Policy Tools
Guide to Policy Tools that Strengthen Independent Businesses
Policy matters. Over the last 40 years, however, we’ve made a series of policy decisions that have promoted economic concentration, at the expense of fair competition, independent businesses, and communities. As a result of these decisions, the number of independent businesses has plummeted, income inequality has grown sharply, and whole regions of the country have been left behind. It’s time for new policy. In this guide, we offer a platform with five planks:
1. Create a Built Environment that Supports Local Businesses
2. Reorganize Economic Development Programs
3. Enable Access to Sufficient Capital
4. Implement an Equitable Tax System
5. Promote Fair and Open Competition
In each of these areas, we cover specific policies to pass at the local, state, and federal levels — plus examples of places that have done just that. See the full policy guide.
Plus, below, see more of our resources on policy, organized by: In-depth Reports, Factsheets and Infographics, Featured Articles, and Audio & Video.
In-Depth
New Toolkit Helps Independent Businesses Advocate for Policies that Support the Local Economy
July 17, 2018
When independent businesses meet with their local officials, they help build the mindset that independent businesses matter. A new Local Policy Action Toolkit created by ILSR with the Advocates for Independent Business coalition offers independent business owners and retailers concrete tips for engaging with their city officials and advocating for policies that strengthen and grow local businesses. By advocating for policy change, independent business owners can help create a stronger local economy.... READ MORE
Monopoly Power and the Decline of Small Business
August 10, 2016
The U.S. is much less a nation of entrepreneurs than it was a generation ago. In this report, which won an award for antitrust scholarship in 2017, we suggest that the decline of small businesses is owed, at least in part, to anticompetitive behavior by large, dominant corporations. The report presents three reasons to bring a commitment to fair markets for small businesses back into antitrust policy, and concludes by outlining specific steps to do just that.... READ MORE
How Rising Commercial Rents Are Threatening Independent Businesses, and What Cities Are Doing About It
Olivia LaVecchia
April 20, 2016
As the cost of leasing commercial space soars in many U.S. cities, this report examines what's behind the skyrocketing rents and explores six broad policy strategies that cities are proposing to keep space appropriate and affordable for independent businesses.... READ MORE
Report: North Dakota's Pharmacy Ownership Law Leads to Better Pharmacy Care
October 20, 2014
What a difference local ownership makes. Under a forward-thinking 1963 law, North Dakota does not allow chains to operate pharmacies. Instead, virtually all of the state's 171 pharmacies are locally owned and independent. In this data-driven study, ILSR finds that North Dakotans receive significantly better pharmacy care by every measure, from some of the lowest drug prices in the nation to unparalleled access, particularly in rural areas.... READ MORE
Towards a Localist Policy Agenda
July 5, 2013
To regenerate local businesses, we'll need more than Buy Local campaigns; we'll need to change public policy, which now favors big business. In this presentation, Stacy Mitchell looks at seven key policy areas to focus on.... READ MORE
Factsheets & Infographics
The Impact of Dollar Stores and How Communities Can Fight Back (Fact Sheet)
December 6, 2018
National dollar store chains, including Dollar General and Dollar Tree, have seen huge growth over the past decade. These stores are also feeding more Americans than Whole Foods is. New research from ILSR's Community-Scaled Economy Initiative documents the rapid rise of dollar stores and their damaging effects on the local economies of cities and small towns. Explore our two-page fact sheet to learn more about dollar store impacts and strategies to take action.... READ MORE
8 Policy Strategies Cities Can Use to Support Local Businesses
August 28, 2017
Independent businesses are among the best engines that cities have for advancing economic opportunity. But they're disappearing in many places. This isn't, in large part, because these businesses aren't competitive. It's because misguided public policy and concentrated market power are working against them. In this policy brief, we present 8 ways that cities can level the playing field and ensure that local businesses have the opportunity to start, grow, and thrive.... READ MORE
Featured Articles
6 Ways to Rein In Today’s Monopolies
February 16, 2018
Monopolies are strangling competition and cutting off opportunity. In this feature for The Nation, we show how to stop them.... READ MORE
