This national study analyzes changes in women’s representation in economic development organizations (EDOs) at the state level between 1988 and 1998. Although in 1998, the number of women in EDOs was still small (11.9% of all memberships), the increase in women’s representation...

The authors examined a geographically and economically diverse group of 34 small- and medium-size communities that experienced long periods of economic prosperity built around a major industry or company and that then suffered economic declines when those industries substantially reduced their...

The increasing globalization of production and its intensification through trade liberalization schemes create challenges for local economic development. On July 21, 1992, the Smith-Corona Corporation announced its decision to transfer its manufacturing operations from Cortland, New York, to...

This article examines the economic impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on western New York (WNY). A variety of theoretical perspectives are reviewed, notably impact assessment. Evidence from a survey of local industrial firms suggests that NAFTA has not played an especially...

Georgia’s principal state-level economic development tax incentive program has been a set of income tax credits known as Georgia’s BEST program. Shortly after taking office in January 1999, Governor Barnes requested a study of BEST that would serve as the basis for recommending...

Louisville, Kentucky, has one of the oldest and largest enterprise zones (EZs) in the United States, yet until recently, the program had not been independently evaluated. Perhaps because no clearly superior evaluation methodology has emerged in the literature, the efficacy of EZ programs around...

Advocates of high-tech development use conflicting top-down and bottom-up models to respond to the challenge of the increasing knowledge intensity of the global economy. The trend for policies in the United States, Canada, and Australia is to shift the emphasis from federal government and...

Financial services industries have been an important source of central-city employment, including new jobs. Although decentralization occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, widespread national growth in the sector generally resulted in central-city employment gains. In the 1990s, despite continuing...

Certified Capital Companies (CAPCOs) are state-certified venture capital companies funded by insurance companies. As an incentive to invest in CAPCOs, insurance companies receive a $1 credit on premium taxes for each $1 invested (tax credits are spread over a 10-year period). The CAPCOs must...

The use of local economic development incentives within a metropolitan area has undergone less analysis than incentives that attempt to alter interregional business location decisions. This is unfortunate because other factors that influence where business resides are constant across cities in a...