Semester
Fall
Date of Graduation
1998
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MS
College
Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
Department
Agricultural and Resource Economics
Committee Chair
Scott Loveridge.
Abstract
Academic research in the area of economic development policy is overwhelmingly critical of industrial recruitment, recommending instead that resources be directed towards strategies such as business retention and expansion, fostering local entrepreneurship, and amenity development. This research moves beyond criticizing industrial recruitment policy and explores one potential reason, a high discount rate, for practitioners' reliance on recruitment over other available local development techniques. The research also investigates developer's probability of success for industrial recruitment as well as alternative development strategies and examines whether economic developer use of incentive packages to recruit local businesses is a rational decision, i.e., supported by the general public. Contingent valuation methods estimate discount rates of local economic developers from Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia using a mail survey while West Virginia citizens were surveyed by phone.
Recommended Citation
Loy, Beth Ann, "Willingness to pay for industrial recruitment: A look at local decision-maker activity versus citizen preference" (1998). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 896.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/896