2017 Economic Competitiveness Study Executive Brief

2017 Economic Competitiveness Study (full)

  • 2017 Annual Automotive Industry Report, released October 6, 2017.

  • Northwood University’s Monthly Economic Outlook for January 2017 introduces the year as one where the U.S. and world economies find themselves in varying states of turmoil.

January 2017 Economic Outlook

2016 Michigan Executive Summary Economic Competitiveness Study

2016 Michigan Chamber Economic Competitiveness Study

  • Professor Jim Hop, Chair of the Entrepreneurship program at Northwood University is our newest McNair Center Scholar. Jim and his department colleagues are using McNair center support to completely redesign the senior capstone course in entrepreneurship at Northwood University. Jim will be using the McNair Index as one of many teaching tools in the new class entitled "Business Plan and Entrepreneurial Research in a Complex Global Economy." Jim and his students will be producing a monthly publication starting in August 2016 entitled McNair Entrepreneurs in Action. Each month, Jim and his students will work with others in producing a small booklet featuring a successful American entrepreneur. We already have the first six months of entrepreneurs lined up.

  • In April of 2017, we will once again invite our own students, all of our McNair student and faculty scholars, and scholars from across the country to participate in our annual economic symposium; the Freedom Seminar. The Freedom Seminar is a three and ½ day symposium on freedom, free enterprise and entrepreneurship. Below is the link to our 2016 Freedom Seminar Symposium.

Freedom Seminar Website

  • We recently published the August Northwood University Monthly Economic Outlook from our McNair Center. It appears regularly in a number of newspapers and media websites across the country. The following is the link to the August issue of the Northwood University Monthly Economic Outlook.

August 2016 Monthly Economic Outlook

  • The McNair Center will release the 7th edition of the book In Defense of Capitalism in August 2016 with 10 copies being provided to each of the McNair Centers nationwide.

  • In 2017, the Bauervic Foundation and the McNair Center will sponsor a student entrepreneur business pitch competition here on campus.

  • In September of 2016, the Northwood University economics department and the McNair Center will sponsor Freedom Week. It will be 5 days of speakers from across the country discussing freedom and free enterprise via the internet. Students, faculty, and other interested parties will be able to access many of the speeches via YouTube on the World Wide Web. Below is the link to the 2016 Freedom Week Website.

Freedom Week Website

  • The McNair Center released the 2015 Michigan Chamber of Commerce Competitiveness Study - This study once again received national attention and its data played a major role in the passage of Right to Work in the state of West Virginia in February 2016. Northwood University and The McNair Center received high praise on this subject at the Heritage Foundation Meetings in April 2016 and the American Legislative Exchange Council Meetings in June 2016.

2015 Michigan Chamber of Commerce Foundation Economic Competitiveness Study

  • We are in the early phase of gathering data to conduct a national survey of entrepreneurs to discover the 10 most common leadership attributes of entrepreneurs. Initial study results are due spring 2017.

  • Below is the link to our 2015 study on banking regulations in the state of Michigan and nationally for the Michigan Bankers Association.

2015 Michigan Bankers Association Study

  • The McNair Center released the 2014 Illinois Chamber of Commerce Competitiveness Study in January 2016. The study is dated 2014 as the Illinois Chamber of Commerce wanted to begin the study using benchmark data for the first year of Governor Bruce Rauner's inaugural term.

2014 Illinois Chamber of Commerce Economic Competitiveness Study

  • Four of our McNair Scholars are working on a scholarly research project that examines income inequality in the United States during the early 20 th Century.

Research Project on Early 20th Century Inequality

  • Three McNair Scholars are working on a scholarly research project involving Right to Work legislation and the growth of entrepreneurial activity by state. This study will be completed and released early in 2017.

  • A group of McNair Scholars have developed phase 1 of the McNair Entrepreneurship Index which we believe will be of great use to entrepreneurs in analyzing the economy in which they operate on a monthly basis as well as indicating general trends in the economy. We have been working on this index for roughly 5 months and are proud to have completed edit phase 1. We intend to begin mailing the index to the business and popular press in early October 2016.

McNair Entrepreneurship Index Explanations

  • We have been conducting research for the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers (NAMAD) to make free market arguments to automobile manufacturers for the expansion of the number of minority owned automobile dealerships in the United States. The study is due to be released in October 2016.

NAMAD Research Project