LAANE Research

Research forms an integral part of LAANE’s work. Our in-house research capacity enables us to develop legislative proposals and offer critical analysis of both government policies and business practices that impact our region’s economy, workforce and environment. Often partnering with community stakeholders and leading academics, LAANE couples rigorous research with innovative policy that addresses the critical challenges facing our region and nation.

Economic Development

Transforming the Gateway to L.A.: The Economic Benefits of a Sustainable Tourism Model (2009)

In this report, LAANE examines the impact of two major achievements on Century Corridor: (1) the Living Wage Ordinance, which went into effect in July 2008; and (2) the successful negotiation of collective bargaining agreements at four of the 12 Century Corridor hotels. A coalition of community members, workers, and clergy leaders joined together to transform thousands of low wage hotel jobs into good, quality jobs.  With the support of the Mayor and City Council, their efforts have resulted in a Living Wage Ordinance and four union contracts. Read More »

Building Opportunity: Investing in Our Future Through a Port Construction Careers Policy (2009)

This report quantifies planned investment in the Port of Los Angeles over the next ten years and recommends the adoption of a Port of Los Angeles Construction Careers and Green Jobs Policy. This policy will ensure that the anticipated massive public investment in the Port creates good jobs and expands opportunity for local residents, especially those residing near the Port of L.A. Read More »

A Tale of Two Cities: How Long Beach's Investment in Downtown Tourism Has Contributed to Poverty Next Door (2009)

This report finds that the City of Long Beach has invested an estimated $750 million in tourism development since the early 1980s in order to reinvent its downtown as a destination for vacationers and convention attendees. But the hotels that have benefited from that investment have produced low-wage hotel jobs, which contribute to high levels of poverty in the city. Read More »

Feeding Our Communities: A Call for Standards for Food Access and Job Quality in Los Angeles’ Grocery Industry (2008)

This report urges Los Angeles city leaders to take charge in remedying a growing divide in how the grocery industry treats underserved and affluent communities. The report was authored by a Blue Ribbon Commission, convened by the Alliance for Healthy and Responsible Grocery Stores, and draws from public testimony taken at a hearing where community residents, industry experts, academics, workers and clergy described a looming grocery crisis in Los Angeles. Read More »

Foreclosure on Wheels: Long Beach’s Truck Program Puts Drivers at High Risk for Default (2008)

Long Beach officials have set up a risky financing scheme that puts at risk the low-income port truck drivers who will rely on the program to purchase new, cleaner vehicles. The plan – developed in partnership with Daimler Truck Finance – will fail to create a sustainable pathway to clean air and will further impoverish port truckers and their families. The report was co-authored by the Consumer Federation of California, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Read More »

The Road to Shared Prosperity: The Regional Economic Benefits of the San Pedro Bay Ports’ Clean Trucks Program (2007)

This report, published in anticipation of a vote by the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on a landmark emissions-reduction program to overhaul the region's port trucking system to meet new clean air requirements, estimated that the program would generate $4.2 billion in benefits to the harbor-region economy over five years. Read More »

Wal-Mart and Beyond: The Battle for Good Jobs and Strong Communities in Urban America (2007)

This report describes the major strategies employed by communities around the country to resist Wal-Mart’s expansion into their regions, and offers a series of recommendations for countering the world’s largest retailer. Read More »

Community Benefits Agreements: Making Development Projects Accountable (2005)

Community Benefit Agreements – deals between developers and coalitions of community organizations, addressing a broad range of community needs – are at the heart of a new movement to ensure that affected residents share the benefit of major development. This publication is intended to help community groups learn how CBAs work, and to explain many of the different kinds of benefits for which communities groups can negotiate. Read More »

Taking Care of Business: An Evaluation of the Los Angeles Business Team (2000)

This report evaluated the work of the Los Angeles Business Team during the administration of Mayor Richard Riordan, and recommended ways to make its operation more strategic and effective. Read More »

Who Benefits From Redevelopment in Los Angeles?: An Evaluation of Commercial Development Activities in the 1990s (1999)

This report evaluates the commercial development activities of the City of Los Angeles’ Community Redevelopment Agency. The report finds that the CRA generated a substantial amount of economic development in the 1990s, but that the return on investment—in the form of tax dollars and quality jobs—was decidedly mixed. Read More »

Work, Wages and Job Quality

Los Angeles on the Edge, Part One:  An Analysis of Health and Income Data from the U.S. Census Bureau (2009)

This LAANE report, the first in a two-part series analyzing U.S. Census data in the first year of a national recession,  reveals that Los Angeles County has the lowest levels of healthcare insurance coverage in the United States, with 22% of all residents—or 2.2 million people—lacking health insurance. Read More »


Los Angeles On the Edge, Part Two: An Analysis of Poverty Data from the U.S. Census (2009)

The second in a series of LAANE reports analyzing U.S. Census data reveals that Los Angeles residents have little to fall back on and that one in five children in Los Angeles County—and one out of every four in the city of Los Angeles—live in poverty. Read More »

Health Care for Airport Workers: Protecting Our Security and Safeguarding Our Children's Future (2009)

This report, published prior to passage of a health care amendment to the L.A. Living Wage Ordinance, found that more than 5,000 LAX workers and their family members are uninsured or rely on public assistance. The report recommended that the Los Angeles City Council amend the city’s living wage law to better reflect the rising cost of health care coverage. Read More »

