Community decision makers selecting an economic development strategy most appropriate for their local community must begin with an understanding of how their local economy functions, what its economic base is, and how changes in that base may affect local economic structure and performance. The economic base approach emphasizes the roles of…

Local public officials may be confronted with the use of economic multipliers when asked to react to project proposals, to environmental impact statements, or to other studies containing economic impact analyses. Employment, income, and output multipliers are tools for estimating private sector economic impacts of a new development within a local…