The economy of Lorain County is becoming a case study.

Literally.

Thirteen Baldwin-Wallace College senior economics majors will spend their final semester investigating the past, present and future of Lorain County’s economy. The students will research specific corporations — Ford, U.S. Steel, Bendix, Invacare and American Shipbuilding — that have been major players in the county’s economy over the last half a century.

 “ Lorain County is a fairly unique economic environment,” said Robert Ebert, who is the supervising faculty member for the seminar. “It has seen such a huge transition from manufacturing to the tech industry.”

The transition, he said, has raised many difficult questions.

“What can we learn from having lost American Shipbuilding and Ford?” Ebert asked.

Ebert, who moved to North Ridgeville three years ago, believes that by studying the life and death of the manufacturing giants, his students can help foretell the future of Lorain County’s economy, and possibly affect it.

“There are little bits of knowledge scattered around the county — in historical societies, in Lorain County Growth Partnership — that can help us understand not just what happened, but why,” said Ebert, who has been a professor of economics at Baldwin-Wallace for 41 years. “And this can really help us move forward.”

Ebert enlisted the help of members from different departments within the Lorain County Growth Partnership.

They are Steve Morey, economic development specialist for Team Lorain County; Cliff Reynolds, director of GLIDE, the Entrepreneurship Innovation Institute based at Lorain County Community College; Frank DiTillio, president of the Lorain County Chamber of Commerce; and Paul Kukuca, director of the Small Business Development Center.

Ebert created the seminar, which he is teaching for the first time, to connect the students with an actual, changing economy and the people whose jobs it is to develop it, he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, the four members of the Growth Partnership met the students and provided the background information the students need to get started.

The students will be split into five teams of two or three to study the corporations and will regularly be in contact with the Growth Partnership.

From the research, the students aim to produce a coherent story of Lorain County’s economic fluctuations and eventual transformation, tentatively titled, “The Development of and Prospects for Selected Industries in Lorain County.”

  The loss of large industry, and subsequent gain of smaller, more technology-based businesses, was a major point of emphasis by the Growth Partnership members Tuesday.

The transition has been a challenge, DeTillio said.

“ Lorain County used to have an economy geared to how strong your back is,” he said. “Today, we use our heads.”

Reynolds offered one way of viewing this change. In the mid- to late-20th century, Reynolds said Lorain County was dominated by the companies the students will look at.

“Eighty percent of the employees worked for just 20 percent of the businesses,” he said. “Now, 80 percent of the companies are 20 employees or less.” 

Ebert believes that investigating the causes and effects of this transformation will provide the students — and hopefully, the county — with an understanding of the transition and a look at where it could lead.

Over the course of the semester, the students will research the companies at various historical societies, tour the companies that remain and talk frequently with Growth Partnership members.

Kukuca said that the Growth Partnership deals with Lorain County’s economic history implicitly every day.

 “To have a fresh set of eyes looking at this issue will certainly help us understand it,” he said.

Morey is optimistic that the volume produced by the students will prove informative not just to themselves but for the entire county.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with,” he told the students. “It’s truly going to be useful to us.”

Contact Michael Baker at 329-7128 or mbaker@chroniclet.com.

 

 

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