Question

How would you know if your economic development strategies were successful? Please list five to seven measures that you would propose to monitor success and describe why you chose each measure as it relates to the practical tools you selected. Do you believe that these measures will give you a full understanding of how your economic development program is working? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Economic development organizations are increasingly partnering together to offer improved workforce training and economic development services. Both groups realize the importance of collaboration in order to ensure a talented labor supply to meet the needs of today’s companies and to sufficiently educate workers for the demands of the knowledge economy.

Business leaders and educational institutions are also being engaged to develop holistic collaborative frameworks.

This paper distills best practices in collaborative efforts to form systems that leverage the strengths and resources of all partners to create a sustainable labor force.

The report features five case studies ranging from the state, local, and regional level, and cover rural and urban areas. It also includes recommendations distilled from the case studies for communities that want to forge and strengthen partnerships in workforce and economic development.

Economic development measures

1. GDP per capita

GDP per capita is the commonest indicator of material standards of living, and hence is included in the index of development. GDP per capita It is found by measuring Gross Domestic Product in a year, and dividing it by the population.

2.Evaluation of the HDI

Despite the widespread use of the HDI there are a number of criticisms that can be made, including:

1. The HDI index is for a single country, and as such does not distinguish between different rates of development within a country, such as between urban and traditional rural communities.
2. Critics argue that the equal weighting between the three main components is rather arbitrary.

3. Population Growth

In general, poorer countries have more rapid rates of population growth. Compare the following maps to verify that this general trend is true. You may have to go back a forth between them several times checking a different region of the world each time.

After comparing the maps look here for a graph showing population growth rates by realm.

Even though population growth rates seem small (1%, 2% 3%, or maybe 4%) they have a big impact. A useful way to see this is by using the "Rule of 70". The rule of 70 is a way to ESTIMATE the number of years it takes for something to DOUBLE if you know the annual percentage growth rate. Therefore, the population of the United States with an annual population growth rate of 1% will double in about 70 years IF THE POPULATION GROWTH RATE REMAINS AT 1%.

The population of the country of Mozambique, Southern Africa, with an annual population growth rate of 4% will double in 17.5 years, quadruple in 35 years and increase by a factor of 8 in 70 years IF THE POPULATION GROWTH RATE REMAINS AT 4%. So a small change in the population growth rate results in significant increase in population.

You should  now examine appendix A of your textbook and see how well the rule of 70 calculates the population doubling time. (Note: the textbook uses the rate of "Natural Increase" to measure the population growth rate.)

4. Occupational Structure of the Labor Force

Economic geographers divide economic activities into primary activities, secondary activities, and tertiary activities. (Some add quaternary activities and quinary activities, but we will not.)

PRIMARY ACTIVITIES are those that directly remove resources from the earth. Generally they include AGRICULTURE, MINING, fishing, and lumbering.

SECONDARY ACTIVITIES involve converting resources into finished products. These are the MANUFACTURING activities.

TERTIARY ACTIVITIES comprise the SERVICE sector of the economy. The tertiary activities include retailing, transportation, education, banking, etc.

As countries develop the occupational structure of the labor force changes. In ldcs most people are engaged in primary activities. In high income countries like the United states most people are involved with the tertiary sector.

5. Urbanization

Urbanization is the percentage of a country's population who live in urban areas. Urban areas generally means in towns and cities of 2,500 or more people. Currently just less than half of the world’s population live in urban areas. Generally as countries develop urbanization increases.

Note the high urbanization found in the more developed countries and in South America.

6. Adult literacy

The percentage of those aged 15 and above who are able to read and write a simple statement on their everyday life.

More extensive definitions of literacy include those based on the International Adult Literacy Survey. This survey tests the ability to understand text, interpret documents and perform basic arithmetic