Spanlish Abstract: La posibilidad de conducir el desarrollo economico en los territorios sujetos a metropolizacion desde los gobiernos subnacionales esta condicionada por la capacidad de gobernanza economica publica. Esta depende del diseno institucional que fija la distribucion de competencias territoriales de los gobiernos para intervenir en los mercados y de los patrones que fija la dinamica economica en la formacion de aglomeraciones que limita el accionar publico. Para comprender mejor lo anterior, se propone el desarrollo de un cuerpo de investigacion desde tres corrientes economicas: la economia espacial, el federalismo economico y la economia institucional evolucionaria. English Abstract: The possibility of promoting economic development into the territories subjected to metropolization processes, from sub-national governments, is conditioned by the ability of public economic governance. It depends on the institutional design that fixes the territorial distribution of powers of governments to intervene in the markets, as well as the standards set by the economic dynamics in the formation of agglomerations, which limits public action. For a better understanding of the above, it is proposed to develop a body of economic research from three economic streams: spatial economics, evolutionary economic federalism, and institutional economics.