This book provides interesting insights for the identification of socioeconomic, demographic and territorial factors that affect structural disparities in local economies. Urban development is the result of demographic dynamics at the local level, connected to socioeconomic factors, and of economic growth, whose fluctuations are particularly sensitive to the economic cycle in countries, such as the ones in the Mediterranean basin, characterized by greater informality of the sector and limited public/social housing. Our objective is to provide a contribution to sustainability planning, explaining the linkage between forms of urban development and economic growth, providing policy indications for integrated spatial planning, and for cohesion policies that may leverage social and economic competitiveness.