Local Economic Development: Analysis and Practice

More than ever before, local economic development issues are being shaped by market forces. Despite this, urban studies and public administration texts focusing on local economic development issues have glossed over or ignored this fundamental change. Now, in Local Economic Development, John P. Blair presents a comprehensive, accessible, and jargon-free text - one that offers both extensive coverage of economic concepts and the new market forces at work today. Topics addressed include regional growth and development, land use, metropolitan government and finance, housing, economic development strategies, and neighborhood development. Blending knowledge from a variety of disciplines (planning, political science, finance, sociology, and marketing) with a strong analytical approach, this is the ideal text for courses in local economic development as well as public finance, public administration, and policy studies and practitioners.

"I found that Local Economic Development well fills a need for a combined treatment of regional economic and planning issues at the undergraduate level. Its greater depth on topics in economics--its main strength--lends it more useful in survey courses in regional economics."

--Journal of Regional Science

"With its purpose being ′′to present the economics of economic development in a manner accessible to both economists and noneconomists,′′ this volume broadly describes regional development theories, economic development theories, economic development practices, and analytical techniques for assessing the performance of regional and local economies. . . . For those who have never been exposed to the field of economic development, this book is a user-friendly beginning."

--Choice

"This book represents an important progression and stands as another sign that as a field of study and work, local and regional economic development is a practice whose time has arrived."

--Journal of the American Planning Association

"Local Economic Development should be read by everyone seriously involved in the profession, for it embellishes one′s perspective of the subject in a refreshing way. Then, too, the book should be on the desk of everyone who believes economic development is little more than blue smoke and mirrors, especially if such individuals are politicals prone to change economic policy every time results are not immediate or administrations change. . . . If any single argument exists to dissuade impulsive action, perhaps those in such positions can find it here."

--Journal of Community Development Society