The Political Economy of Manufacturing Growth and Decline across the American States, 1970-1985

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Abstract
Extant research is inconclusive on whether recent state patterns of manufacturing growth and decline are influenced by state economic development programs. In general, this research fails to situate states' development programs in the broader political economy of state economic development. In this article, we extend Gordon, Edwards, and Reich's (1982) historical framework for the analysis of social structures of accumulation to elucidate state-level economic development. Hypotheses derived from this model are tested by performing a pooled, cross-sectional, time-series analysis of state-level manufacturing growth rates for the period from 1970 to 1985. Findings indicate that manufacturing growth is related to several dimensions of states' political economies including state fiscal capacities, the organizational capacity of labor, social wage policies, and state political/electoral context. Findings suggest that state-sponsored economic development policies have minimal effects.

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