The US Economic Development Administration (EDA) invests in economic development projects throughout the country to promote innovation, competitiveness, and economic growth. This brief summarizes the local impacts of EDA’s construction projects on establishments (for-profit firms and nonprofit organizations), jobs, and the incomes of nearby residents at both the census tract and county levels. We estimate these impacts beginning three years after the grant award.

This analysis provides an updated estimate of impacts from EDA projects using new sources of data and more advanced quasi-experimental estimation techniques. We find that EDA construction projects are associated with additional jobs in the vicinity of the project (the census tract) and across the county, though outcomes vary by community type and project type.

Our analysis reveals the following:

• We estimate that tracts with EDA construction projects awarded between 2010 and 2014 had up to five more establishments for every $1 million invested (including both EDA grant funding and leveraged local investment) through 2017 than they would have had in the absence of the project. We do not detect an increase in the number of establishments in the county where projects are located.
• Tracts with EDA construction projects awarded between 2010 and 2015 have between 3 and 67 more jobs in the tract for every $1 million invested through 2018. This amounts to an average cost of between $15,000 and $333,000 per additional job (averaging $29,000) in the immediate vicinity of a project. Counties with EDA construction projects have an additional 175 to 1,578 jobs for every $1 million invested through 2018.
• EDA construction projects are not associated with a statistically significant increase in the number of jobs held by residents in the census tracts where projects take place, but projects awarded between 2010 and 2015 are associated with additional jobs at the county level, resulting in 178 to 1,612 more jobs held by county residents for every $1 million invested through 2018.
• Job growth is concentrated in counties that had more jobs before the EDA project (i.e., the top half of counties in terms of number of jobs in 2004). In contrast, income growth is concentrated in nonmetropolitan counties.
• The high levels of job growth across counties appear to be driven by facilities and transportation projects but not utilities projects. Utilities projects, however, are associated with growth in the number of establishments in the county.