Do Local Governments Listen to the Experts? A Comprehensive Qualitative Analysis of Local Economic Development Policies

Research on local economic development (LED) policy remains limited in its access to detailed information about what policies are practiced where. This study helps to fill important gaps with a unique data set of 106 localities’ responses to Amazon.com's 2017 “HQ2” RFP. These data are analyzed qualitatively to assess patterns in policy practice and their relationship to local characteristics. Highlighting the balance between use of incentives to firms versus broader public investments, we find that most localities embrace a relatively balanced mix of the two in ways that suggest isomorphic decision making. Localities practicing extremely high numbers of development policies specialize in either firm-level incentives or public investments, a choice that appears to be associated with local incomes. All policy mix categories include diverse types of localities, indicating significant room to maneuver. These findings offer new perspectives on the range and sources of local approaches to place-based policy and community development.