Economic growth and wellbeing are often considered issues to be addressed by central government action and policies. However, economic downturns in a context of globalisation have shown how localities are differently exposed to macroeconomic fluctuations due to differences in local endowments and local assets. Therefore, policies for local economic development become a critical issue in order to foster an inclusive, consistent and widespread process of economic growth. This paper focuses on local economic development under a theoretical perspective. That is, it presents an overview of the main theoretical streams that have investigated this issue, with the purpose of proposing a classification of policies and programmes that favour local economic development.