ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we provide a broad historical overview of economic development policy, ranging from tax incentive programmes that are generally recognized as starting with the Mississippi Balance Agriculture with Industry (BAWI) policies of the Great Depression era and the modern competition between the states for new firms, to the focus on entrepreneurship and business retention and expansion, along with the current philosophies of collaboration and partnership-building within and across communities and regions. We outline the “waves” of economic development policies at the state and local levels, leading up to the current state-of-the-art of economic development thinking. The primary focus is on the history of development ideas related to targeted economic development.
