Economic growth and economic development: Geographical dimensions, definition, and disparities

This chapter reviews and critiques conventional ideas about the relationship of economics to geography and the implications for growth and development. While economic development occupies our collective imagination, the term is often not well defined, or defined in a limited manner that does not accommodate the full range of places faced with restructuring and economic uncertainty. All too often the emphasis is on innovation and entrepreneurship as ends to themselves rather than as a means to the end of widely shared prosperity and human fulfillment. This chapter summarizes recent work that differentiates economic development for economic growth, and provides a definition of economic development that argues for policy focused on building capacities in order to reduce the highly unequal social and geographical distributions that result from current frameworks.