Economic impacts of quality awards: Does offering an award bring returns to the state?

The winners of the United States' Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award have shown greater increases in the price of their stocks than the increase in the Dow Jones Industrial average. Other returns from quality awards have not been clearly established to date. In 2000, 42 states within the USA offered quality awards. Many of these awards have as one major objective improving the economic conditions of the state itself. But does offering a quality award bring economic returns to the state? Economic data collected include employment growth, business formations and per capita income. Award data include year of inception. number of levels of award offered and number of awards given each year since inception. Analysis of variance and regression analyses were performed using economic data as dependent variables and award data as independent variables to test the hypothesis that having an award improves the economy.