Profitwise News and Views

September 2003 Issue

Seeds of Growth Conference Summary

Seeds of Growth Sustainable Community Development: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why

Introduction
The Community Affairs program of the Federal Reserve System is an educational, informational, and technical assistance function focused on community development. The ultimate goal of Community Affairs is to increase the flow of capital and credit to historically underserved communities and ensure fair access to credit and financial services. This goal is consistent with the Federal Reserve's overall mission to promote price stability and sustainable economic growth, as constraints on credit and capital for other than economic reasons work against the Fed's efforts.

On March 27 and 28, 2003, the Federal Reserve System's Community Affairs and Research Officers hosted the third biennial Community Development Research Conference, Seeds of Growth, Sustainable Community Development: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why.

The conference featured a distinguished group of economists and scholars from the Federal Reserve System, academia and major research institutions discussing community economic development tools, programs, and strategies. The conference focused on techniques to foster sustainable economic development within communities and measure the effectiveness of those efforts.

The importance of determining the efficacy of programs is difficult to overstate, particularly in the current economic environment and with budget deficits at every level. Historically, a scarcity of hard data has hindered efforts to analyze the effectiveness of community development programs. This conference shed light on the complex tasks of data collection, variable isolation and connecting cause and effect. The Federal Reserve System is not alone in seeking to quantify program effectiveness - the call for papers elicited 75 proposals and 20 were selected for presentation.

The papers represent the latest work in the field from academia, policy institutions, and the Federal Reserve System. The presentations engendered lively and informed discussions on sustainable community development, insights on various economic consequences and possible policy responses. This article summarizes the researchers' perspectives on what works, what doesn't, and why, and their insights on the elements of sustainable community development. The article is organized by session in the same sequence as the actual conference agenda. The papers in their entirety are available on the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's CEDRIC Web site.