Third Annual Colorado Competitiveness Study Released

The Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation (MDEDC ) released its third competitiveness study - Toward A More Competitive Colorado - which benchmarks competitive factors related to economic growth and job creation (http://www.metrodenver.org/files/documents/news-center/research-reports/TMCC_III_FullStudy.pdf). This impressive report presents a comprehensive series of rankings showing Colorado versus the highest and lowest performing states and Colorado versus competitor states. Factors assessed include: economic vitality, productivity, innovation, taxes, business costs, livability, K-12 education, higher education, health, health care, quality of life, and infrastructure.

The report describes Colorado in the following way:

"In 2007, Colorado remained a competitive state for new job growth. The
state's citizens are healthy, productive, and innovative. Colorado is one
of the most highly educated states in the nation. Our natural environment,
and our willingness to retain it, lends itself to healthy lifestyles and out
ability to attract highly educated workers."(p. 10)

"Colorado is an affluent 'Island' in the middle of the country,
geographically distant from major trading regions. Ranked eighth in
the country in per capita income, Colorado is surrounded by states
that have lower wages and, often, lower business costs...To compete against
these lower- cost markets, Colorado must foster greater productivity and
innovation - creating jobs that pay higher wages but produce higher value
goods and services."(p. 10).

I would say the overall tone of the report is one of concern that the competitiveness of Colorado in the knowledge based economic sectors is at risk of slipping.

"We remain concerned with mediocre high school graduation rates, the
disconnection between the requirements of our high-technology employment
clusters and low funding levels provided for citizens to acquire these
skills. We remain particularly concerned with the ongoing low levels of
funding for higher education." (p.12)

"This year we are not certain that public sector investments in education
(particularly higher education), transportation, and our citizens' health
are sufficient to ensure our economy's long term competitiveness"(p. 13)

The report cited the Colorado Competitiveness Council, the Metro Denver WIRED Initiative, and the Metro Denver Health and Wellness Commission as tools to help address the concerns cited above.

The report profiles the MDEDC's six industry clusters targeted for recruitment efforts:

• Aerospace
• Aviation
• Bioscience
• Energy
• Financial Services
• Information Technology - Software

The report also profiles the MDEDC's three industry clusters targeted for retention and expansion:

• Beverage Production
• Broadcasting and Telecommunications
• Information Technology - Hardware

The competitor states used in the report were Texas, Georgia, Arizona and New Mexico. According to the report, Texas and Arizona are Colorado's most frequent economic development competitors. However, I would have liked to have seen a more detailed discussion of why all four of the competitor states were chosen. Based on recent competition with Chicago for aviation related headquarters (Boeing and United) and Milwaukee for the MillerCoors headquarters, I am thinking it would also be useful to have a mid-western state (Illinois or Wisconsin) on the list of competitor states.

Another methodological question that I would be interested in learning more about is why the ranking were done on the state level instead of the metro area level. It seems to me that the metro area as opposed to the state is the more appropriate unit of analysis for an assessment of economic development competitiveness.