Syllabus
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PPM 650

State and Regional Economic Development

Spring, 1999

Charles S. Colgan

This course examines the questions of why regions grow, or fail to grow, and what, if anything, government can do about it? The focus of the course is on examining the major theoretical approaches to regional economic change, including basic principles of regional economics. The special development considerations of urban and rural areas are examined, including recent research on the relationship between industrial and regional clusters. Historical and recent approaches to economic development by national, state, and local governments are covered, including an examination of whether government economic development policies are appropriate and effective.

Assignments:

Course grades will be based 60% on a paper due at the end of the semester and 40% on class participation. The paper is described in the Appendix. Class participation means actively contributing to the discussion based on completion of all assigned readings for each class.

Readings: (All are available from the USM Bookstore)

Bendavid-Val, Avrom Regional and Local Economic Analysis for Practitioners 4th edition (Praeger)

Higgins, Benjamin, and Savoie, Donald J. Regional Development Theories And Their Application (New Brunswick, N.J., Transaction Publishers).

Bingham & Mier. Dilemmas of Urban Economic Development (Sage)

Lemann, Nicolas. Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How it Changed America (Vintage)

Isard, Walter. Location and Space Economy

Readings Package (Available at from USM Bookstore). All listed readings not from the above books are in the readings package or are available on the web.

COURSE OUTLINE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS

1. January 11 Introduction and Overview

Higgins and Savoie, Chapter 1

NO CLASS, JANUARY 18

2. January 25 The Environment of Regional Development

Lemann, Nicolas Promised Land

The Coahoma County Website: http://www.allrednet.com/mscounty/counties/coahoma.htm

Higgins and Savoie, Chapters 2-5

3. February 1 Introduction to Regional Economics & Regional Science

4. February 8

February 15 NO CLASS

5. February 22

Higgins and Savoie, Chapters 6-11

Isard, Location and Space Economy 1-118.

Bendavid-Val (all)

6. March 1 Urban Regions

Pages xi to 97 (Introduction and Chapters 1-3) from Joel Garreau Edge Cities: Life on the New Frontier Doubleday

Bingham and Kimble: The Industrial Composition of Edge Cities and Downtowns 9:3, Economic Development Quarterly August 1995 259-272

Is there a point where economic development is no longer viable? Bingham & Mier, pp 291-330.

7. March 8 Rural Regions

Deavers, What is Rural? Policy Studies Journal

Kusmin, Redman, and Sears Factors Associated with Rural Economic Growth in the 1980s U.S. Department of Agriculture. 29-42.

Glasmeier, Amy and Marie Howland "Service Led Rural Development: Definitions, Theories and Empirical Evidence" International Regional Science Review, Vol 16, Nos. 1&2. 1994.

Kenneth M. Johnson Calvin L. Beale, "The Rural Rebound: Recent Nonmetropolitan Demographic Trends in the United States." Available on the web at: http://www.luc.edu/depts/sociology/research.html

Kenneth M. Johnson Calvin L. Beale, The Rural Rebound Available on the web at: http://wwics.si.edu/wq/WQSELECT/RURAL.HTM

8. March 15 Regional Networks and Clusters

Feser, Edward J. "Enterprises, External Economies, and Economic Development" Journal of Planning Literature, Vol 12, No. 3, February 1998. 283-302.

Held, James Clusters as an Economic Development Tool Economic Development Quarterly 10:3 August 1996 249-261

March 22 NO CLASS

9. March 29 Regional Development at the Federal Level

Hill, Edward. Principles for Rethinking the Federal Government's Role in Economic Development Economic Development Quarterly Vol 12, No. 4 Nov 1998. 299-312.

Colgan, Charles. Regional Development Policy in the United States (available on the course website)

10. April 5 State Government Policies

Eisinger, P. State Economic Development Policy in the 1990s: Politics and Policy Learning Economic Development Quarterly 9:2 May 1995 146-158

Isserman, Andrew "State Economic Development Policy and Practice in the United States"

International Regional Science Review Vol 16 Nos 1 & 2, 49-104-139

Is there really an Infrastructure-Economic Development Link? Bingham & Mier, pp.82-103

What is the role of Public Universities in Regional Development? Bingham & Mier, pp. 104.

Is industry targeting a viable economic development strategy? Bingham & Mier, pp.171-202.

Hansen, Niles. "The Strategic Role of Producer Services in Regional Development" International Regional Science Review, Vol 16, Nos. 1&2. 1994.

11. April 12 What works?

Lynch, et. al The Effectiveness of Firm Specific Tax Incentives in Promoting Economic Development Economic Development Quarterly 10:1 Feb 1996 57-68

Margaret Dewar "Why State and Local Economic Development Programs Cause So Little Economic Development" Economic Development Quarterly Vol 12, No. 1 Feb. 1998 68-87.

How do we Know that "But for the Incentives" that Development would not have occurred? Bingham & Mier, pp. 28-55

Can Economic Development programs be evaluated? Bingham and Mier, pp. 246-290

12. April 19 What's appropriate?

Barlett & Steele. "Corporate Welfare". Time Magazine November 9, 1998.

