Indeed, the Tri-State metro-region’s contribution to aggregate growth over the period was far smaller than the contribution of metro-regions like Houston and Dallas, which are a fraction of its size. This is a loss not only for the Chicago Tri-State metro-region but, given the region’s size, for the US economy as a whole, since it means that this large, developed region could be making a more significant contribution to national growth. The rise in unemployment recorded in the metro-region in 2009-10 was substantially larger than the average for OECD metro-regions.