce development, and establishes new regional technology and innovation hubs to increase opportunity in regions of the United States outside historic technology centers. With $278 billion in new funding, California has the opportunity to capture a significant share of CHIPS Act funding, but competition will be intense and other states are already shaping their own initiatives.
—February 2023 (PDF: 23 pages, 2.5 MB) - Business Taxes in the Bay Area: A City Level Analysis
While it is impossible to pinpoint a single determining factor in relocations and other corporate real estate decisions, it is possible to analyze business taxes across the region to better understand the cost-benefit calculations that businesses are making as they determine how to locate their real estate and labor force needs. To investigate the business tax landscape across the Bay Area, the Institute analyzed the 20 largest job centers across the southern five counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara). The analysis that follows summarizes business tax structures and rates across the region using three hypothetical companies.
—February 2023 (PDF: 8 pages, 1.3 MB) - China, Technology, and the New U.S. Industrial Policy: A Bay Area View of Economic Relations with China in 2023
In the 2000s, from China’s entry into the WTO in 2001 to 2016, San Francisco Bay Area companies were at the heart of an expanding technological web linking the United States with China through trade but particularly through investment. The accelerating deterioration of US-China relations that visibly began in 2016 has dramatically altered this pattern, though key elements of partnership remain. This report takes a look at these relationships and potential new ones between the U.S. and China, although it may be less than promising.
—February 2023 (PDF: 16 pages, 2.3 MB) - The Economic Benefits of Multilingual Learning
This study aims to fill a gap in the literature that would provide a connection between multilingual programs and the economy. This project will attempt to fill these gaps by comparing linguistically isolated households(households where no person above the age of 14speaks English “very well”) to similar non-linguistically isolated households in California to understand the economic characteristics of both groups and how bilingualism may aid in improving the economic situations of English learners and the California economy over time. —Oct 2022 (PDF: 26 pages, 4.3 MB) - Assessing Jordan’s Potential as a Middle East Business and ICT Base
As digital processes take hold globally and more countries invest in their capacity to produce and host technology companies, Jordan stands out in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region for its internal stability and human capital infrastructure. This report assesses Jordan’s economy and its potential to develop as an offshore ITC (Information and Communications Technology) center. —July 2022 (PDF: 17 pages, 2.8 MB) - The Economic Impacts of Gilead’s Master Plan Expansion
This analysis studies Gilead’s economic impact – as measured in jobs supported, gross regional product, and total economic output – on San Mateo County and the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. Additionally, this report also analyzes Gilead’s other contributions to economic activity through philanthropy, diversity and inclusion efforts, and environmental and sustainability efforts. —July 2022 (PDF: 5 pages, 1.3 MB) - Innovation Platform: The Future of Global Technology and Innovation Collaboration in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley Bay Area
This report addresses as the San Francisco Bay Area emerges from COVID-19 in 2022, will the global presence remain robust or will it shrink in the region, and how if at all will its business models change. —May 2022 (PDF: 17 pages, 2.3 MB) - Optimizing Land Uses Near Transit Stations
This brief draws on existing research in the fields of urban planning, transportation planning, economics, and sociology to highlight the benefits of optimizing land uses at transit stations, with a particular focus on office and retail space. —May 2022 (PDF: 13 pages, 2.1 MB) - Local Multipliers in the High-Technology Sector
This report is an updated look at our 2012 publication titled Technology Works: High-Tech Employment and Wages in the United States, a first-of-its-kind look at high-technology sector employment, wages, and the ripple effect the sector has on job creation in local metros. Given the high-tech’s importance to the U.S. economy, revisiting the so-called “local multiplier effect” is important to provide updated context to policymakers as they consider the growth of the high tech sector. —April 2022 (PDF: 4 pages, 1.0 MB) - The Future of Advanced Technology and Basic Research
A California 100 Report on Policies and Future Scenarios
This report, developed in collaboration with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, lays out four long-term scenarios for the state’s future and provides policy recommendation. While at present California enjoys a commanding position, its future leadership cannot be assured without critical investment and policies to address mounting growing challenges to its ability to attract and retain high-skilled talent. —March 2022 (PDF: 69 pages, 4.8 MB) - An Analysis of Oakland’s Business Tax
This analysis seeks to more clearly define the regional and economic contexts that could make any tax increase detrimental to Oakland’s future economic prosperity by diminishing the demand for office space in Oakland, which would create a related reduction in demand for hotels, retail, housing, and other synergistic business activities. —March 2022 (PDF: 12 pages, 1.8 MB) - The Economic Impact of Astra in Alameda
This report analyzes how Astra, the Alameda Point-based manufacturer of rockets, generates economic impact in Alameda and the surrounding geographies through its rapid expansion and potential to generate new jobs. —January 2022 (PDF: 4 pages, 0.8 MB) - The Value of Money: How the Federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Can
Transform Public-Private Partnerships for Transportation in California
This report analyzes how a provision Federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Acts that requires a Value-for-Money analysis can transform Public-Private Partnerships for transportation in California.
—January 2022 (PDF: 5 pages, 1.0 MB) - The True Cost of Wildfires: Analyzing the Impact of Wildfires on the California Economy
This report analyzes the full costs—in terms of economic and health impacts—of previous wildfire seasons and makes recommendations for how new federal and state spending can strategically target forest resilience and fire mitigation investments.
—November 2021 (PDF: 30 pages, 1.9 MB) - Future Careers in Manufacturing: Building a Stronger Manufacturing Workforce in Northern California
This study assesses drivers of change in Northern California’s manufacturing workforce, including the reshoring of manufacturing that is currently overseas, the realignment of global supply chains, the widespread adoption of digital technology in production processes, 3D printing, and the aging of the industrial workforce.
—October 2021 (PDF: 72 pages, 5.9 MB) - Silicon Valley to Silicon Wadi
This report discusses the roots of Israel’s innovation economy, California’s economic footprint in Israel, Israel’s economic presence in California, key technologies where that activity is focused, and the possibilities to grow this partnership in the future across a range of current and emerging technologies.
—October 2021 (PDF: 76 pages, 2.6 MB) - Paid Family Leave in California: Lessons From 20 Years of California’s Paid Family Leave Program
This document is intended to be a resource for those interested in the California Paid Family Leave (PFL) program, how it is structured, and the lessons that can be learned from California’s experience over nearly 20 years. This report examines the structure of California’s program, how it differs from programs in other states, and how the state ended up here from a political perspective.
—September 2021 (PDF: 30 pages, 2.2 MB) - Bay to Bay: China’s Greater Bay Area Plan and its Synergies for San Francisco Bay Area and U.S. Business
The focus of this report is to analyze the economic and innovation potential of the GBA project in the context of recent global trends and to examine synergies with the Silicon Valley/San Francisco Bay Area that might facilitate collaboration beyond the longstanding relationships the region already enjoys with China and with Hong Kong in particular.
—June 2021 (PDF: 68 pages, 4.3 MB) - Southern Connection: Innovation Clusters in Mexico and the Bridge to Silicon Valley
This report examines Mexico’s’ continuing transition and the issues and opportunities that it presents for Bay Area companies. It particularly does this through the lens of cities and regions that cluster assets that Bay Area/Silicon Valley companies look for: infrastructure, talent, universities, R&D, and companies led by entrepreneurs. This defines not just where Bay Area companies are located now but also where they might go in the future.
