Matching Economic Development Policy to the Local Context: Must We?

This paper examines 2013 data on high-tech manufacturing employment across metropolitan statistical areas in the United States. The purpose is to discover how a broad set of social/demographic/economic variables relate to varying densities of high-tech manufacturing employment. Two questions are asked: Do social and industrial circumstances evolve together, as suggested by institutionalist theories? Is there any evidence to suggest that economic development policy is likely to be effective at creating the conditions that might invite local development of high-tech manufacturing?