State Economic Development Information Systems

The expanded role of state governments in economic development has increased their need for a wide variety of economic, demographic, and marketing information. Many state governments have responded to these needs by developing systems to deliver economic and related information to state and local economic development offices, businesses, and the general public. This paper reports the results of a survey of economic development officials designed to disclose information about how extensive automated system development is, as well as to learn about system structure and operating characteristics, the quality and quantity of the data distributed, and any particular system strengths and weaknesses. A clear definition of agency goals, cooperation among state agencies, and communication with the targeted users are found to be important to the success of a development data system