—June 2021 (PDF: 132 pages, 5.9 MB) - Bay Area Economic Profile 2020:Tracking Impacts of the COVID-19 Recession on the Bay Area Economy
This Economic Profile, the eleventh in a series of Bay Area Economic Profile reports produced since 1997 by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute in partnership with McKinsey & Company, examines the region’s economic strength prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and provides recent data points that highlight the region’s experience during the recession and recovery. As previous reports have done, it benchmarks the Bay Area’s performance against other knowledge-based economies to assess the region’s national and global competitiveness. It also examines the economic and policy challenges that are likely to confront the region even after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.
—June 2021 (PDF: 60 pages, 3.2 MB) - Challenges Faced by Women in the California Workforce
This presentation, which was originally featured in the Bay Area Council’s Opportunity for All Summit 2.0: The Role of Gender Equity in the Economic Recovery, explores how COVID-19 has heightened the barriers and tradeoffs that many women face when participating in the workforce.
—June 2021 (PDF: 15 slides, 5.9 MB) - Tri-Valley Vision 2040
Rising to the Challenge and Shaping a Dynamic Future for the Tri-Valley
This document represents the output of more than one year of stakeholder engagement and more than 1,000 points of input across workshops, webinars, surveys, focus groups, and interviews. It is meant to be a bold jumping off point for further strategizing, prioritizing, and long-term implementation within the Tri-Valley.
—June 2021 (PDF: 44 pages, 12 MB) - Bay Area Homelessness: New Urgency, New Solutions
This report is the Bay Area Council Economic Institute’s second look at homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area. In our first report, Bay Area Homelessness: A Regional View of a Regional Crisis, released in 2019, we used interviews with local service providers and data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to capture the true scale and regional nature of the Bay Area’s homeless crisis. In this report, we examine the potential for using shelter mandates, also known as right to shelter policies, government intervention, and state and local policy changes, to help solve the Bay Area’s homelessness crisis.
—June 2021 (PDF: 54 pages, 9.8 MB) - Economic Impact Analysis: The Bayer Biopharmaceutical Campus in Berkeley
This report explores how Bayer’s biopharmaceutical campus in Berkeley plays an important role in generating economic activity for the City of Berkeley, the East Bay region (Alameda and Contra Costa counties), and the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. Primarily using data for calendar years 2019 and 2020 provided by Bayer, this report analyzes the annual average economic impact produced by Bayer’s employment and wages, contingent labor, suppliers and vendors, and capital expenditures. In order to evaluate its future economic impacts on these three geographies related to the proposed 30-year Development Agreement with the City of Berkeley to expand its campus by 2052, this report will also estimate Bayer’s forward-looking economic impacts over the next 30 years and compare them to the current state.
—April 2021 (PDF: 26 pages, 5.7 MB) - Housing Permits Over Time: Comparing California to other Populous States
This analysis takes a look at the struggles of California to permit housing at the level necessary due to a lack of land zoned at the appropriate density, a process that is burdensome and encourages litigation and hard costs, and materials and labor that make it prohibitively costly and burdensome to develop housing.—March 2021 (PDF: 3 Slides, 1.2 MB) - How has income inequality changed in the Bay Area over the last decade?
This analysis explores the dichotomous relationship between the highest and lowest income households in the nine-county Bay Area over the last decade, examines how income inequality in the region may be impacted by the COVID-19 economic crisis, and considers how equity focused economic recovery strategies could safeguard against income inequities in the Bay Area deepening as a result of the pandemic.
—March 2021 (PDF: 4 pages, 2.3 MB) - Arts and the Economy: The Economic and Social Impact of the Arts in San Francisco
This report analyzes the economic contribution of the arts in San Francisco, that details the contribution of arts organizations to the business revenue and employment in the city. The study specifically analyzes the role of organizations supported by the San Francisco Arts Commission and its Grants for the Arts program, as well as the San Francisco War Memorial and performing Arts Center that operates Civic Center facilities including the War Memorial Opera House, Davies Symphony Hall and the Herbst Theater. The assessments includes large and small organizations, cultural organizations, museums, and the performing arts, with many of those organizations profiled.
—March 2021 (PDF: 92 pages, 16.2 MB) - New Transbay Rail Crossing: Making the Case for a Key Megaregional Connection
This report explains interconnected nature of the economy in Northern California Megaregion and examines the economic potential that a more efficient rail transit system could bring to the megaregion. The report examines how unlocking the transbay bottleneck with a new transbay rail crossing is an integral investment in building a connected rail network in the Northern California Megaregion and how that network would transform rail travel across the 21-county megaregion.
—March 2021 (PDF: 56 pages, 4.3 MB) - Regions Build Together – A Housing Agenda for All of California
This report released by CA FWD with support from Wells Fargo, “Regions Build Together – A Housing Agenda for All California” provides a regions-up housing agenda consisting of 14 practical actions that can relieve the state’s persistent housing crisis. The report looks at the state through nine regional housing markets to identify the current state of affordability, distinct challenges, and opportunities that can be replicated or scaled up at a state level.
—March 2021 (PDF: 20 pages, 7.1 MB) - Californians on the Move: Tracking Address Change Requests
New data analyzed by the Bay Area Council EconomicInstitute paints a clearer picture of the migration situation across California during 2020. Data provided
by the United States Postal Service (USPS), which tracks change of address requests, shows California has experienced a significant uptick in the number of residents relocating out of the state during 2020.
—March 2021 (PDF: 1 pages, 1.2 MB) - New Transbay Rail Crossing: Making the Case for a Key Megaregional Connection
This report explains interconnected nature of the economy in Northern California Megaregion and examines the economic potential that a more efficient rail transit system could bring to the megaregion. The report examines how unlocking the transbay bottleneck with a new transbay rail crossing is an integral investment in building a connected rail network in the Northern California Megaregion and how that network would transform rail travel across the 21-county megaregion.
—January 2021 (PDF: 56 pages, 4.3 MB) - The Bay Area-Silicon Valley and Australia
An Expanding Trans-Pacific Partnership
Given current geopolitical challenges around the world, the Indo-Pacific region will continue to grow in importance for the United States, and so, too, will its relationship with Australia. This report assesses Australia’s economic ties to the Bay Area and outlines areas where capabilities, resources, and close alignment will offer stronger opportunities for business and other collaboration in the future.
—December 2020 (PDF: 92 pages, 5.9 MB) - Remote Work in the Bay Area
In light of the drastic shift to remote work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this report provides a foundational analysis of remote work eligibility in the Bay Area. It also seeks to begin understanding the economic, equity, and environmental considerations surrounding a potential sustained increase in remote work adoption in the region. The report was prepared by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute in partnership with the Bay Area Regional Collaborative (BARC).
—December 2020 (PDF: 30 pages, 3.9 MB) - Economic Profile 2020: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Regional Labor Force
This is a chapter of the Economic Profile, the eleventh in a series of Bay Area Economic Profile reports produced since 1997 by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute in partnership with McKinsey & Company. This chapter focuses on COVID-19’s effects on regional labor force participation.
—December 2020 (Read more here) - Economic Profile 2020: Is More Globalization or Localization in the Bay Area’s Future?
This is a chapter of the Economic Profile, the eleventh in a series of Bay Area Economic Profile reports produced since 1997 by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute in partnership with McKinsey & Company. This chapter explores whether the region will become more globalized or localized as a result of COVID-19.
