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Local Economic Development
Analysis, Practices, and Globalization

Second Edition


July 2008 | 328 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

Local economies are the building blocks for national ones. An updated and expansive core text, the Second Edition of Local Economic Development: Analysis, Practices, and Globalization provides a comprehensive introduction to the economics of local economic development. Delving into cutting-edge topics such as cluster analysis, creative class orientation, competitive advantage, social capital, business expansion and retention, and learning regions, this clearly written interdisciplinary text connects theories with real-life examples and offers the reader pragmatic tools for future application, including a valuable “how-to” understanding regarding important qualitative tools and their interpretation.

     

Importantly, this text is uniquely accessible to students who lack a background in the field of economics.

New to this Edition

  • Offers a global emphasis: Local economic development is clearly linked to national development throughout, making the text useful for adding an international component to traditional national economic development courses.
  • Features an institutionalist focus: The text describes the ways political and the social environments interact with and influence the local development process, giving instructors opportunities to localize course material. It also addresses equity issues and the importance of interregional linkages, demonstrating the importance of an interdisciplinary approach.
  • Demonstrates comparative versus competitive advantages: The author illustrates the changing perceptions of the sources of local advantages, given the dynamic global and technological environments.
  • Provides valuable information on careers in the field: Students will learn about jobs where knowledge of local economic development is a primary or useful requirement, from opportunities as development officials in local agencies to banking to community development.

 

Intended Audience
This is an ideal core text for undergraduate and graduate students of economics, political science, geography, public administration, and urban and regional planning. It is also a valuable resource for economic development professionals, NGOs, County Commissioner offices and others involved in the economic aspects of local economic development.

 


 
Chapter 1. Local Economic Development in a Global Market
How Economists View the World

 
Models and Assumptions

 
Individual Behavior and Utility Maximization

 
Ideological Perspectives on Market Operations

 
How Markets Work

 
Supply and Demand

 
Supply, Demand, and Efficiency

 
Markets Are Not Always Efficient

 
The Role of Profits

 
Economic Development Defined

 
Careers in LED

 
The Nature of Regions

 
Types of Regions

 
Local, National, and Global Economic Development

 
 
Chapter 2. Business Location, Expansion, and Retention
Locational Factors

 
Inertia

 
Transportation Cost Minimizing Models

 
Production Costs

 
National Political Climate and Stability

 
Opportunity Creation

 
The Decision Making Process

 
Motivations

 
Practical Limitations on the Choice Process

 
Steps in the Corporate Site Selection Process

 
Changing Relative Importance of Locational Factors

 
Surveys of Location Factors

 
Survey Findings Past to Present

 
Conducting Business Retention and Expansion Programs

 
 
3. Markets, Urban Systems, and Local Development
Demand and Market Areas

 
Demand in a Spatial Setting

 
Competition for Markets

 
Threshold Demand and Range

 
Determinants of Market Size

 
The Urban Hierarchy and Urban System

 
Central Places

 
Goods and Services According to Urban Rank

 
Changing Urban Patterns

 
An Evaluation of the Central-Place Approach

 
Considerations Extraneous to Central-Place Theory

 
Transportation Costs

 
Market Overlap, Rate Absorption, and Price Discrimination

 
Product Differentiation

 
Agglomeration Economies

 
Institutional Factors

 
Non-employment Residential Locations and Commuting

 
Empirical Evidence

 
Globalization and Urban (City) Systems

 
How to Measure Areas of Influence

 
Survey Techniques

 
Reilly’s Law of Retail Gravitation

 
Probabilistic Models

 
Retail Spending

 
An Example

 
Hinterland Expansion Strategies

 
 
4. Economic Interdependence and Local Structure
Agglomeration Economies

 
Internal Agglomeration Economies

 
Direct Sales Purchases Linkages

 
Localization Economies

 
Urbanization Economies

 
Recap

 
Cluster Analysis

 
Measures of Economic Structure

 
North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS)

 
Location Quotients

 
Estimating Export Employment with Location Quotients

 
Surveys to Determine Export Activities

 
Coefficients of Specialization

 
Occupational Structure

 
Other Aspects of Regional Structure

 
 
5. Regional Growth and Development
Stages of Growth

 
Industrial Filtering (Life Cycle Model)

 
Adding New Work to Old

 
How Do Cities Move from One State to the Next?

