Public Policy and Industrial Location in the Lower Mississippi Delta in an Era of Restructuring

The purpose of this study is to use a recently published statement by the Lower Mississippi Delta Economic Development Commission as a starting point for examining the extent to which public policy in the nonmetropolitan South acknowledges and accommodates the locational implications of restructuring processes. The analysis takes the form of a literature-based assessment of the locational implications of the Delta Commission's recommendations and concludes that their recommendations, while meritorious in intent, understated the significance of issues related to the role of industrial "flexibility," branch-plant economies, and labor.