Research Publications

The BRA's Research Division provided data and analysis for the Mayor's Office of New Bostonians (MONB) first New Bostonians Summit held on March 31, 2010. This presentation given by Alvaro Lima, Director of Research, at the Summit, highlights and discusses the importance of education and language skills to the labor market, both current and for the future, and its accompanying economic impact.

The BRA's Research Division provided data and analysis for the Mayor's Office of New Bostonians (MONB) first New Bostonians Summit held on March 31, 2010. The Labor Market Trends is a Summit briefing book that looks at Metro Boston's current labor market and workforce, highlighting the importance of education and language skills both currently and in the future.

The BRA's Research Division provided data and analysis for the Mayor's Office of New Bostonians (MONB) first New Bostonians Summit held on March 31, 2010. The English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Programs in Boston is a Summit briefing book focusing on ESOL students in Boston and how well they are performing in Massachusetts Department of Education (DOE) funded language-learning courses.

The BRA's Research Division provided data and analysis for the Mayor's Office of New Bostonians (MONB) first New Bostonians Summit held on March 31, 2010. The Education and the Foreign-Born in Boston is a Summit briefing book about the differences in the educational attainment between Boston's native-born and foreign-born population.

The BRA's Research Division provided data and analysis for the Mayor's Office of New Bostonians (MONB) first New Bostonians Summit held on March 31, 2010. The Demographic Profile of the Foreign-Born in Boston is a Summit briefing book about the demographic characteristics of Boston's foreign-born population over time.

This study estimates the near-term economic impacts and longer-term sustainability benefits of Boston’s ARRA investments.In short, this study projects significant economic impact in such things as job creation, Gross Regional Product, and tax generation, as well as longer-term sustainability benefits such as energy cost saving and water preservation. In addition, the study shows that when considering financial and sustainability efforts together, local benefits are expected to exceed costs by at least a four-to-one ratio, demonstrating a strong return on investment to the City of Boston.

Boston leads the nation for the 14th straight year in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant awards. In 2008 the full range of public, private, and non-profit agencies, firms and institutions located within the city received more than $1.6 billion in NIH awards. In conjunction with the BRA's LifeTech initiative, this Research Division publication reports again on the robust health of award funding to Boston's world-renowned hospitals, universities, and research institutions.

An article written by Alvaro Lima, the BRA's Director of Research titled, "Transnationalism: What it Means to Local Communities," is featured in the Winter 2010, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Communities & Banking. Much has been written about transnational immigrants -people who move to a new country but keep strong economic, social, and political connections with their countries of origin. Not enough has been understood, however, about transnationals' contribution to their local communities.

This article published in REMHU - Revista Interdisciplinar da Mobilidade Humana, by Mark Melnik, the BRA's Deputy Director for Research and Alvaro Lima, the Director of Research, and others, features a case study of selected immigrant organizations from Greater Boston's largest Latino immigrant communities. Conducting interviews with leaders from these organizations, the research finds connections and alliances crucial for social integration and transnationalism.

New Bostonians 2009 is an update to the New Bostonians 2005, a demographic and economic snapshot of Boston's foreign-born population, prepared for the Mayor's Office of New Bostonians by the BRA Research Division. This recent update contains new data and calculations using the most recent American Community Survey, a yearly survey by the U.S. Census Bureau to allow communities to see how they are changing in the years between decennial censuses.