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It has become increasingly clear that major qualityof-life ranking methods are only marginally accurate. Their questionable accuracy and reliability makes them an inappropriate tool for measuring the success of local amenityimprovement programs. Quality of life is an important determinant of economic success, but reliance on a common menu of amenities for all areas is ineffective. Development officials should pursue locally defined amenity strategies and avoid relying on national rankings as a measure of success.
INTRODUCTION
Every time another quality-of-life ranking of American cities is published, local economic development officials have to crank-up their public relations machines. Officials in areas that receive high or increased rankings generally respond by preparing press releases or updating their web pages. Representatives of lower-ranking regions brace for queries from the local press.
This article attempts to place these rankings in perspective. Basically, major quality-of-life rankings are not particularly accurate and should not be the basis for economic development policy making. Although area amenities are increasingly important determinants of economic development success, major quality-of-life studies have proven to be unreliable measures of them. That lack of consistency undermines the rankings' accuracy and greatly diminishes their usefulness.
Economic Development and Quality of Life
Recently, Gottlieb (1994, p. 6) reviewed a number of surveys of important locational factors and concluded: "Amenities are clearly viewed by executives as an important locational factor with the phrase 'quality of life' frequently ranking in the top half of all locational factors." This finding sharply contrasts with the conclusions reached in many previous studies. Twenty years ago, amenities did not rank in the top 10 of any survey of important locational factors (Blair and Premus, 1987, pp. 72-85).
In addition to the greater prominence of quality-of-life factors in locational surveys, there is ample evidence in trade literature that development officials increasingly emphasize amenities when they recruit businesses. A review of economic development web pages reveals that local development groups also are stressing quality-of-life factors. There are several reasons behind the increasing importance of amenities. First, traditionally significant locational factors have diminished in importance because the nature of production has changed. Surveys indicate that while lower transportation costs, access to markets, and lower operational costs remain important locational factors, they are no longer as significant as the...