In Pennsylvania, the next major presidential primary state, concerns about the economy loom large as global competition, economic restructuring and an aging work force threaten the state’s ability to prosper. A true economic agenda for the state must speak to the core assets of Pennsylvania’s economy and where these assets are located: the state’s many small and large metropolitan areas.

To help Pennsylvania prosper, federal leaders must leverage four key assets that matter today — innovation, human capital, infrastructure and quality places. These assets help increase the productivity of firms and workers, boost the incomes of families and workers, and can help the state and nation grow in more fiscally and environmentally responsible ways.

These four assets are highly concentrated in Pennsylvania’s economic engines, its 16 metropolitan areas. ... The top six metropolitan areas alone generate the bulk of the state’s innovation (80 percent of all patenting), contain the majority of the state’s educated work force (77 percent of all adults with a bachelor’s degree), and serve as the state’s transport hubs. ...

They generate 80 percent of the state’s economic output even though they house 68 percent of its population.

Read more at www.brookings.edu.