—November 2020 (Read more here) - Economic Profile 2020: The Evolution of the Bay Area Higher Education System in the Wake of COVID-19
This is a chapter of the Economic Profile, the eleventh in a series of Bay Area Economic Profile reports produced since 1997 by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute in partnership with McKinsey & Company. This chapter focuses on COVID-19’s effects on the higher education system.
—November 2020 (Read more here) - Economic Profile 2020: Housing and Transportation in a Post-Pandemic Bay Area
This is a chapter of the Economic Profile, the eleventh in a series of Bay Area Economic Profile reports produced since 1997 by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute in partnership with McKinsey & Company. This chapter focuses on COVID-19’s effects on travel patterns and housing costs.
—October 2020 (Read more here) - Economic Profile 2020: The Future of the Bay Area’s Innovation Ecosystem
This is a chapter of the Economic Profile, the eleventh in a series of Bay Area Economic Profile reports produced since 1997 by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute in partnership with McKinsey & Company. This chapter explores how COVID-19 has shaped the technology industry, venture capital, and innovation within the Bay Area, providing insights into the future of technology in the region.
—October 2020 (Read more here) - Economic Profile 2020: The Future of the Bay Area’s Innovation Ecosystem
This is a chapter of the Economic Profile, the eleventh in a series of Bay Area Economic Profile reports produced since 1997 by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute in partnership with McKinsey & Company. This chapter explores how COVID-19 has shaped the technology industry, venture capital, and innovation within the Bay Area, providing insights into the future of technology in the region.
—October 2020 (Read more here) - Economic Profile 2020: Bay Area Economic Recovery Tracker
This is a chapter of the Economic Profile, the eleventh in a series of Bay Area Economic Profile reports produced since 1997 by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute in partnership with McKinsey & Company. In an effort to understand the health of the Bay Area economy throughout the COVID-19 recession, this page will track regional recovery and provide monthly updates using data from the California Employment Development Department and Bureau of Labor Statistics.
—October 2020 (Read more here) - Apprenticeships in the Tech Sector: Updating a Traditional Model for the 21st Century
This report lays out a set of findings from interviews conducted with stakeholders who play a role in tech apprenticeships in the Bay Area. This includes employers invested in or interested in tech apprenticeships and training providers, educators, and intermediaries that play a role in preparing and connecting candidates to apprenticeship roles. The information from these interviews has been synthesized and anonymized to provide recommendations on how apprenticeships can more effectively serve as an on-ramp for candidates from underrepresented backgrounds.
—August 2020 (PDF: 24 pages, 3.9 MB) - Job and Stimulus Benefits of Matilija Dam Removal
The Matilija Dam Ecosystem Restoration Project is a collaboration of the Ventura County Public Works Agency – Watershed Protection, local stakeholders, and funding partners to improve water and climate resilience in California’s Ventura River watershed. This report explores the economic benefits associated with the project.
—August 2020 (PDF: 29 pages, 34 MB) - The Baja California and Nuevo León Industry, Innovation, and Talent Clusters
This report is focused on the fostering of increased connectivity and collaboration between California and two emerging innovation hubs in Mexico: (1) the state of Baja California and the cities of Tijuana, Mexicali, and Ensenada on the Mexican side of the binational region known as Cali-Baja, and (2) the state of Nuevo León’s capital city, Monterrey, a major regional industrial manufacturing center.
—July 2020 (PDF: 28 pages, 2.2 MB) - Silicon Valley Bridges to Japan: A New Convergence
This analysis builds on discussions at a February 20, 2020 conference at Stanford University, “Japan and the Bay Area: Developing Entrepreneurial Business Partnerships in the New Japan,” organized by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute and Stanford’s US-Asia Technology Management Center.
—July 2020 (PDF: 16 pages, 1.2 MB) - Evaluation of the California Paid Family Leave Program
This report to the Governor’s PFL Task Force offers findings on the effect of Paid Family Leave to date, to inform what the possible effects of expanding the PFL program would be.
—June 2020 (PDF: 30 pages, 4.3 MB) - Linking the Environment and the Economy: An Economic Impact Analysis of California Climate Resilience Bond Investments
This analysis seeks to quantify the job creation benefits of a suite of climate resilience investments in California by analyzing the impact of existing spending proposals from the California legislature.
—May 2020 (PDF: 22 pages, 10.22.3) - The Economic Impacts of Transportation Investment: Forecasting the Benefits of Contra Costa County’s 2020 Transportation Expenditure Plan
This study analyzes the economic impacts of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority’s 2020 Transportation Expenditure Plan (TEP).
—February 2020 (PDF: 37 pages, 10.2 MB) - North Bay Fire Recovery: Building a More Resilient and Inclusive Economy
This report provides a foundation of knowledge in the Institute’s core study areas from which stakeholders in the North Bay can rely on and make informed decisions with in wake of the 2017 fires.
—February 2020 (PDF: 52 pages, 15.7 MB) - Singapore and the Bay Area: Leveraging Emerging Opportunities in Southeast Asia
This report assesses Singapore’s economic strategies, its environment for innovation, the Bay Area’s footprint in Singapore, Singapore’s footprint in the Bay Area, economic trends in Southeast Asia, and the trade and investment opportunities these developments represent.
—January 2020 (PDF: 52 pages, 2.1 MB) - Japan in the Bay Area: Collaboration and Transformation
This report examines the key points of alignment between the economies of the Bay Area and Japan and the scope for potential cooperation.
—December 2019 (PDF: 76 pages, 3 MB) - Reconsidering US-China Relations: The Way Forward
The current complex of issues in US-China economic relations falls into three major categories: trade, investment, and student and scientific exchanges. This brief analyzes each from the standpoint of current laws and policies, their impacts, and their possible resolution.
—December 2019 (PDF: 24 pages, 983 KB) - Long Overdue: Full Practice Authority for Nurse Practitioners
This report explores how allowing nurse practitioners full scope of practice can increase access, maintain quality care, and lower costs in the healthcare industry. It serves as an update to a 2014 Economic Institute report titled “Full Practice Authority for Nurse Practitioners Increases Access and Controls Cost.”
—December 2019 (PDF: 19 pages, 1.5 MB) - The Future is Fresno: Exploring the Valley to Valley Connection
These are the installments of a series of two-pager papers which analyze the connection of the Central Valley and Silicon Valley.
—October 2019 (PDF: 6 pages, 2.0 MB) - The Bay Area-Silicon Valley and India
India and the United States are poised at the threshold of a closer, more productive relationship than at any point in the recent past. India’s economy has advanced and is now the world’s sixth largest. New areas of partnership between India and the US—and particularly India and the Bay Area-Silicon Valley—are emerging as India’s economy is rapidly digitizing. The Bay Area is a major economic partner for India, and opportunities are growing.
—June 2019 (PDF: 110 pages, 19.3 MB) - City of Napa Economic Development Action Strategy
This document not only provides a snapshot in time of the city of Napa economy and its characteristics, but it also provides the foundation for implementing new
economic development strategies within the Economic Development Division.
