Pages

Thursday, May 23, 2013

BEWARE of Biased Partisan Economic Rankings

Be well informed
Be sure to read both sides of the issue.
Don't make the mistake of accepting partisan - one-sided arguments when it comes to the economic health of your state.


Prominent studies that purport to measure and rank the states’ “business climates” are actually politicized grab - bags of data. They have no predictive value and should not be used to inform public policies. Those are the main conclusions of a new study published today by Good Jobs First . “Grading Places: What Do the Business Climate Rankings Really Tell Us?” is authored by Dr. Peter Fisher, an economist who has written extensively on economic development. “

When we scrutinized the business climate methodologies, we found profound and elementary errors,” said Fisher. “We found effects presented as causes. We found factors that have no empirically proven relationship to economic growth. And we found scores that ignore major differences among state tax systems. ”
 
And unless the partisan and extremist American Legislative Exchange Council has drastically changed their format and data analysis - this report may still apply.


In actuality, Rich States, Poor States provides a recipe for economic inequality, wage suppression, and stagnant incomes, and for depriving state and local governments of the revenue needed to maintain the public infrastructure and education systems that are the true foundations of long term economic growth and shared prosperity.  

No comments:

Post a Comment