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Firms Speak: What the World Business Environment Survey Tells Us about Constraints on Private Sector Development

The paper shows that important dimensions for the climate of business operation and investment can be measured, analyzed, and compared across countries, and that governance is key to the business environment and investment climate. The survey findings suggest that key policy, institutional and governance indicators affect the growth of a firms sale and investment and the extent to which firms operate in the unofficial economy.

Regional Economic Integration: The Canada-U.S. Experience

The paper assesses the nature and degree of bilateral economic integration preceding and following the implementation of the Canada- U.S. Free Trade Agreement. The findings serve as a caution against managers and policymakers assuming that regional integration is an inevitable dynamic and basing strategies and policies around this assumption.

Modernizing Home Buying

The report from the Public Policy Institute argues that while e-transformation of the real estate industry will cut the costs of buying a home and boost economic growth, the industry is unlikely to make this transformation absent public policy intervention. In addition, the report outlines a strategy by which public policy can spur e-transformation of the industry.

Carroll County
Technology Development
Feasibility Study

The report recommends that Carroll County’s focus be on making the region’s research and development strengths available to the county’s companies, entrepreneurs and citizens, and on rapidly diffusing knowledge, even if it is not generated in the county. To build on existing strengths, the report recommends the county nurture entrepreneurship by research faculty who live in the county and work in universities, federal laboratories, or corporate research and development facilities elsewhere in the region.