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Selected Works

Timothy J. Bartik

2015

Local economic development

Articles 1 - 13 of 13

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Migration And Housing Price Effects Of Place-Based College Scholarships, Timothy J. Bartik, Nathan Sotherland Dec 2015

Migration And Housing Price Effects Of Place-Based College Scholarships, Timothy J. Bartik, Nathan Sotherland

Timothy J. Bartik

Place-based college scholarships, such as the Kalamazoo Promise, provide students who live in a particular place, and/or who attend a particular school district, with generous college scholarships. An important potential benefit from such “Promise programs” is their short-term effects on local economic development. Generous Promise scholarships provide an incentive for families to locate in a particular place, which may change migration patterns, and potentially boost local employment and housing prices. Using data from the American Community Survey, this paper estimates the average effects of eight relatively generous Promise programs on migration rates and housing prices in their local labor market. …


Federal Policy Towards State And Local Economic Development In The 1990s, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Federal Policy Towards State And Local Economic Development In The 1990s, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

This paper suggests new federal policies towards state and local economic development assistance to business. I argue that there is some evidence that these programs can be effective in encouraging business growth and helping the unemployed. But state and local governments do not have the right incentives to adequately pursue national goals through economic development programs. State and local governments are not inclined to do quality evaluations of their programs and tend to favor business attraction programs over programs that might increase U.S. business productivity. In addition, it is unclear whether economic development efforts are most vigorously pursued by economically …


Economic Development Incentive Wars, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Economic Development Incentive Wars, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


How Do The Effects Of Local Growth On Employment Rates Vary With Initial Labor Market Conditions?, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

How Do The Effects Of Local Growth On Employment Rates Vary With Initial Labor Market Conditions?, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

This paper examines how the effects of increased employment growth on a metropolitan area’s employment to population ratio varies with the initial tightness of the metropolitan area’s labor market. This examination is relevant to evaluating the benefits of local economic development policies in different metropolitan areas. Much of the benefits of such policies are in higher employment rates. The empirical estimates suggest that the effectiveness of employment growth in increasing the employment to population ratio is lower in metropolitan areas with “tight” labor markets. In addition, some estimates suggest that growth has the greatest long-run effects on the employment to …


Living Wages And Local Governments, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Living Wages And Local Governments, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


Michigan's Economic Development Policies, Timothy J. Bartik, George A. Erickcek Jan 2015

Michigan's Economic Development Policies, Timothy J. Bartik, George A. Erickcek

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


How Effects Of Local Labor Demand Shocks Vary With Local Labor Market Conditions, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

How Effects Of Local Labor Demand Shocks Vary With Local Labor Market Conditions, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

This paper estimates how effects of shocks to local labor demand on local labor market outcomes vary with initial local economic conditions. The data are on U.S. metro areas from 1979 to 2011. The paper finds that demand shocks to local job growth have greater effects in reducing local unemployment rates if the local economy is initially depressed than if the local economy is booming. Demand shocks have greater effects on local wage rates if the local unemployment rate is initially low, but lesser effects if local job growth is initially high. These different effects of local demand shocks imply …


Local Economic Development Policies, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Local Economic Development Policies, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

This chapter seeks to provide useful advice for local government policy towards economic development programs. The chapter: reviews the size and scope of local economic development programs in the United States; critically analyzes the various rationales offered for these programs; makes recommendations for what local policy should do about business attraction and incentives, business retention, new business development, high technology development, brownfield development, distressed neighborhoods, and downtowns; and discusses how local economic development programs should be organized, managed, and evaluated.


Economic Development And Black Economic Success, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Economic Development And Black Economic Success, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


Question - What Can Be Done To Promote Inner City Development?: Answer - Focus On Labor Demand Policies To Increase Employment Of The Poor, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Question - What Can Be Done To Promote Inner City Development?: Answer - Focus On Labor Demand Policies To Increase Employment Of The Poor, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


Can Economic Development Programs Be Evaluated?, Timothy J. Bartik, Richard D. Bingham Jan 2015

Can Economic Development Programs Be Evaluated?, Timothy J. Bartik, Richard D. Bingham

Timothy J. Bartik

The question addressed in this paper seems simple: Can economic development programs be evaluated? But the answer is not simple because of the nature of evaluation. To determine a program's effectiveness requires a sophisticated evaluation because it requires the evaluator to distinguish changes due to the program from changes due to nonprogram factors. The evaluator must focus on the outcomes caused by the program rather than the program's procedures. Evaluations can be divided into two categories--process or formative evaluations and outcome, impact, or summative evaluations. Process evaluations focus on how a program is delivered. Impact evaluations focus on the program's …


Evaluating The Impacts Of Local Economic Development Policies On Local Economic Outcomes: What Has Been Done And What Is Doable?, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Evaluating The Impacts Of Local Economic Development Policies On Local Economic Outcomes: What Has Been Done And What Is Doable?, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

This paper argues that more rigorous evaluations of local economic development policies are feasible. Programs that aid selected small firms can be rigorously evaluated using an experimental approach, without excluding firms from assistance, by randomly assigning some firms to receive more intense marketing efforts by the program. Programs that aid distressed local areas can be rigorously evaluated by random assignment of the program among eligible distressed areas. If an experiment cannot be done, a variety of statistical approaches can be used to compare firms or areas that use the program with comparison groups of firms or areas that do not …


Thinking About Local Living Wage Requirements, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Thinking About Local Living Wage Requirements, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

This paper reviews what we currently know about the benefits and costs of different varieties of a "living wage": a local government requirement, now adopted by over 50 local governments, for wages above the federal minimum imposed on employers with some financial link to the local government. The review includes economic theory, empirical research on local labor markets, and empirical research on the living wage. The paper concludes that moderate living wage requirements applied to the local government's own employees, and contractors' and grantees' employees who are funded by the local government, may do more good than harm. Excessive living …