The Nation-wide Indices

Seven indices introduced below are followed by a sample of the similarities and differences that exist among them.

Progressive Policy Institute (PPI)

The Progressive Policy Institute provides one of the most widely used barometers of states' relative positions in technology-based economies. State New Economy Index: Benchmarking Economic Transformation in the States offers an innovation-oriented public policy framework for the states to foster success in the New Economy. PPI contends states that overhaul traditional approaches to economic development and replace them with a new approach focused on boosting skills, entrepreneurship, technology and quality of life are best prepared to prosper in the New Economy.

The 2002 index includes 21 indicators and more finely tuned measurements to assess state progress since PPI's first report in 1999. The indicators are distributed across five categories: knowledge jobs; globalization; economic dynamism and competition; the transformation to a digital economy; and technological innovation capacity.

PPI's 2002 State New Economy Index is available online at http://www.neweconomyindex.org/states/. Print versions are available through SSTI's bookstore at http://www.ssti.org/Publications/publications.htm

Office Of Technology Policy (OTP)

With the goal of assembling “a consistent set of state-level data that approximates the ‘technology infrastructure’ of the states,” the Office of Technology Policy (OTP) has released, The Dynamics of Technology-based Economic Development: State Science and Technology Indicators. OTP, part of the Technology Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, cautions repeatedly throughout the report that no attempt is made or intended to analyze, benchmark, or assess any state's performance along any of the 37 metrics included. Dynamics is meant to serve as a neutral reference guide for policy makers and researchers as they develop, implement, and evaluate state science and technology policies and programs. The 37 metrics are divided among five major groups: funding in-flows (10 indicators); human resources (9); capital investment and business assistance (5); technology intensity of the business base (5); and, outcome measures (8). The guide draws upon state-level data "that approximates the 'technology infrastructure' of the states, or, at the very least, compiles information about those factors that clearly affect states' capacity to generate new enterprises and high quality jobs, and sustain economic growth."

The Dynamics of Technology-based Economic Development: State Science and Technology Indicators is available at http://www.ta.doc.gov/reports/TechPolicy/StatesIndicators2.pdf

Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED)

The Development Report Card of the States is issued annually by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CED). CED uses more than 70 measures and data sets as indicators of the effectiveness of each state’s economic development policies in three broad categories: performance, business vitality and development capacity. Each category has a number of subunits, which consist of several individual measures. S&T indicators and those more generally related to tech-based economic development are scattered throughout the report card. The uniqueness of the CED report card is the selection and aggregation of the particular indicators, the assignment of letter grades to indicate a state’s performance for each of the three broad categories, the ease of online access to the information, and the amount of public attention the report card receives annually.

CED's Development Report Card of the States is available at http://drc.cfed.org/

Beacon Hill

A study released by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Boston is one of the more recent efforts to examine all aspects of U.S. states and their economies. Entitled State Competitiveness Report 2001, the study defines competitiveness as the ability to ensure and sustain a high level of per capita income and its continued growth. The BHI report combines more than three dozen variables into nine subindexes: government and fiscal policy, institutions, infrastructure, human resources, technology, finance, openness, domestic competition and environmental policy. Using the nine subindexes, each of which the Beacon Hill Institute says represents an element of competitiveness, the authors made an overall index and ranked the states according to their overall competitiveness.

The State Competitiveness Report is available at http://www.beaconhill.org/MasterDocumentSCI_A1.pdf

Milken Institute

Commissioned by TechVentures Network and the California Technology Trade and Commerce Agency's Division of Science Technology and Innovation, the Milken Institute set about to develop a series of indicators to measure the performance of California’s high technology-based economy against the rest of the country in State Technology & Science Index: Comparing and Contrasting California. The result is a set of 73 indicators arrayed across five composites: R&D inputs; risk capital and infrastructure; human capital investment; technology and science workforce; and technology concentration and dynamism. The study offers a detailed look at California’s technology position among the other 49 states. While not part of the freely available report, a separate set of Institute rankings for all 50 states shows the inventory of each state’s technology and science assets.

State Technology and Science Index: Comparing and Contrasting California is available at: http://www.milkeninstitute.org/poe.cfm?point=pub03

Southern Growth Policies Board

The Southern Innovation Index, a strategic plan created with the governments of 13 Southern states and Puerto Rico to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth in the South, was prepared by the Southern Growth Policies Board, a bipartisan public policy group based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The index identifies 56 benchmarks and 10-year targets for each of the Southern Growth member states — Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico — to track the progress of technology and innovation initiatives in the region.

The Southern Innovation Index is available at: http://www.southern.org/main/stc/projects/2002/SII.shtml

Small Business Survival Committee

The annual Small Business Survival Index, released in July 2002 by the Small Business Survival Committee, ties together 20 major government-imposed or government related costs that impact businesses and entrepreneurs. These factors include personal income tax, health care costs, and minimum wage among many others.

The index suggests that those states scoring best in the index should be havens for small business and entrepreneurship growth. Measures of actual business start-ups and survivability, incorporated in most of the other indices listed above, suggest there is much more that goes into small business survival than selected tax rates and regulatory policies (see the August 24, 2001 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest for a discussion of taxes and entrepreneurship). Inclusion of such information most likely runs counter to the Committee's purpose in preparing the index.

The Small Business Survival Index 2002 can be found at http://www.sbsc.org/Media/pdf/SBSI2002A.pdf