Startup accelerators, which began emerging in 2005 with the launch of Y-Combinator, generally share three characteristics: they tend to be limited in duration; work with cohorts of early stage entrepreneurs; and, aim to facilitate connections with potential investors.

Faced with one of the largest drawdowns in defense spending in American history, the Defense Manufacturing Assistance Program (DMAP) targeted affected companies and communities across Michigan, Ohio and Indiana for assistance. The program aimed to support economic stabilization and diversification across the region during the five-year period from 2013 to 2018.

New projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of key economic variables reveal an expected sharp contraction in the economy in the second quarter with the unemployment rate projected to average 15 percent during the second and third quarters of 2020 and remaining as high as 9.5 percent by the end of 2021. CBO projects GDP will decline by about 12 percent during the second quarter.

While few will be able to escape the resulting hardships of the current economic downturn, America’s most economically vulnerable communities — those where household finances were already unstable and work scarce — will be hit hardest by the recession currently underway.

TEDCO’s current portfolio of assisted companies has grown to 326 companies and more than 3,100 jobs, according to an economic impact report by the University of Baltimore’s Jacob France Institute and TEConomy Partners. TEDCO was created by the Maryland State Legislature in 1998 to facilitate the transfer and commercialization of technology from Maryland’s research universities and federal labs into the marketplace.

One of the most important economic development issues facing communities across the country, especially those reliant on family-owned manufacturing firms, may sometimes fly under the radar: succession planning. A robust study from the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois-Chicago combines qualitative (literature review, survey, and interviews) and quantitative analyses (economic impact report) to shed light on this issue, with a focus on the Chicago metropolitan area.

The longer the pandemic lasts, the greater the jeopardy to many small businesses. A recent report from McKinsey & Company finds that the sectors most affected by the coronavirus and the least financially resilient include 1.7 million small businesses, employ 20 million workers, and earn 12 percent of U.S. business revenue.

An evaluation of the One North Carolina Small Business Matching Fund, a statewide initiative providing grants of up to $50,000 to recent SBIR/STTR awardees, suggests that the program is achieving its goals of creating high-skill, high-wage jobs.

A research team including members from MIT and the Federal Reserve Board assessed the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to determine if the initiative was able to keep businesses from closing and people from becoming unemployed.

South Carolina’s innovation economy is benefiting from funding and support to academic institutions and tech startups from the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA). According to its annual report, SCRA produced an economic impact of over $1 billion in the state in 2021, an increase of about 5.4 percent from 2020. SCRA is a nonprofit corporation chartered by South Carolina to develop the state as a top innovation destination. SCRA and its affiliates provide loans and investments to South Carolina-based companies.

If a recent forecast from McKinsey & Company is correct, climate change isn’t the only rough ride ahead over the next decade for regional and national economies.

Every year, inadequate childcare causes the US economy to take a $122B hit, according to a study by an economist at the University of Pennsylvania. This economic hit affects everyone—workers, businesses, and taxpayers. Parents lose income when they miss work to take care of a child. Businesses suffer from lower productivity when employees are absent.

The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), created by the Maryland General Assembly in 1998 to facilitate the transfer and commercialization of technology from research universities and federal labs and to help create and grow technology-based businesses, has created nearly $2.7 billion in statewide economic activity as of 2023.

This article, written by Leonardo Vasquez and reproduced from the April 2024 issue of NBER Digest, is a summary of NBER Working Paper 31948, prepared by Luisa Gagliardi, Enrico Moretti, and Michael Seranfelli.

The Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) — a nonprofit working to grow Georgia’s economy through supporting research at state universities — recently announced that its portfolio of companies had raised more than over $2 billion in venture capital. These startups also had a high survival rate — 88% were still in business four years after launch, outpacing the national average of 44%. Along with this announcement, GRA released 2021 data on their economic impact on the state, demonstrating growth from the previous year.

A working paper published in the National Bureau of Economic Research asked the question, “Do large firms produce more valuable inventions, and if so, why?” An excerpt of an analysis of the paper that appeared in the November 2022 issue of the NBER Digest follows with additional consideration from SSTI Vice President Mark Skinner on its i

The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a national public-private partnership initiative within the US.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners, a technology-based economic development program serving all 67 Pennsylvania counties, reported in its 2023 Annual Statewide Impact Report that, since its inception more than 40 years ago, it has boosted Pennsylvania’s economy by more than $30 billion, generating more than 58,000 jobs in client firms plus an additional 101,000 spinoff positions, for a total of 159,000 new jobs that otherwise would never have existed.

South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA), a public, non-profit corporation chartered in 1983 by the State of South Carolina , had over a $1.19 billion impact on the state’s economy in 2023.

The administration recently announced that seven regional clean hydrogen hubs have been selected to receive $7 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding. The hubs are located in California, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and West Virginia.