Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

12-2017

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department

Urban and Public Affairs

Degree Program

Urban and Public Affairs, PhD

Committee Chair

Koven, Steven

Committee Member

Kelly, Janet

Committee Member

Sussman, Lyle

Committee Member

Ruther, Matthew

Author's Keywords

economic development; economic growth; human development index; job growth; local tax revenue; income inequality

Abstract

Economic development is considered one of the key functions and responsibilities of Federal, State, and local governments in the United States. However, most of the policies and strategies related to economic development, regardless of their focus or funding, have a strong role of municipalities for their implementation. Within local governments, economic development efforts often seem to not truly focus on the aspects of ‘development,’ but can rather be characterized as focused on economic ‘growth’ and measured in terms of economic activity generated. Job creation and the enhancement of tax base or revenue are considered two of the most important goals of local economic development efforts. The idea behind both goals is that it would ultimately help the people served by a particular city. This dissertation provides a discussion of theoretical and empirical basis for the counter argument of why job creation or improved local tax revenues may not necessarily help the local population. The hypotheses for this study were: 1) increase in total number of jobs in a city does not lead to improvement in Human Development, 2) increase in municipal tax revenue also does not lead to improvement in Human Development in that city, and 3) Regional differences across the United States impact Human Development in cities. First two hypotheses may seem to be counterintuitive to the general understanding on the topic as it is typically assumed that more jobs are better for a locality and increased local tax revenue provides more resources for municipality to serve their constituents better. The study uses Human Development Index as a measure of ‘Development’. The study finds that growth in number of jobs per capita does indeed lead to increase in Human Development Index values. However, increase in local tax revenue does not necessarily lead to improvements in Human Development. The study also finds some evidence that the region in which a city is located may also impact the Human Development levels of the city.

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