Divergence of economic opportunity in average places: Pathways to growth

Research on urban-regional development tends to focus on city-regions with extreme economic outcomes (e.g., superstar cities, ‘left-behind’ places), with less attention paid to more normal, ‘average’ places. In this paper, we use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to investigate conditions supporting significant growth in small and mid-sized U.S. urban regions that had average income levels in 1993 (our average places). We identify the interplay between physical geography (e.g., energy reserves and natural amenities), contextual conditions, and economic specialization as instrumental to many of these places’ development, raising important questions about future development prospects of these average places.