ABSTRACT
GROWTH IN ECONOMIES is a consequence of numerous processes, including increased efficiency and expansions in productive resources. Populations grow, employed labor expands, and output expands. By growth, we usually mean increased material well-being per person, not just increased numbers of persons. But with respect to rural development in high-income countries, the challenge is often how to retain population alone. This is because the share of the population that is urban has been steadily increasing at the expense of the share that is rural. Later in this chapter we will revisit a chart originally presented by Mills in a book edited by Emery Castle documenting that almost all of the growth in the urban population share can be accounted for by the increase in nonfarm share of the labor force. Nevertheless, there is a class of rural residents and shopkeepers whose material well-being is challenged by urbanization. What can be done to ensure that their homes and businesses do not depreciate as a consequence of rural decline to the extent that they become immobilized? What can be done to ensure that all young people, regardless of where they are born or live, have access to quality educational and income-generating opportunities?
