Local leaders have considerable influence in development

Municipal leaders have considerable influence in encouraging local economic development, according to Barry Bluestone, founding dean of the School of Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University and director of the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy.

Bluestone, the opening speaker at the Massachusetts Selectmen’s Association’s Fall Conference on Oct. 25 in Franklin, discussed the Dukakis Center’s research about the factors that affect economic development decisions. The center analyzed 26 factors, and the results were encouraging for city and town leaders, he said.

The factors most highly correlated with growth in employment include availability of development sites, site amenities, economic development marketing, timeliness of permit approvals, and on-site parking. Factors that are difficult to control, such as crime rate and public transit availability, were not highly correlated with employment growth.

Bluestone encouraged attendees to focus on marketing their community by improving their websites, and to examine their permitting approval processes.

Bluestone discussed the Dukakis Center’s Economic Development Self-Assessment Tool, which can be used to compile data and answer questions such as, “What factors are most important in promoting economic development?,” and, “Do municipal leaders have any control over what really matters?”

The Dukakis Center has been working with municipal leaders across Massachusetts for the past eight years to help them improve their ability to attract business investment and jobs. To date, Bluestone said, more than 100 cities and towns have used the center’s Economic Development Self-Assessment Tool.

Bluestone also presented an economic overview. By the end of 2013, he said, Massachusetts had recovered all the jobs it had lost in the Great Recession, and job growth is continuing. He said Massachusetts is doing much better than the country as a whole.

For more information about the Economic Development Self-Assessment Tool, visit www.northeastern.edu/dukakiscenter/resources/economic-development-self-assessment-tool.