Economic Development Quarterly Special Issue Released

We invite you to view the new, special issue on inner-city economic development now available in Economic Development Quarterly (EDQ), a peer-reviewed journal based at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. The issue reveals in detail the research presented at the 2015 Inner City Economic Summit held on September 15–16 in Detroit, MI, sponsored by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), and Sage Publications.

Since the journal’s inception in 1987, its mission has been to promote research supporting the formulation of evidence-based economic development policy, programs, and practice in the United States. In February 1997, EDQ published Michael Porter’s “New Strategies for Inner-City Economic Development,” where he stated,

Inner cities need new, market-oriented strategies that will build on their strengths and engage the private sector. Inner cities must and can compete. Developing a new strategy will require an understanding of what is unique about each inner city, how to build on its advantages, and a plan to eliminate or reduce the many disadvantages to conducting business. This process will require the commitment and involvement of business, government and the nonprofit sector. (p.24)

This special issue features a commentary by Michael Porter, which continues this discussion about inner-city economic development.

Guest editors for the special issue are Haifeng Qian, assistant professor with the School of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Iowa, and Kimberly Zeuli, senior vice president and director of research at the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. Joining Dr. Porter in this issue are Mercedes Delgado, visiting associate professor of technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and strategic management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and senior institute associate at the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School, who co-authored with Zeuli, “Clusters and regional performance: Implications for inner cities.”

Also contributing research to this special issue are Daniel A. Hartley, policy economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Nikhil Kaza, associate professor of city and regional planning, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; and T. William Lester, assistant professor of city and regional planning, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, with an article entitled, “Are America’s inner cities competitive? Evidence from the 2000s.” Timothy Bates, distinguished professor at Wayne State University, and Alicia Robb, senior fellow with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, contribute new research to this special issue with their research, “Impacts of owner race and geographic context on access to small-business financing.”

A conference summary, “Inclusive cluster-based development strategies for inner cities,” authored by Maude Toussaint-Comeau, senior business economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Robin Newberger, senior business economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; and Darline Augustine with the development finance program at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, complete the research offered in this special issue.

We invite you to view the research featured in the May 2016 special issue of Economic Development Quarterly at http://edq.sagepub.com/