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Cities regularly face a wide range of economic development choices that inevitably create both winners and losers within their communities. Proper assessment of the impacts of such choices requires not only an appropriate modelling framework but also explicit understanding and incorporation of a city's income distribution priorities. This paper proposes that a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, which includes a structured social welfare function, can provide precisely such a tool to fully evaluate economic development choices, tradeoffs and implications. We leverage such a model for a small Colorado city and simulate sector-specific expansionary economic development policies. We apply the framework to understand the gains and losses of two distinct groups, namely original residents versus new arrivals, likely to be affected by such choices, alongside the welfare impacts to the city as whole. Resumen. Las ciudades se enfrentan regularmente a un amplio abanico de decisiones en cuanto al desarrollo económico, que a la vez crean inevitablemente ganadores y perdedores dentro de sus comunidades. Una evaluación adecuada de los impactos de tales decisiones requiere no solamente un marco de modelización apropiado sino también el entender y responsabilizarse explícitamente de las prioridades en cuanto a la distribución de ingresos de una ciudad. Este artículo propone que un modelo de equilibrio general computable (CGE), que incluya una función de asistencia social estructurada, puede precisamente proporcionar dicha herramienta para evaluar por completo las decisiones en cuanto al desarrollo económico, las ventajas relativas y las implicaciones. Empleamos dicho modelo para una pequeña ciudad del estado de Colorado y simulamos políticas de desarrollo económico expansionistas específicas para un sector. Aplicamos este marco de trabajo para entender las pérdidas y ganancias de dos grupos diferentes, como son los residentes originales y los recién llegados, quienes probablemente se verán afectados por tales decisiones, junto con los impactos en asistencia social para la totalidad de la ciudad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stylized facts that motivate this article include the diversity in growth patterns that are observed across countries during the process of economic development and the divergence over time in income distributions both within and across countries. We construct a dynamic general equilibrium model in which technology adoption is costly and agents are heterogeneous in their initial holdings of resources. We interpret the adoption cost as the resources expended in acquiring skills associated with new technologies. Endogenous growth occurs in our model largely as a result of human capital deepening. The analytical results of the model characterize three growth outcomes associated with the technology adoption process depending on productivity differences between the technologies. These outcomes are labeled 'poverty trap,' 'dual economy,' and 'balanced growth.' The model is then capable of explaining the observed diversity in growth patterns in addition to the divergence of incomes over time and across countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Botswana's record of economic development and social stability is challenged by a set of socioeconomic problems, which threaten the country's progress. They are: (a) inequities in income distribution and asset ownership rooted in agricultural underdevelopment; (b) rapidly expanding demands for water, the supply of which is virtually always uncertain; (c) endemic declines in cereal crop production leading to food insecurity; and (d) progressively more profound dependence upon the Republic of South Africa These lead to conflict among classes. Botswana's history and aid donors' recent emphasis on basic human needs have led to three initiatives: the Arable Land Development Program, the Tribal Grazing Land Policy and the Financial Assistance Program. But problems remain which must be dealt with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]