CUPR has carried out economic development research at all political levels—local, state, national, and international—using advanced economic and geographic models. CUPR’s capabilities include econometric, input-output, and GIS models. A major study analyzing the strengths and weaknesses and growth potential of the New York–New Jersey regional economy, research for the economic development portion of the Regional Plan Association’s Third Regional Plan for the New York–New Jersey metropolitan area, and an analysis of the New York region’s complex of biomedical industries carried out for The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are three recent CUPR projects using a number of advanced research techniques.

CUPR's The Rutgers Economic Advisory Service (R/ECON™) provides econometric forecasts of the state's economy for business and government leaders. These include both long-term and short-term forecasting models and an index of leading economic indicators. R/ECON's semi-annual conferences bring together experts to discuss current conditions and topics vital to the region's economy. CUPR has also been in the forefront of input-output analysis using R/ECON’s I-O model in impact and evaluation studies, most recently for analyses of housing preservation and tourism.

CUPR, together with two other institutions, created TELUS (the Transportation, Economic, and Land Use System), a sophisticated transportation information system that enables planners to measure the regional impact of proposed transportation projects. Utilizing (GIS) technology, TELUS allows users to track and retrieve project information in an easily understood format. The system enables estimation of economic and land-use effects of transportation projects in the project pipeline, taking into account their short and long-term impacts. TELUS will be licensed to, and customized for, metropolitan planning organizations throughout the United States, and will be an aid in meeting the mandates of federal ISTEA and successor NEXTEA programs.

CUPR completed national evaluations of the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Public Works and Defense Adjustment programs. CUPR faculty traveled across the United States to visit EDA sites and collect data on EDA’s programs. The resulting analyses quantified the impacts on the localities and regional economies of jobs created and additional private- and public-sector investment leveraged as a result of EDA’s programs.

Until recently, geographic information systems were used primarily to model interactions between land use and transportation, and land use and environment; now the technology is being applied in analyses of social services, demographic processes, and economic development as well. Under a HUD contract, CUPR and the police department of Charlotte, North Carolina, are examining how GIS technology can aid in crime prevention. In another HUD study, CUPR used GIS to determine the spatial dimensions of the uses of housing vouchers and certificates.

Other CUPR projects employing GIS include identifying brownfields sites suitable for development evaluation of an earthquake risk model to estimate fatalities and property losses under various scenarios, mapping of historically significant places, and analysis of welfare-to-work policies.

Finally, CUPR completed a five-year study on the Costs of Sprawl wherein it modeled a growth projection for every county in the United States.