About

Mission

Since 1978, the Center for Urban Economic Development (CUED) has conducted research on
a broad range of issues shaping the trajectories of local and regional economies. CUED's
mission is to improve development outcomes and expand economic opportunity, and we
strive to achieve our mission in three principal ways. First, CUED conducts original
research on employment, economic restructuring, community development, and public
policy. Second, CUED works in partnership with community-based organizations, labor
unions, advocacy coalitions, state and local governments, and policy think tanks to devise
development strategies. Such strategies require research on job access, job quality, business
strategies and outcomes, the role of public policy, and the impacts of development on
neighborhoods. Third, through specially constructed models of technical assistance to project
partners, CUED enters into long-term relationships with organizations to conduct strategic
research, to evaluate community and workforce development programs and strategies, and
to translate lessons from practice into public policy.

Research Priorities

Industry analysis: research on industrial change in key sectors, and how these shifts impact urban economies and labor markets

Workforce systems: analysis and evaluation of programs and strategies to improve labor market outcomes

Urban economic change: research on a broad range of issues that shape the trajectories of local and regional economic prosperity

Established in 1978, CUED is a unit of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago.