America has lost millions of manufacturing jobs since 1980, which has been a serious economic blow to many U.S. metropolitan areas.

In response, metros have pursued an array of economic development strategies, some aimed at protecting or enhancing their manufacturing base, others at diversifying their local economies and attracting new kinds of industries, particularly service firms. 

Five years after the financial crisis began in earnest with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the negative impact from a damaged banking system on the real economy continues to be felt. Continued stress in the global financial system provides the backdrop to high levels of unemployment, low levels of business borrowing, and unsustainable public finances in many countries. At the same time the impact of climate change increasingly challenges communities coping with a changing environment.

Michael E. Porter launched the new U.S. Cluster Mapping tool on September 29, 2014 in Minneapolis as part of a two-day conference called Mapping the Midwest’s Future, held by the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. The conference hosted over 150 business leaders, policymakers, economic development officials and academics from twelve Midwest states and four Canadian provinces. The Humphrey School of Public Affairs has compiled a full listing of presentations from the conference, with documentation where available.

Since their inception in the 1940s, the Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories have been in the vanguard of America’s global research and development leadership. However, the national innovation system has changed in the past 70 years. Today, much technology development and application occurs in the context of synergistic regional clusters of firms, trade associations, educational institutions, private labs, and regional economic development organizations.

In 2013–14, Harvard Business School (HBS) conducted its third alumni survey on U.S. competitiveness. Our report on the findings focuses on a troubling divergence in the American economy: large and midsize firms have rallied strongly from the Great Recession, and highly skilled individuals are prospering. But middle and working-class citizens are struggling, as are small businesses. We argue that such a divergence is unsustainable, explore its root causes, and examine actions that might mitigate it. We ask in particular, how can we create a U.S.

The ability of small businesses to drive innovation is critical to U.S. competitiveness. In recognition of the invaluable role small businesses play in the United States innovation ecosystem, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) launched the Regional Innovation Cluster (RIC) Initiative in September 2010. This initiative promotes and supports industry clusters—geographically concentrated groups of interconnected businesses, suppliers, service providers, and related institutions in a particular industry or field—that have been associated with increased regional economic growth.

Small businesses are core to America’s economic competitiveness. Not only do they employ half of the nation’s private sector workforce – about 120 million people – but since 1995 they have created approximately two‐thirds of the net new jobs in our country. Yet in recent years, small businesses have been slow to recover from a recession and credit crisis that hit them especially hard. This lag has prompted the question, “Is there a credit gap in small business lending?”  

The analysis presented in this Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) provides a detailed profile of Lander County, including the two primary urban areas of Battle Mountain and the Austin/Kingston area, in the current time frame, primarily from 2000 and 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data, as background to the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis.  In addition to U.S. Census Bureau data, data from various state and other federal sources were used and incorporated into the demographic and economic analysis of Lander County.

A growing number of states are recognizing the importance of evaluating their economic development tax incentives. For example, lawmakers in Indiana, Mississippi, and Rhode Island have recently enacted legislation to ensure their states take three key steps to regularly review and analyze these programs.