 
Circular Flow Diagram

 
Elements of the Circular Flow Model

 
Equilibrium and Change

 
The Multiplier

 
The Export Base Theory of Growth

 
The Formal Income Model

 
How to Operationalize the Export Base Approach

 
Impact Studies and Export Base Forecasts

 
Critique of the Export-Base Approach

 
Primacy of Exports

 
Import Substitution

 
Productivity

 
Exports Not Always Exogenous

 
Small versus Large Regions

 
Feedbacks among Regions

 
Non-basic Activities May Not Increase

 
Long-Run Instability of the Multiplier

 
Excessive Aggregation

 
Supply-Side Approaches

 
Intermediate Inputs

 
Entrepreneurship

 
Capital

 
Land (Environmental Resources)

 
Labor

 
Supply and Demand Side Approaches: A Synthesis

 
 
6. Additional Tools for Regional Analysis
Shift and Share Analysis

 
An Application

 
Critique

 
Econometric and Simulation Models

 
Econometric Models

 
Caveats

 
Importance-Strength Analysis

 
Input-Output: Analysis

 
The Transactions Table

 
The Table of Direct Coefficients

 
The Table of Direct and Indirect Coefficients

 
Input-Output Applications

 
 
7. Institutionalist Perspectives on Local Development
External Benefits from Economic Development

 
Job and Income Creation

 
Fiscal Improvement

 
Physical Improvements

 
Who Benefits From Growth?

 
Characteristics of Resource Supply

 
Opponents of Growth

 
Subsidies, Competition and Economic Development

 
Is Local Economic Development a Zero Sum Game?

 
Inefficiency and Oversubsidization

 
Discretionary versus Entitlement Subsidies

 
Cost Minimization versus Human Capital Strategies

 
Social Capital and Economic Development

 
Generic Economic Problems and Social Capital

 
Ambiguous Reception of Social Capital

 
Social Capital and Local Development Strategies

 
Using Social Capital to Mitigate Economic Development Conflicts

 
Social Network Analysis: Getting the Right People to the Table

 
Targeting Development Efforts

 
Cluster-Based Economic Development

 
 
8. Local Economic Development in a Flattening World
Models of Trade and Resource Flows

 
Comparative Advantage

 
Resource Mobility

 
Economics of Migration

 
Retiree-Migrant Development Strategy

 
Mobility of Capital

 
Innovations and Ideas

 
Spatial Diffusion

 
Implications for Regional Development

 
Mobility and Development Policy

 
Jobs-to-People versus People-to-Jobs

 
Immigration and Urban Development

 
 
9. Land Use
What Gives Land Value?

 
Land Rents and Value

 
The Nature of Rent, Productivity and Access

 
Highest and Best Use

 
The Land Development Process

 
Developer Goals

 
The Market Study

 
Environmental Impact Statements

 
Profit Feasibility

 
The Development Decision

 
Implications of Financial Analysis for LED

 
Land-Use Patterns

 
The Monocentric City Model

 
The Desity Gradient

 
Roads and Axial Development

 
Agglomeration and the Multiple-Nuclear City

 
Speculation

 
Changing Land Use Patterns

 
Evaluating Metropolitan Spread (Urban Sprawl)

 
Land Use and Economic Development Tools

 
Zoning and Its Critics

 
Flexibility and Land Use Regulations

 
The Eminent Domain Controversy

 
Rights to Land and Economic Development

 
 
10. Housing and Neighborhood Development
Fundamentals of Housing Economics

 
Hedonic Pricing

 
Uncertainty, Market Imperfections, and Competition

 
Residential Location and Neighborhood Change

 
The Filtering-Down Theory

 
The Trade-Off Model

 
 
The Cultural Agglomeration Model
The Tiebout Model

 
The Aggregate Economic Fallout Model

 
Initiating and Perpetuating the Change Process

 
Housing Policy Issues

 
Rent Control versus Market Forces

 
Income Support versus Housing Assistance

 
Supply versus Demand Side Assistance

 
Ghetto Dispersal versus Ghetto Improvement

 
Dwelling-Unit versus Neighborhood Development

 
Linkage Between Local Housing and Global Financial Markets

 
Retail and Commercial Neighborhoods

 
The Social Economy of Neighborhoods

 
Community Development Corporations

 
Cooperatives

 
Community Gardens

 
 
11. Poverty and Lagging Regions
The Nature of Poverty

 
 
Conceptual Approaches
Demographics of Poverty

 
Spatial Concentrations of Urban Poverty

 
Regional Linkages: The Spread and Backwash Effects

 
Empirical Studies of Spatial Linkages

 
Spatial Linkages and Theories of Spatial Poverty

 
Policy Issues

 
Strengthening Linkages

 
Improving Productivity

 
 
Addressing Wage Rigidities
Employment Guarantee Schemes in India

 
Income Support

 
 
