The Global MetroMonitor was published at the Global Metro Summit in Chicago, 2010. It was prepared by the Metropolitan Policy Program at The Brookings Institution, LSE Cities and Deutsche Bank Research, with kind support by the Alfred Herrhausen Society.
The global financial crisis of the late 2000s precipitated an economic downturn of such magnitude and reach that many now refer to the period as the “Great Recession.” According to the International Monetary Fund, global economic output, which had grown at an annual rate of 3.2% from 1993 to 2007, actually shrank by 2% from 2008 to 2009. Aggregate views of the global economy, however, mask the distinct experiences of its real hubs—major metropolitan areas.
Metro areas, which are economically integrated collections of cities, suburbs, and often surrounding rural areas, are centers of high-value economic activity in their respective nations and worldwide. And because metros form the fundamental bases for national and international economies, understanding their relative positioning before, during, and after the Great Recession provides important evidence on emerging shifts in the location of global economic resilience and future growth.
The Global MetroMonitor examines data on economic output and employment in 150 of the world’s largest metropolitan economies, located in 53 countries, from 1993 to 2010.