IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v33y2001i3p551-565.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From Theory to Implementation: An Analysis of the Appalachian Regional Commission's Growth Center Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Lawrence E Wood

    (Department of Geography, Perm State University, 302 Walker Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA)

Abstract

In the 1960s and early 1970s growth center policies were included in the regional policies of countries throughout much of the world. However, by the mid-1970s, many academics and government agencies believed that growth center policies were not successful in encouraging regional development, and since that time growth center theory has remained, in general, poorly regarded. In the 1960s, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) implemented a growth center policy. Though much has been written about the ARC, there is little research on the Commission's experience in implementing its growth center policy. The author uses historical documentation from the ARC to assess the Commission's growth center policy, particularly in the context of growth center theory. He then utilizes ARC expenditure data to determine the extent to which the ARC was able to implement what is best termed a ‘modified growth center strategy’. It is concluded that the ARC did not implement a policy that was particularly akin to growth center policy as presented in the theoretical literature; however, it is also concluded that the ARC did implement a modified version of a growth center strategy with some success.

Suggested Citation

  • Lawrence E Wood, 2001. "From Theory to Implementation: An Analysis of the Appalachian Regional Commission's Growth Center Policy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(3), pages 551-565, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:33:y:2001:i:3:p:551-565
    DOI: 10.1068/a33104
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a33104
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a33104?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David W. Hughes & David W. Holland, 1994. "Core-Periphery Economic Linkage: A Measure of Spread and Possible Backwash Effects for the Washington Economy," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 70(3), pages 364-377.
    2. David L. Barkley & Mark S. Henry & Shuming Bao, 1996. "Identifying "Spread" versus "Backwash" Effects in Regional Economic Areas: A Density Functions Approach," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 72(3), pages 336-357.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Heather M. Stephens & Mark D. Partridge, 2011. "Do Entrepreneurs Enhance Economic Growth in Lagging Regions?," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(4), pages 431-465, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michela Brunori, 2018. "Il concetto di diversità nelle scienze economiche e aziendali: definizioni e misure," Working Papers 2018057, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.
    2. Paolo Veneri & Vicente Ruiz, 2016. "Urban-To-Rural Population Growth Linkages: Evidence From Oecd Tl3 Regions," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 3-24, January.
    3. Elena G. Irwin & Andrew M. Isserman & Maureen Kilkenny & Mark D. Partridge, 2010. "A Century of Research on Rural Development and Regional Issues," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 92(2), pages 522-553.
    4. Vogel, Stephen & Miller, Cristina & Ralston, Katherine, 2021. "Impact of USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on Rural and Urban Economies in the Aftermath of the Great Recession," USDA Miscellaneous 314934, United States Department of Agriculture.
    5. Partridge, Mark D. & Rickman, Dan S., 2012. "Integrating regional economic development analysis and land use economics," MPRA Paper 38291, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Shu-hen Chiang, 2018. "Assessing the Merits of the Urban-Led Policy in China: Spread or Backwash Effect?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-14, February.
    7. Kollai, István, 2019. "Elszegényítő központi régiók? A területi egyenlőtlenség lehetséges mozgatórugói Szlovákiában [Core regions impoverished? Spread and backwash effects on territorial inequality in 21st-century Centra," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(11), pages 1125-1144.
    8. Joanna P. Ganning & Kathy Baylis & Bumsoo Lee, 2013. "Spread And Backwash Effects For Nonmetropolitan Communities In The U.S," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 464-480, August.
    9. Niclas Lavesson, 2017. "When And How Does Commuting To Cities Influence Rural Employment Growth?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 631-654, September.
    10. Wagner, John E., 2000. "Regional Economic Diversity: Action, Concept, or State of Confusion," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 30(2), pages 1-22.
    11. Chloé Duvivier, 2013. "Does Urban Proximity Enhance Technical Efficiency? Evidence From Chinese Agriculture," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 923-943, December.
    12. Kamar Ali & M. Rose Olfert & Mark Partridge, 2011. "Urban Footprints in Rural Canada: Employment Spillovers by City Size," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2), pages 239-260.
    13. Mark Partridge & Ray D. Bollman & M. Rose Olfert & Alessandro Alasia, 2007. "Riding the Wave of Urban Growth in the Countryside: Spread, Backwash, or Stagnation?," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 83(2), pages 128-152.
    14. Hughes, David W. & Litz, Vaneska N., 1996. "Rural-Urban Economic Linkages for Agriculture and Food Processing in the Monroe, Louisiana, Functional Economic Area," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(2), pages 337-355, December.
    15. Maureen Kilkenny, 2010. "Urban/Regional Economics And Rural Development," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 449-470, February.
    16. Carole Doucet, 2004. "Espaces ruraux, espaces périphériques ? Les perspectives de développement économique associées au vignoble de Bordeaux," Post-Print hal-01201062, HAL.
    17. Patrícia C. Melo & Conceição Rego & Paulo R. Anciães & Nuno Guiomar & José Muñoz‐Rojas, 2022. "Does road accessibility to cities support rural population growth? Evidence for Portugal between 1991 and 2011," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 443-470, March.
    18. Luisa Alamá-Sabater & Miguel A. Márquez & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2020. "Spatio-sectoral heterogeneity and population-employment dynamics: Some implications for territorial development," Working Papers 2020/24, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    19. F Goffette-Nagot & B Schmitt, 1999. "Agglomeration Economies and Spatial Configurations in Rural Areas," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 31(7), pages 1239-1257, July.
    20. Luca Salvati, 2017. "Economic Resilience, Demography And Local Systems: A Commentary On Theory And Assessment," Romanian Journal of Regional Science, Romanian Regional Science Association, vol. 11(2), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:33:y:2001:i:3:p:551-565. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.