Lost Wages, Soaring Revenue: An Analysis of the Impact of the Failure of Hotels to Implement the Century Corridor Living Wage (2008)

This white paper quantified the cost to employees of delay tactics by LAX-area hotels who refused to comply with a 2006 living wage law and instead gathered signatures for a referendum and filed a lawsuit against the city. The report also looked at the growth of hotel revenues during the period in which the hotels refused to provide their workers with the living wage. Read More »

Poverty, Jobs and the Los Angeles Economy (2008): An Analysis of U.S. Census Data and the Challenges Facing Our Region

Despite a small decline in poverty in 2007, L.A.’s economy was still failing to provide for the economic well-being of millions of residents. The report also includes a Prosperity Agenda outlining key steps that local government and business can take to create good jobs and thriving communities. Read More »

Poverty, Jobs and the Los Angeles Economy (2007): An Analysis of U.S. Census Data and the Challenges Facing Our Region

This report finds that despite small gains in income in 2006, L.A.'s economy was still failing to provide adequately for millions of residents. Read More »

Century Corridor: Turning the Gateway to Los Angeles Into a Gateway to Prosperity (2006)

This white paper, published before the launch of a successful effort to improve conditions at Century Boulevard hotels, found that these businesses had some of the highest occupancy rates in the county but were failing to provide living wages to their workforce, leading to high rates of poverty in nearby communities. The report helped make the case for a living wage law for hotel employees working near LAX. Read More »

City at a Crossroads: Poverty, Jobs and the Future of Los Angeles (2006)

This brief outlines the severe challenges facing the Los Angeles region, and suggests how local policymakers can make a difference. Read More »

Examining the Evidence: The Impact of the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance on Workers and Businesses (2005)

Written in collaboration with University of California economists, this study of the Los Angeles Living Wage Ordinance is one of the most comprehensive examinations of a living wage law's impact on workers and employers. The study concludes that the living wage law has raised wages for 10,000 jobs while causing little job loss. It also finds that the law has not prompted businesses to set up health plans for its workers. The report’s findings are based on three original random-sample surveys of workers and firms. Read More »

The Other Los Angeles: The Working Poor in the City of the 21st Century (2000)

One in four workers in Los Angeles County is poor, defined in this report as qualifying for government assistance. Over one million Angelenos were among the working poor in the late 1990s, and the vast majority worked full time. Read More »

Corporate Accountability

Self-Checkout: Is It Reliable for Selling Alcohol? (2009)

Co-authored with the Community Economic Development Clinic at the University of California, this report examines the sale of alcohol through self-checkout systems at local grocery stores. The study finds many problems with the system, including machines failing to lock up and customers being able to override the system by swiping a credit card or scanning other items. Read More »

Shortchanged: How Airlines Can Repay Taxpayers for Billions in Subsidies by Improving Jobs, Security and Services (2008)

This report shows that the airline industry has benefited from enormous taxpayer support while failing to provide a fair return on the public’s investment, creating poor quality jobs and providing inadequate security and services for passengers. The study concludes that despite the industry’s current financial crisis, it is essential that major subsidy recipients such as American, United and Delta along with other airlines take measures to address these issues – both to improve safety, service and job standards as well as to ensure the long-term health of the airline industry. Read More »

Under the Radar: How Airline Outsourcing of Passenger Services Compromises Security and Service Quality at LAX (2007)

This report reveals that airlines at LAX are putting the security and the health of the public at risk and failing to provide adequate services for passengers with disabilities. Although the duties of airline-contracted service workers are vital to the health and safety of the traveling public, these workers are poorly compensated, receive little training and have few incentives to stay in their jobs long term. Read More »

Undertrained, Underpaid and Unprepared: How L.A.’s Commercial Office Building Owners Are Failing Security Officers and Compromising Public Safety (2006)

This report, published before the success of an effort to raise standards for security officers in Los Angeles’ commercial office buildings, found that inadequate training and compensation for these workers led to high turnover rates and an ill-equipped and inexperienced security workforce, putting the safety of tenants and the general public at unnecessary risk. Read More »

Off the Mark: A Report Card on Wages, Benefits and Working Conditions at LAX Restaurants (2003)

This report examines an industry that is well known for low wages, lack of health insurance and difficult working conditions. Companies that were covered by the L.A. City Living Wage Ordinance or collective bargaining agreements fared better than those where workers had fewer legal protections. Read More »

A Study in Corporate Irresponsibility: McDonald’s Corporation’s Operations at LAX (2002)

This report found that McDonald’s at Los Angeles International Airport repeatedly violated the letter and spirit of its concession agreement with Los Angeles World Airports. In one of the most egregious cases, McDonald’s attempted to avoid paying $843,742 in profit-sharing fees that airport officials determined were owed to the airport department. Read More »

Other Topics

Left Behind: The Impact of Secession on Low-Income Residents and Workers in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood (2002)

A collaboration between LAANE and the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, this study responded to an initiative to have Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley secede from the city of Los Angeles. The report looked at what would happen to the low-income residents of those areas – and the public employees who currently serve those areas in the event that the secession initiative passed. Read More »