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Ten Steps to a High Tech Future: The New Economy in Metropolitan Seattle

Since the mid-1990s, Seattle has been one of the rare cities to have a level of high tech job growth comparable to its surrounding region. This paper seeks to understand the location pattern of high tech firms in the Seattle metropolitan region and to learn what factors influence their location decisions within the region itself. Drawing on the Seattle example, the paper describes ten steps that city officials interested in facilitating the development of a high technology presence can take, from investing in human capital, to streamlining public services, to applying information technology in the public sector.