Understanding the Role of Consumer Services in Local Economic Development: Some Evidence from the Fens

Abstract

Through a critical review of economic base theory, it is argued in this paper that the ability of locally-oriented activities to prevent income from leaking out of an area can be seen as as important to local economic development as the external income-generating function of outward-oriented industries. Given this, consumer-service activities are posited to contribute to the development of a local economy not only in the much neglected role of basic activities which attract external income but also in the nonbasic locally-oriented role of curbing the seepage of income out of an area. With use of a case study of the East Anglian Fens rural economy, the extent to which the consumer-service sector fulfils these functions in practice is investigated, revealing the positive role of these services in local economic development both as generators of external income and as leakage preventers.