—June 2019 (PDF: 33 pages, 3.2 MB) - The Economic Impact of Proposed Developments at Howard Terminal
This infographic highlights the Oakland Athletics’ planned development around a potential baseball stadium at Howard Terminal in Oakland. Through the creation of new jobs and the spending generated by them, the Howard Terminal projects can have a transformational effect on Oakland’s economy and provide it with a new hub for job creation.
—May 2019 (PDF: 3 pages, 369 KB) - Building An Inclusive Economy: The Bay Area Young Men of Color Employment Partnership
This report shares the learnings from the Bay Area Young Men of Color Employment Partnership (BAYEP) and provides recommendations for improving how the region’s business and civic leaders can create an inclusive economy through offering better supports and opportunities for young men of color and others systematically disadvantaged by our economic system.
—April 2019 (PDF: 32 pages, 2.3 MB) - Hemispheric Partners: Trade, Technology, and Innovation Ties Between the Bay Area and Canada
This report provides a snapshot of the Canadian economy and outlines the broad alignment of shared interests and values between Canada and the US, California, and the Bay Area.
—April 2019 (PDF: 68 pages, 2.2 MB) - City of Napa Economic Development Action Strategy
This report provides recommendations that will assist the City of Napa in supporting its economy. The recommendations can focus the City’s economic development efforts on certain sectors, provide different ways to attract and retain new businesses, and create a more diverse set of employment opportunities.
—April 2019 (PDF: 33 pages, 6.3 MB) - Bay Area Homelessness: A Regional View of a Regional Crisis
Until very recently, homelessness was considered the problem of individual cities and counties. For a metropolitan region like the Bay Area, which is divided into nine counties and 101 cities, this approach fails to meet the needs of an intraregionally mobile homeless population. In this report, a regional lens provides a new perspective on the homelessness crisis and offers new ways to address the problem.
—April 2019 (PDF: 41 pages, 2.3 MB) - The Bay Area Innovation System: Science and the Impact of Public Investment
This report examines the scientific roots of the Bay Area’s innovation system and the contribution of public investment to the research on which much of the region’s technological success has been built.
—March 2019 (PDF: 60 pages, 2.6 MB) - A Universal Health System for California: The German Model
This report lays out how the “Universal European Health System,” inspired by the Bismarck model, most clearly exemplified by Germany, could look like if implemented in California. While this report focuses specifically on the German system, several other countries use elements of the Bismarck model, including France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, and Switzerland.
—March 2019 (PDF: 10 pages, 1.8 MB) - Economic Impacts of Proposed Oakland Gondola
In the following analysis, we disaggregate the economic impacts that are likely to be derived from the gondola from those derived from the construction of a new stadium (i.e., we want to understand the impact of the gondola as a standalone project). Much like any other piece of fixed route transportation infrastructure, the gondola will have economic impacts on multiple levels.
—January 2019 (PDF: 5 pages, 1.3 MB) - Price Controls or Managed Competition? Lessons for California
This report examines the ongoing, mostly state-based efforts aimed at lowering health care prices: Maryland’s all payer system; Massachusetts’ health commission and its non-binding price targets; Colorado’s ballot initiatives aimed at greater price transparency, and direct contracting with providers by employers. It addresses the lessons California can learn from these experiences.
—October 2018 (PDF: 13 pages, 1.7 MB) - The Economic Impacts of Precision Medicine in California
This report examines what makes the nascent precision medicine industry unique, lays out a novel methodology for estimating the number of firms currently working in the space, and quantifies the economic impact on California’s economy in 2017.
—September 2018 (PDF: 35 pages, 2.2 MB) - Public-Private Partnerships in California: How Governments Can Innovate, Attract Investment, and Improve Infrastructure Performance
The role that public-private partnerships can play in addressing California’s infrastructure needs is the primary focus of this report.
—August 2018 (PDF: 60 pages, 3.8 MB) - Tri-Valley Rising 2018
This 2018 update to Tri-Valley Rising report first published in 2014 builds on the findings and information presented in the first report, while also exploring more policy options for local and regional stakeholders to better connect and strengthen the Tri-Valley’s economy as it continues to grow.
—July 2018 (PDF: 64 pages, 4 MB) - Continuing Growth and Unparalleled Innovation: Bay Area Economic Profile
This report, the tenth in a series of Bay Area Economic Profile reports produced since 1997 by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute and McKinsey & Company, examines the region’s economy over the last decade, as it has emerged from the Great Recession to enter a new period of immense growth and innovation.
—July 2018 (PDF: 44 pages, 5 MB) - Solving the Housing Affordability Crisis in Alameda County: How Policy Impacts the Number of Alameda County Households Burdened by Housing Costs
Housing affordability in Alameda County has reached a crisis point. With rents and home prices spiraling upward since the Great Recession, there has been no shortage of policy proposals envisioned to alleviate the county’s affordability problem. This analysis evaluates these proposals alongside each other using a consistent and comprehensive method to gauge their impact on affordability for individuals and families.
—May 2018 (PDF: 35 pages, 2.7 MB) - Workplace Connections: Gender Equity, Family-Friendly Policies, and Early Childhood Education
Employers who care about gender equity in the workplace need to understand the importance of two major areas in which they can provide work-family support: (1) family-friendly policies that increase flexibility and provide paid parental leave, and (2) providing affordable access to quality childcare and early childhood education.
—April 2018 (PDF: 36 pages, 1.6 MB) - Building a Climate-Smart Healthcare System for California
Climate change remains a serious threat to human health, and healthcare organizations in California, across the U.S., and globally can be catalysts in creating a climate-smart future.
—April 2018 (PDF: 28 pages, 3.2 MB) - Health Care Reform in the Balance: California and the Future of the Affordable Care Act
This report traces how California successfully built an Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace and what its options are in this period of retrenchment.
—March 2018 (PDF: 16 pages, 1 MB) - Fostering Economic Diversity and Innovation Through Industrial Lands
Preserving the strength of the regional economy—which derives much of its vitality from its diverse set of industry sectors and robust innovation ecosystem—requires land use policies that allow the conflict-free coexistence of industrial activities with other uses in populated areas.
—March 2018 (PDF: 10 pages, 1.7 MB) - Homesharing in San Francisco: A Review of Policy Changes and Their Impacts
This report highlights how pass-through registration works in practice and what the future of homesharing in San Francisco looks like in the wake of PTR. As an update to our November 2016 report, Limits on Homesharing, this report also analyzes the potential effects of additional restrictive short-term rental regulations on housing affordability.
—January 2018 (PDF: 9 pages, 850 KB) - Energy Storage: Meeting California’s Climate and Energy Goals Through a Balanced Low-Carbon Grid
This report focuses on the emerging need for grid-scale storage, which must be prioritized but faces significant regulatory and market barriers. It presents an overview of projected energy storage needs, available technologies, market challenges, and regulatory policy developments, and it offers recommendations for how to accelerate investment in and deployment of new storage capacity. Accelerated progress toward meeting that goal will be essential to achieving a more flexible, balanced, low-carbon 21st century grid in California.
—December 2017 (PDF: 30 pages, 1.6 MB) - Chinese Innovation: China’s Technology Future and What It Means for Silicon Valley
This report was developed to shed light on a topic that will increasingly impact the US and world economies in the years to come: Is China innovative? Many continue to believe that China is adept at copying foreign technologies, but is not yet a technology and innovation leader. We found that this is an outdated perspective and that the course taken by China’s technological capacity in the coming years will profoundly impact not only competition and market opportunities in China, but global competition as well.
