This definitive work mixes case law, public policy, economic strategy, and examines the wide range of issues facing efforts to improve the American economy, to illustrate how economic growth is driven through strong public-private partnerships, and how successful growth strategies from the state and local level operate to grow jobs.

Presenting state-of-the-art theoretical positions on important development issues such as the inner city, technological innovation and rebuilding economic infrastructure are explored in this volume. The contributors to this volume, drawn from various social science backgrounds, explore a variety of theories and examine them in relation to the practical actions of 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.

This definitive work mixes case law, public policy, economic strategy, and examines the wide range of issues facing efforts to improve the American economy, to illustrate how economic growth is driven through strong public-private partnerships, and how successful growth strategies from the state and local level operate to grow jobs.

This report discusses the findings from a mail survey of local government economic development activities that was sent to all 540 municipalities and 100 counties in North Carolina. An important part of the analysis examines whether cities and counties differ significantly in their economic development efforts and whether smaller jurisdictions employ different types of development strategies and tools than larger ones. The survey findings also highlight the barriers that local governments face in promoting economic development and identify important technical assistance needs and gaps in local capacity.