Two CMC research institutes, the Lowe Institute of Political Economy and the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, have teamed up to found a new center for economic and public policy information about the Inland Empire.

“The idea is that there is currently no academic institution that focuses on regional economic issues in the area,” Lowe Institute director and CMC economics professor Marc Weidenmier said. “Cal Poly does a little bit, Cal State San Bernardino does a little bit, but it’s not what we’d call a one-shot place. So the idea is basically to turn CMC … into the center for economic information on the Inland Empire.”

According to census data, the Inland Empire is the third largest metropolitan area in California and the 14th largest in the United States. Seeing an unfulfilled need, the Lowe Institute brought a handful of students on board last summer to begin assembling databases on the region.

“For students who are interested in pursuing careers in consulting,” Weidenmeir said, “or even working for nonprofit think tanks like Brookings or AEI or Cato … this provides a good learning experience where they’re going to collect and analyze economic data and write economic reports.”

The Lowe Institute currently employs between 10 and 15 students for the project. Many of the 32 students employed by Rose Institute are working on it as well, according to Rose Institute director and CMC government professor Ralph Rossum. Both institutes want to involve a mix of underclassmen and upperclassmen.

The center has already begun publishing the Inland Empire Outlook, a newsletter examining the area’s economic and political trends, and recently signed a two-year agreement with the UCLA Anderson Forecast to provide a regional forecast for the Inland Empire. The first conference will take place this fall.

“We had an extraordinarily gratifying media reception and response to the initial Inland Empire Outlook,” Rossum said. “All of this is going to help us when it comes to securing one big donor or a variety of donors who will endow various pieces of the whole center.”

According to Weidenmier, the new center does not yet have a name, but will probably be named after its first major donor.