This paper proposes an empirical method to evaluate decentralized economic development programs with heterogeneous characteristics implemented in different regions or states. The evaluation design developed in the paper is a comparative analysis that operationalizes differences in regional...

In recent years an increasing amount of efforts has been devoted, both in the U.S. and within the E.U., to perform impact evaluation of geographically-targeted economic development (GTED) programs. The surging interest for the evaluation of GTED programs is challenged by the difficulty to assess...