There is a considerable effort under way to revive and remake the economy of the Pioneer Valley. Local officials are pushing a number of projects related to the tourism industry. Springfield Technical Community College is developing a capacity to train telecommunications workers, with the hope that this effort will strengthen the industry for which well-trained labor is the most pressing need. The University of Massachusetts is becoming increasingly involved in supporting economic development through outreach efforts and commercial spin-offs of faculty research, and other collaborations are initiating ways to strengthen the regional economy. Still, the effectiveness of these efforts remains to be seen, at least in terms of the aggregate economic data.
Regions grow and decline for a variety of reasons, many of which are market-driven.
While economic development efforts can make markets work more efficiently, largely by providing information to key players and by seeking out and securing government subsidies for specific efforts, market forces are going to prevail. At the moment, those forces have resulted in a flat or slightly growing regional economy. The difficult task of spawning genuine economic development lies ahead. Robert Nakosteen is a member of the faculty at UMass Amherst's Isenberg School of Management. He is also the executive editor of this journal.