Understanding Local Economic Development

Details:
What is economic development? For the practitioner, developer, or local official, it means creating jobs and revenues to meet community needs. Textbook theories, however, often seem unconnected to this basic idea. While communities compete for local investments, scholars continue to debate economic base theory, input-output coefficients, growth poles, and more. This book makes the leap from theory to practice. Malizia and Feser review theories of local economic development and then show how each theory informs real-world policy and practice. Using clear and readable language without jargon and complicated formulas, the authors lay out the basic assumptions, concepts, and implications of the most important theories of economic growth. While most books stop there, the authors explain how each theory or approach translates into a strategy for economic development, using a specific local community to illustrate the case. Students can use this book to gain a clear understanding of the variety of economic development theories and the differences among them. Practitioners will learn how each theory informs policy and practice, sometimes pointing to strikingly different solutions. Armed with this information, both students and practitioners will recognize the policy implications of alternative theories and can select among policy alternatives based on their theoretical foundations. "Economic development as a practice has come of age," the authors report. Spanning the gap between theoretical concepts and real-world development practice, their book presents the theories and applications that will inform economic development.