In Jersey City, a Policy Fosters Local Independent Businesses
Olivia LaVecchia
December 14, 2017
In downtown Jersey City, a familiar story is playing out: Independent business owners have helped foster neighborhood growth, and now, chain stores are interested in sweeping in with their own locations. What's different in Jersey City is that the city has taken proactive steps to check this common cycle, and instead, build a model that allows for more opportunity for local entrepreneurs.... READ MORE
ILSR's Testimony at New York City Hearing on Retail Diversity and Neighborhood Character
Olivia LaVecchia
October 10, 2016
At a recent New York City Council hearing, ILSR submitted testimony examining the importance of locally owned businesses to the City, the crisis affecting them, and examples of effective and proven policy strategies to level the playing field for these businesses.... READ MORE
How Washington Punishes Small Business
May 8, 2015
In our op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, we look at how much of our public policy seems to designed to bend the market in the favor of big corporations, and put small, independent businesses at a competitive disadvantage.... READ MORE
The Do-It-Yourselves Downtown
Olivia LaVecchia
February 23, 2015
There's an emerging model that offers a glimpse of a new, better way for communities to generate economic development. It's called a real estate investment cooperative, and the benefits include new jobs in the neighborhood, local sources for key goods, a return on investment, and more — plus the opportunity for communities to do it themselves.... READ MORE
Understanding the Small Business Credit Crunch
April 16, 2014
Even as their big competitors are awash in capital, many locally owned businesses are struggling to secure the financing they need to grow. This analysis finds that, since 2000, bank lending to large businesses is up 36 percent, while small business loan volume has fallen 14 percent and "micro" business loans — those under $100,000 — have plummeted 33 percent.... READ MORE
Audio & Video
How Phoenix Became an Unlikely Champion of Local Business (Episode 60)
Hibba Meraay
November 29, 2018
We talk with Kimber Lanning, founder of Local First Arizona, about her organization's pioneering work to strengthen Arizona's entrepreneurs and its local economy.... READ MORE
Want to Strengthen Independent Businesses? Use These Policies (Episode 51)
July 26, 2018
Host Nick Stumo-Langer is joined by researchers Stacy Mitchell and Olivia LaVecchia to discuss their new guide to policy tools that strengthen independent businesses.... READ MORE
Want Your City to Prosper? Then Forget Everything You Think You Know about Economic Growth (Episode 37)
January 11, 2018
In this episode of ILSR's Building Local Power podcast, Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns sits down with Stacy Mitchell to discuss why the conventional wisdom about economic growth often leads communities down a dark path of decay.... READ MORE
San Francisco Breaks the Chain Stores, Strengthens Neighborhood Economies (Episode 31)
October 19, 2017
San Francisco has one-third as many chain stores as the national average. That's thanks in large part to a city ordinance that restricts "formula" businesses. We talk with AnMarie Rodgers, senior policy advisor to the city’s planning department, about how the city implemented the policy, how it works, and what advice she has for other cities that want to do it too.... READ MORE
How Big Businesses Get Big Subsidies (Episode 23)
June 29, 2017
In this episode of our podcast, Building Local Power, ILSR's Stacy Mitchell interviews Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First about the tax incentive packages that governments give to big corporations, and how local governments can do economic development better.... READ MORE
Watch: How Cities Can Create a Built Environment Where Local Businesses Thrive
Olivia LaVecchia
May 9, 2017
Cities are changing to become increasingly inhospitable to locally owned businesses. In this 20-minute talk, ILSR's Olivia LaVecchia discusses what's causing the problem, why it matters — and six policy strategies that cities are using to address it.... READ MORE
Watch: Policy Tools That Enable Local Businesses to Thrive
ILSR
September 7, 2016
For too long, public policy has rigged the market to favor big corporations and undermine small, locally owned businesses, especially those launched by women and people of color. In this video of a panel session at the CommonBound conference, ILSR's Stacy Mitchell and other leaders discuss how, now, local businesses and activists across the country are working to change the rules to instead support community enterprises.... READ MORE