Rodney A. Erickson

Firm relocation and site selection in suburban municipalities

Abstract This paper develops a model of the site choice decision of relocating firms in seven single-digit SIC industries. Hypotheses are tested using data on firms which have moved from Milwaukee City to its suburbs between 1964 and 1974. The industries considered are: construction; manufacturing; transportation, communications, and public utilities; wholesale trade; retail trade; finance, insurance and real estate; and services. While this problem has been examined for manufacturing with limited success, the results here are encouraging. The results show that agglomeration economies and an available labor force are important influences in the site choice among suburban locations for firms in all industries. Fiscal variables are at best only of secondary significance in the choice among suburban municipalities.

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT AND STATE EXPORT PERFORMANCE

Since the early 1980s, there has been widespread debate over the impacts of rising levels of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on the U.S. economy. A frequently noted, but little studied, issue within the debate is the impact of FDI on U.S. foreign trade, and particularly, on the foreign trade of US. regions. This study assesses the effects of FDI on the manufacturing export performance of U.S. states during the period from 1980 to 1991. Results indicate that increased levels of FDI are positively related to future improvements in state manufacturing export performance.

Corporate organization and manufacturing branch plant closures in non-metropolitan areas

Erickson R. A. (1980) Corporate organization and manufacturing branch plant closures in non-metropolitan areas, Reg. Studies 14, 491–501. The establishment of branch plants in non-metropolitan areas by metropolitan-based corporations has substantially increased manufacturing employment in many of the former regions. However, there has been speculation that, because branch plants are relatively easy to establish, corporations would be likely to close such plants in the event of recession or operating difficulties of the organization. Data on the performance of a large set of plants in non-metropolitan Wisconsin indicate that such branches are far less likely to close than establishments in general. This paper also examines the influences of alternative corporate organizational structures and related plant interdependencies, market environments, levels of capital investment, and acquisition on branch plant closure rates.

Business Climate Studies: A Critical Evaluation:

Studies of business climate comparing states and communities have attracted considerable media attention in the past few years. This article examines the major issues surrounding these studies. The roots of contemporary business climate studies in earlier comparative cost analyses are discussed, including the important role of state and local taxation studies of the 1950s and 1960s. The most prominent contemporary business climate studies are identified and the methodological problems, especially those associated with the definition of business climate and with rankings, are criticized. Research on the relationship between business climate and state economic development is reviewed, and factors underlying the complexity of the relationship are discussed. The article concludes by noting some of the benefits to states that can result from methodologically rigorous and thoughtful comparisons of business climate factors when used in an appropriate context.

Industrial Development Groups, External Connections, and Job Generation in Local Communities

Local industrial development groups have grown rapidly in numbers and visibility around the nation as communities seek to promote economic development. The external connections of these groups include the network of contacts among local development groups and other organizations with a stake in industry vitality and economic prosperity in a community or region. Using survey data from directors of industrial development groups in 20 states, we test the hypothesis that growth promotion groups that actively maintain extensive connections are more successful in generating new jobs than more isolated organizations. Our findings provide evidence of the importance of external connections in community job creation while controlling for numerous other factors internal to the local industrial development groups themselves and several location features.

THE SPATIAL PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENT CHANGE IN LARGE AMERICAN METROPOLISES: 1947–1977

The patterns of economic activity dispersal that have characterized metropolitan areas and their suburbs since the late 1940s are examined using employment data compiled for municipalities. Measures of the spatial distribution of employment permitted the analysis of intermetropolitan, intersectoral, and intrasuburban patterns of economic change over three decade-long periods in ten large MSAs located predominantly in the northeastern part of the nation. The study revealed significant differences in both the levels and rates of dispersal among the MSAs along regional and age dimensions. Considerable similarity in the chronology of sectoral dispersal patterns was apparent. Analysis of data for individual suburban communities by MSA revealed that areas of highest economic growth have shifted farther outward into the suburbs; however, considerable infilling within closer suburban communities has continued to occur. Newer metropolises exhibited more variable patterns of intrasuburban change than older ones.

Public accountability in non-profit industrial development organisations

Non-profit industrial development organisations (NIDOs) represent a common but little studied community response to widespread deindustrialisation in the United States. These non-profits are organised as chartered not-for-profit corporations, public authorities or agencies of local government. Most receive at least some public funding to promote local industrial development. Thus, a key issue is how accountable NIDOs are to the public they have been created to serve. Data from national surveys of NIDO executive directors in 1984 and 1994, as well as a survey of six case study boards of directors, suggest that public accountability is an increasingly important concern among NIDOs. Public hearings, efforts to diversify the boards in terms of gender and race, and connections to community development corporations and other local organisations are among the ways NIDOs attempt to be accountable to the general public. Although few women or racial minorities serve on NIDO boards, those boards with representation of these groups tend to be more concerned with public accountability. Boards containing public officials tend to be less concerned, presumably because their presence makes the NIDOs more directly accountable as a result of the participation of elected public representatives.

In Search of a New Equilibrium: Economic Aspects of Higher Education's Changing Faculty Composition

This article examines the interconnected phenomena of recruitment, retention, and utilization of faculty at research universities, with special emphasis on the changing mix of tenure track and contingent (i.e., fixed term) faculty members. The authors argue, based upon both national data and detailed information from a particular institution, that powerful economic forces are prompting research universities to rethink fundamental strategies about the core academic workforce.