Measuring State-Level Economic Development Programs, 1970-1992

This article provides a new method for measuring state-sponsored economic development programs. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the authors derive estimates for five supply-side and three demand-side policy packages, consistent with the theoretical framework proposed by Eisinger in The Rise of the Entrepreneurial State: State and Local Development in the United States. The authors provide state-level estimates of each policy dimension for the appropriate years between 1970 and 1992 that are amenable to a variety of state-level research designs. These estimates have advantages over other recent efforts to measure state economic development strategies.