How are Economic Development Districts Riding the Waves of Economic Development Strategies?

Abstract

Previous studies have examined the local adoption of various development strategies primarily by surveying economic development practitioners, although the survey method suffers from subjectivity and recollection errors. To overcome these problems, I adopt a text mining method to canvass the comprehensive economic development strategies (CEDSs) across economic development districts (EDDs) in the United States. Twenty-eight main development strategies are identified, most of which belong to the “second wave,” while the “fourth-wave” strategies—oriented toward social equity and sustainability—are popular enough to justify separation from the “third wave.” Moreover, EDDs combine various waves of strategies to form their strategy portfolios. Two main types of portfolios have been identified—one is dominated by the second-wave strategies, while the other is more balanced across four waves and places a focus on both second- and fourth-wave strategies.