The 50-State Competitiveness Dashboard measures and evaluates Massachusetts’ current competitive position on a range of indicators to capture key characteristics related to economic competitiveness and the business environment. These indicators are grouped into six composite indices to enable comparison of Massachusetts’ innovation economy to other states:
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- Cost of Doing Business – Captures principal expenses that businesses incur operating within each state
- Quality of Life – Highlights key measures of livability and quality of life for comparison across states
- Talent and Workforce – Profiles each state’s talent pool and labor market conditions
- Tax Environment – Reports key dimensions of tax burden in each state
- Fiscal Stability and Public Management – Illustrates each state government’s ability to manage its finances across key spending areas and fiscal practices
- Growth and Innovation Climate – Provides measures that reflect conditions conducive to growth in the innovation economy, specifically in sectors where technology occupations make up a growing share of the workforce
Each index ranks states based on the computation of weighted sums to ensure suitability for comparison. The state rankings are displayed in the overview maps for each index. A detailed, 50-state view of the most recent data available for each measure is below the index maps, accompanied by trend data comparing Massachusetts to five innovation economy peer states: California, Colorado, Maryland, Utah, and Washington.
Peer Selection for MATTERS
To determine the peer states to include, we collated information from seven different science, engineering, and technology indices that focus on state comparisons.[1] These indices use various criteria to determine the states with the strongest technology environments and innovation economies, including the percentage of the workforce employed in technology occupations and the technology industry’s share of economic output.
The top six reflect the states with the most inclusions in the indices examined, including Massachusetts. Based on the analysis, the five peer states are: (1) California; (2) Colorado; (3) Maryland; (4) Utah; and (5) Washington.
