Rethinking federal policy for regional economic development

Economic development policy is a major priority of the federal government. Over the past century, Congress has created a panoply of programs aimed at economic development in communities and regions. These programs have sprung up at different times, with different goals, and with different ways of meeting those goals. Yet taken together they add up to a big priority and a lot of dollars. By one estimate, the federal economic development effort spanned 180 programs in 2004 and spent more than $180 billion. This is a critical time to take stock of this federal effort. The current deficit makes every dollar count in Washington. But there is a far more compelling reason to rethink federal policy for economic development: The world has changed but federal policy has not. Globalization of markets for goods, services, capital, and currencies has fundamentally changed the rules of the game in economic development. The problem is quite simple: Most federal programs for economic development were written for the economy of the 20th century, not the 21st century. Drabenstott examines how federal policy might shift to align with the new global economy. First, he summarizes the current federal role in economic development. Second, he describes the evolution in economic development thinking. Third, he explains why three shifts in federal policy will be important if the nation wants to help regions hone their competitive edge.Regional economics ; Economic development

Transportation for a New Era -- Growing More Sustainable Communities

Outlines policy recommendations to create a national vision recognizing the links between land use, infrastructure, and sustainable communities; support metropolitan areas; foster more compact development; and invest effectively in transportation

2008 State New Economy Index: Benchmarking Economic Transformation in the States

Scores and ranks states' economic structures on their competitiveness in the New Economy, as measured by the prominence of knowledge jobs, globalization, economic dynamism, transformation to a digital economy, and capacity for technological innovation

A Roadmap to Reduce U.S. Food Waste By 20 Percent, Executive Summary 2016

The magnitude of the food waste problem is difficult to comprehend. The U.S. spends $218 billion a year -- 1.3% of GDP -- growing, processing, transporting, and disposing of food that is never eaten. The causes of food waste are diverse, ranging from crops that never get harvested, to food left on overfilled plates, to near-expired milk and stale bread.ReFED is a coalition of over 30 business, nonprofit, foundation, and government leaders committed to building a different future, where food waste prevention, recovery, and recycling are recognized as an untapped opportunity to create jobs, alleviate hunger, and protect the environment -- all while stimulating a new multi-billion dollar market opportunity. ReFED developed A Roadmap to Reduce U.S. Food Waste as a data-driven guide to collectively take action to reduce food waste at scale nationwide

Global Innovation Policy Index

Ranks fifty-five nations' strategies to boost innovation capacity: policies on trade, scientific research, information and communications technologies, tax, intellectual property, domestic competition, government procurement, and high-skill immigration

Preparing Low-Skilled Workers for the Jobs of Tomorrow

Identifies ways for state policies to leverage technology-based economic development by preparing low-skilled workers for middle-skill, technical jobs in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Outlines current state initiatives

Learning For Life: The Opportunity For Technology To Transform Adult Education - Part II: The Supplier Ecosystem

In fall 2014, Tyton Partners (formerly Education Growth Advisors), with support from the Joyce Foundation, conducted national research on the role and potential of instructional technology in the US adult education field. The objective was to understand the current state of the field with respect to technology readiness and the opportunities and challenges for increasing the use of technology-based instructional models within adult education. The initial publication in the series, "Part I: Interest in and Aptitude for Technology," focused on demand-side dynamics and addressed adult education administrators' and practitioners' perspectives on the role and potential of technology to support their students' needs and objectives. This second publication, "Part 2: The Supplier Ecosystem," highlights market composition and supply-side dynamics, instructional resource use, and opportunities for innovation

Low-carbon energy: a roadmap

Technologies available today, and those expected to become competitive over the next decade, will permit a rapid decarbonization of the global energy economy. New renewable energy technologies, combined with a broad suite of energy-efficiency advances, will allow global energy needs to be met without fossil fuels and by adding only minimally to the cost of energy services The world is now in the early stages of an energy revolution that over the next few decades could be as momentous as the emergence of oiland electricity-based economies a century ago. Double-digit market growth, annual capital flows of more than $100 billion, sharp declines in technology costs, and rapid progress in the sophistication and effectiveness of government policies all herald a promising new energy era. Advanced automotive, electronics, and buildings systems will allow a substantial reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, at negative costs once the savings in energy bills is accounted for. The savings from these measures can effectively pay for a significant portion of the additional cost of advanced renewable energy technologies to replace fossil fuels, including wind, solar, geothermal, and bioenergy. Resource estimates indicate that renewable energy is more abundant than all of the fossil fuels combined, and that well before mid-century it will be possible to run most national electricity systems with minimal fossil fuels and only 10 percent of the carbon emissions they produce today. The development of smart electricity grids, the integration of plug-in electric vehicles, and the addition of limited storage capacity will allow power to be provided without the baseload plants that are the foundation of today's electricity systems. Recent climate simulations conclude that CO2 emissions will need to peak within the next decade and decline by at least 50 to 80 percent by 2050. This challenge will be greatly complicated by the fact that China, India, and other developing countries are now rapidly developing modern energy systems. The only chance of slowing the buildup of CO2 concentrations soon enough to avoid catastrophic climate change that could take centuries to reverse is to transform the energy economies of industrial and developing countries almost simultaneously. This would have seemed nearly impossible a few years ago, but since then, the energy policies and markets of China and India have begun to change rapidly -- more rapidly than those in many industrial countries. Renewable and efficiency technologies will allow developing countries to increase their reliance on indigenous resources and reduce their dependence on expensive and unstable imported fuelsAround the world, new energy systems could become a huge engine of industrial development and job creation, opening vast new economic opportunities. Developing countries have the potential to "leapfrog" the carbon-intensive development path of the 20th century and go straight to the advanced energy systems that are possible today. Improved technology and high energy prices have created an extraordinarily favorable market for new energy systems over the past few years. But reaching a true economic tipping point will require innovative public policies and strong political leadership

FED’S “QUANTITAVE EASING ACTION”– MORE THAN A MOVE FOR US ECONOMY REVITALIZATION?*

On March 18th 2009, FED has made a move it hasn’t done since 1960 (the so-called Operation Trust conceived by the Kennedy administration): it stepped into the market in order to buy long term securities for an amount of some 1.25 trillion dollars. FED also said this program could be expanded to include a lot of other financial assets. The key issue here is the money resulting from this quantitative easing action taken by FED has not US economy as main destination, but, throw IMF, US are due to become the main creditor of the world.FED, long term bonds, quantitative easing measure, open market action