Economic well-being: Semantic environment and research contexts at a municipal level

Mounting concerns over economic success of some territories and poverty of the others, as well as technological progress and complication of environmental and social problems against the backdrop of the globalisation of the means of handling them make studying the characteristics of economic well-being at the local level increasingly relevant. This review paper addresses the question: what does literature tell us about the essence of economic well-being and how do its characteristics reveal themselves in the municipality context? Methodologically, the research rests on the concepts of economic dynamics, and municipal economics. The methods include retrospective analysis, systematisation and generalisation, as well as analysis of the semantic environment used to examine 110 publications indexed in Scopus. The literature suggests there are three approaches to the treatment of the concept “economic well-being”: basic (economic well-being is equivalent to the state of owning enough wealth or income), alternative (extends the basic one with the characteristics of sustainability, inclusiveness, and some others), original (relies on the indirect evidence of economic well-being). The findings allow developing the understanding of the concept “economic well-being of a municipality” as an economically secured state of material and non-material well-being of a territory under local government, which is generated based on a sustainable, spatially inclusive, planned, individualised, conscious reproduction process. The results of the research can be useful for regional and local authorities when targeting local economic development.