By Weisbrod, G., et al. Economic Development Research Group with Cambridge Systematics, for the Appalachian Regional Commission, 2001

A new handbook available from the Appalachian Regional Commission is designed to help economic development practitioners in Appalachian Region communities to identify and pursue economic opportunities, specifically including those made possible by newly-completed segments of the Appalachian Development Highway System. The handbook, which is accompanied by a software and worksheet toolkit, was prepared by Economic Development Research Group with assistance from Cambridge Systemtics, Inc. It includes case studies of use of the toolkit for areas of Mississippi and New York State.

The handbook guides economic development practitioners through a five-step process:

• Identifying highway impacts on business markets, labor markets, supplier markets, recreation and tourism markets, "pass-through traffic" markets, and access connections to other modes of transportation;
• Gathering and analyzing data on local economic performance, including the mix of industries and the industry growth trends in the local area compared to the mix and trends in the linked areas and in the U.S. - the handbook describes what data is needed and where to find it, and the software tool performs the quantitative analysis;
• Assessing the business attraction strengths and weaknesses of the local area, including relative costs of doing business and availability of resources such as industrial parks and buildings;
• Identifying business growth and attraction opportunities; and
• Formulating an economic development strategy based on the identified business opportunities, stakeholder resources, and other community needs.

The handbook can be used by itself or with the software tool (which requires Microsoft Excel for full functioning). Data inputs include employment data for mix and trend analysis, data on business costs (including tax burden, labor cost and electricity cost), estimates of change in market accessibility (calculated by the user based on techniques described in the handbook), and estimates of development constraints (including availability of highway-related commercial land, industrial park sites with full infrastructure, and office/commercial development sites).
Executive Summary (web pages) from ARC web site

Full report (web pages) from ARC website

Full report (pdf, 994k) from ARC website

For more information contact:

Appalachian Regional Commission
Glen Weisbrod, Economic Development Research Group