The May 2013 issue of Economic Development Quarterly (EDQ) is a special issue devoted to the “Great Recession,” which according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), is the longest recession in U.S. history since the Great Depression. Guest editors for this special issue are Neil Reid, Department of Geography and Planning, Urban Affairs Center, University of Toledo; Michael C. Carroll, Department of Economics, Center for Regional Development, Bowling Green State University; and Xinyue Ye, Department of Geography, Center for Regional Development, Bowling Green State University.

The five articles in this issue view the Great Recession from primarily three disciplinary lenses, 1) geography, 2) urban planning, and 3) economics. The role and impact of business incentives on local economies emerging from the Great Recession are the focus of two articles, one by Warner and Zheng (Business Incentive Adoption in the Recession), and the other by McFarland, McConnell, and Geary (Small Business Growth During a Recession: Local Policy Implications). The “uneven” economic impacts of the Great Recession are discussed in an article by Beyers (The Great Recession and State Unemployment Trends) and in an article by Carruthers and Mulligan (Through the Crisis: The “Plane of Living” and the Spatial Distribution of Housing Values in the United States).  The issue concludes with an article by Klier and Rubenstein on the impacts of the Great Recession on the automobile industry (Restructuring of the U.S. Auto Industry in the 2008-09 Recession).

We invite you to view this issue and other issues of Economic Development Quarterly here.