"Gauging a Region’s Entrepreneurial Potential"

Regions are facing rapidly evolving pressures from today’s global economy. The old rules of the game, where traditional assets such as cheap land and labor determined a region’s success or failure, no longer apply. Instead, new categories of assets are shaping economic prospects—assets like workforce skills, lifestyle amenities, access to capital and information, and innovative activity.

Finding new pathways to tap these assets makes economic success much easier. The first step along each new pathway is to measure a region’s assets. The Center for the Study of Rural America is working to quantify today’s critical regional assets by developing a series of asset indicators. These measures should help regions gauge their own competitive capacities, as well as provide a better understanding of the new drivers of regional economic growth.

Entrepreneurship is emerging as a particularly promising new engine for regional growth. The relation between long-term regional employment growth and entrepreneurship is strong. Not only do entrepreneurs create new local jobs, but they also generate new wealth and new growth.

By Sarah Low, Jason Henderson, and Stephan Weiler

http://www.kc.frb.org/PUBLICAT/ECONREV/PDF/3q05low.pdf