12. Local Governance, Finance, and Regional Integration
Spatial Perspectives on Government Functions

 
Distribution and the Race to the Bottom

 
Local Allocation

 
Public Transportation – An Example

 
Size and Scope of Local Governments

 
Economies and Diseconomies of Scale

 
Decision-Making Costs

 
Improving Government Efficiency

 
Using Prices and Fees

 
Local Taxation and Economic Development

 
Accountability

 
Intergovernmental Competition

 
Intergovernmental Grants and Coordination

 
Rearranging Functions

 
Privatization

 
Market Based Reforms in Education

 
Fiscal Impact and Benefit-Cost Studies

 
Fiscal Impact Studies

 
Benefit-Cost Analysis

 
 
13. Local Economic Development Planning
The Future and Local Development

 
Concern with Values and Attitudes

 
Technological Change

 
Systems Orientation

 
Importance of Timing

 
Planning Perspectives on Development Policy

 
The Planning Process

 
Limits of Planning

 
Planning and Future Studies Tools

 
Delphi Forecasting

 
Games

 
Scenarios

 
Environmental Scanning

 
 
About the Author

The book contains a very clear and interesting structure. Can be used as a textbook for courses on regional policy.

Mr Andrzej Klimczuk
Social Science , Warsaw School of Economics
August 14, 2015

Used as a suggested text

Dr Anthony Koyzis
Educational Studies , University of Nicosia
January 6, 2015

I adopted this for last year's class. It is very good and just right for the audience. I can't use it this year, though. It is too out of date. I am trying to rush order the Blakely book!

Professor Becky Smith
Agricultural Economics Dept, Mississippi State University
May 23, 2014

The 13 chapters of the book cover essential critical themes around LED from various perspectives and well addressed to various target groups: students, academicians, researchers and practitioners. This book is well recommended for those who would like to explore LED from various lenses/ perspectives as applicable to multidisciplinary areas of development, governance and administration.

Mr Aurobindo Ogra
Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of Johannesburg
April 9, 2014

What I appreciated most about this book, was its accessibility for students with a weak economics background, yet who still have an interest in development planning and practice. The second edition offers a global perspective on local economic development and incorporates a more practical approach to LED which is especially beneficial to students preparing for the working world.

Dr Samantha Leonard
Department of Development Studies, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
September 23, 2013

thank your for your great service!

Mr Wolfgang Gruber
Department of Development Studies, University of Vienna
June 14, 2013

Dense book; well researched and analysed but not apt for the 'principles of Sociology' course that I had hoped it would supplement.

Miss Christine Hatcher
Sports, Business and Care, City of Bath College
May 8, 2013

Excellent for urban economic studies. Offers good academic content. Texts rich in theory and praxis. Readable for students.

Dr Artur Ochojski
Strategic and Regional Studies, University of Economics in Katowice
March 12, 2012

Easily understood by students, concise yet thorough

Dr Phyllis Behrens
Clg Of Hlth Science Human Svcs, Midwestern State University
February 14, 2012

This book is helpful for the course and its been used in my class at another university. Lazarski University warsaw.
very useful for development studies. Thank you.

Mr Emmy Irobi
International Studies , Collegium Civitas
November 9, 2011
Key features

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the economics of local economic development. The approach is people centered and recognizes contributions from other social sciences.

Feature #1: Global Emphasis NEW. The link between local economic development and national development will be clear. Local economic development will be linked to traditional national economic development courses. Instructors will be tasked with setting ideas into unique localities. This feature will also help "internationalize" college curricula.

Feature #2: Institutionalist Focus NEW. Describes how confects of interest as well as political and the social environments interact and influence in the local development process. This feature will provide instructors with opportunities to "localize" the way they teach the course and the opportunity to show that economic theory must be supplemented by observations from other social sciences.  

Feature #3: Equity Issues and Lagging Regions NEW. Shows the importance of local economic development to equity concerns and the importance of interregional linkages. (This point blends with feature #2). This orientation also provides the study of local development with a sense of purpose.

Feature #4: Presentational of qualitative tools and their limitations. Provides readers with a "how to" understanding regarding the important techniques and their interpretation. The ability to use these tools will provide students with a sense of accomplishment.

Feature #5: Comparative versus competitive advantage--New. Shows students how perceptions of the sources of local advantages are changing in the emerging global and technological environment. It enhances the relevance of local economic development to "new economy" ideas.

Feature #6: Careers in LED --New. Students will learn about jobs where knowledge of local economic development the primary requirement (such as a development official local agency or a Chamber of Commerce) and many career fields where local economic development is complementary (such as banking, real estate or community development). This section will help students see direct relevance to their career prospects.

Careers in LED --New. Students will learn about jobs where knowledge of local economic development the primary requirement (such as a development official local agency or a Chamber of Commerce) and many career fields where local economic development is complementary (such as banking, real estate or community development). This section will help students see direct relevance to their career prospects.

For instructors

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