‹ Urban Focus

June 2007: Local Economic Development

In most countries in the world, the biggest part of GDP is produced in cities, therefore the interest for urban economics, and city economic development increased both at the level of public administrations and researchers/specialists.

The globalisation of financial investment makes the location of economic activities and investment to depend more on the costs of labour force, of land and buildings, on access to markets and their proximity, on non-economic factors such as quality of life, cultural and social characteristics, all these elements becoming instruments to formulate local economic development strategies.

A series of local economic development strategies, including aspects of cluster development (Humberside, England), encouraging local business growth (Sezena, Slovenia), or urban regeneration (Brindisi, Italy), as well as other case studies from the world, are presented on the World Bank website.

• web.worldbank.org - Local Economic Development