Seize the Time: Needed Research on Local Economic Development in an Era of Increased Attention to Problems of Place

With the increased attention to place-based policies comes an increased need for policy-relevant research on local economic development. Within the policy area of local economic development, this paper identifies five types of research needs: 1) better definitions of local labor markets; 2) policy know-how on how local economic development’s benefits can be better spread to distressed neighborhoods; 3) evidence on what types of jobs have both good growth prospects in the U.S. economy yet also provide good long-run job opportunities in local labor markets for the majority of U.S. workers who lack a bachelor’s degree; 4) estimates of how local worker education or skill-upgrading programs, or worker attraction programs, affect local labor market outcomes for different groups of workers; and 5) more-rigorous evaluation both of customized business services provided to individual firms and of more-comprehensive regional economic development strategies