The Planning — Policy Connection in US and Canadian Economic Development

The evidence regarding the extent of planning for local economic development decisions is mixed, and there is a general dearth of studies that examine whether rational planning is tied to policy choices in any systematic way. The research reported here rests on two premises. The first is the simple assumption that for planning to play an integral part in the economic development policy process there should be some empirical connection between local economic development goals—what officials want to achieve—and the economic development strategies they pursue. The second premise, based on extant literature, is that Canadian cities have different and more institutionally integrated planning traditions and practices than those in the USA, and hence should evidence a closer link between development goals and policies. Based on a survey of all of the municipalities in the USA and Canada with populations over 10 000, it is concluded that for US cities goals do not appear to correlate with discrimination among economic development policies; that is, planning is not related to the selection of activities. On the other hand, in Canada, cities' goals are related to specific policies in a more logical or rational fashion. In short, it appears that economic development planning is tied to the selection of policies to a greater extent in Canadian cities than in the USA.