Understanding the Role of Consumer Services in Local Economic Development: Some Evidence from the Fens

Colin Williams

Environment and Planning A, 1996, vol. 28, issue 3, 555-571

Abstract: Through a critical review of economic base theory, it is argued in this paper that the ability of locally-oriented activities to prevent income from leaking out of an area can be seen as as important to local economic development as the external income-generating function of outward-oriented industries. Given this, consumer-service activities are posited to contribute to the development of a local economy not only in the much neglected role of basic activities which attract external income but also in the nonbasic locally-oriented role of curbing the seepage of income out of an area. With use of a case study of the East Anglian Fens rural economy, the extent to which the consumer-service sector fulfils these functions in practice is investigated, revealing the positive role of these services in local economic development both as generators of external income and as leakage preventers.

Date: 1996
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:28:y:1996:i:3:p:555-571

DOI: 10.1068/a280555

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