By Caleb Taylor
ACRE Policy Analyst Jacob Bundrick participated in a panel on November 4th on how data can shape community development.
The panel was part of an event entitled “Community Development Basics: How To Strengthen Arkansas Communities” hosted by UCA’s Center for Community & Economic Development.
Bundrick spoke about how data can be used to examine the effectiveness of economic development policies at the local, state and federal levels of government.
Bundrick said:
“Most of these economic development policies are put into place to achieve a certain goal. With data we can analyze those policies and those programs to see if they are actually achieving those goals. We can use data to analyze whether the benefits of a specific economic development policy or program outweigh the costs of that program.”
Bundrick’s research at ACRE centers on public finance, financial economics and economic development. He is the author of “Tax Breaks and Subsidies: Challenging The Arkansas Status Quo.”
Sarah Kinser, Chief Program Officer at the Arkansas Community Foundation, and Terre McLendon, Senior Research Coordinator at the Arkansas Economic Development Institute, joined Bundrick on the panel.
You can watch the full discussion by the panel here, and stay up to date on our videos by following our YouTube page.