Social Compact Press

Study Shows Miami's Inner-City Potential
Miami Herald, November 5, 2006

Nontraditional Market Analyses: Dismantling Barriers to Retail Development in Underserved Neighborhoods
ICSC Research Review, Vol.13, No.3, 2006

By the Numbers: Data and Measurement in Community Economic Development
Speech given by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at the Greenlining Institute's Thirteenth Annual Economic Development Summit, April 20, 2006

Urban Regeneration: Lessons from America
Lending Strategy, April 13, 2006

". . . These are among the striking findings of Social Compact, an unconventional market research organization that has developed new methods of evaluating the earning and spending power of inner-city communities. Social Compact's non-traditional, "drill-down" market analysis avoids standard market research tools such as phone surveys and interviews and door-to-door contacts. The organizations analyses are predicated on the belief that these methods undercount those people whose phones are unlisted or who rely on cell phones along with those who distrust intrustive questions from strangers and those encumbered by language barriers. "

Measuring Spending Power in Low-Income Communities
Community Developments, Summer 2001

" ... The group known as Social Compact, pulled together Washington's official data on the economic health of Chicago neighborhoods. Then it coaxed growth and revenue numbers out of private-sector companies that actually operated businesses in the same area. Two very different pictures emerged. The federal government's 'social case' proved to be the private sector's 'opportunity.'

" ... Social Compact's findings illustrate a reality economists have been describing for years: the 'poor' aren't always as incapable as Washington portrays them to be.

" ... The message here is that it's high time we all looked beyond the poverty propaganda machine to see what's actually going on everyday in the economic life of the cities."

Up From Poverty
Review & Outlook, The Wall Street Journal, December 28, 1998