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While much scholarly attention has been paid to ways in which metropolitan areas are politically structured and operated to achieve a dual goal, economic growth, and equality, relatively less is known about the complex relationship between metropolitan governance structures and growth–inequality dynamics. This study investigates how and to what extent metropolitan governance structures shape regional economic growth and inequality trajectories using data for 267 US metropolitan areas from 1990 to 2010. Findings from a two-stage least squares regression analysis suggest that economic growth is associated with governance structures in a nonlinear fashion, with relatively more rapid growth rates in both highly centralized and decentralized metropolitan areas. However, these regions are also found to experience a larger increase in income inequality, indicating an important trade-off to be considered carefully in exploring ways to reform existing governance settings. These findings further suggest that the so-called growth–inequality trade-off may exist not only in their direct interactions but through their connections via governance or other variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that social integration--in the sense of within-community interconnectedness--and venture capital have a complementary relationship in fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. Using panel data on metropolitan areas in the United States from 1993 to 2002, our analyses reveal that racial integration--in the microgeography of residential patterns--moderates the effect of venture capital, with more ethnically-integrated places benefiting more from venture capital. We provide evidence for the underlying mechanisms by demonstrating that communities with higher levels of racial integration foster the discovery of more novel and more valuable inventions and the emergence of more ethnically-diverse entrepreneurial groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development strategies aimed at attracting highly skilled workers through investment in urban amenities are gaining momentum throughout the United States. However, most of the foundational research for the approach was tested in very large cities, both in the United States and abroad. Based on quality of place (QOP) variables suggested from previous research, confirmatory factor analysis was used to generate a set of factors for a selection of small and midsized U.S. cities, and linear regression was used to relate these factors to the presence of college-educated populations, younger college-educated populations, and adult population growth. The results indicated that some of the QOP factors associated with better human capital outcomes in prior literature focusing on larger cities were also significant predictors of better human capital outcomes in midsized cities. The relationship between these factors and development outcomes for small cities was much weaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary debates on the relationship between migration and development focus extensively on how migrant remittances affect the economies of sending countries. Yet remittances also produce dynamic political consequences in migrants’ origin communities. Income earned abroad creates political opportunities for migrant groups to participate in the provision of public services in their hometowns. Focusing on organizational variation in partnerships across time and space, this article examines the conditions under which the transnational coproduction of public goods between organized migrants and public agencies at origin shapes democratic governance. I argue that local citizen inclusion and government engagement interact to determine four different types of coproduction: corporatist, fragmented, substitutive, and synergetic. Using four comparative case studies based on fieldwork in three Mexican states, I trace central mechanisms to organizational forms of coproduction and describe how emergent variation affects democratic governance and state–society relations. I show how transnational forces, when collaborating with local social and political institutions, can profoundly affect democratic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the literature that evaluates WalMart’s impacts on local economies. The authors first describe the methods used to account for potential reverse causality of WalMart’s store location decisions, and then they discuss the literature assessing the company’s effect on three aspects of community life: (a) retail (and nonretail) businesses, across large- and small-sized stores and in different business environments; (b) retail workers, wages, and types of jobs; and (c) producer and consumer welfare through the company’s price-decreasing effect and other potential indirect effects. Last, articles focusing on a broad spectrum of local conditions that could be affected by the company, including poverty rates, social capital, food insecurity, policy effectiveness, and obesity are reviewed. For each dimension, evidence is found of both positive and negative effects, suggesting that we are still far from truly understanding the net effect of WalMart on local economies, let alone the overall consequences in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in the Kelo decision the use of eminent domain for private-to-private transfer of property for economic development, public outrage was followed by attempts to restrict such use of eminent domain. Opponents of restrictions predicted dire consequences for state and local economies. This study considers whether restricting the use of eminent domain for economic development results in negative economic effects. The authors examine economic indicators before and after legislative or judicial restrictions on eminent domain across all states and between states based on the type of legislative/judicial change. Results indicate that there appear to be no negative economic consequences resulting from limiting the use of eminent domain when examining economic indicators before and after legislative/judicial change. Adopting either moderate or major eminent domain restrictions appears to create no economic ill effects when analyzing differences in trends based on the type of legislation passed or scope of judicial decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on city planning-related topics, including visions of waterfront development in postindustrial Philadelphia, the construction of a town planning perception of Colombo, and city planning and the U.S. census.

