harrispracticumfall2009 - home

Fall 2009 
Practicum Project for the U.S. Economic Development Administration 
 
 
The Economic Development Administration (EDA) is an agency within the United States Department of Commerce. The EDA works closely with state and local governments and agencies and awards grants to support projects to promote economic growth, including projects to build and rehabilitate infrastructure, generate or retain private sector jobs and investments, and promote regional competitiveness. 
 
To that end, the EDA is interested in deepening its understanding of the factors driving differences in regional economic growth across the United States. How important are stocks of physical, human, and intellectual capital in explaining these differences? What role do local labor market conditions play? Do agglomeration economies or geographic characteristics drive differences in economic performance across regions? With an enhanced understanding of what factors drive regional economic growth, the EDA can better design and implement programs to fulfill its mission. 
 
The analytical framework for the project will be as described by the recent OECD paper, “The Sources of Economic Growth in OECD Regions: A Parametric Analysis,” (December 2008). The OECD analysis appears to have been 
conducted at the “TL2&quot; level of regional aggregation–which, in the United States, corresponds to using states as the units of analysis. The idea of this project is to extend this analysis to more disaggregate regions within the United States–for example, to counties, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (Census Bureau), or Economic Areas (Bureau of Economic Analysis). 
 
The EDA has provided some data on employment and output at the state and county level for this project. Additional data from the US Census, OECD and/or other agencies may be used as well.