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about economic development
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All together the various definitions below provide a comprehensive view of economic development. We started collecting definitions years ago when one of our .network user group asked about an official meaning for the term. We've searched for operative words and expressions that are universally understood as associated with economic development since answering the question. Our effort has been to find and quote the unique and most notable sources. Some sources see economic development as a practice. The Network definition focuses on it as a process. To search the Web from the library, CLICK HERE.
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economic development:

... refers to the deliberate effort to improve the economy of a specified geographic area, which can be as large as an entire nation-state or as limited as a city neighborhood. Stating that it is a process, the source points out that it's a challenge put measures in place that would indicate whether or to what degree improvement take place in a location. The source notes that economic development may be an activity specifically undertaken but that ... the same intended consequences might also take place spontaneously, without any deliberate efforts to achieve them ... and attributes the existence of the practice of economic development to the observation that what locations desire don't often spontaneously appear.

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source: Centre for Community Enterprise / www.ccednet-rcdec.ca
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economic development:

... any effort or undertaking which aids in the growth of the economydashmore.
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source: Nonprofit Good Practice Guide (glossary) / www.npgoodpractice.org
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economic development:

... the process of creating wealth through the mobilization of human, financial, capital, physical and natural resources to generate marketable goods and services. The (practitioner's) role is to influence the process for the benefit of the community through expanding job opportunities and the tax basedashAEDC/1984. After publishing the definition the American Economic Development Council later reaffirmed it, adding that practitioners are essentially involved in a specialized form of marketingdashresource file.
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economic development:

... (is about) jobs, income, and community prosperitydashis a continuing challenge to modern societydashmore of the quote from the aims and scope of its source.

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source: Economic Development Quarterly / about the publication
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economic development:

... is fundamentally about enhancing the factors of productive capacitydashland, labor, capital, and technology - of a national, state or local economydashmore.
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source: EDA/Economic Development Administration/ USA / www.eda.gov (resources)
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economic development:

... can be "described" by objectives of which the most common are the ... creation of jobs and wealth, and the improvement of quality of life. Economic development can also be described as a process that influences growth and restructuring of an economy to enhance the economic well being of a community.
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source: What is Economic Development? answered by IEDC / www.iedconline.org
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economic development:

... efforts to increase employment opportunities by getting new businesses to relocate in a community or existing businesses to expand. Differs from job development in the sense that it seeks to in-crease the pool of available work rather than soliciting employers to post openings for jobs that already exist.

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source: Texas Workforce Commission / more about the quote
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economic development:

... on the international level has been defined as a (growth process) ... whereby countries raise incomes per capita and become industrialized ...
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source: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. / source webpage no longer available
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economic development:

... (is a) process of raising the level of prosperity and material living in a society through increasing the productivity and efficiency of its economy. In less industrialized regions, this process is believed to be achieved by an increase in industrial production and a relative decline in the importance of agricultural production.
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source: The Politics of International Economic Relations / www.indiana.edu
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economic development:

... (is) actions taken to improve the ability of people to more productively use capital and natural and human resources in the production of goods and servicesdashmore.

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source: Glossary of Social Studies Terms and Vocabulary / more about the quote
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economic development:

... (is) the process of promoting, initiating, supporting, and/or facilitating the creation of wealth and employment opportunities.
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source: Steve Elledge, Wyoming Business Council / more Elledge thoughts
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economic development:

... (is) a rise in real income per person; usually associated with new technology that increases productivity or resources. This definition of economic development is one of several provided in the listed source and also in a glossary available through the .network library.
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source: Material Efficiency and the work of the Wuppertal Institute / by Holger Wallbaum
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economic development:

... (is) the stabilization, retention or expansion of the economic base and quality employment opportunities.
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source: Guide to Community Planning in Wisconsin / more about the quote
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economic development:

... ( is increasing the flow) of capital through the community and reducing its leakage.
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source: Economic Development Marketing Letter (2004) / Blane Canada Ltd.
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link: .network help / intro
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http://www.eda.gov/Research/EcoDev.xml#Defining was where the original USEDA definition of economic development was found. At last check the URL address string produced a file-not-found message. Apparently the replacement definition quotes Harvard Professor Michael E. Porter who in The Competitive Advantage of Nations, 1990, stated that (economic development is a) ... long-term process of building a number of interdependent microeconomic capabilities and incentives to support more advanced forms of competition ... EDA source

Search the Web for ... Competitive Advantage of Nations and other keywords.

