Decision making processes of municipal -level economic development agencies in the allocation of real estate and economic development subsidies

This paper investigates the structure, participants, decision making processes, and analysis methods of municipal level economic development practices employed in the allocation of real estate and economic development subsidies. To accomplish this, the paper explores the interrelationships among citizen, business, and government actors involved with municipal level real estate and economic development decision making. The paper presents a national survey of public officials involved with real estate and economic development in U.S. cities with populations between 10,000 and 300,000.;Specifically, this dissertation considers the cost benefit analysis methods involved in evaluating publicly subsidized projects. The paper explores the history and development of cost benefit analysis techniques and their applications to municipal level economic and real estate development projects. The existing discussion about how cost benefit analysis techniques can be understood in relation to the dominant decision making actors has largely been neglected in the academic and professional literature. This neglect is surprising given that the benefits and costs of a subsidized project may have multiple impacts upon a community.;This dissertation examines four hypotheses. First, that municipal level economic development administrators see economic development goals as a function of the dominance of citizen, business, and public sector actors participating in goal identification, articulation, and acceptance. Second, that the methods defining development goals are determined in relation to the dominance of the groups participating in the process. Third, that project and proposal evaluation methods are a function of the dominance of the major groups involved in economic and real estate development policy determination. Fourth, that the methods used to evaluate the costs of a development project are a function of the dominance of citizen, business, or government actors involved in the process.;Several findings were obtained from this empirical analysis. The research found a substantial relationship between citizen and business interests and how a community's economic development goals are defined. The study also found a substantial relationship between each of the three groups and the distinct methods used by each of the groups to identify economic development goals. Only in the case of citizen groups did the study find a substantial relationship in a preference for distinct analytical tools and cost areas to measure economic development impacts on the community.