In this webinar, academic researchers and applied policy practitioners will discuss the newest thinking on how to address regional inequalities. Speakers will review potential mechanisms for regional equalization, including worker migration and locally-targeted economic development programs (“place-based policies”). We will unpack reasons why migration alone is not sufficient to ensure regional equalization, including factors preventing workers from leaving their current communities, challenges they face entering new ones, and how policy can help. We will then turn to a complementary approach: providing struggling communities with targeted assistance, without requiring their workers to leave. We will discuss cases in which place-based policies appear to encourage economic development, and debate whether these achievements are inherently redistributive. Throughout the webinar, we will ask how policies can be scaled, implemented across contexts, equity-advancing, and sustainable.