This paper begins by developing a theoretical understanding of policy abandonment within the context of national, state, and Local economic development policies.  Drawing on early works by DeLeon (1978) and Badrach (1976) and more recent works by Dur (1999), Lowry (2005), Volden (2012), and Lamothe and Lamothe (2013), it sets out to understand what policy termination, reversal, and abandonment mean within the context of economic development.  Empirically, this paper seeks to triangulate on the question of abandonment by focusing on national, state, and local efforts to remove existing policies.  At the national level, this paper utilizes high profile economic development programs that have been terminated to understand what led to abandonment and what, if anything, replaced the programs being abandoned.  At the state level, Good Jobs First and the Significant Features of the Property Tax data are used to locate instances of abandoned economic development policies.  A categorical scheme is detailed to understand the many ways that these policies have been abandoned and what has driven this process.  At the local level, a follow-up survey to the 2009 International City/County Management Economic Development survey is primarily administered to ask economic developers and city managers the conditions under which they have or would consider abandoning existing policies.  In an age of increased budget pressures, it is argued that it is important to understand not only how to adopt and implement good policies, but also how to abandon policies that are no longer effective.