Watershed shift: Collaboration and employers in the New York City Catskill/Delaware Watershed from 1990–2003

Watershed collaborations may result in less negative impact on business than direct regulation because collaborations entail cooperation among stakeholders and can include economic benefits. While these effects are of interest to students of sustainable economic development, they are difficult to study in part because socioeconomic data is not collected by watersheds. This case study of New York City's Watershed Collaboration in its Catskill Delaware Watershed used an agglomeration of zip coded Department of Labor data on employer units, employment and wages to create a heretofore unavailable statistical profile of Watershed employers. The study also explores the impact of the agreement on the Watershed employers by comparing trends in indicators of employer investment and employee economic welfare in the Watershed and four state, regional, local and rural control areas. Background information is used to help interpret the data. Results do not provide evidence of a net negative impact and are consistent with a net positive impact. Several trends which work against agreement effectiveness are identified. The importance of Collaboration funding and efforts to improve local multipliers is highlighted.