Professor Ian Gordon, STC. S505a. Other teacher involved, Dr Riccardo Crescenzi

Primarily for students taking MSc Local Economic Development, LSE-Sciences Po Double Degree in Urban Policy, MSc Development Management, MSc Development Studies and MPA Public and Economic Policy/MPA Public Policy and Management/MPA International Development/MPA European Public and Economic Policy/MPA Public and Social Policy. Also available to other suitably qualified graduate students as permitted by the regulations for their degrees.

This course deals with the analysis of theoretical and institutional issues, empirical evidence, development pre-requisites and economic development policies in the context of actions to stimulate the economic development of local and regional economies.
The course is split in two parts. Both are concerned with the analysis of local economic development management. The first part of the course (GY410) is focused on the macro and meso-level determinants of regional and local economic development and on the design and implementation of the corresponding 'top-down' policies. The second part of the course (GY415) is concerned with 'bottom-up' approaches and focuses on locally owned and managed processes which may involve a much wider range of actors in managing local economic development.

Term A: This section of the course is generally focused on the macro and meso-level determinants of regional and local economic development and on the capacity of 'top-down' policies to exert an influence on these drivers, promoting growth and convergence. The course starts by examining the existing disparities in regional economic performance in a number of industrial, emerging and developing countries, illustrating the scope and justification for government intervention in this area. The course then considers how different theories and approaches to local and regional economic development identify different macro and meso determinants of economic performance and, consequently, suggest differentiated sets of 'top-down' development policies. With these analytical tools in place, the EU regional policy is used as a case study to discuss the benefits of a 'balanced' approach to the analysis, design and implementation of regional development policies, overcoming the limitations of the one-sided approaches presented in the first part of the course.

Term B: This section of the course deals mainly with socio-economic restructuring and labour market change in recent decades and the policy issues which these present to local and regional agencies to formulate and deliver effective 'bottom-up' strategies for economic development. The strengths and weaknesses of traditional theories of growth and labour market functioning are analysed. The lectures and seminars will focus on the relations between social cohesion and competitiveness; human resources in development organisations and in local economies; clustering, inter-firm partnering and innovation; labour market processes and policies, urban competition, the role of institutions, policy and politics in the genesis of growth. A significant part of this course will be based on case studies.

MT and LT will each have 12 one-hour lectures and eight hours of seminars/debates (GY408.1 and GY408.2).

H W Armstrong & J Taylor, Regional Economics and Policy, Macmillan, 2000; R Capello, Regional Economics, Routledge, 2007; P C Cheshire & I R Gordon (Eds), Territorial Competition in an Integrating Europe, Avebury, 1995; P McCann Urban and Regional Economics, OUP 2001; M J Porter, The Competitive Advantage of Nations, 1990; OECD, Competitive Cities in the Global Economy, 2006; A Pike, A Rodriguez-Pose & J Tomaney, Local and Regional Development, 2006; A. Pike, A. Rodriguez-Pose & J. Tomaney, Handbook of Local and Regional Development, 2010; M Storper, The Regional World, 1997; N Buck, I Gordon, A Harding & I Turok (Eds), Changing Cities, 2005.

One unseen examination of three hours (75%) and two essays of 1,500 words on a title approved by the course convener to be submitted early in the ST (25%).