Ned Hill

Edward (Ned) Hill is Professor of Economic Development in The Ohio State University’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs and in the Knowlton School of Architectures’ section on City and Regional Planning.  He is also a member of the College of Engineering’s Ohio Manufacturing Institute. He teaches introduction to public affairs, economic development, and state and local public policy. 

Hill came to OSU after serving as Dean of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. He was Clevleand State University's first Vice President Economic Development and Professor and Distinguished Scholar of Economic Development.

He was the editor of Economic Development Quarterly and Chair of the Advisory Board of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and is currently a member of MAGNET’s Board of Directors. MAGNET is the Ohio MEP’s affiliate in Northeast Ohio. 

Ohio Governors Taft, Strickland, Kasich, and DeWine, as well as former Ohio Speaker of the House of Representatives Batchelder, have appointed Hill to commissions and boards. The Cuyahoga County Mayors and Managers Association recognized Ned’s service to the communities of Northeast Ohio in 2016 with its George V. Voinovich Municipal Service Award. And, the Ohio Manufacturers Association’s Board of Directors presented Ned with its Legacy Award in 2005 and again in 2016 for his work on behalf of Ohio’s manufacturers. Ned’s book, Ohio’s Competitive Advantage, was credited with starting a five-year statewide conversation that resulted in fundamental business tax reform in the state of Ohio. The Cincinnati Enquirer referred to Hill as the “godfather of tax reform” in the summer of 2005. 

His most recent book is Coping with Adversity: Regional Economic Resilience and Public Policy, published by Cornell University Press in 2017. His current research focuses on the impact of digital manufacturing on corporate investment and workforce strategies with his colleagues at the Ohio Manufacturing Institute.

He was a nonresident senior fellow of The Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program and of the Institute for Governmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley.  

Hill is a frequent speaker on community and economic development, workforce issues, and manufacturing modernization. He has been interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, C-Span, The Weekly, NPR’s Marketplace, BBC Radio, Inside Climate News, Utility Dive, Energy News, and well as many of Ohio’s daily newspapers and public radio. The interviews have covered his recent research on the attempts to re-regulate electricity generation in Ohio, the economic impact of tariffs, the performance of the manufacturing sector in the U.S. and Ohio, and the attitudes of Ohio’s middle class on foreign affairs and investment with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

Ned earned his Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning and Economics from MIT.