ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the analysis of local growth promotion means looking beyond increases in employment, income or the tax base. It suggests that the current preoccupation with revisiting past ideas on regional growth runs the risk of loosing sight of the distributional effects of growth. The chapter discusses the cause for putting people and their welfare back at the centre of the debate on promoting local growth. The regional growth literature has similarly expended much energy in finding suitable indices for measuring each of the terms and thereby juxtaposing them. The heart of the welfare-based approach to analysing growth promotion presented is the differential weighting system used for assessing the opportunity cost of labour at different wage levels. As with other public goods, private markets may fail to allocate the necessary resources to promote a sense of place.
