Placemaking as an Economic Development Strategy for Small and Midsized Cities

Economic development strategies aimed at attracting highly skilled workers through investment in urban amenities are gaining momentum throughout the United States. However, most of the foundational research for the approach was tested in very large cities, both in the United States and abroad. Based on quality of place (QOP) variables suggested from previous research, confirmatory factor analysis was used to generate a set of factors for a selection of small and midsized U.S. cities, and linear regression was used to relate these factors to the presence of college-educated populations, younger college-educated populations, and adult population growth. The results indicated that some of the QOP factors associated with better human capital outcomes in prior literature focusing on larger cities were also significant predictors of better human capital outcomes in midsized cities. The relationship between these factors and development outcomes for small cities was much weaker.