Economic Development Evaluation: More Rigorous Study Is Urged

Tim Bartik at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research released an important and valuable paper in November 2002, critiquing current evaluation and performance assessment efforts in the economic development field.

Blistering in places, Bartik takes aim at the narrow focus of earlier ED evaluation studies and also argues that these studies should assess more than simply impacts on business and job growth. Bartik argues that local and state government fiscal impacts and geographic area and population impacts should be considered by these studies. Some of these same ideas were echoed in a 1999 study I led on Ohio's economic development programs. You can download the Ohio study report here.

The paper offers some constructive ideas on how future ED evaluation studies should be conducted. You can download Bartik's paper here.

In 1999, I co-authored the book, Evaluating Business Incentive Programs, with Ken Poole (then at NASDA) and George Ercheck (Upjohn Institute). You can download a copy of the book from EDA's website here.