摘要 :
Although policy evaluations have raised significant concerns about the effectiveness of individual incentives such as tax abatements and special taxing districts, they beg the question of whether, in the right combination, these t...
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Although policy evaluations have raised significant concerns about the effectiveness of individual incentives such as tax abatements and special taxing districts, they beg the question of whether, in the right combination, these tools might actually work. This research focuses on this question: Are some incentives more effective in particular combinations as they would normally be applied in reality? Based on an assessment of five widely used economic development programs in the state of Michigan, the research concludes that even in combination, many commonly used incentives have no relationship to the economic health of city residents. Programs that include performance guarantees, particularly related to jobs, appear promising. For many, particularly smaller, cities offering no economic development incentives also appears to be a promising course of action.
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Observers of state economic development policy in the United States have identified two conceptually distinct approaches, often termed industrial recruitment and entrepreneurial policies, and debated the extent to which a "third w...
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Observers of state economic development policy in the United States have identified two conceptually distinct approaches, often termed industrial recruitment and entrepreneurial policies, and debated the extent to which a "third wave" of policy emergent during the 1990s represents a conceptually distinct approach to economic development Data limitations and conceptual confusion have hindered efforts to distinguish state economic development strategies and to update existing typologies to reflect contemporary practices. This article uses data from the Council for Community and Economic Research's Expenditures Database in 2007 to evaluate the extent to which the states follow conceptually distinctive economic development strategies. We find that the states' economic development expenditures reflect a high degree of conceptual hybridity rather than strict adherence to supply-side industrial recruitment or demand-side entrepreneurial development.
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Local economic development (LED) has gained prominence as a feasible option to top-down development approaches that have generally been unsuccessful in generating significant and sustainable development at the local level. While L...
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Local economic development (LED) has gained prominence as a feasible option to top-down development approaches that have generally been unsuccessful in generating significant and sustainable development at the local level. While LED has proven to be an attractive local development strategy, very little attention has been devoted to the policy and practice of LED in Ghana. This article fills this gap and contributes to the discussion and evidence of LED in sub-Saharan Africa. The article is the output of an examination of documentary sources on LED policies, practices and case studies in Ghana. We argue that while LED policy and practice in Ghana has been in existence for several years, local areas are still building their impetus for the initiative of their own economic development and find practical solutions that make sense in their milieu. It is crucial for local governments to develop LED actions plans, ensure effective participation of stakeholders, build in value chain and reduce politicisation.
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This article contributes to an ongoing debate about the causal source of policy change by considering whether the Régulation approach, which has been largely discarded since the 1990s, can help to explain change in economic devel...
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This article contributes to an ongoing debate about the causal source of policy change by considering whether the Régulation approach, which has been largely discarded since the 1990s, can help to explain change in economic development polices at the level of local government in the UK. First, the 'decline' of the approach is explained by interviewing key exponents of the approach from the 1990s. Second, the approach is applied to a narrative of local economic policy in the City of York 1980 2006. In applying the Régulation approach, a number of problems are encountered. Chiefly, as a macro-approach, it lacks the finer tools to be able to explain all aspects of local change. Moreover, the approach is open to the charge of over-determinism by over-privileging the role of economic crisis in change. In the case of York, the cause of change has not been any crisis of Fordism but instead an acceptance of neo-liberalism in national and international spheres of governance, the inevitability of which may be overstated by exponents of the crisis of Fordism. However, the application of the Régulation approach to the case study reaffirms the importance of broader hegemonic political struggles and economic change to the study of local institutions, and the insights that more holistic analysis can make to the study of institutional change. Without some linkage to the broader economic and political hegemonic struggles, that the Régulation approach provides, meso-level theories are inherently wanting. The approach may be worth revisiting in the light of the new crisis of capitalism.
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Previous research provides evidence that jobs and firms in U.S. metropolitan areas are concentrated in economic centers, creating a polycentric urban form. Previous research also suggests that firms realize localization economies ...
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Previous research provides evidence that jobs and firms in U.S. metropolitan areas are concentrated in economic centers, creating a polycentric urban form. Previous research also suggests that firms realize localization economies when they locate near other firms in the same industry and urbanization economies when they locate near firms in other industries. In this article, the authors tie these concepts together in an exploration of the spatial distribution of employment in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. This analysis suggests that the spatial distribution of employment in Maryland is characterized by the existence of concentrated employment centers that create a polycentric urban form. What is more, the authors find these centers provide both urbanization and localization economies, as well as unspecified locational advantages.
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Research into tax increment financing (TIF) effectiveness has yielded mixed results, often under extensive controls. Until recently, no study had considered or controlled for the potential effects of internal management practices,...
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Research into tax increment financing (TIF) effectiveness has yielded mixed results, often under extensive controls. Until recently, no study had considered or controlled for the potential effects of internal management practices, including preproject planning and postimplementation performance measurement on TIF performance. This study draws on evidence from 72 TIF projects in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex to subject the recently proposed administrative theory of TIF performance to empirical validation. Regression analysis is used to determine the correlation between two key TIF district management practices (preimplementation risk assessment and postimplementation performance measurement) and project performance. The authors empirically examine differences in management practices across TIF districts within the same regional economy, and findings lend support to the theory that TIF management practices play an important role, alongside other factors, in determining project performance.
