The purpose of this exploratory study is an attempt to identify public policies that have the potential to increase the economic viability of smaller metropolitan areas and cities. The authors identify characteristics associated with smaller metro areas that performed better than expected (winners) and worse than expected (losers) during the 1990s. The authors then look for evidence that public policy choices may have enhanced a metro area' ability to succeed by examining whether winners and losers are qualitatively different in ways that may indicate consequences of policy choices. A cluster analysis is completed to group the metro areas based on changes in social, economic, and demographic variables during the 1990s. The authors then use contingency table analysis and ANOVA to see if winners and losers are related to the grouping of metro areas in a way that may indicate the presence of government policy.