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LETS get real: constraints on the development of Local Exchange Trading Schemes
Author(s) -
Aldridge Theresa J.,
Patterson Alan
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/1475-4762.00094
Subject(s) - poverty , value (mathematics) , volume (thermodynamics) , focus (optics) , local economic development , local development , business , economics , computer science , industrial organization , operations research , regional science , economic growth , engineering , sociology , physics , quantum mechanics , machine learning , optics
Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS) are widely promoted as a new tool for local economic development, but until recently the focus has been on their alleged ‘potential’ rather than the realities of their operation. This paper assesses the practical economic role of LETS by examining the amount of trading conducted, and demonstrates that both the volume of trading and the value of the trades are very low. Drawing on an intensive case study of the first UK LETS created explicitly as part of a local authority's anti–poverty strategy, explanations for the low levels of participation are suggested, and significant structural constraints on the development of LETS are identified.