—November 2017 (PDF: 60 pages, 1.8 MB) - Economic Development in the Bay Area: Scenarios for Creating a Regional Capacity
This document highlights the structure and governance of existing economic development capacities in other geographies to formulate potential structures of governance in the great Bay Area as the region grows.
—August 2017 (PDF: 14 pages, 1.8 MB) - Nordic Dreams: Innovation, Startups, and the Nordic Region’s Connection to Silicon Valley
This report discusses the entrepreneurial landscape of the five Nordic countries, and how and why the Nordic region has become a significant technology and innovation partner for the Bay Area and a leader in the two-way innovation process.
—August 2017 (PDF: 34 pages, 2.6 MB) - International Healthcare Systems and the US Health Reform Debate
The ongoing challenges within the US healthcare system include its high costs, uneven access, and tremendous complexity. When considering the desirability of reforms, whether they come from the right or the left, it makes sense to look at how other developed countries are tackling their own healthcare challenges.
—August 2017 (PDF: 12 pages, 970 KB) - Innovation Bridge: Technology, Startups, and Europe’s Connection to Silicon Valley
This report looks at the dynamic process that every year brings hundreds of European startup and early stage companies to the Bay Area, many of which stay and grow in the region.
—July 2017 (PDF: 60 pages, 3.7 MB) - Bay Area Balance: Preserving Open Space, Addressing Housing Affordability
This report provides a roadmap for those seeking to balance these goals. It makes the economic case for preserving open lands, identifies opportunities for responsible development, and presents policy recommendations that will support sustainable growth.
—July 2017 (PDF: 32 pages, 10.4 MB) - The Economic Impacts of a New Baseball Stadium in Oakland
This analysis estimates the economic impact of building a new baseball stadium in the City of Oakland.
—June 2017 (PDF: 13 pages, 13 MB) - A Pragmatic Approach to Medicaid Reform: Increasing Sustainability, Flexibility, and Value for Medical Spending
This paper advances several promising areas to improve the affordability and quality of the healthcare services provided by the program. This should be a fertile area for cooperation among groups that might have very different perspectives on high-level health policy concerns.
—April 2017 (PDF: 12 pages, 895 KB) - The Real Impact of Trade Agreements: How Trade Affects Jobs, Manufacturing, and Economic Competitiveness
Anxiety that trade agreements are destroying manufacturing and killing US jobs is misplaced. A look at the facts presented in this April 2017 Revised Edition report reveals a more complex story and points to a different conclusion.
—April 2017 Revised Edition (PDF: 32 pages, 2.7 MB) - Secondary Economic Impacts of a Reduced Bay Area Water Supply: An Analysis of the Draft Substitute Environmental Document of the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan Update
—March 2017 (PDF: 7 pages, 7.0 MB) - A Study of Affordable Care Act Competitiveness in California
The report examines the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in California and assesses the interplay among factors such as health care provider concentration, the choices that the state made in implementation, the underlying market dynamics, and the extent to which the structure of the federal law all contributed to creating these choices for consumers across the many diverse regions of the state.
—February 2017 (PDF: 18 pages, 4.5 MB) - Limits on Homesharing: Making Sense of the San Francisco Policy Proposal
As a follow-on to our recent report, Solving the Housing Crisis, this white paper analyzes the effects of the proposed 60-day short-term rental cap on San Francisco’s supply of housing and on the income generated by its residents through homesharing.
—November 2016 (PDF: 5 pages, 389 KB) - Solving the Housing Affordability Crisis in San Francisco: How Policies Change the Number of San Francisco Households Burdened by Housing Costs
Housing affordability in San Francisco has reached a crisis point. With rents and home prices spiraling upward since the Great Recession, there has been no shortage of policy proposals envisioned to alleviate the city’s affordability problem. This analysis is the first to evaluate these proposals alongside each other using a consistent and comprehensive method to gauge their impact on affordability for individuals and families.
—October 2016 (PDF: 30 pages, 4.8 MB) - The Economic Impacts of Infrastructure Investment: Forecasting the Effects of VTA’s Traffic Relief and Road Repair Measure
Santa Clara County is forecast to realize at least $15.4 billion in new business and economic activity from a 30-year transportation investment plan—Envision Silicon Valley—that calls for completing BART to San Jose, fixing local roads and highways, enhancing transit services for seniors and the disabled and making bicycle and pedestrian improvements. This report analyzes the economic impact of the Envision Silicon Valley plan.
—September 2016 (PDF: 24 pages, 3.5 MB) - Another Inconvenient Truth: To Achieve Climate Change Goals, California Must Remove Barriers to Sustainable Land Use
The Bay Area’s strong economy and weak housing growth have contributed to the region’s runaway housing costs, and home prices in the region are increasing faster than incomes. As a result, the state is failing to meet greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. This document examines the potential consequences if California fails to meet its climate goals by 2050.
—August 2016 (PDF: 19 pages, 4.83 MB) - Entrepreneurs, Startups, and Innovation at the University of California
This report examines a broad range of initiatives at the University of California’s ten campuses—plus UC Hastings Law School, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory—that are designed to support entrepreneurial development and startup formation, and through them stimulate economic activity in surrounding regions and communities.
—August 2016 (PDF: 64 pages, 3.1 MB) - Building Gender Equity in the Workplace: A Best Practices Resource Guide
Gender equity is the economic and moral imperative of our time, and the Bay Area Council is working to develop solutions, mobilize the business community, and work with our civic and political leaders to advance women’s leadership, eliminate barriers to women’s employment, and close the gender wage gap. This document is an information resource guide for companies looking for good places to begin and best practices to use in starting to address gender equity issues in their own workplaces.
—July 2016 (PDF: 32 pages, 13.4 MB) - The Northern California Megaregion: Innovative, Connected, and Growing examines the housing, land use, employment, and environmental challenges the Northern California Megaregion faces as its connectivity grows.
—June 2016 (PDF: 60 pages, 13.4 MB) - Mainstreaming Medi-Cal examines the extent to which the workforce relies on the Medi-Cal program, the access issues they experience as enrollees in the program, the potential impact of these issues on productivity, the “cost shift” that businesses experience as a result of public problam underpayment, and the extend to which Medi-Cal rates impact access within the broader system such as the recruitment of pediatric specialists to the state.
—June 2016 (PDF: 20 pages, 2.4 MB) - Promise and Perils of an Accelerated Economy is the ninth in a series of Bay Area Economic Profile reports produced since 1997 by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute and McKinsey & Company. The report examines the region’s economy as it has emerged from the Great Recession to enter a new period of growth and innovation. As previous reports have done, it benchmarks the Bay Area’s performance against other knowledge-based economies to assess the region’s national and global competitiveness. It also examines the economic and policy challenges that continue to confront the region even in a period of extraordinary growth.
—May 2016 (PDF: 40 pages, 2.4 MB) - Reinventing Manufacturing: How the Transformation of Manufacturing Is Creating New Opportunity for California explores how technology is revolutionizing manufacturing processes through innovations in 3D printing, robotics and big data (the Internet of Things)—often based on innovations that come from California. A range of factors, including rising labor costs in China, are leading some manufacturers to bring production home. California is in a good position to capture much of this growth, but needs policies that support and incentivize investment.
