Mediating Local Economic Development: The Place of Site Selection Consultants in Industrial Recruitment

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Wood ◽  
Nicholas A. Phelps
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Site Selection ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Location Decisions ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
Industry Investment ◽  
Development Practice

The local economic development practice of attracting industry, investment, and employment is a long-standing one in the United States. Yet the manner in which this investment is mediated has always been shrouded in mystery. The mediation of investment and the particular role of site selection consultants in facilitating corporate location decisions is the principal focus of this commentary. The authors draw on a series of recent interviews to illustrate how economic development organizations view the role of site selection consultants and their contribution to the practice of industrial recruitment. The authors conclude that, while location consultants bring certain welcome efficiencies to the practice of industrial recruitment, their presence also raises important questions concerning interplace competition for mobile investment and the general landscape of local economic development in the United States.

AMERICAN DIPLOMACY AND EXPORT-ORIENTED INDUSTRIALIZATION ON TAIWAN

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
James Lee
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
State Socialism ◽  
Nationalist Party ◽  
American Diplomacy

Abstract Scholars have pointed to the period 1958-1962 as the beginning of Taiwan's transition to export-oriented industrialization. Although the Nationalist Party (KMT) had traditionally supported state socialism, the KMT began to oversee economic reforms in the late 1950s, setting Taiwan on the course of export-led growth under a capitalist model. Using archival materials from both the United States and Taiwan, I argue that the reforms resulted from U.S. influence on how the KMT understood the role of economic development in its grand strategy. U.S. arguments succeeded in creating political support at the highest levels of the KMT leadership for a reform-oriented faction in the economic bureaucracy. This finding shows how an aid donor can promote economic reforms even when the recipient is strategically important for the donor: although threats to enforce conditionality may not be credible, the donor can influence the recipient through persuasion.

Secularism, Religion, and Political Choice in the United States

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 753-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Randolph Beard ◽  
Robert B. Ekelund ◽  
George S. Ford ◽  
Ben Gaskins ◽  
Robert D. Tollison
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Choice ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
Marginal Effects ◽  
Religious Attachment

AbstractThe effect of religion on political behavior and attachment has been a topic of intense interest in the United States and elsewhere. Less attention has been paid to the issue of secularism. Some analysts have viewed secularism as anabsenceof religious attachment, and a number of studies have utilized indices of secularization to analyze such topics as economic development or modernization. In this article, we show that secularism, like religion, is in fact a multifaceted category, and should not be viewed as the antithesis of religiosity. Utilizing a very large sample of United States adults, we apply factor analysis to demonstrate that secularism is composed of two logically separate components, and we use these results to examine the role of secularism in political attachments. We suggest thatReligious SecularismandSocial Secularismare different motivations and have different effects on political behavior and that, politically, the marginal effects of Social Secularism are larger than Religious Secularism in all cases.

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