Development Report Card For The States

focus:drc home page drc philosophy framework measures grades promising practices changes from 2006 customize drc drc data faq press release related links drc survey about online discussion

2007 Development Report Card For The States
overview

Economic Development:
Of the People, By the People, For the People

Twenty years ago, CFED created the Development Report Card for the States to put forth a simple but radical notion: economies are fundamentally about people. Healthy economies offer greater opportunities for everyone. They should provide economic livelihoods, financial security, and an environment of opportunity for the people who live there. State and local economic development efforts should foster creativity, productivity, and inclusion.

In the 1980s, “economic development” was frequently viewed as primarily about companies. This outlook was further popularized by the many tools available that compared states’ “business friendliness.” While these ratings captured some important points, they often emphasized “low cost” instead of “high value.” The cheapest locations—those with low taxes and wages—got the best grades. These tools encouraged policies to weaken regulation, even if that regulation protected things like the environment and worker safety. An area’s good business rating could be damaged if workers were paid wages and provided benefits that were sufficient for their needs, even when public incentives were provided to their employers.

In 1987, the Development Report Card for the States offered a different way to assess state economies and a different way to think about economic development. It continues to do so in 2007. Measuring the standard of living and working in a state and how well the state is building foundations for future growth is just as important as how hospitable that state is to businesses.

2007 DRC Overview

The Development Report Card for the States (DRC) uses 67 measures to provide a relative, state-by-state assessment of economic development, assigning grades in three main areas: Performance (economic climate for a wage-earner), Business Vitality (economic climate for a business), and Development Capacity (how a state is positioned for the future).

Download a four-page, PDF summary on this year's findings.

2007 DRC Honor Roll

The DRC compares how states perform relative to each other, rather than to an absolute standard. The honor roll recognizes those states that earn all As and Bs in the report card's three graded indexes: performance, business vitality, and development capacity.