With the publication of [Kay, David, James E. Pratt, Mildred E. Warner. Measuring the Role of Local Services with Hypothetical Extraction, Growth and Change, 38(3), 419-442. September 2007] we continue to make the case that traditional economic development approaches must be rethought to more centrally address the role of services in regional economic development, including services that are not export oriented.

Traditional economic development theory and practice has focused almost exclusively on the role of sectors that sell to nonlocal buyers. Starting with work that reframes the importance of child care from an economic development rather than social services perspective, we argue that the existing economic development paradigms are blinded to the importance and role of most of the service sector, and especially services that are not exportable. In a service dominated economy, essentially marginalizing many of the most dynamic sectors of local economies is unacceptable. A more inclusive paradigm of economic development, with better measurement tools, will lead to more robust economic development strategies.

Building from extension and methodologically oriented work with the child care industry last year, we have generalized our work to look at service sectors in general. By publishing in a prominent policy journal (Growth and Change), we have taken our case to a broad national and international policy audience.

Although related work last year has been widely adopted by the child care industry, our work this year has not been public long enough to be able to evaluate its effectiveness.

economic and community development

Hatch