A well-developed venture capital network is important for launching regional science-based industries. Although these networks are not absolutely necessary for high-technology development, they help facilitate entrepreneurial start-ups and speed development. This article examines the degree to...

Efforts of community groups and local governments to gain jobs for a specific pool of unemployed workers often suffer from a limited and fragmented approach that does not give sufficient priority to the unique conditions, skills, and experience of the workers themselves. This article suggests a...

In a world economy, every place competes against every other place (city, county, region, state, and nation). The competitive advantages places pursue change over time and due to circumstances: jobs, plants, investment tourists, specific industries, sports teams, and better quality of life. In...

The Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG) program awarded $4.6 billion to assist about 3,000 economic development projects in more than 1,200 cities during its 12 years of operation (1978-1989). This article examines data from a variety of sources to assess the UDAG experience. Topics addressed...

Women-owned businesses may have grown six-fold, and the gross receipts of these businesses 50-fold over the past 2 decades. Most businesses owned by women, however are small, undercapitalized, situated in retailing and the services, and many enable only part-time work As a result, few women have...

In the absence of significant federal economic development resources, local officials face complex choices about both the level and the orientations of their policy efforts. A national study of local economic development officials indicates that cities in this post federal period are...

Harold Wolman (1988) examined the question of why local politicians and officials decide to offer development incentives to firms when the literature challenges the economic rationality of such decisions. He concluded that "very little systematic information exists on how public officials think...

Traditional methods of industrial organization and production are giving way to smaller, more flexible and specialized operations. This industrial restructuring increases the importance of localization economies relative to internal economies, and thus, the attractiveness of rural locations is...

The numbers of manufacturing plant births and deaths are both very highly correlated with the total number of manufacturing plants per county. For the period from 1978 to 1987 there have not been dramatic absolute changes in the spatial distribution of manufacturing within Ohio. Spatial...

Pennsylvania, primarily through the Ben Franklin Partnership Program, has vigorously pursued science and technology (S&T)-based economic development strategies. This article describes the partnership and highlights the policy choices made when establishing this S&T-based economic development...