Economic Development Strategies for Nonmetropolitan Areas. Occasional Papers Series No. 85-1.

Rural economic development presents a paradox of growth in population and jobs without corresponding improvement in local economic well-being. Four forces may impede nonmetropolitan development efforts. Growth of multiestablishment corporations makes traditional regional economic development models unrealistic. Rural industrialization is socially, politically, and economically dependent on metropolitan areas. Industry location trends have little to do with rural economic development efforts. Economic impacts of nonmetropolitan industrialization are neither as universal nor as positive as believed. Strategies for successful rural economic development include maximizing local economic linkages such as local purchasing and hiring, encouraging local entrepreneurship, capitalizing on development spinoffs by attracting industries which draw on established local services and products, minimizing direct public subsidies of new industry, and assessing community financial impacts of development proposals. Implications of development impediments and strategies for policy planning are discussed. A four-page reference list is provided. (LFL)