Growth Pole Theory

A lecture presentation for AR 443A

Eduardo F. Bober, Jr.
Growth Pole Theory

The growth pole concept originated from British Economist,
Sir William Petty (1623-1687), who was fascinated by the
high growth in London during the 17th century and
conjectured that strong urban economies are the backbone
and motor of the wealth of nations.

Growth Poles sometimes referred to as growth centers.

French Economist, Francois Perroux, who is credited with

formalizing and elaborating on the concept in 1949. He then
called as the Father of Growth Pole Theory.
Growth Pole Theory

From the Geography Dictionary (2004) defines growth
poles as follows:



A point of economic growth. Growth poles are usually
urban locations, benefiting from agglomeration economies,
and should interact with surrounding areas, spreading
prosperity from the core to the periphery.
Growth Pole Theory

The core idea of GP is that economic development, or
growth, is not uniform across an entire region, but instead
takes place around a specific pole. The pole is a
concentration of productive activity and propagates growth
by the diffusion of growth and spillover effects into the
surrounding hinterland.

Growth poles were a popular regional development strategy
in the 1960s and early 1970s, with governments investing in
centers that were identified as growth poles or growth
centers, in a belief that this would ultimately reduce regional
disparities in employment and incomes, facilitate
decentralization, or support rapid industrialization.
Growth Pole Theory

Attempts by governments to pick winners and losers and to
identify and invest in growth poles have a very poor record of
success. Consequently, this approach to regional
development has been discredited and generally abandoned
throughout the world. Parr (2001, p. 17) referred to the
spectacular failure of growth pole strategies.

Growth pole theory, as originally formulated, assumes that

growth does not appear everywhere at the same time, but it
manifests itself in points or poles of growth.
Growth Pole Theory

Darwent (1979) Perrouxs work created deep and serious confusion,
partly because of the ambiguity of Perrouxs initial formulation, partly
because of mistranslation from French to English and vice versa, and
partly because of the semantic confusion of later authors. The original
concept of a growth pole was actually independent of a spatial context
or a geonomic (or geographic) space. Rather, growth pole relates
only and specifically to abstract economic space. He, then, defines
growth poles as:
.centers (poles or focii) from which centrifugal forces emanate and to
which centripetal forces are attracted. Each center being a center of
attraction and repulsion has its proper field which is set in the field of all
other centers.
Growth Pole Theory

Davin, associated a functional attribute to the concept. They
postulated that a growth pole is formed when an industry,
through the flow of goods and incomes which it is able to
generate, stimulates the development and growth of other
industries related to it (technical polarization); or determines
the prosperity of the tertiary sector by means of the incomes
it generates (income polarization); or stimulates an increase
of the regional economy by causing a progressive
concentration of new activities (psychological and
geographical polarization).
 Growth Pole Theory

Growth pole concept was originally conceived within
economic space, but later transposed into geographical
space.

By conceptualizing growth pole in spatial terms, economists
sought for a link between growth pole theory and urban
accumulation and concentration (Monsted, 1974; Parr, 1999;
Bertenelli and Strobl, 2003). The assumption was that cities
with their accumulation and concentration of population and
capital resources (agglomeration economies) - could become
growth poles. That being the case, Penouli (1972) and
Friedman (1966) have treated growth poles as centers from
which innovations and progress are diffused.
End of presentation
Thank you.