Metro Chicago lags behind many counterparts nationwide in the recovery of its manufacturing sector as well as the exports it fuels, a serious deficit as the city reaches for a bigger share of global economic activity.

Study authors and individual manufacturers cite a range of historical factors that have contributed to the weak performance:

•A lack of civic and government attention to the sector because of a perception that it was dying.

•An absence of intraregional cooperation on economic issues.

•Freight rail gridlock.

•Lingering wariness about expanding business within the state, given its fiscal problems.

Read in the Chicago Tribune.

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