The Role of Economic Development Corporations in Local Economic Development

Christopher A. Jarmon, James M. Vanderleeuw, Michael S. Pennington and Thomas E. Sowers

Economic Development Quarterly, 2012, vol. 26, issue 2, 124-137

Abstract: Since their establishment, city-level economic development corporations in Texas have grown in popularity as an ostensible means of providing for economic development. However, one knows little about the association between these economic development entities and the economic vitality of the areas they serve. Using a 2005-2006 survey of city leaders in Texas, along with Census data for 304 Texas cities, the authors investigate the association between the use of economic development corporations and the level of local unemployment. Results of the analysis indicate that economic development corporations have a reliable association with lower levels of unemployment; however, the activities of these entities matter. Lower levels of community employment are associated with activities that focus on industrial development. In contrast, the authors find no reliable relationship between the level of city unemployment and economic development corporations that engage in quality of life activities.

Keywords: economic development theory; job creation; jobs; quality of life; state and local E D policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0891242412437877 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecdequ:v:26:y:2012:i:2:p:124-137

DOI: 10.1177/0891242412437877

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economic Development Quarterly
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().