Each year, U.S. cities and states spend billions of dollars on incentives intended to create jobs. Are the strategies being implemented outdated? Is there a better way to create jobs? Rather than focusing on individual aspects of economic development such as entrepreneurship and start-up companies or workforce development, this book provides a comprehensive systems perspective for economic development that identifies how the new model of economic development for America is both a top-down and a bottom-up process that requires effective engagement with the community.

The book begins with...