In a world dominated by oil, each country has to design its own energy policy to cope with increasingly scarce stocks of this fossil fuel. Particularly, the United States, France and Germany engaged into significantly different paths coping with challenging constraints such as ensuring economic growth, security of energy supply, and respect of the environment. The impact of these energy policies on the development of renewable energies has been assessed by analyzing each national policy from the economic, political, and technological standpoints. The results of this study provides some explanations of tactical moves made by these energy hungry economies to cope with the increasing pressure put on the oil supply market and to prepare for a future where green energies are bound to play an increasingly important role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the economic growth and national development in the U.S. Policy makers in Washington, D.C. believed that they had finally found the formula for sustained economic growth and national development known as "the Washington Consensus." The formula held that economic growth was best achieved by a comprehensive program of reduced taxes, balanced budgets, floating exchange rates, decontrolled interest rates, open foreign investment, liberalized trade relations, privatization, and deregulation.

In this article, the authors present arguments for a more interdisciplinary approach to community economic development. Building an alternative paradigm that includes six elements-resources, markets, institutions, society, decision making, and space-they rethink the framework that links economic theory to the practice of community economic development. Major attention is paid to the integration of economic and noneconomic factors in the practice of community economic development. In the end, the goal of this new paradigm is to more directly link the practice of community economic development to its solid interdisciplinary theoretical foundation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the authors evaluate the New Economy according to its own claims of growing prosperity and rising standards of living. Using statistics and indicators from the recent economic expansion, they demonstrate that many of the claims about the New Economy's increasing prosperity were highly suspect and remain so today. They conclude that the New Economy discourse is an ideological expression of an explicit political agenda favoring corporate interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examined the subsequent long-term investment consequences of the adoption of antitakeover charter amendments by U.S. industrial manufacturing firms. Long-term investment — a major determinant of future economic growth and business competitiveness was assessed by analyzing research and development and capital investment intensity levels. In a matched-pair design, analyses were conducted on two separate samples of companies to assess the relationship between antitakeover amendment adoption and future-oriented resource allocation decisions. Results fail to indicate the existence of a general main effect of antitakeover amendments on long-term investment for either sample of firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors report on the first year of the J 993 federal Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Communities Program (EZ) and its ability to expand community capacity in the six urban EZ areas. They hypothesize that expanded community capacity depends on the strength of participation and the development of networks. They find variation in capacity levels among sites and limited expansion of community capacity because mayors control the process, community organization roles are limited, and existing networks are reused. They conclude, however, that it is too early to assess the full EZ impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the program of attracting retirees as an economic development strategy for rural communities in the United States. Assumption that retirees will continue to migrate at the same rate, bringing with them relatively high incomes and low demands for service; Impact of changes in demographics, income, wealth, and living preferences result in retirement decisions.

One of the major problems confronting mankind today concerns the fact that roughly two thirds of the world's population lives in countries that are characterized by extremely low levels of economic and social well-being. In contrast to an annual per capita income of $1,864 in the United States, recent estimates indicate that about 70 per cent of the countries in the world have annual per capita incomes of less than $400. The economic development of any given country is a process which entails changes in nearly every aspect of economic and social life. The article makes an effort to compare the annual rates of increase in population and per capita income for selected underdeveloped countries during the period 1952 to 1958. For those countries which have been growing at a rate of less than 1 per cent per year, the annual rate of increase in per capita income has ranged from 3.1 per cent to 7.5 per cent, with an overall average of 5.9 per cent a year. In contrast, the average annual rate of per capita income increase has been only 2.4 per cent for countries whose annual rate of population growth has been between 1 and 2 per cent, and only 1.7 per cent for those countries which have been growing at a rate in excess of 2 per-cent per year.