—April 2016 (PDF: 114 pages, 9.5 MB) - Investing with Purpose: Unlocking the Economic Potential of Impact Investments dissects the concept of impact investing and its potential social effects, and concludes with a set of recommendations for structural adjustments and policy changes that can continue momentum in the impact investing field.
—February 2016 (PDF: 42 pages, 6.2 MB) - The Case for a Second Transbay Transit Crossing examines the economic drag associated with current transbay transportation systems. This issue brief identifies the benefits of addressing transbay transportation constraints and describes how leveraging creative contracting and funding models could deliver a second transbay transit crossing in a timely manner.
—February 2016 (PDF: 26 pages, 10 MB) - A Roadmap for Economic Resilience: The Bay Area Regional Economic Strategy offers concrete actions for growing regional prosperity and a flexible framework for developing actions going forward. The Roadmap’s proposals are evergreen agents of economic resilience, strategies wise in both expansion and downturn, necessary to accelerate the former and dampen the latter. It is a recipe for a robust and enduring regional economy.
—November 2015 (PDF: 52 pages, 3.9 MB) - 21st Century Infrastructure: Keeping California Connected, Powered, and Competitive focuses on the transformative potential of state-of-the-art investment in California infrastructure in two key fields: communications and energy. The report examines how improvements in these sectors can support the state’s economic competitiveness and offers policy recommendations for how to facilitate stronger infrastructure investment.
—April 2015 (PDF: 48 pages, 3.5 MB) - Surviving the Storm examines the potential economic impact of an extreme storm event in the Bay Area. California’s climate is famously volatile, with winters of devastating floods separated by years of drought. In the wake of recent extreme storm events on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, this report asks whether a similar event could happen here, what parts of the Bay Area would be hardest hit, what the economic costs would be, and what can be done to improve the region’s defenses.
—March 2015 (PDF: 104 pages, 17.8 MB)
—Information and developments on potential strategies can be tracked at OurBayontheBrink.org. - A Comparative Analysis of the Public and Private Cost of Capital and Market Trends for Public Infrastructure Delivery: When Taxable Infrastructure Financing Beats Tax-Exempt discusses key considerations when evaluating the differential cost of using tax-exempt vs. taxable financing when developing public infrastructure projects.
—March 2015 (PDF: 10 pages, 194 KB) - Reforming California Public Higher Education for the 21st Century
This Bay Area Council Economic Institute White Paper assesses the changing environment for public higher education in California, and the changes required in the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges systems to ensure that the state will continue to generate a globally competitive workforce.
—December 2014 (PDF: 36 pages, 3.5 MB) - Innovation Drivers: High-Value Collaborative Ties Between Japan and the San Francisco Bay Area continues the Institute’s series of reports on the region’s business and economic links with major global partners.
—November 2014 (PDF: 4 pages, 857 KB) - Tri-Valley Rising: Its Vital Role in the Bay Area Economy looks at the economy of the East Bay’s Tri-Valley region, its connections to the greater Bay Area, and the significance of transportation issues for its future development.
—October 2014 (PDF: 55 pages, 1.6 MB) - Trade in the Bay Area: Investment and Global Financial Flows, a report commissioned by HSBC in 2014, looks at international trade activity in the Bay Area, with a particular focus on technology, China, and the internationalization of China’s currency.
—September 2014 (PDF: 20 pages, 1.5 MB) - In the Fast Lane: Improving Reliability, Stabilizing Local Funding, and Enabling the Transportation Systems of the Future in Alameda County analyzes Alameda County’s transportation system and its role in regional mobility, with a particular focus on the County’s Transportation Expenditure Plan.
—July 2014 (PDF: 76 pages, 14.8 MB) - UC Berkeley: Stimulating Entrepreneurship in the Bay Area and Nationwide documents the economic contributions of companies founded by UC Berkeley students, alumni and faculty.
—May 2014 (PDF: 64 pages, 3.2 MB) - Full Practice Authority for Nurse Practitioners Increases Access and Controls Cost
Fully utilizing the role of nurse practitioners is one of the most effective steps that states can take to increase the supply of primary care providers.
—September 2014: Report (PDF: 45 pages, 1.9 MB)
—April 2014: Spotlight California (PDF: 2 pages, 683 KB)
—August 2014: Spotlight Kentucky (PDF: 2 pages, 753 KB)
—June 2014: Spotlight Minnesota (PDF: 2 pages, 417 KB)
—August 2014: Spotlight New Jersey (PDF: 2 pages, 312 KB) - Europe and the Bay Area: Investing in Each Other assesses the economic links between the Silicon Valley/San Francisco Bay Area and Europe, concentrating on technology, innovation and entrepreneurial activity.
—April 2014 (PDF: 62 pages, 6.2 MB) - An Assessment of Public-Private Partnership Opportunities for the Proposed Extension of the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center to the Mission Bay Area of San Francisco evaluates the feasibility of moving the research and clinical activities of the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (currently located at Fort Miley in northwest San Francisco) to new facilities at Mission Bay developed through a public-private partnership.
—March 2014 (PDF: 52 pages, 4.3 MB) - Ties That Bind, 2014 Edition: The San Francisco Bay Area’s Economic Links to Greater China
In this new edition of Ties That Bind, the Economic Institute once again highlights for businesses and policymakers the key market dynamics, deals, firms and innovators that form the close and lasting economic bond between the San Francisco Bay Area and China.
—January 2014: Full Report (PDF: 148 pages, 9.6 MB)
—January 2014: Executive Summary Only (PDF: 8 pages, 141 KB) - The Economic Impact of the 34th America’s Cup in San Francisco
This report was prepared by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute for the San Francisco America’s Cup Organizing Committee.
—December 2013 (PDF: 44 pages, 1.2 MB) - The Economic Impact of San Francisco Hotels
The hotel industry’s vital contribution to San Francisco’s diverse economy is documented in this impact analysis report prepared by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute for the Hotel Council of San Francisco.
—October 2013 (PDF: 20 pages, 1.4 MB) - The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory-University of California, Berkeley Richmond Bay Campus: Options and Considerations Regarding Its Development Utilizing Public Private Partnerships
The purpose of this introductory scoping memo is to analyze at a high level the potential for private capital to help fund the development of the planned Richmond Bay shared campus of the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
—May 2013 (PDF: 15 pages, 280 KB) - Public-Private Partnership Opportunities for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District is a study prepared for BART on the potential for using public-private partnerships for system build-out and improvements.
—March 2013 (PDF: 58 pages, 1.8 MB) - International Trade and the Bay Area Economy: Regional Interests and Global Outlook 2012–2013
Fifth in a series that began in 2003, this semi-annual report documents the importance of international trade to the Bay Area economy and assesses global economic conditions, pending international trade agreements, and the trade outlook for specific economic sectors of interest to the region.
—March 2013 (PDF: 60 pages, 1.5 MB) - Technology Works: High-Tech Employment and Wages in the United States details the geography, growth patterns, and importance of high-tech jobs in the United States.
—December 2012 (PDF: 40 pages, 2.4 MB) - The Bay Area: A Regional Economic Assessment evaluates the state of the regional economy and what is supporting or inhibiting growth and job creation.
