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This paper explores the development of a full service retail mall in a mid-sized town in southeastern Arizona.
It also looks at what retail activity can mean to a regional economy as well as the role it can play in the framework
of an economic development organization.

Environmentalists sometimes overlook the economic consequences of crusades to preserve landscapes,
whereas local development interests often assume that preservation spells doom for economic development efforts.
A proposed Sonoran Desert National Park in Southwest Arizona would likely generate significant economic benefit
to local towns.

This paper looks at winter tourism in general and skiing-driven tourism in particular. It also underscores
the role and importance of the ski area on the region's economy as well as how it is connected to the close
but generally under appreciated relationship that exists between the Indian and non-Indian communities.

A recent assignment initially seemed to be straight-forward. Applying a cookie-cutter approach, we would use standard
geographic techniques and concepts to analyze the significance of several new firms to a regional economic system.
In actuality, what we did was anything but routine and was, in many respects, indicative of the benefit of
moving beyond applied research and into the realm of developmental research and from there to project implementation.

Although the names have been changed to protect the industrious, this analysis is based on a study of three real communities.
The resulting report demonstrates the amount of useful information that can be gained from a careful community economic
base analysis, and how this information can be applied to economic development practice.

Regional Science is alive and well. If we wish to maintain our position we need to explore ways to expand our numbers and the
constituencies that we serve. Expanding undergraduate and graduate teaching programs, fostering more discussion of client-driven
work at our meetings and in our journals, and actively encouraging participation by non-university based researchers and even regional
development practitioners are all ways to promote multiple-constituency regional science. If one of these options is to be emphasized
in the short term, I would suggest encouraging participation by non-university based researchers and more discussion of client-driven
research. These strategies are often at least partially in place now, they benefit from the rigorous scientific work that is our core
business, and they will help assure the institutionalization of "full service" regional science.

Economic base analysis is typically sold as a research tool on the promise that it can produce a multiplier. But it can do much
more if the practitioner thinks to ask or if the applied geographer bothers to offer. This article identifies six economic development
problems commonly faced by development practitioners and illustrates how solutions can be drawn from economic base studies.
Two studies are features; one is a regional economic base study that looks at both a large rural region and at five individual
communities within the region. The other is a study of a single community that was initially completed in 1974 and replicated
three time between 1974 and 1995.

 

United States Department of Commerce  |  Economic Development Administration Washington, DC
University of Arizona   |  Arizona Department of Commerce

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