LOCAL GROWTH PROMOTION - POLICY ADOPTION VERSUS EFFORT

Previous research has shown that both structural and political/organiz ational factors affect growth promotion. Most of these studies have ne ither distinguished between policy adoption and growth effort nor cons idered the possibility that the processes contributing to policy adopt ion may be different from those influencing the level of incentives us ed to promote growth. Based on data from local government officials in Wisconsin cities and villages, we find that structural, or economic. and political/organizational factors affect economic development activ ity adoption to a significantly different extent and in significantly different ways. Both the adoption of activities and the level of effor t expended are influenced by a community's economic structure. Politic al/organizational factors are more likely to influence adoption of pol icies than is the effort communities make at promoting growth. The res ults suggest that growth effort is influenced strongly by economic fac tors, and that policy adoption has a symbolic value that addresses pol itical concerns.