The Role of Community Economic Analysis

This is the starting point in the economic development process. Community economic analysis is the process whereby a community examines the economic aspects of its structure in order to determine the further steps of the development process. In deciding that economic development should be pursued, policy makers should look at their local economy and answer the following questions:

Where are we now? Where do we want to be? Why aren’t we there now? What needs to be done to get us there? Who is going to get us there? When is it going to be done? How will we know when we get there?

The role of the economist in the economic development process is to provide technical expertise to the community in understanding the structure of the economy.