2019 Reports

Challenge Competitions in Economic Development: A Discussion of NYC Policy Under the Bloomberg and De Blasio Administrations

Robertson, Euan

This paper explores the use of challenge competitions as tools for economic development. More specifically, the paper examines the use of such models to foster the growth of the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in New York City from the period 2008-2019.

It does not seek to evaluate empirically the effectiveness of these approaches, but instead is intended to offer municipal policymakers and other stakeholders a frame of reference for considering if, when and how to deploy one particular tool in the economic development toolbox.

The scope of the analysis covers the key policy drivers for the use of competition models commencing in the Bloomberg Administration, their design, the adoption and evolution of such models in the de Blasio Administration, and the co-opting of the model by a major corporate entity, Amazon, in their recent ‘HQ2’ bid process.