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Urban Studies and Planning

Henry C Renski

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Full-Text Articles in Public Policy

Evaluating Economic Development Programs Using Matched Employee‐Employer Data In A Quasi‐ Experimental Framework, Henry C. Renski Nov 2009

Evaluating Economic Development Programs Using Matched Employee‐Employer Data In A Quasi‐ Experimental Framework, Henry C. Renski

Henry C Renski

In the wake of shrinking public coffers, policy makers are demanding greater accountability from their economic development initiatives. In a discipline known for ‘claiming anything that falls,’ attempts to objectively evaluate economic development programs have been stymied by ill-suited data sources and methods. Survey research is expensive and responding firms have an incentive to lie about the effectiveness of subsidies. Publicly available data on employment, wages, and other outcomes are highly aggregated and lack the power to capture impacts from anything other than the most dramatic, large-scale initiatives. Confidential employee- and establishment-level (micro) data holds considerable promise for more rigorous …


Place And Prosperity: Quality Of Place As An Economic Driver, Reilly J. Catherine, Henry C. Renski Jan 2008

Place And Prosperity: Quality Of Place As An Economic Driver, Reilly J. Catherine, Henry C. Renski

Henry C Renski

recent report from the Brookings Institution commissioned by GrowSmart Maine concluded that achieving long-term economic health for Maine depends on preserving and investing in the state’s “quality of place.” In this article, based on a report they did for the Governor’s Council on Maine’s Quality of Place, Catherine Reilly and Henry Renski examine whether quality of place is indeed a viable driver of community economic development. They note that Maine has a comparative advantage in quality of place, but that quality-of-place initiatives need to be regional, strategic, and multidimensional, and to involve public, private, and non-profit sectors.