Prof. Scott Campbell
College of Architecture and Urban Planning
University Of Michigan
sdcamp@umich.edu
office:  3136 A&AB
(734) 763-2077
 

Assignments
Students are expected to complete all the required readings before the scheduled class time, actively participate in class discussions and presentations, publish a short web page on a specific economic development topic (no prior web skills required), develop and present a comparative analysis of two local economies (as part of a group project), and write a final take-home exam.  Evaluation of your work will be based on substantive content, analytical rigor, and writing quality.  Late assignments will result in point reductions.

 

		Date due	Percent of Grade
1	Web-based Handbook of Economic Development Planning including presentations see also a separate page on creating web pages	present: Oct. 22 - 24; final versions due Nov. 1	30%
2a	Group Project - Comparative Analysis of Two Local Economies, including group formation, selecting locations, data components, data sources):  Presentation	Nov. 26 - Dec. 5	15%
2b	Group Project:  Written Version	Dec. 10	30%
3	Final Exam -- Take Home passed out Dec. 10	Dec. 17	25%

tips on writing academic papers

The goal of this assignment is to create an on-line reference with concise descriptions of important concepts and examples in local and regional economic development. The class will collectively decide on its contents. (The list below is suggestive, but the class may also propose additional and/or alternate topics.) Each student will prepare at least one of the entries.   We will link all of these entries together with a useful table of contents.   Suggested length for each entry:  500-1000 words, plus illustrations, bibliography and links where appropriate. (Proper citations are very important for this and all other assignments.)

Suggested content (will vary by topic):

brief summary / synopsis
history / context of topic
relevance for local economic development
examples
further information (e.g., www links)
suggested readings (short bibliography, including ca. 4-10 readings)

(You might also include an illustration, a table, a graph or a diagram if appropriate)

Your actual web page format may be simple or fancy. Your focus should be on content, not style. If you are unfamiliar with creating a web page, simply write your assignment in MS Word and I can help you convert to html.

There are various ways to create a web page, including (a) creating the page directly in an html editor (such as Dreamweaver, Netscape Composer, GoLive, FrontPage, etc.); (b) copy-and-paste text from a Word Processor program into one of the html editors; (c) use the "save as web page" function in MS Word, MS Excel, etc. (Note: this may require some further editing and clean-up by an html editor after you do this step, since creating a web page from Word is not without flaws.) ITD has a site that can walk you through the technical steps needed to set up the space in your IFS area for a web page - all you have to do is have something to put there. http://www.umich.edu/~websvcs/umweb/how-to-homepage.html

A few web page basics: to have your web page file accessible to the web browsing public, it needs to be inside an "html" directory, which in turn is inside your "Public" directory in your ifs space (which everyone has). You already have a "Public" directory, but you will need to create a new directory with the name "html" (lower case) inside the "Public" directory. Place all your web page files inside that "html" directory. (You can create subdirectories as well, once your web site gets more complex, but no need for that now.) The file itself needs to have the extension ".html" at the end so that it will be recognized as a web page. (One additional tip: to have your own custom home page, create an html page with the file name "index.html" and put it in your directory.)

BEFORE Oct. 22, please email me the url (web address) of your web page. I will insert your links onto the table below. (Note: I would recommend that you send me your url now; you can always continue to revise your webpage afterwards, since your url will not change). I would recommend something like the following:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~youruniquename/up538handbook.html
(here your file is named up538handbook.html and is located within your "html" folder. Note that you do NOT put either "Public" or "html" in your url address -- those are assumed.

or: if you want to create a subdirectory (folder) within your html space, you might use:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~youruniquename/up538/handbook.html
(NOTE the additional slash "/". Here your file is named handbook.html and is located within a new subdirectory that you created named "up538" inside your html folder.)

For more information, see my page on creating web pages

 

	Category	Topic	Student Volunteer	unique name
TUESDAY October 22
1	institutions	community development corporations (CDCs)	Jonathan Lachance	jlachanc
2	concept / theory / methods	location theory	Hyeyun Lee	hyeyunl
3	concept / theory / methods	central place theory	Kook-Jin Koo	kkoo
4	urbanization process	deindustrialization	Akihiro Obata	aobata
5	finance	Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)	Carrie Hammerman	cba
6	finance	Tax Increment Financing (TIF)	Tiffani Moore	mooretc
7	finance	Industrial Revenue Bonds (IRB) / Industrial Development Bonds	Jason Braidwood	jbraid
8	finance	business improvement districts (BID)	Ben Smith	smithbr
9	institutions	World Bank	Tien Ngo	tienn
10	institutions	International Finance Corporation (World Bank subsidiary)	Felix Kabo	fkabo
THURSDAY October 24
11	urbanization process	the urban underclass	Ryan Robinson	ryro
12	institutions	Downtown Development Authorities (DDA)	Danny Dordeski	ddordesk
13	place-specific policy	casinos as economic development	Melisa Tintocalis	mtintoca
14	place-specific policy	the development role of public authorities	Makoto Noguchi	mnoguchi
15	place-specific policy	brownfield redevelopment as an economic development strategy	Lipi Saikia	lsaikia
16	place-specific policy	research parks	Katie Rich	krich
17	place-specific policy	enterprise zones / empowerment zone programs in the US	Danielle Stingley	dstingle
18	Michigan case study	Michigan Strategic Fund	Jeff Aronoff	jaronoff
19	Michigan case study	Michigan Economic Development Corporation	Betty Law	blaw
20	Michigan case study	Michigan Renaissance Zones	Amy Upston	aupston
21	Michigan case study	Michigan Smart Zones	Jacarl Melton	wmelton

