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To grow their local populations and STEM workforce, communities across the country are experimenting with resident/worker attraction programs, as we have previously covered. But how effective are these programs? A recent study from the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research offers new insights by analyzing Tulsa Remote’s track record from its inception in 2018 to 2023.  

Like the broader metric of R&D intensity, the prominence of R&D value added in a state’s economic output has shifted within several states over the past decade. Does it matter? For sustaining a state’s innovation competitiveness, it may, and subsequently it is important to know for many state and regional TBED initiatives. Proximity to the conduct of R&D has been well documented in empirical research to support strong regional innovation economies.

SSTI recently examined the investment histories of 31 Venture Development Organizations (VDOs) across 20 states to quantify their impact and help to characterize how the broader technology-based economic development (TBED) community supports long-term innovation-driven economic and financial returns. Our top-level findings showed that

After a nine-month hiatus, the Economic Development Administration has reopened its Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance programs with an updated Notice of Funding Opportunity.

From 2022 to 2023, domestic R&D expenditures increased 4%, or $29 billion, but remained nearly unchanged when adjusted for inflation. This apparent slowdown follows a streak averaging nearly 12% ($59 billion) year-over-year growth from 2018 to 2022, and 8% over the past decade from 2014 to 2023. Adjusting for inflation paints a different picture of the growth trends, with a more modest annual average of 8% from 2018 to 2022 and 6% over the past decade.

Commercializing patented inventions is a common goal of innovation policy, as it drives company revenues and regional economic growth. However, tracking the commercialization of inventions stemming from R&D is challenging. While programs like the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program are explicitly designed to encourage commercialization, most evaluation tools rely on approaches that may be anecdotal or incomplete, such as surveys, case studies, or patent counts.

Long concentrated geographically, venture capital also is growing more concentrated in a small number of larger deals, as SSTI has reported in recent Digest issues. In fact, deals under $100 million—not a small figure in itself—have fallen by 71% according to SSTI’s analysis of PitchBook data. Even more troubling is evidence showing deals under $100 million are moving to later-stage investment and away from early-stage companies.