For some years there’s been a common belief that the states and localities that are prospering and growing all tend to be focused on high tech industries. Silicon Valley became emblematic of the Great American Dream come true.

But as an April 21 Brookings article by Ben Armstrong and Elisabeth Reynolds observes, “Over the last decade it has become clear that the Silicon Valley model of economic development does not work for most places. Perhaps it’s not even working for Silicon Valley, where wage inequality has soared and affordability issues abound. In a recent poll, 47% of residents there said they were likely to move out in the next five years.”

The research that led to this article offers up a powerful example of often unnoticed places with economies that are doing quite well. “These places are much smaller than the average city and are concentrated in the Midwest in states from Minnesota to South Dakota down to Nebraska and Texas,” write the authors, who identified  over 100 cities “where the middle of the job market is strong and upward mobility is high. 

As they explain, “our analysis suggests that strong economic outcomes in these regions aren’t just happy accident. They are linked to industries and public policies from which other regions can learn.”

The analysis focuses on three factors that are common in these parts of the country:  

• “The central corridor regions often have strong K-12 education scores, but a low share of four-year college degrees. These regions are good at preparing their workers for middle-wage jobs that do not require a bachelor’s degree or higher.”

• The existence of “a strong stock of social capital” (as measured by voter turnout, return of census forms and participation in community organizations). These elements are fostered by a “pattern of long-term residents and strong attachment to place.”

• Most importantly for policy, “these regions are more likely to have a higher share of manufacturing jobs than their peers, and manufacturing in these regions is more likely to have grown over time. A ‘middle model’ of economic development, it seems, benefits both from the infrastructure to develop skills as well as the infrastructure to support good manufacturing jobs”

Ben Armstrong is Executive Director, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Industrial Performance Center, and Elisabeth Reynolds is Lecturer and Principal Research Scientist at MIT 

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