Professor A Rodríguez-Pose, STC. S407

Primarily for students taking MSc Local Economic Development, MSc Environment and Development and MSc Development Management. Optional for students on LSE-Sciences PO Double Degree in Urban Policy and other suitably qualified graduate students as permitted by the regulations for their degrees.

This course analyses the theory and practice of economic development focusing on response to change, stimulation of development, and methods of local or regional delivery.

Semester A: Theories of regional economic development, location, and trade are applied to the contemporary process known as "globalization", and used to decipher this phenomenon and its effects on development, employment, and political institutions. A number of major issues for regional and industrial policy are considered, including trade, convergence/divergence, corporate power, knowledge and technology, governance, and inter-place competition.

Semester B: This section of the course deals with the management and institutions of local and regional economic development. It dwells on the socio-economic implications of the emergence of local and regional governments and institutions as key actors in the design and implementation of economic development strategies across the world. In particular, the consequences for economic efficiency and equality of the gradual but relentless shift of development responsibilities from the national and the supranational to the local and regional scale are analysed, before focusing, from a theoretical and empirical perspective, on the strategies being implemented by subnational governments across the world in order to cope and redress development problems. The course draws on examples from Europe, the US, Latin America, and Asia.

20 Lectures/Seminars in MT; 20 Lectures/Seminars in LT; 6 Lectures/Seminars in LT.

S Brakman, H Garretsen & C van Marrewijk, The New Introduction to Geographical Economics, Cambridge University Press, 2009; G Clark, M Gertler & M Feldman (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, 2000; P Dicken, Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy, Sage, 2007; J H Dunning (Ed), Regions, Globalization and the Knowledge-Based Economy, Oxford University Press, 2000; J V Henderson & J F Thisse (Eds) Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, volume 4: Cities and Geogaphy, Elsevier, 2004; P Krugman & M Obstfeld, International Economics: Theory and Policy, Harper-Collins, 1991; A Pike, A Rodríguez-Pose & J Tomaney, Local and Regional Development, Routledge, 2006; A Scott (Ed), Global City Regions, Oxford University Press, 2000; M Storper, The Regional World: Territorial Development in a Global Economy, Guilford Press, 1997. A number of more specialised texts will be recommended at the beginning of the course.

One unseen examination of three hours (75%) and written work to be submitted during the session (25%).