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Over the past two decades, the cluster concept has become firmly established in regional and innovation policy, as well as regional and local economic development at all spatial levels across Germany. The coming of age of such clu...
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Over the past two decades, the cluster concept has become firmly established in regional and innovation policy, as well as regional and local economic development at all spatial levels across Germany. The coming of age of such cluster policies shifts the focus of academic interest to the assessment of their outcomes. This paper seeks to contribute to the growing literature on cluster-policy evaluation in three ways: firstly, it focuses on regional cluster policies below the level of federal states in Germany to complement the majority of studies on federal and state-level programmes. Secondly, it adopts a public-choice perspective, whereas most existing research concentrates on methodological and conceptual issues associated with cluster-policy evaluation. Thirdly, this paper attempts to see cluster policies as a whole by linking evaluation with the practices of policy design and implementation, which are interconnected in the policy cycle. Following a brief overview of regional cluster policies in Germany, we summarise the challenges, impacts and evaluation practices of seven case studies on a regional scale, i.e. below the level of federal states. Arguing that causal effects of such policies are difficult to measure, we suggest that the real impacts are rather qualitative improvements in regions' organisational capacities, whereas independent evaluations not primarily serving to legitimise political decisions require more active engagement by the academic community.
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Industrial recruitment continues to play a significant role in the development of manufacturing industries in the U.S. South. Still, there are signs of shifting practice that not only emphasize a different set of regional advantag...
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Industrial recruitment continues to play a significant role in the development of manufacturing industries in the U.S. South. Still, there are signs of shifting practice that not only emphasize a different set of regional advantages from earlier decades but equally help bolster those same advantages to anchor outside firms to the region. This article presents a case study of the strategic use of industrial recruitment to build out North Carolina's biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry.This case study helps shed light on how recruitment practices can be designed and improved to support continued manufacturing job growth, but in ways that also limit the recruitment of potentially footloose establishments. As such, it presents an alternative perspective to recent studies of industrial recruitment that focus narrowly on efforts to limit or curb locational incentives for industry attraction.
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Rubin (1988) argued communities "shoot anything that flies and claim anything that falls" in their efforts to attract businesses. Such a perspective implies local governments will use large numbers of strategies as they try "every...
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Rubin (1988) argued communities "shoot anything that flies and claim anything that falls" in their efforts to attract businesses. Such a perspective implies local governments will use large numbers of strategies as they try "everything but the kitchen sink" to promote job creation and private investment. Conversely, Stokan (2003) claims localities are more selective in how they approach economic development, which implies there should be wide variation in the number of development strategies used across jurisdictions. Based on original survey data from North Carolina cities and counties of all sizes, the findings provide support for both explanations. The data show localities vary considerably with respect to the number of strategies they employ. Notably, variation in strategy use is associated with certain community characteristics including government capacity and development network strength. However, the data also reveal that communities are, on average, utilizing a relatively high number of strategies, lending some credence to Rubin's theory.
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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a number of promises typically made by owners of professional sports franchises in the USA that are also typically ignored or underevaluated by public bureaus and their elected pr...
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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a number of promises typically made by owners of professional sports franchises in the USA that are also typically ignored or underevaluated by public bureaus and their elected principals using the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York as a case study. Ex post subsidy outcomes are evaluated against ex ante subsidy promises in order to draw lessons that can inform and improve subsidy debates elsewhere. Design/methodology/approach - The case study adopts a pre-post strategy drawing on data from multiple sources over a period of up to ten years in order to triangulate the narrative and build credibility. The franchise owner's ex ante promises and financial projections were obtained from various media including newspaper, video and interviews between December 2003, when the arena was publicly announced, and September 2012, when the arena opened. Data on ex post outputs were obtained from financial documents and government records covering periods from September 2011 through June 2016. Findings - The franchise owner is found to have exaggerated the arena's financial condition, under-delivered on its employment promises, and exaggerated the scope and timeliness of ancillary real estate development. Only promises of event frequency and attendance levels, measures of the public's demand for the facility, have been met during the first three years. Research limitations/implications - Because the evaluation is a case study, causal conclusions cannot be drawn and some aspects of the Barclays Center context may not be applicable in other jurisdictions or subsidy debates. In addition, the case study does not evaluate an exhaustive list of the promises franchise owners make. Practical implications - Franchise owners have a financial incentive to overpromise public benefits, since subsidy levels are tied to what the public is perceived to receive in return. This case study demonstrates that the public sector should not take owners' promises and projections of public benefits at face value. Moreover, the case study reveals that the public sector should put more effort into ensuring ex post policy and data transparency in order to facilitate benefit-cost analyses of such subsidies. Originality/value - The data required to evaluate promises, other than economic development ones, made by franchise owners are not systematically collected across state and local governments in the USA, making large-n studies impossible. Case studies are underutilized approaches in this area of public affairs, and this paper illustrates their usefulness. By focusing on a single facility, an evaluation of the franchise owner's less acknowledged and arguably more important promises about the facility and its local impact is possible.
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