Economic Development
| Author | Ellen Szarleta |
| Pages | 218-220 |
Page 218
Economic development, generally speaking, is a process of change that is focused on the betterment of the community, state, and/or nation. Defining economic development can be difficult. The first term in this phrase—economic—refers to an accepted paradigm for organizing the business and financial and even to some extent the governmental sectors of a nation. Economics is viewed as the foundation for building a prosperous society. However, it is the second term—development—over which there is considerable debate. People's perceptions of development vary. For some, development has the appearance of successful commercial enterprise; for others, the face of development is one of economic equality. Nevertheless, the concept of economic development has the attention of government, the business sector, and the citizenry. Economic development is pursued as one of the goals of a successful country, state, or city. It captures the attention of the news media and impacts, as well as is impacted by, political objectives.
Economic development in a community can take many forms. However, before discussing the process of economic development, we must first understand how economic development has been measured, particularly at the national level. It is within this framework that communities have pursued their goal of improving the local economic environment. In fact, standardized measures of economic development are being used throughout the world, not just in the United States.
Standardized measures of economic development are used to identify the status of one's country, state, or local community. We use these measures for a number of different purposes, including identifying trends and understanding patterns of economic development in communities that face different resource opportunities and constraints.
One of the most common methods of measuring economic growth is by calculating the gross national product of a country. Gross national product (GNP) is the value of goods and services produced by an economy's factors in a given period of time (e.g., the value of all goods and services produced by U.S. operations throughout the world in a given year). Gross domestic product (GDP), on the other hand, is the value of goods and services produced in an economy in a given period of time (e.g., the value of goods and services produced in the United States in a given year). When these measures are adjusted for inflation, we correct for any...
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