Category	Other topics (not covered)
urbanization process	agglomeration economies, including localization and urbanization economies
place-specific policy	university - industry partnerships
place-specific policy	the structure and impact of local hiring requirements
finance	Micro-credit programs
finance	Tax Abatement Programs
place-specific policy	the relationship between city planning departments and economic development offices
institutions	Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC)
place-specific policy	Neighborhood-based business associations
place-specific policy	micro-enterprise development
institutions	International Monetary Fund (IMF)
institutions	Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
institutions	public-private partnerships
institutions	the constitutionality of economic development planning
institutions	the role of community colleges in vocational training / economic development
place-specific policy	job training programs, such as JTPA
place-specific policy	industrial retention programs
place-specific policy	free trade zones
	downtown retail revitalization
case study	economic development on Native American reservations
urbanization process	new international division of labor (NIDL)
concept / theory / methods	vertical integration and disintegration
concept / theory / methods	venture capital
urbanization process	dual labor markets
concept / theory / methods	the "spatial-mismatch" hypothesis
concept / theory / methods	spatial division of labor
concept / theory / methods	product and profit cycles
concept / theory / methods	producer services
concept / theory / methods	measures of poverty
urbanization process	e-commerce and its impact on the local retail sector
concept / theory / methods	input-output analysis
concept / theory / methods	informal sector
concept / theory / methods	forward and backward linkages
concept / theory / methods	flexible specialization / post-Fordism
concept / theory / methods	export base / economic base model
concept / theory / methods	comparative advantage / absolute advantage
urbanization process	endogenous vs. exogenous growth
case study	the economic impact of recent welfare reform policies in the US
case study	Tennessee Valley Authority
case study	River Rouge plant
case study	prisons as economic development
case study	Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
urbanization process	gentrification

see also group project notes

This project has two parts:

STEPS:

Sept. 19	Form groups of 3-4 students
Sept. 26	Each group selects two locations for study
Oct. 1	Groups submit a 1 page description of the two locations, with precise borders for each location, the logic of the selection, and any specific economic issues or policies of particular interest.
(Nov. 7)	Groups should have made good progress my now on compiling the economic data and other information (Part One);  begin identifying the one or more economic development strategies your group will examine (Part Two)
Nov. 26 - Dec. 5	In class presentations
Dec. 10	Final Paper due

This assignment is to create a profile of the economic conditions of two different  neighborhoods, cities and/or regions, and explain how they got that way.  Imagine giving the report to someone who wants to quickly understand the economic structure, trends and origins of a place.  Make it user-friendly:  how can you quickly provide the reader with an overview of existing conditions, comparisons to other places, explanations of the reasons for the way the economy developed, and an historical understanding of economic restructuring?   It is neither simply a collection of data nor a theoretical paper, but instead a hybrid:   use economic theories to help explain patterns in the data.   This assignment combines primary and secondary data analysis and presentation, economic history, detective work, archival work, interviews, observation, photography, videos, oral history, etc.   All group projects should begin with a basic profile of their area economy; you may then examine in more detail one or more specific aspects of the local economies. Pick small or specific enough locations to allow for a detailed, manageable project.  Be mindful of the boundaries you select, since they will affect the ease or difficulty of finding economic and socio-demographic data.  Grading:  your project will be evaluated based on its creativity, clarity, intelligence, accuracy and completeness in documenting the local or regional economy.
 

OVERALL GOAL:
1. to document the existing economic conditions (problems and assets) of two local (or regional) economies
2. document their underlying economic structures
3. explain the historical origins of # 1 and #2.
4. Provide a comparative framework so that the reader can contrast the

Fall 2002 Groups:

PART ONE:   a comparative profile of two local economies

Documentation of Existing Conditions:
* photographs, slides, observation, graphics, drawings, interviews with people on the street, expert interviews, primary and secondary information, statistics, opinion polls, etc.
* You may augment your economic analysis with a broader examination of the architectural, social, and environmental conditions and history as well.
How it got that way:
* who were the key agents?  (firms, planners, government, etc.)
* socio-economic forces:   business cycles, suburbanization, depressions, technological change, globalization, etc.

a. Demographic

b. Employment

c. Economic Activity by Firm, Sector

d. Physical Geography, Land

e. social-economic geography, including regional infrastructure:

f.    Institutional Aspects

g.    Assets (overlaps with previous categories)

h. maps

Logic for selection:
You can select any two locations, but choosing based on some interesting commonalities and differences can lead to useful analytical contrasts.   Here are several types of comparisons:

You may instead select two economic regions (rather than cities).  These can be defined as a county or group of counties (e.g., MSA), a state, a group of states, or any other useful boundary

Alternatively, you may choose a city-region comparison, such as:

In addition, you will find it useful to compare your two locations to a larger context (such as national-level data).  Use the comparisons that are most useful.   (example:   if you are comparing Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, you might also compare to statistics at the Washtenaw County , SE Michigan, Michigan, and/or US levels).

