Local Economic Development in the 21st Century: Quality of Life and Sustainability

A comprehensive treatment of quality of life, sustainability, and local economic development, this book links existing academic knowledge to real world problems of policy making. It emphasizes the need for a better understanding of how economic theories and empirical economic research can contribute to the public policy debates in state and local government. These include the sources of economic growth and development; the relationship of both to quality of life and sustainability; the importance of local as well as global action to environmental sustainability; the roles of income inequality, poverty, and economic opportunity in economic development; the importance of land-use planning to quality of life and sustainability, the relationship between economic development and state and local tax and regulatory policies; and the use of strategies that incorporate quality of life and sustainable development into economic development.