Prevailing policies versus new tailored policies

Policy-makers usually give much weight to specialist intermediaries, gurus, who propose ideas about how to intervene in the urban economy. The problem is that there is a tendency for policy-makers to celebrate the most popular gurus, who then set the tone for converging urban economic policies; while the value of the new policy direction is hardly or not at all supported by proper analysis of the condition and potential of the local or regional economy under consideration. Because it would be wise for policy-makers to incorporate all available knowledge, this chapter presents some of the insights derived from the literature on urban economic development and the conditions that are of key importance. The literature on prevailing policies and new tailored policies is considered, providing the framework for the discussions in the following three parts of this volume, which are briefly introduced in turn.