Politics and economic development: Why governments adopt different strategies to induce economic growth

This article assesses the forces that drive governments to engage in econom ic development activity and attempts to explain why communities adopt diffe rent strategies to bring about the common goal of economic well-being. I ad dress this issue at the state policy level by assessing the relationship be tween economic development strategy and theories of policy adoption in a po oled times series analysis using indicators of interstate competition, fisc al stress, and state ideology collected between 1983 and 1994. I find that economic development strategy choices are largely a function of interjurisd ictional competition. The implications of my findings are discussed.