Improved Prospects for Rural Development: An Industrial Targeting System for the Great Plains

This research introduces an industrial targeting system intended to improve local decision making related to selection of targets for business recruitment. The Plains Economic Targeting System (PETS) consists of a series of econometric equations that match industry input and market requirements with community characteristics to generate a probability of new business location over a given time period. The system matches location requirements for 78 industry sectors to local characteristics for 414 counties in six Great Plains states. Further, the coefficients generated for a given county are transformed into marginal impacts, providing important information relating to local policies that can improve the probability of attracting a given industry. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.