Economic development, like other policy areas, has its share of metaphors, and “smokestack chasing” is a popular one. In the old days, it conjured up images of state officials visiting plants in other states with hefty packages of grants, loans, tax breaks, government paid job training, and other benefits intended to lure them to their respective states. Successful smokestack chasing is economic development’s equivalent of baseball’s grand slam, which doesn’t happen too often.
An alternative to smokestack chasing is to look within your own backyard and cultivate the businesses and business opportunities that are there. The Brookings Institute Center for Technology Innovation recently focused on “high-impact” businesses, those whose products help other companies improve their productivity and give consumers new choices. The center was particularly interested in learning where the founders of these businesses came from.
Based on a nationally representative survey of such businesses, the center found that their founding teams included at least one immigrant, who on the average is well educated and lived in the U.S. for at least 25 years. Based on the role these founders play in developing businesses important to a state’s long-term growth, the center recommends policies clearing the green card backlog, easing the pathway from student visa to work visa to green card, and creating a point system for a limited number of unsponsored green card applicants (Issues in Technology Innovation, “Immigrant and High- Impact, High-Tech Entrepreneurship,” February 2011).
