SSTI Digest

The Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) released a report detailing the benefits, obstacles and importance of working with under-resourced communities to facilitate access to solar energy. The report, Solar with Justice, provides a detailed set of recommendations for successfully providing solar technology to low- and moderate-income areas. CESA's suggestions target six specific stakeholders: state governments, philanthropic foundations, community organizations, municipalities, investors, and the solar industry. Accompanying these guidelines are 11 case studies, each giving unique insight into the process of introducing solar energy into under-resourced communities while also addressing the challenges that can arise, including the lack of capital or state-level policy support. The recommendations, paired with this set of diverse case studies, provides stakeholders with a roadmap for bringing solar technology to the under-resourced communities of the country. Among the report’s key recommendations for state governments are to be sure pro-solar state policies are in place, adopt special incentives and policies, leverage private capital, work with and help community…

Taking a deeper dive into R&D expenditures at U.S. institutions of higher education, this week’s edition of Useful Stats examines the fields in which this R&D was performed at the metropolitan level in 2018. Expanding on a previous SSTI report showing that R&D activity at universities and colleges is clustered heavily on the coasts, this analysis uses the NSF’s Higher Education R&D (HERD) data on the research expenditures at individual institutions to determine how this funding is distributed among the various fields of study, with life sciences outpacing all other fields. As shown in the map below, HERD expenditures in the life sciences (primarily the biological, biomedical, and health sciences) accounted for the vast majority of all higher education R&D activity in the U.S. — accounting for 57.8 percent ($45.8 billion) of the total performed in 2018. Engineering R&D was a distant second, accounting for 15.6 of the total.

The governors are beginning their state of the state addresses, which SSTI reviews every year for news from the states’ executives on innovation-related initiatives. Each year we bring you the governors’ own words from their speeches as they pertain to the innovation economy. In this first installment, we see education, workforce, and broadband initiatives from Idaho and Virginia, which is also proposing a new office for wind development, and West Virginia is turning to new uses for coal and a new investment fund. Idaho Gov. Brad Little focused on workforce, education, broadband and other economic initiatives: “I have directed our universities, community colleges, and the State Board of Education to adopt a fresh, bold approach to meeting the needs of Idaho students and businesses by breaking down silos and working together more as an interconnected higher education system. To that end, I am recommending the development of cybersecurity programs that will be offered jointly by Boise State University, Idaho State University, and University of Idaho. This increased level of collaboration across Idaho’s higher education institutions will offer Idahoans a…

The Senate confirmed the nomination of Jovita Carranza to become the administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) this week. During her recent confirmation hearing, Carranza was pushed on the committee’s concerns about the leadership of SBA’s Office of Innovation and Investment, which overseas both the Small Business Investment Corporation (SBIC) program and SBA’s SBIR/STTR policy office. In response, Carranza agreed to address those concerns, ensure that the SBIR/STTR office’s staff backlog is addressed, and testify before the committee within 90 days about her solutions to these issues. Carranza, who most recently served as U.S. treasurer, was deputy administrator for SBA under President George W. Bush and previously had a long tenure with UPS.

In 2019, the administrations and legislatures in many states grappled with if and how to adjust state economic development initiatives to leverage the federal Opportunity Zone (OZ) program. The actions of 12 states that implemented new activities are described below. Notably, many of these state efforts require applications and reports on OZ projects — unlike the federal OZ incentive. Some created a new requirement specific to OZs and some states placed the OZ benefits within existing initiatives that already require such information sharing. Investor use of state OZ benefits, therefore, may be one means by which the costs and benefits of the federal program will be able to be evaluated. Readers should be aware that full appreciation of the state-level benefits for OZ investment go beyond the distinct initiatives described below. Of the 44 states that have an income or capital gains tax, all but five conform with the federal OZ benefits — meaning that investors will receive state capital gains deferrals, reductions and waivers. Alabama The state created a multi-tiered incentive structure providing increasing support as projects make a greater commitment…

While the labor force participation rate of prime-age individuals (age 25 to 54) remains below its pre-recession level, it has been increasing since 2015. A recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City found that college-educated women have made the largest contribution to this recovery. Researchers found that the participation rate has increased 1.7 percentage points to 82.6 percent in 2019, corresponding to 3 million more prime-age individuals in the labor force than in 2015. However the gains were not evenly distributed across all workers. The researchers divided prime-age individuals into four groups: men with less than a bachelor’s degree (non-college men), men with a bachelor’s degree (college men), women with less than a bachelor’s degree (non-college women), and women with a bachelor’s degree (college women). While the researchers found that all four groups experienced an increase in the labor force participation rate since 2015, prime-age men and women without a bachelor’s degree saw larger deteriorations in their labor force participation rates from 2008 to 2015 than their college-educated counterparts. Among prime-age individuals…

Earning a college degree has long been touted as a prerequisite for getting a good job with the wages needed to support a middle class lifestyle, or better. However, as tuition rates have continued to rise across the country, so too has the burden of student loan debt. Outstanding student loan debt increased by $20 billion from the second quarter of 2019 to a total of $1.5 trillion in the third quarter, according to the New York Federal Reserve Bank’s most recent quarterly report on household credit and debt. This amount — second only to mortgages at $9.4 trillion — accounted for nearly 11 percent of total household debt in 2019, increasing from roughly 4 percent in 2005. The most pronounced rise (37.8 percent) comes from people aged 18 to 29 — the age group for most college students — swelling from approximately 15 percent in 2005.  Not only has the total value of student loan debt increased, but so has its delinquency rates.

