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Objective. Local governments in the United States have adopted a wide variety of policies to stimulate their local economies, but there is still debate over the effectiveness of such efforts. This paper examines the relationship between local development policies and changes in the number of jobs in both the manufacturing and service sectors during the mid-1980s. Methods. Data cover almost 900 cities and are based on Census Bureau sources and a 1984 International City Management Association survey of local governments. A two-stage least squares regression analysis is used. Results. The findings indicate that policy adoption had a limited effect on employment change from 1982 to 1987. For both manufacturing and service employment, market factors had the strongest effect on employment growth. Conclusions. The findings suggest that local economic development policies had a limited influence on changes in the number of jobs in cities during the economic recovery of the 1980s. Local investment in infrastructure and education, however, may enhance employment growth in both the manufacturing and service sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study concerned with the attachment or connection between support for economic growth and welfare-state liberalism/conservatism. This possible connection has import in a number of respects: 1) The American working class appears to be tied to both economic expansion and welfare-state expansion, at least in the short run, because of this class' economic insecurity. 2) The social resistance to economic growth is based among the middle class, on the other hand, and is largely liberal in orientation. 3.) The result seems that the American left is fractionalized in its critique of the political economy of environmental degradation, since left-leaning members of the middle and working classes likely differ in their attachments to economic growth.