Doctoral Dissertation Research: Plugging Into the Global Economy: A Study of Economic Development in Smaller, Industrial Cities

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Project Abstract: Plugging Into the Global Economy: A Study of Economic Development in Smaller, Industrial CitiesThis project investigates how smaller, industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast United States have experienced the period of global economic restructuring from 1970 to 2000. As a consequence of deindustrialization these cities face serious economic challenges to finding their niche in the new economy. The research will identify the different economic trajectories these cities have taken to achieve integration into the new global economy and explain why certain trajectories are followed. In doing so, this research will evaluate several theories of economic development and attempt to advance a competing theory based on social capital. It is hypothesized that a city's local organizational life in conjunction with organizational networks extending beyond the local community affect the ability of cities to take certain trajectories into the global economy.This comparative historical project incorporates multiple methods. To identify the economic trajectories of the cities, data will be gathered from multiple sources including: HUD's State of the Cities Data System, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Occupational Employment Survey, the U.S. Economic Census, local chamber of commerce information and local utility company information on largest employers. These data will be used to create city-level economic trajectories-economic profiles of the cities that highlight changes in employment across different economic sectors over time. Next, additional data on city-level factors that potentially influence economic development will be gathered from multiple private and public data sources. I will utilize conventional quantitative methods to analyze longitudinal change and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to determine the factors that explain cities' economic trajectories. Finally, three to four cities will be analyzed as illustrative cases to construct an historical and operational understanding of how and why cities took certain paths. Broader impacsts of this research are that it contributes to the empirical and theoretical literature on economic development by systematically identifying the mechanisms by which cites rebound from deindustrialization and by examining whether and how social capital plays a role in the process. While a substantial interdisciplinary literature prescribes steps cites must take to be successful in the new global economy, it largely fails to address the particular needs of deindustrialized cities. Thus, this research will assess how the extant literature predicts the ability of such cities to achieve global economic integration and offer new empirical and theoretical insights into the mechanisms necessary for success. Importantly, one understudied link is the connection between social capital and global economic integration. In-depth analysis of at least four cities will contribute to this gap by asking whether and how network ties, both internal and external to a city, produce beneficial economic outcomes. Finally, this research will speak to questions policy-makers, city planners, and politicians continue to ask about how to achieve local economic development. By providing systematic data on both successful and non-successful city-level economic trajectories, including an analysis of why certain paths work well, this research will offer practical significance for policy-makers who want to avoid ill-conceived and financially wasteful growth plans in favor of sounder economic plans for smaller, deindustrialized cities that pervade the Midwest and Northeastern United States.