If reading more is on your list of New Year’s resolutions, SSTI has you covered as we bring you some thoughts from the staff on books we read in 2019. There are those we enjoyed and would recommend, as well as those you may want to skip. Also, feel free to drop us a line and let us know if you have any recommendations to share with us. Perhaps they’ll show up on our list next year! Dan Berglund, president and CEO Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy edited by Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll (West Virginia University Press, 2019). JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis became a surprise bestseller powered, in part, by those looking for an explanation for how Donald Trump won the presidency and a powerful personal narrative. Appalachian Reckoning responds to Vance's book with essays grounded in the academic literature and personal stories of those who live or have roots in the region. The essays underscore an important truth for those involved in public policy and economic development: those peddling simple solutions and presenting themselves as the spokesperson for a region or a…

This edition of Useful Stats examines the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ first full release of county-level gross domestic product (GDP) data. Specifically, this analysis considers total county GDP in 2018 and the contributions to each county’s GDP by industry. While finance and insurance in New York ($222.5 billion) accounted for the single largest contribution to both total county GDP and total U.S. GDP in 2018 — followed by real estate and rental and leasing in Los Angeles ($150.2 billion) — the manufacturing sector was the highest contributor to county GDP in the greatest number of counties. Manufacturing was the primary source for county GDP in 927 out of more than 3100 counties — accounting for nearly $2.3 trillion of total U.S. GDP in 2018. Government and government enterprises (768 counties) accounted for the second most frequent leader in county GDP contributions — totaling $2.4 trillion nationally — followed by real estate and rental and leasing (647 counties) — totaling $2.7 trillion nationally. The next closest industry was agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting which was the top contributor to GDP in only 209 counties — and only accounting for a national total of $138.4 billion. The map below shows counties with manufacturing, government, real estate, mining, and agriculture  as their predominant industry. The map shows that manufacturing is the leading industry in counties in the Midwest and South while agriculture is centered primarily within the Plains region.

NIH has taken an expanded approach in defining scientists from disadvantaged backgrounds, in an effort to encourage and enable more biomedical scientists. NIH determined that the criteria they were using in defining disadvantaged was too narrow; for example, what was considered low-income ($25,750 for a family of four) is actually considered severe poverty and represents an overly strict threshold, the reviewers found. They have issued new guidelines and will consider scientists to have come from a disadvantaged background if they meet at least two criteria from their expanded list, including no parents or legal guardians who completed a bachelor’s degree, past eligibility for the federal free and reduced lunch program for two or more years, and were or are currently eligible for federal Pell grants. The new notice also noted that women from disadvantaged backgrounds face particular challenges at the graduate level and beyond in scientific fields and NIH encourages institutions to consider women for faculty-level, diversity-targeted programs to address faculty recruitment, appointment, retention or advancement.

A trio of plans focused on economic development at the state level were released this month. Noting that it is at an economic crossroads and facing serious challenges, Maine’s Department of Economic and Community Development has issued a new 10-year economic development strategy for the state. Massachusetts has also proposed a new economic development plan, focusing on four key areas, while a new report in Maryland is targeting clean energy as an opportunity for the state to invest in the future. Maine’s plan Maine’s challenges include what they say is a likely global economic downturn, an aging workforce and threats to some of its largest industries due to technology and climate change. Noting that it has not had such a strategy in more than two decades, the new plan was developed incorporating feedback from more than 1,300 Mainers. Talent and innovation emerged as the two major necessities to spur growth in the state. With Maine having one of the oldest populations in the nation, a current tight labor market, and an estimated 65,000 decrease in the workforce from retirements over the next ten years, its workforce challenges are many-faceted. The report…

Congress is expected to pass the FY 2020 budget this week, and as anticipated, the bills include billions in new appropriations. Innovation policy priorities, such as Regional Innovation Strategies, Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and NSF, did well in the final budget. Here are the top things to know about innovation initiatives in the final budget. 1. Regional Innovation Strategies receives $33 million The Economic Development Administration (EDA) is seeing its funding increase by $29 million to $333 million for FY 2020. This growth includes an increase of $9.5 million — or 40 percent — for Regional Innovation Strategies. Expanding the program has been a top priority for SSTI’s Innovation Advocacy Council, and RIS has strong support on the Hill. At the time of the subcommittee markup for EDA’s budget, Chairman Jerry Moran said, “I am proud to say that the program will receive its largest year-over-year increase in the program’s history.” 2. Increased support for manufacturing innovation The National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) is seeing increases for two significant programs supporting innovation among manufacturers.…