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Elledge points out in an online resource paper that the quote is his favorite definition of economic development. He also indicates that a traditional format for defining economic development would likely include a reference to involvement with ... some sort of a lending program. Elledge's paper also mentions political involvement by pointing out that ... politicians support “it”dashsee comments under the last acknowledgement on this page.

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URL address string www.johnwiley.com.au/highered/eco2e/macro/lect-res/glossary.html is no longer functional; however, two words in the quote, industrialization and countries, are worth dwelling on and offering related links. For example, industrialization is a prompt for pointing out that Industrial development is a term used in many locations around the world and is often interchangeable with economic development. Also, it may be worthwhile to point out that The Network is as much a global industrial development directory as it is an economic development directory. The first thing you see when you enter the Area Development section of Economic Development.net is a list of countries.

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Blane Canada is a consultancy. It is listed among other economic development marketing consultants in the Global Registry of Contacts. The quote is from an issue of the consultancy's newsletter (online archive), completed with the following: Other definitions are only pretenders to the crown. So, what have you done for your community today?
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The Economic Development Marketing Letter archive also has a suggestion by Nancy Blane that the following statement be paraphrased to provide a definition of economic development.: We don't make a lot of the products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy ... better!dasgquoted advertising message from BASF Corporation. Blane states that ... in economic development, this (the BASF message) is envisioned through attraction, retention, expansion and investment. Taking our cue from Blane, The Network might offer the following definition:
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Economic development practitioners don't create the communities in which people are able to live, work, and share things in common. They make communities economically viable and sustainable by effecting opportunities for entrepreneurship and job creation, by helping to increase local wealth and distribute imported capital. In other words, practitioners make the processes of enterprise and economic development work better in the places they represent.

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The quote is the definition of economic development as an element of a planning process based on the Guide to Community Planning in Wisconsin by Brian W. Ohm.

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Additional definitions of economic development available in the resource paper, Material Efficiency and the work of the Wuppertal Institute, by Holger Wallbaum: (1) Economic development is the ... qualitative improvement of the economic subsystem of society that is concerned with the production, consumption and distribution of goods and services to meet human needs; (2) ... process of improving the quality of human life through increasing per capita income, reducing poverty, and enhancing individual economic opportunities. It is also sometimes defined to include better education, improved health and nutrition, conservation of natural resources, a cleaner environment, and a richer cultural life; and, (3) ... Organized efforts to attract new business into an area or to encourage existing business to expand.

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Glossary: http://www.indiana.edu/~ipe/glossry.html

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Glossary: www.whitehall.k12.mi.us/curriculum/socialstudies/glossaryofterms.htm.

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Quote is from a glossary which defines job development as well as economic development: www.cdr.state.tx.us/Researchers/Automated/FieldGuide/glossary.html

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Glossary E-page: www.npgoodpractice.org/Glossary/Default.aspx?index=E

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Acknowledgement: Don Iannone of Cleveland, Ohio at one time published several online answers to the question of how to define economic development. There are (1), (2), (3) definitions on this page also found in his blog. Iannone interviewed an economic development marketing guru and published the observation that the practice of economic development, at its best, requires political savviness. Perhaps there ought to be more information available about politics and economic development for sophomoric practitioners. If interested, see the list of keyword search suggestions in the .network library.

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This page is the second in a series about economic development. It follows the one that has definitions of terms that begin with the word economic.

This page provides a comprehensive definition of economic development based on a selection of views on the subject. Operative words (keywords) have been selected from the definitions above and organized into a library reference for additional information.

You are welcomed to critique or comment on what you find here or in the library and, if you know of a definition that would add more, to submit it. CONTACT US. Also, we've fielded various questions about economic development. For example, see our answer to the one about where the term came from. Our answer ties it to industrial development. The next page in this series is about industrial development.

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