Two decades after Harvey Molotch’s “city as a growth machine,” this book offers a unique, critical assessment of his thesis.

This book introduces, synthesizes, and evaluates spatial planning for growth management in the contemporary USA. It discusses the neglected relationship between the actual environmental results of various state growth management systems and the geographically diverse politics of discontent with these various systems.

Knowledge externalities - i.e. intellectual gains made by exchange of information for which no direct compensation is given to the producer of the knowledge - result in higher economic growth rates across urban areas, as well as higher degrees of innovation intensity in those locations where economic activity is dense. By combining theories and methodologies on localised growth and innovation density from the fields of geography and economics, he puts forward an innovative spatial econometric model which contributes to a clearer understanding of actual processes of growth and innovation and their linkages to industry and spatially determined agglomeration factors. In doing so, the book acknowledges the increasing importance of geographical composition and distance for the transmission of knowledge and skills in a society in which information becomes easier to access.

This report summarizes the best of current local practice and presents, analyses and comments on research into growth management.