Rural non-profit leaders and their (in)formal role in local development

Current interest in place-based leadership is playing a crucial role in local development. It concerns mainly politicians and public servants. The role of non-profit leaders is still an under-researched topic. Thus, we ask the following research questions: Are rural areas with local action groups (LAGs) more attractive to people than those without? Within rural areas with LAGs, are those with a higher proportion of non-profit partners more attractive to people? On a sample of 6,262 Czech municipalities, we tested whether membership of municipalities in LAGs and non-profit leadership attributed to positive migration balance. We did it by the application of the propensity score matching method combined with the difference-indifference approach. We found positive estimates for both LAGs' membership and non-profit leadership on the attractiveness of municipalities. The participation of non-profit leaders makes an important difference. These results underline the importance of bottom-up approaches with voluntary engagement. Moreover, our findings demonstrate contradictory aspects of top-down imposed policies.