—October 2012: Full Report (PDF: 76 pages, 2 MB)
—December 2012: Appendices (PDF: 96 pages, 3.5 MB) - Labor Supply and Commute Patterns in San Mateo County is a study prepared for the Economic Vitality Research and Education Foundation (EVRE) and the San Mateo County Economic Development Association (SAMCEDA). The report provides an overview of commute patterns into and out of San Mateo County, with specific attention paid to sources and destinations of the county’s employees and residents and the demographics of the commuters.
—November 2012 (PDF: 22 pages, 817 KB) - Shaping the Cities of Tomorrow presents the findings of the Global Green Cities of the 21st Century International Symposium, organized by the Economic Institute in 2011, where global urban leaders addressed design, technology and other issues relating to green growth and sustainable urbanization.
—September 2012 (PDF: 36 pages, 1.8 MB) - The Bay Area Innovation System
How the San Francisco Bay Area Became the World’s Leading Innovation Hub and What Will Be Necessary to Secure Its Future
—June 2012 (PDF: 108 pages, 5.0 MB) - The Economic Impact of Caltrain Modernization
This report addresses the short-term and the long-term economic implications of the Caltrain Modernization Program advanced signal system and electrification projects.
—June 2012 (PDF: 39 pages, 578 KB) - The Economic Impact of the Affordable Care Act on California
The comprehensive analysis in this report generates an estimate of the economic impact of the ACA, weighing factors that will generate jobs and enhance growth against those that will have a contradictory impact.
—May 2012: Full Report (PDF: 38 pages, 942 KB)
—May 2012: Technical Appendix (PDF: 16 pages, 77 KB) - The Culture of Innovation: What Makes San Francisco Bay Area Companies Different?
The claim has long been made that companies based in the Bay Area owe their leadership in innovation to something different in how they go about the innovation process. For this report, the Economic Institute partnered with Booz & Company to use in depth survey data for an empirical assessment of the “culture of innovation” that characterizes the most innovative companies in the Bay Area.
—March 2012 (PDF: 36 pages, 1.6 MB) - Innovation and Investment: Building Tomorrow’s Economy in the Bay Area
This report, the eighth in a series of biennial Bay Area Economic Profile reports produced by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute in partnership with McKinsey & Company, examines the evolution of the Bay Area’s economy in the wake of the Great Recession that severely impacted the region from 2008 to 2010 and continues to be felt by many of our citizens and businesses.
—March 2012 (PDF: 68 pages, 3.4 MB) - Accelerating Job Creation in California Through Infrastructure Investment: Opportunities for Infrastructure Asset Formation and Job Creation Using Public-Private Partnership Procurement Methods
A Bay Area Council Economic Institute White Paper produced in order to catalyze a stronger focus on the opportunities for job creation in California through infrastructure investment, and through public-private partnerships in particular.
—January 2012 (PDF: 21 pages, 746 KB) - Benchmarking the Bay Area’s Environment for Entrepreneur-Led Start-ups
This report was developed by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute based on a survey by Monitor Group, a leading global business consultancy, in order to assess the quality of the environment in the San Francisco Bay Area for entrepreneur-led start-ups.
—October 2011 (PDF: 62 pages, 7 MB) - Roadmap to a High-Value Health System: Addressing Califoria’s Healthcare Affordability Crisis
This “roadmap” outlines a series of concrete strategies for leveraging California’s power as an innovator to control rising healthcare costs for businesses and individuals. The report lays out the specific actions by healthcare providers, insurers, businesses, governments, and individuals that will improve affordability and access to high quality care in California.
—October 2011 (PDF: 44 pages, 1.2 MB) - Options for Financing the Restoration of San Francisco Bay Wetlands
This analysis summarizes recent reports on wetlands restoration and finance in the San Francisco Bay Area, identifies options for financing wetlands restoration, and assesses which options appear most feasible.
—July 2011: Full Report (PDF: 116 pages, 5.5 MB)
—July 2011: Extract of Executive Summary Only (PDF: 14 pages, 144 KB) - Employment in the Bay Area’s Emerging Clean Economy
A brief by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute presenting Bay Area data from the Brookings Institution study entitled Sizing the Clean Economy
—July 2011 (PDF: 20 pages, 949 KB) - World Expo 2020, Silicon Valley – USA: Economic Impacts
—February 2011 (PDF: 44 pages, 1.2 MB) - International Trade and the Bay Area Economy: Regional Interests and Global Outlook 2010–2011
—December 2010 (PDF: 68 pages, 2.1 MB) - Global Competitiveness, China and California’s Emerging Clean Energy Economy
This white paper presents California’s climate and energy policies in a global setting, asking whether there is a clear linkage between policy and the development of energy efficiency and renewable energy industries.
—December 2010 (PDF: 52 pages, 1.2 MB) - Framework Conditions for Foreign and Domestic Private Investment in California’s Infrastructure: Seizing the P3 Opportunity looks at the conditions in the state that will either hinder or enable its ability to attract private finance and management to help build California’s infrastructure.
—September 2010 (PDF: 44 pages, 1 MB) - The America’s Cup: Economic Impacts of a Match on San Francisco Bay
A collaboration between the Bay Area Council Economic Institute and Beacon Economics, this report endeavors to provide estimates of the economic benefits of bringing an America’s Cup match to the Bay Area.
—July 2010 (PDF: 62 pages, 5.6 MB) - Public-Private Partnerships: Alternative Procurement Methods for Campus Development in the University of California System offers a model for how UC can accelerate campus development through the creative use of private finance and management.
—June 2010 (PDF: 25 pages, 1.3 MB) - Recession and Recovery: An Economic Reset
This report is the seventh in the series of biennial Bay Area Economic Profile reports that benchmark the region’s economic performance against other cities and regions, in the U.S. and globally, with which we compare and sometimes compete. This document continues the practice of recent reports by analyzing the structural forces at work in the economy that will make it more or less competitive. As the Bay Area emerges from a damaging recession, our ability as a region and a state to understand and address these trends is urgent.
—April 2010 (PDF: 76 pages, 1.7 MB) - Global Reach: Emerging Ties Between the San Francisco Bay Area and India
Based on more than two years of research and nearly 200 interviews in both the Bay Area and India, this report documents the historical, cultural, educational, trade and investment links between the two economies and makes a convincing case for the distinctiveness of the Bay Area-India connection and the wide range of business and other opportunities that it presents.
—November 2009: Full Report (PDF: 300 pages, 5.2 MB)
—November 2009: Extract of Executive Summary Only (PDF: 14 pages, 245 KB)
—Printed copies of the report book are available on request for a suggested donation of $15. Please email your request and contact information, including phone number, to bacei@bayareacouncil.org - Managing Recession: Strategic Responses to the Economic Downturn
In response to one of the world’s most challenging economic cycles, the Economic Institute and Booz & Company have partnered to understand more deeply how Bay Area businesses are managing through the recession. Through interviews with leading Bay Area executives across a range of industries, including both large established companies and newer entrepreneurial start-ups, we identify how the recession has manifested itself regionally, emerging trends in defensive and offensive business strategies, and public policy priorities that could mitigate the recession’s impact and support future growth and competitiveness.
—July 2009: Full Report (PDF: 52 pages, 1.2 MB)
—April 23, 2009 Summary Presentation at the Bay Area Council Outlook Conference 2009 (PDF: 14 pages, 1 MB) - California High-Speed Rail: Economic Benefits and Impacts in the San Francisco Bay Area
The proposed California high-speed rail project has been designed to provide fast, efficient transportation between California’s major urban centers, linking Los Angeles and San Francisco through the rapidly-growing Central Valley.
