Economic development refers to a sustainable increase in living standards. It implies increased per capita income, better education and health as well as environmental protection.
Public policy generally aims at continuous and sustained economic growth and expansion of national economies so that ‘developing countries’ become ‘developed countries’. The economic development process supposes that legal and institutional adjustments are made to give incentives for innovation and for investments so as to develop an efficient production and distribution system for goods and services.
Economic development has evolved into a professional industry of highly specialized practitioners normally working in public-private partnerships that are sanctioned and many times at least partially funded by local, regional and state/provincial tax dollars. These economic development corporations function as individual entities and in some cases as departments of local governments. Their role is to seek out new economic opportunities and retain their existing business wealth. There is intense competition between communities, states and nations for new economic projects. The creation and retention struggle is further intensified by the use of many variations of economic incentives to the potential business. These incentives vary greatly and can be highly controversial. The measurement of success within this industry is normally job creation, economic growth and increased or retained tax base.
Economic development in its simplest form is the creation of economic wealth for all citizens within the diverse layers of society so that all people have access to potential increased quality of life. Job creation, economic output and increase in taxable basis are the most common measurement tools.
