Abstract

The article provides a systematic approach to public and private groups to search for additional manufacturing industry. Manufacturing as a particularly important component of the economic base of a region will be focused upon. Most regions are not economically self-sufficient. One result is that growth requires trade among regions, making the production of an exportable surplus mandatory. Such surpluses may occur in agriculture, the extractive industries, and manufacturing. Because manufacturing is the largest and most portable of the export producing industries, it is among the more attractive candidates to consider in planning for regional economic growth. The growth-generating nature of manufacturing activity prompts most programs of regional development to include a search for ways to expand existing manufacturing plants or to attract new ones. One of the problems encountered in such a search is to identify those items that are most likely to be produced successfully within the region. The persistence of employment problems in Appalachia or urban ghettos demonstrates that there is no easy solution for spreading economic growth to all parts of the U.S. The preceding outline describes a procedure to help facilitate, not guarantee, the effectiveness of this search for manufacturing jobs.