Directing Benefits to Need: Evaluating the Distributive Consequences of Urban Economic Development

Evaluation of targeted development programs is made difficult by undefined or multiple goals, reliance on inappropriate aggregate units and levels for analysis, and neglect of distributional consequences resulting from development policy choices. This article presents a strategy for evaluating intergovernmental development programs that are targeted to areas of need and applies this approach to two separate state-sponsored economic development programs in Florida communities. The empirical analysis identifies factors that account for cities’ choices to use targeted development programs and the policy instruments used to achieve targeted outcomes. It then assesses the consequences of two of these policy instruments for both economic growth and community development. In doing so, the authors identify the consequences that problem definition and level of analysis choices have for the outcomes of evaluation efforts.