AAE 520 / URPL 520   Community Economic Analysis

Steven Deller    521 Taylor Hall   deller@aae.wisc.edu

http://www.aae.wisc.edu/aae520

Overview:

The intent of this course is to expose students to economic theories and policies as applied to small open economies.  Small open economies can range from urban neighborhoods to remote rural villages.  Policy aimed at affecting economic change is a central focus.  A particular emphasis is on application of the theories in real world situations.  Theory helps us understand the complex and often confusing aspects of reality.  Community economic development at its roots is truly interdisciplinary blending economics, sociology and political science to name the primary disciplines.  In this course we will focus on the point of view of the economist.

You will notice that there is a distinctive “rural bias” in this course and that is due to the nature of the instructor’s own research focus.  The concepts and ideas are not limited to rural communities.  Indeed, one could almost do a word search and replace “rural community” with “urban neighborhood” and the logic of the argument will in all likelihood transfer.  If your professional preference to is think within an urban setting, I challenge you to recast the concepts and ideas within an urban setting.

Objectives:

1.       Gain a systematic overview of economic theory as applied to small open economies.

2.       Develop a toolbox for analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the community’s economy.

3.       Explore alternative processes for affecting change at the community level.

4.       Improve the economic literacy of students interested in affecting change at the local level.

Text:

Community Economics: Linking Theory and Practice.  Ron Shaffer, Steve Deller and Dave Marcouiller.  Oxford: Blackwell Press 2004.

Readings:

In addition to the text the student is expected to provide a one page summary of an assigned reading.  These one page summaries are in essence an executive summary of the article where you will identify the key points of the article and your interpretation of key points. The short summaries will be graded on a two point scale:  0—not done; 1—barely done; 2—completed.  

Class Project:

There will be a class project that each student is expected to complete.  This project can best be described as a data exercise where I want you to pick a region (a county anywhere in the U.S.) and provide an economic profile of the region.  The idea here is that you will collect the relevant socioeconomic data, use the tools developed in class and analysis the strengths and weaknesses of the local economy.  The idea is that there is a “story to be told” about the local economy and your job is to uncover that story and tell it.  You will find that there is a wealth of data that is available, particularly at the county level, and that it is possible to become “awash in data”.  Your job is to shift through the data and use the key pieces of information to tell that story.  There is no “template” that I want you to follow, but an example might be fashioned off the first half of the report:

http://www.aae.wisc.edu/pubs/misc/docs/deller.St%20Croix%20Report.2004.pdf

This is a study of the St. Croix County economy in western Wisconsin.  The second half of the study used detailed industrial data that you will not have access to so look at only the first half.  If you have GIS skills, you may want to use Census data to provide insights about the structure within the county.  This is not required, but again, if you have GIS skills, this project would be a good chance to use those skills.  I want you to close the analysis with an outline of potential economic growth and development strategies that may be appropriate for the county.

Because of the wealth of data that is available (we will discuss those in class and most of the sources are linked on the class webpage) I suggest that you build the database early in the semester and “play with the data” throughout the semester.  This is not the type of project that you want to wait to the end of the semester.  If you procrastinate you will find yourself overwhelmed with data.

Grading:

There will be one take home final exam in the class that will be worth 50% of your final grade.  The form of the exam will be essay where you will be given the opportunity to pick 4-5 questions from a list.  The questions will follow the format of the discussion questions at the end of each chapter in the text.  An example question might be: “It is said that there are three waves of economic development strategies, what are those three waves, what are their relative strengths and weaknesses, and which is most appropriate for a community to pursue?”

Final Exam:                             50%

Short Essays:                         20%

Class Project:                         20%

Class Participation:                 10%

Because of the seminar nature of this class, I expect there to be class discussions.  Please feel free to challenge ideas that are presented and offer your own experiences as they relate to the material being discussed in class.

Dates of cancelled class:  2/29 and 3/28  to help make up for these lost dates class will run from 9am till noon, a full three hours.

Additional Reading:   Your weekly reading essays are the following in order……

1. Shaffer, Deller and Marcouiller. 2006. “Rethinking Community Economic Development.” Economic Development Quarterly. 20(1):59-74.  Due 2/1

2. Smith. 1984. “Becoming a Good and Competent Community.” In Porter and Sweet (eds). Rebuilding America’s Cities: Roads to Recovery. Rutgers University Press.  Due 2/8

3. Lackey, Burke and Peterson. 1987. “Healthy Communities: The Goal of Community Development.” Journal of the Community Development Society. 18(2): 1-17.  Due 2/15

4. McDowell. 1995. “Some Communities are Successful, Others are Not: Toward and Institutional Framework for Understanding the Reasons Why.” In Sears and Norman (eds). Rural Development Strategies. Nelson Hall Publishers.  Due 2/22

Note: class cancelled 2/29

5. Lapping, Daniels and Walker. 1989. “Rural Economic Development and Community Development. In Rural Planning and Development in the US. The Guilford Press.  Due 3/7

6. Segedy. 1997. “How Important is ‘Quality of Life’ in Location Decisions and Local Economic Development?” in Bingham and Mier (eds). Dilemmas of Urban Economic DevelopmentL Issues in Theory and Practice. Sage Pub.  (include comment and rejoinder). Due 3/14

7. Porter. 2000. “Location, Competition and Economic Development: Local Clusters in a Global Economy.” Economic Development Quarterly. 14(1):15-34.  Due 3/21

Note: class cancelled 3/28

8. Lynch. 2004. Rethinking Growth Strategies: How State and Local Taxes and Services Affect Economic Development. Economic Policy Institute.  Due 4/4 (note, this is a long one so you have two weeks to review it)

9. Shapero and Sokol. (no date). “The Social Dimensions of Entrepreneurship.” In Kent, Sexton and Vesal (eds). Encyclopedia of Entreprenuership.  Due 4/11

10. Malecki. 1994. “Entrepreneurship in Regional and Local Development.” International Regional Science Review. 16(1&2):119-153. Due 4/18

11. Halstead and Deller. 1997. “Public Infrastructure in Economic Development and Growth: Evidence from Rural Manufacturers.” Journal of the Community Development Society. 28(2):149-166. Due 4/25

12. Watson, et al. 2007. “Determining Economic Contributions and Impacts:

What is the difference and why do we care?” Journal of Regional Analysis and

Policy. 37(2):141-146. Due 5/2