Kennedy School: The Battle for North Carolina (On-line Case Study)

Ihlanfeldt, K. R. Ten Principles for State Tax Incentives Economic Development Quarterly 9:4 November 1995 339-355

Is Economic Development a Zero-Sum Game Bingham & Mier, pp. 1-27

13. April 26 Sustainable Development

Colgan, Charles "Sustainable Development and Economic Development: Lessons from Canada" Economic Development Quarterly Vol 11, No. 2, May 1997.

Power, Thomas M. "The Wealth of Nature" Issues in Science and Technology, Spring 1996 (RP)

Higgins and Savoie, 383-408

How Important is Quality of Life in Location Decisions. Bingham & Mier, pp. 56-81.

Maine Development Foundation. Measures of Growth. Available on the web at http://www.mdf.org/megc/growth98/home.htm

 

 

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WRITING PROJECT

FINAL PAPER DUE: MAY 7, 1999

OUTLINE DUE: MARCH 15, 1999

You may choose one of three options for the written assignment:

1. Regional characterization and analysis of regional development policies

2. In-depth study of a regional development approach

3. Self-designed paper.

Whichever option you choose, your paper must relate the topic you choose to the themes, issues, readings, and discussions in the course. The principal grading standards will be:

Clarity of presentation of analysis, discussion, and conclusions. Your paper should be suitable for reading by an educated decision maker who is broadly aware of economic development issues, but not of the specific ideas and issues you want to present.

Appropriate application of analytic techniques (if these are used)

Integration of material from course readings and discussion with research and reading for the writing project.

Options 1 and 2 are described below.

Whichever option you choose, a detailed outline of the paper you propose to write must be submitted for review by March 15. The outline should provide as much detail as possible about what you propose to do. If you choose Option 1, you should consider having an outline of the entire paper and a first draft (perhaps of tables and charts) of your regional economic assessment by March 15. If you choose Option 2, you should have an outline plus a bibliography of the studies you propose to examine.

The outline is required to assure steady progress on the paper during the semester. More importantly, it provides an opportunity for feedback, suggestions, and review on your topic to make sure you are both meeting the requirements of the paper and are undertaking a project that can be completed within the time frame of the semester.

Option 1: Regional characterization and development strategy assessment.

This option allows you to focus on a specific region, on the economy of that region, and on development efforts to affect it. It requires you to:

• Define a region for analysis
• Describe the major features of that region's economy, including current, past, and (if possible) future trends)
• Identify and describe at least one development strategy being applied to that region either internally (a locally or regionally developed strategy) or externally (for example, by a state or provincial government).
• Assess whether the development strategy is likely to be successful in light of the region's economy and the ideas about regional development covered in the course.
• You may end with recommendations about what changes, if any, you would make in the development strategy in light of your analysis of the economy and regional development theory.

The first part of the assignment is to collect and analyze the data for a region, then briefly describe the economic structure and trends in the region using available government supplied data. The regions may be states or counties in the United States (or groups of states and counties), or they be regions in other countries (such as Canadian provinces or Australian states). Data may be downloaded from the WWW. A list of useful sites is appended.

Your analysis can include descriptions of the economy, its major sectors, and trends in growth. It should utilize at least one of the analytic techniques described in Bendavid-val. Use graphs and tables in your report as appropriate.

NOTE: You are likely to find yourself buried in data in this assignment. Do NOT feel you have to report it all. Do the analysis with whatever data makes sense, but use tables and graphs to make the most important points. Do not bury me in data.

The second part of the paper should examine a regional development strategy, policy, or program that has been suggested for or is being implemented in the region you have chosen. The paper should briefly summarize the principal elements of the strategy, and should then critically evaluate the strategy.

Option 2: Evaluation of a regional development strategy

This option allows you to examine specific regional development strategies in depth. These may be strategies, policies, or programs that are developed by national, state, local, or regional organizations. They should be strategies that are applied in a number of regions. In your evaluation you should:

• Describe the strategies, policies and programs in some detail
• If possible, describe how they are used in variety of settings.
• Summarize and assess the available literature on the strategies. In doing this element, you will need to conduct a thorough review of published studies in the academic and governmental literature.
• Conclude with an assessment of the circumstances (for example, the regional economic conditions) where you believe the strategy is most likely to be successful and those where it is least likely to be successful.

In your literature review, you should consider the following resources:

Use the University of Maine System libraries to search for articles and books of interest. The gateway to the library is found at:

http://digilib.ursus.maine.edu/URSUS/

This will lead you to the URSUS system which allows you to search all libraries in the U Maine System. This includes the Maine State Library and the Legislature Reference Library in Augusta. You can use the interlibrary loan system to have journals, books, etc. sent to you unless they are reserved for library use.

You should use one or more of the journal databases in your search. These may accessed through the Indexes & Databases link on the Mariner homepage. Generally, the Expanded Academic Index and UNCOVER are the two best for search journals in the social sciences. The UNCOVER data base allows you to have many articles faxed directly to you upon payment be credit card.

You may also find the Government Information links to be useful. Many states now publish their economic development programs and strategies on the homepages of their economic development departments.

Note that to use the library resources, you need to have a library card and barcode number. These are available to you free of charge while you are registered for a UMS course. Contact the nearest campus library to arrange for a card. Some of the library resources will require your barcode identifier for access, so make arrangements early.

REGIONAL ECONOMIC DATA SOURCES