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READ stands for the Regional Economies Assessment Database.

READ is a computerized database and evaluation system designed to allow the complex structure and functioning of the economy to be systematically examined and assessed at many different levels.

This includes the level of more meaningfully determined sub-state regional economies. It is at this sub-state level that decisionmakers are being increasingly asked to address emerging problems and needs tied to the workings of the economy; an economy that itself is increasingly global in character. And it is for these decisionmakers that READ is designed, hopefully providing them with a new tool for better understanding conditions and trends in the larger economy, in their region and in other similar sub-state regions. It’s in these regions where much of community and family life is played out and economic change is directly experienced. It’s also hoped that READ will provide local decisionmakers with a new tool for devising strategies to better position their communities and area businesses for future change.

Traditionally, most economic data are compiled for units of political geography, including counties, states, and the nation. However, most of the economy does not operate according to political jurisdictions and examining its change using such units alone won’t accurately reveal many important regional variations in the economy’s structure and change. Under READ, a vast array of economic and social data have been organized to permit economic trends to be characterized, assessed, and contrasted at many different levels; levels that better reflect important regional differences in how the economy is organized and changing. Economic conditions and trends in the nation as a whole are compared and contrasted with those for the western U.S., important subregions of the West, and for small sub-state regions whose boundaries better reflect how the economy is organized at lower, more regional levels; the level of sub-state regional economies and markets organized around major population centers.

Using READ, local economic development practitioners in neighboring cities and towns can examine the range and scope of their common regional economy and evaluate the role or "place" it occupies within the larger economy. With this understanding, local decisionmakers can better appreciate needs and opportunities for regional collaboration in areas of economic development, can better devise strategies for positioning their regional community for future economic change, and can jointly pursue such strategies with greater regional capacity and scale.

Further Information: http://www.crmw.org/read/

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