Key Research and Policy Questions in Economic Development and Workforce Development

This issue of Economic Development Quarterly (EDQ) is an experiment. It came from the realization that the journal’s editorial staff, including its Associate Editors, Editorial Advisors, and members of its Editorial Board, offers some of the best minds in economic and workforce development. We decided to invite them to answer the question: What are the key research and policy questions facing economic development and workforce development today? We are excited that 15 editors and advisors answered our call. You will find few disagreements in the commentaries but strong differences in emphasis. Most all researchers share the same concerns; however, for individual researchers, some topics are more important than others. Fred Treyz worries that policy makers can become distracted by the upheaval of the past several years. Therefore, in his, “Prospects for Growth and Change: U.S. Metro Area Forecasts 2022–2032,” he advises us that it is important to assess the prospects for growth and change during the next 10 years. Applying the well-regarded Regional Economics Models Inc. (REMI) model, Treyz presents a 10-year economic and demographic forecast for the largest 20 metro areas in the United States. Haifeng Qian and Zoltan Acs add meat to Treyz’s forecast by examining a major driver for a metropolitan’s growth—its entrepreneurial ecosystem. In their commentary, “Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Economic Development Policy,” the authors distinguish entrepreneurial ecosystems research from regional innovation systems and cluster analysis. This is followed by an instructive discussion on how policy makers should incorporate entrepreneurial ecosystems research into decision making. Karen Chapple and Laura Schmahmann, in their commentary, “Can we ‘Claim’ the Workforce? A Labor-Focused Agenda for Economic Development in the Face of an Uncertain Future,” also look to the future and stress the importance of looking at outside factors and trends that are and will confront metro policy makers in the immediate future. These include growing income inequality driven by globalization and technology, and the recovery of some small and midsize cities due to rising housing costs in larger areas. They make the case that these trends make it even more important to focus on workforce development. Other researchers took this opportunity to explore specific economic development trends and the workforce challenges they create. Matthew Kures and Steven Deller examine the ongoing commuting challenges in rural areas in their commentary, “Growth in Commuting Patterns and their Impacts on Rural Workforce and Economic Development.” They found that workers are bearing longer commutes, which broadens their area’s commuting sheds and encourages regionalism in workforce development. In separate commentaries, Randy Eberts and Kevin Hollenbeck call on us to examine the key components of effective workforce development programs. In his “Improving the U.S. Workforce System by Transforming its Performance Measurement System into an Intelligent Information System,” Eberts stresses the importance of the nation’s public workforce system to construct effective tools/systems that connect qualified workers with better jobs. Hollenbeck, in his commentary, “Suggestions for Future Research in the Area of U.S. Workforce Development Systems and Regional Economic Development,” argues that more work has to be done for the workforce development system to achieve its mission to link workers with fulfilling careers, while meeting the needs of area employers for a productive workforce. He further suggests that subgroup analyses of every step of the training process need to be conducted. Turning to economic development, Ned Hill, in his commentary titled “What is Economic Development and What is the Job of an Economic Development Professional,” argues that it is time for us to reexamine the job of the economic development professional. It goes well beyond preparing marketing campaigns; economic developers are intermediaries between potential business investors and the area’s assets, and the good ones can connect “the dots that others cannot see.” Shawn Rohlin, in his commentary, “Challenges to Identifying Economic Development Impacts,” identifies the