Non-CEBR Publications

We are pleased to make available selected research relevant to West Texas. If you know of regional research that might be of economic development interest, please email us at lynnm@acu.edu:

Work Force Analysis of the Abilene (TX) Area  (pdf)
Carter & Burgess for the Abilene Industrial Foundation
April 2006

Abilene Business Climate Survey (pdf)
Ray Ferguson and Sharon Earnest, Condley and Company
December 2005

Texas Small Business Conditions
National Federation of Independent Business
December 2005

Making It: What it Really Takes to Live in Texas  (pdf)
Center for Public Policy Priorities
September 2002

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Recommended Books

Want to learn more about economic development? Here are some of our favorite books:

Community Development

• Smart Communities: How Citizens and Local Leaders Can Use Strategic Thinking to Build a Brighter Future, by Suzanne W. Morse. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004
• • An inspirational overview of community development, filled with inspiration and lessons learned from American communities, large and small
• Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets, by John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight. Chicago: ACTA Publications, 1993
• • A hands-on guide to community development, illustrating how to identify and capitalize on human, economic, and physical assets in a community

Economic Development

• The Community Economic Development Handbook: Strategies and Tools to Revitalize Your Neighborhood , by Mihailo Temali. St. Paul, MN: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, 2002
• • An excellent how-to create book on economic development strategy; special attention is given to revitalizing commercial districts, developing microbusinesses, developing a commuity workforce, and growing good neighboorhood jobs
• Planning Local Economic Development: Theory and Practice , by Edward J. Blakely and Ted K. Bradshaw. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2002
• • An academic overview of economic development, providing a grounding in theory and practice; topics among the 14 chapters include: Selecting a local economic development strategy, locality development, analytic techniques for planning local development, and the high-technology economic development strategy
• Local Economic Development: Analysis and Planning , by John P. Blair. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995
• • An academic overview of economic development, well written and with easy to understand quantitative tools; topics among the 13 chapters include: Business location, land use, housing, resource flows, and economic structure

Economic Indicators

• The Secrets of Economic Indicators: Hidden Clues to Future Economic Trends and Investment Opportunities, by Bernard Baumohl. Philadelphia: Wharton School Publishing, 2005
• • Want to dig into the meaning of various economic indicators such as employment, consumer spending, and housing starts? This book makes the numbers and lingo make sense

Entrepreneurship

• Energizing Entrepreneurs: Charting a Course for Rural Communities, by Deborah Markley, Don Macke, and Vicki B. Luther. Lincoln, NE: RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and Heartland Center for Leadership Development, 2005
• • How to bring entrepreneurship to a rural community written from the perspective of the economic development leaders

Planning

• Rural by Design: Maintaining Small Town Character, by Randall Arendt, Elizabeth A. Brabec, Harry L. Dodson, Christine Reid, and Robert D. Yaro. Washington, DC: American Planning Association, 1994
• • Widely respected, this is the planner's bible for rural areas

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

• Community Geography: GIS in Action, by Kim Zanelli English and Laura S. Feaster. Redlands, CA: ESRI Press, 2003
• • Designed as a manual for students to study their community, modules include mapping crime, noxious weeds, water quality, harmful landfills, transportation routes and more.

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