Rural Local Economic Development

Howland ( )notes that rural towns center around one of the following:

• Agribusiness
• Family Farming
• Resource Extraction
• Manufacturing
• Tourism
• Retirement
• Government Employment
• Government Transfers

Whereas Urban areas focus around a mix of four areas:

• Manufacturing
• Advanced Services
• Government
• Trade

It is this thinness of economic diversity, which is a main factor in making the rural economies fragile. Traditionally, the Central Place theory was the model used to understand the isolated mining, or agricultural economies like the Westman area. Now, other theories have been added to deal with broader diversity and changes to such things as transportation as communication.

The links below are to pages dealing with different approaches to Rural Economic Development specifically focusing on the Westman Region.

Practical Models For Developing Rural Economies

• Central Place theory
• Product Cycle Theory
• Profit Cycle Theory
• Neo Classical Theory
• Circular and Cumulative Causation
• Demand-Side Development
• Supply-Side Development

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