Examples:
the politics and economics of a new casino;  the impact of a new sports stadium;  a micro-credit loan program;  a community development association;  a retraining program for unemployed auto workers;  a Main Street revitalization effort;  a dam project in a developing country;  etc.

Address the following (if relevant):

Additional reading (both on reserve)
Mary L. McLean.  1992. Understanding Your Economy:  Using Analysis to Guide Local Strategic Planning. APA Planners
       Press, 2nd  [also at the bookstore]

Bendavid-Val, Avrom. 1991. Regional and Local Economic Analysis for Practitioners. 4th ed. New York: Praeger Publishers.
[see chapter on compendia]

Some useful data sites

Prof. Campbell's pages	U-M Resources	Other compilations of links	Specific Data Sources
Links to Related Web Sites (UP538 resourse page), from including govt information sites graphic design: tables and charts (from UP504) an example of a flawed data table web-based data bases (from UP504), including US Census links to other statistical sites (from UP504) Prof. Campbell's Research Tools links importing tab-delimited data (e.g., from the web) into Excel uploading Excel charts as html files (web)	UM Documents Center and its Statistical Resources on the Web STATISTICAL UNIVERSE Index to Federal, State, International and Business Statistics	Brookings: Census matters Geospatial and Statistical Data Center, University of Virginia EDA:  Econ.Data.Net and a great list of data links	US Census & American Factfinder & data access tools FedStats Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS), Bureau of Labor Statistics  Economic Census, Bureau of the Census

A few topics:

dimensions of the data	labor markets	importing data from the web
1. time (single point in time, comparative statics, time-series) 2. space (geographic location: e.g., city, county, MSA, state, country) see UP504 discussion of US census geography 3. unit of analysis (e.g., person, household, firm, municipality) -- different data sets will use different units of analysis. 4. variables (e.g., annual income, age, occupation)	be sure to distinguish between employed residents (based on people who live in the city -- some of whom many commute to other cities) and local employees (people who work in the city -- some of whom many commute from other cities). For relatively closed labor markets (such as Hawaii) these two will be almost the same. But for more open economies (such as Ann Arbor), they will vary. The US Census decennial census (e.g., 2000) collects data on where people live; the economic census generally collects data on where people work. (see Blakely and Bradshaw on this issue)	e.g., from html or pdf or text (ASCII) files tab-delimited column delimited space delimited comma delimited Excel data import function (some advice)

Here are a few different strategies:

1.   Ignore the web and simply do your presentation (powerpoint, posters, overheads, slides and/or handouts) and then turn in a traditional, paper-based report (for which I assume most of you will use MS-Word and MS-Excel).

2.    Create a web-based presentation (which you can run either via ethernet or locally in the classroom).   Then turn in a traditional, paper-based report.

3.   Do EVERYTHING on the web:  both presentation and the final report.  (Obviously, during your presentation you won't be able to surf through all the pages, so concentrate on the most accessible, and skip over all the detailed text, additional data and bibliography).   The trick here is to make the web page work both as a presentation and as a report.  If you do take this approach, be sure to print out a copy of the various web pages and turn it in as your paper-based report.

(There could be other strategies as well.)

Overall, what this reflects is that these various media (spoken word, images, data tables, graphs, web pages, powerpoint, etc.) each have different advantages and limitations regarding:  (1) the volume and complexity of information they can convey;  (2) the linear (narrative) vs. simultaneous/hyperlinked quality of the web;  (3) the ability to covert an electronic format into a print version.

One can get philosophical here about the connections between media and content and story-telling, but the bottom line is:   do what works, what is simple, what is most efficient.
 
 

Format for Presentation
We have set aside three class sessions (Nov. 26, Dec. 3, Dec. 5) for presentations.  Depending on the total number of groups, each group will have about 25-40 minutes for formal presentations and to respond to questions.  The classroom (2222 A&AB) is equipped for slides, computer projection (e.g., Powerpoint and web page display), and video (including audio).

Format for Written Report
Length:   a suggested length of 20-25 double-spaced pages for text (not counting statistical graphics, maps and other visuals).  This limit is flexible.   I put a relatively modest page number to make you focus on the data, graphics and visuals, rather than to write a lengthy research paper.     Obviously, larger groups will create longer reports.

You can either write a traditional hardcopy project (paper);   a web-based project (but please print out as well);  or a hybrid (hardcopy, with additional webpage links).   For those creating webpages, I will provide links from this course homepage to your project pages (that you can store for free on your own ifs space).  If you do decide to create your report as a web page, be sure that it is organized so that it reads well with good continuity (and not just as a series of unrelated pages).