What Should the Federal Government Be Doing About Urban Economic
Development?
Upjohn Institute Staff Working Paper 94-25
Timothy J. Bartik
March 1994
Abstract
The federal government should focus its policies towards economic development on areas
in which the federal government has some unique advantages. Federal policy should: (1)
discourage financial subsidies to specific large firms by state and local governments; (2)
expand the federal role in economic development services in which national action has some
special advantages, such as developing information on foreign markets, encouraging large
national banks to be more involved in economic development, supporting the development of
the "Information Superhighway," and encouraging new technology development; (3) provide
modest support for state and local efforts to increase business productivity through technology
extension efforts and customized job training programs; (4) encourage more and higher
quality evaluation of state and local economic development programs; (5) support experiments
that link economic development efforts with hiring the disadvantaged; (6) relax federal
regulations, such as regulations on the cleanup of older industrial sites, that impede local
economic development.
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