Econ 381
Urban Economics
Summer I 2004

Study Guide for Exam #2
Exam #2: Tuesday, June 29

Key terms and ideas to know:

·        Calculation of the U.S. poverty level

·        Community Development Corporations (or Community-Based Organizations)

·        Black Capitalism

·        Progressives, social reformers, tenement reform movement

·        City Beautiful and American Parks Movement

·        equivalent elimination

·        Housing Act of 1954

·        CDBG (Community Development Block Grant)

·        1996 Welfare Reform Act, HOPE IV Housing, and Empowerment Zones

·        Urban economic base theory and the location quotient

 

·        Be familiar with the critiques of the monocentric city.  In what ways is the theory of the monocentric city unable to account for economic growth?

·        Be ale to analyze the market for housing and, specifically, the determinants of the supply and demand for housing.  Explain how the demand for housing is a demand for the quantity and quality of housing, tax policy, inflation and the role of neighborhood effects in determining housing values.

·        Evidence of racial segregation in housing has been described using the dissimilarity index.  Be able to explain the index and what it means.  Be sure you understand how neoclassical economists explain racial discrimination as the outcome of rational choice on the one hand and imperfect information on the other.

·        Be able to describe the evolution, over the course of the 20th century, of federal urban policy toward cities.

·        There are three approaches that economists and social scientists can use to understand the role of the state in the urban economy.  Be familiar with each one on analytic grounds.

·        Be able to explain Michael Porter’s recommendations for revitalizing the inner-city.  In particular be able to identify the strategic economic advantages that Porter believes inner-cities possess. 

·        Be familiar with the basis of Porter’s thesis in: (a) comparative advantage; (b) localization and urbanization economies; (c) export-oriented growth theory; and (d) supply-side economics.

·        If asked to criticize Porter be able to utilize the arguments of Harrison and Glasmeier as well as the criticism presented in class.

·        What constitutes a “cool city.”  What is the basis for the “cool cities” program for urban economic development?