From Alfred Weber to Max: The Shifting Style of Regional Policy

Until recently, most regional development policy, in both poor and rich countries, sought to attract manufacturing industry to underdeveloped or depressed areas and, to a lesser degree, to discourage the location of industry in areas which were considered to be overly developed. In order to attract industry to the designated areas, investments were made in infrastructure, such as transportation and industrial parks, and commonly various subsidies and inducements were offered to enterprises. By contrast to the emphasis on manufacturing, agriculture was usually neglected and the service sector commonly ignored except for quixotic attempts to move government agencies from the capital.