Terms and Concepts of Local and Regional Economic Development

Topics (partial list):

Here are terms we will encounter throughout the semester.

Programs: Paying For and Organizing Economic Development
downtown development authorities (DDA)
enterprise zones/empowerment zones
free trade zones
industrial revenue (development) bond (IRB)
public-private partnerships
tax abatement
tax increment financing (TIF)
business improvement districts (BID)

Methods of Analysis
location quotients
economic base models / multipliers
shift-share (sector composition analysis)
cost-benefit analysis
input-output analysis
target industry analysis
industry cluster analysis
occupation-industry matrices
measures of poverty & social inequality (e.g., GINI coefficients)
measures of spatial inequality / uneven development (e.g., dissimilarity index)
economic impact analysis / policy evaluation
retail trade area analysis
NAICS (North American Industry Classification System)

Notable / Iconic Case Studies in Local/Regional Economic Development (places, policies, firms)
BMW Plant in Spartanburg, SC
Poletown (Detroit/GM plant & use of eminent domain)
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Research Triangle Park (North Carolina)
River Rouge Plant (Ford in Detroit)
Silicon Valley
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
World Bank


Concepts in Economic Development
brownfield development
community development corporations (CDCs)
development linkages (payments)
early warning system
economic diversification
economic distress
endogenous vs. exogenous development
growth vs. development
growth pole
import substitution
incubators (i.e., business incubators)
"leaky bucket" theory of local money flows
micro-lending
skills mismatch
spatial mismatch
supply-side vs. demand-side approaches
unbalanced growth
unit of analysis (e.g., firm, place, sector, occupation)

Basic Concepts in Economics (and urban economics)
accumulation
agglomeration economy
basic vs. non-basic employment
bifurcation
business incubator
capital
common-pooled resources
comparative advantage
consumer price index (CPI)
deadweight loss
cumulative causation
debt vs. equity
deindustrialization
discount rate
division of labor (and spatial division of labor)
dual labor markets
economic restructuring
econometrics
efficiency
elasticity
entrepreneurship
equilibrium
externality
fixed vs. variable costs
flexible specialization
Fordism and post-Fordism
foreign direct investment (FDI)
forward + backward linkages
gross domestic product (GDP)
human capital (specific vs. general)
informal sector
industrial milieu
innovation (process vs. product)
interest rate
investment
just-in-time production (JIT)
labor force
labor union
laissez-faire
liquidity
linkages (forward and backward)
localization economy
marginal cost
market failure
mass production
monopoly
mortgage
multiplier
net present value
new international division of labor (NIDL)
oligopoly
opportunity costs
polarization
polarized growth
poverty
productivity
prisoner's dilemma
producer services
product and profit cycles public good
public consumption benefit
public goods
recession
research and development (R&D)
scale economy
service sector
steady-state economics
structural vs. cyclical changes in the economy
Taylorism
technology (high and otherwise)
technology transfer
technology innovation vs. diffusion
tourism
tragedy of the commons
transit-oriented development (TOD)
transshipment points
underclass
underdevelopment
uneven development
unemployment
urbanization economy
value (e.g., exchange value vs. use value)
work
value added
venture capital
vertical integration and disintegration
zero-sum game

Concepts from Evaluation Research
program theory
counterfactual (and compare approaches and pros/cons of each, e.g., before-after, random assignment, natural experiments; matched-pairs; regression)
random assignment
control vs. experimental group
rival explanation
side-effects (unintended consequences)
placebo effect
how regression analysis might be used in evaluation research

Concepts from Planning and Urban Studies
central place theory
eminent domain
environmental justice
equity planning
Frostbelt/Sunbelt
gentrification
global city
globalization
home rule
incremental planning
location theory
public purpose doctrine
research parks
social justice
strategic planning
sustainable development