Understanding Local Economic Development

This book offers insights into the process and the practice of local economic development. Bridging the gap between theory and practice it demonstrates the relevance of theory to inform local strategic planning in the context of widespread disparities in regional economic performance.

The book summarizes the core theories of economic development, applies each of these to professional practice, and provides detailed commentary on them. This updated second edition includes more recent contributions - regional innovation, agglomeration and dynamic theories – and presents the major ideas that inform economic development strategic planning, particularly in the United States and Canada. The text offers theoretical insights that help explain why some regions thrive while others languish and why metropolitan economies often rise and fall over time. Without theory, economic developers can only do what is politically feasible. This text, however, provides them with a logical tool for thinking about development and establishing an independent basis from which to build the local consensus needed for evidence-based action undertaken in the public interest.

Offering valuable perspectives on both the process and the practice of local and regional economic development, this book will be useful for both current and future economic developers to think more profoundly and confidently about their local economy.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Emil Malizia is Research Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His expertise includes regional economic development, real estate, and entrepreneurship. He is author or coauthor of five books and over 200 scholarly articles or other publications.

Edward Feser is Professor of Public Policy and Provost/Executive Vice President of Oregon State University. His research and writing focus on state and local development policy, regional innovation, industry clustering, spatial economic analysis, planning methods, and strategic planning.

Henry Renski is Professor of Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He teaches courses in regional development theory and policy, quantitative methods, and spatial analysis. His primary research interests are entrepreneurship and understanding the impact of technological change on regional economies.

Joshua Drucker is Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He researches and teaches economic development planning, regional economic analysis, planning methods, technology and innovation policy, and policy analysis.