—October 2008 (PDF: 44 pages, 2.3 MB) - The Innovation Driven Economic Development Model: A Practical Guide for the Regional Innovation Broker
Prepared as part of a collaboration in which the Economic Institute and BASIC are participants, this report describes an innovation-driven economic development model based on the new realities of globalization and the changing nature of the innovation process.
—September 2008: Full Report (PDF: 64 pages, 1.9 MB)
—September 2008: Executive Summary (PDF: 17 pages, 498 KB) - Human Capital in the Bay Area: Why an Educated, Flexible Workforce Is Vital to Our Economic Future
Human capital, commonly understood as the collective level of education, skill and experience of a region’s labor force, is one of the most fundamental building blocks of high-value-added economies. This report analyzes indicators of human capital in the Bay Area, and identifies what is distinctive about the Bay Area’s workforce.
—February 2008 (PDF: 68 pages, 730 KB) - Toward a California Trade and Investment Strategy: Potential Roles for the State in Global Market Development
Prepared at the request of the California Department of Business, Housing and Transportation, this study provides the foundation for a new California international trade and investment strategy delivered to the Legislature in 2008.
—October 2007 (PDF: 100 pages, 906 KB) - Innovative Energy Solutions from the San Francisco Bay Area: Fueling A Clean Energy Future
The second in the BASIC Science Futures series, this comprehensive first-of-its-kind report on major alternative energy technologies highlights the region’s leadership in contributing to California’s and the nation’s agenda for achieving energy independence and addressing global warming.
—July 2007 (PDF: 92 pages, 986 KB) - BASIC Innovators Series, Number 2
This second issue in the BASIC Innovators interview series features Nobel Prize winner and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Director Steven Chu, one of the most prominent and vocal of all the scientific figures to address the energy crisis.
—Summer 2007 (PDF: 6 pages, 2.4 MB) - San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Measures to Reduce the Economic Impacts of a Drought-Induced Water Shortage in the SF Bay Area
Prepared by the Bay Area Economic Forum and Public Financial Management (PFM) for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (BAWSCA), this report analyzes the potential economic costs of drought-induced water cutbacks in the Hetch Hetchy system and options for how to mitigate them.
—May 2007 (PDF: 53 pages, 477 KB) - Bay Area Innovation Network Roundtable: Identifying Emerging Patterns of the Next Wave of Innovation
A report from BASIC on a day-long roundtable symposium convening seminal thinkers representing a broad spectrum of public and private research and development institutes and enterprises to focus on identirying a new and emerging patterns and key drivers for the next wave of innovation.
—April 2007 (PDF: 28 pages, 1 MB) - Shared Values, Shared Vision: California’s Economic Ties with Canada
California and Canada maintain broad, deep and longstanding commercial ties that grow out of some remarkable similarities. This report discusses the characteristics that have generated considerable cross-border economic activity and have enabled both countries to leverage important comparative advantages.
—March 2007 (PDF: 52 pages, 377 KB) - Ties That Bind: The San Francisco Bay Area’s Economic Links to Greater China
An examination of The San Francisco Bay Area’s business, economic, educational, historical, and cultural ties to China, documenting the depth and breadth of the region’s engagement with China and the business and other channels that have made the Bay Area the nation’s leading portal for U.S.-China exchange.
—November 2006 (PDF: 168 pages, 2.5 MB) - BASIC Innovators Series, Number 1
Produced by the Bay Area Science and Innovation Consortium (BASIC), this first issue in the Innovators interview series features Dr. Regis B. Kelly, Executive Director of the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3), and Dr. Robert J. T. Morris, Vice President, Assets Innovation, IBM Global Services.
—October 2006 (PDF: 8 pages, 746 KB) - The Innovation Edge: Meeting the Global Competitive Challenge
A series of essays by nationally recognized thought leaders on business, technology and the global economy, addressing the challenges posed by global competition to U.S. leadership in science and technology, and ultimately to the U.S. economy.
—September 2006 (PDF: 66 pages, 1 MB) - Investing in California’s Infrastructure: How to Ensure Value for Money and Protect California’s Competitive Position in the National and Global Economy
—June 2006 (PDF: 76 pages, 997 KB) - Employer Mandates and the Health Care Crisis: Economic Impacts in California and the Bay Area
Study Finds Government Mandates Do Not Achieve Goal of Universal Health Care and Will Likely Cost Low Wage Earners Jobs
—January 2006 (PDF: 18 pages, 224 KB) - International Trade and the Bay Area Economy: Regional Interests and Global Outlook 2005–2006
—July 2005 (82 pages, 1.7 MB) - Visas for Higher Education and Scientific Exchanges: Balancing Security and Economic Competitiveness
A discussion about the impact on economic competitiveness of visas and immigration policies implemented since 9/11, particularly as they impact graduate students and scientists coming to this country from overseas.
—April 2005 (PDF: 18 pages, 369 KB) - One Million Jobs at Risk
The Future of Manufacturing in California
—March 2005 (PDF: 30 pages, 352 KB) - Economic Impacts of Competitive Air Service at San Francisco International Airport
Growing air traffic at SFO is a positive sign for the recovery of the Bay Area economy.
—November 2004 (PDF: 8 pages 448 KB) - The Future of Bay Area Jobs: The Impact of Offshoring and Other Key Trends
Study Finds Offshoring Less Important Than Other Factors to Job Creation and Destruction in the Bay Area
—July 2004 (PDF: 44 pages, 601 KB) - California Budget and Tax Reform Initiative Statement of Principles:
the first significant statewide analysis to identify the most critical components of California government reform.
—February 2004 (PDF: 10 pages, 57 KB) - Supercenters and the Transformation of the Bay Area Grocery Industry: Issues, Trends, and Impacts
This report on supercenters (large discount stores that include full-scale groceries) analyzes the regional impacts of these facilities, and the factors that local governments and commuities whould take into account when considering their siting.
—January 2004 (PDF: 108 pages, 859 KB) - Nanotechnology in the San Francisco Bay Area: Dawn of a New Age
First in the BASIC Science Futures series of reports highlighting the local achievements and prospects in newly evolving areas of scientific research that have the potential to stimulate new waves of scientific and commercial success in the Bay Area.
—January 2004 (PDF: 40 pages, 929 KB) - Meeting the Challenge of Homeland Security, 2nd Edition
—October 2003 (PDF: 146 pages, 736 KB)
The first edition of this report, covering Highlights of the Bay Area’s Research and Development Capabilities Related to the Critical Mission Areas of the Department of Homeland Security, was issued in November 2002: (PDF: 51 pages, 487 KB) - Hetch Hetchy Water and the Bay Area Economy
—October 2002 (PDF: 60 pages, 2.3 MB) - Air Transport and the Bay Area Economy — Crisis in Air Travel: Weathering the Downturn
—January 2002 (PDF: 23 pages, 249 KB) - International Trade and the Bay Area: Air Cargo, Technology and the Economy of Silicon Valley
—September 2001 (PDF: 4 pages, 52 KB) - Air Transport and the Bay Area Economy—Phase Two
—November 2000 (PDF: 52 pages, 653 KB) - Air Transport and the Bay Area Economy—Phase One
—January 2000 (PDF: 57 pages, 596 KB)