CRP 523 Readings Page

 

Note:  Readings will be posted sequentially.   There are many more to come.   Readings with an asterisk (*) are required.  Other readings may be announced in class and will be posted here.

 

Owing the incredibly high cost of text books, I am going to link to the following web site for this class and I urge students to utilize this wonderful resource.  It is called the Web Book of Regional Science.  It is a collective compendium of chapters or “books” on various aspects of regional, urban, and economic analysis.

 

Web Book of Regional Science.  Here

 

Other Readings (I will add to this as the class goes on)

 

*O’Brien, Meghan.  Iowa Retail and Service Business Threshold Analysis.  Regional Capacity Analysis Program.  2008.  Report.  Just look at the beginning portion to get an idea of the concepts and what she is measuring.

 

*Hustedde, Shaffer, & Pulver.  “ Community Economic Analysis: A How to Manual.”  North Central Regional Center for Rural Development.

 

Note:  This very popular workbook can be purchased  for $12 at this location: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/rdev/pubs/contents/141.htm . This manual used to cost $4, but, hey, it’s a free market, right?  And costs are rising everywhere, and besides, there’s no free lunch unless of course you are member of the U.S. Congress. 

 

However ….

 

If free is what you seek, the manual can be accessed at this address: http://www.epa.gov/greenkit/pdfs/howto.pdf  .

 

*Swenson & Eathington.  “Iowa Regional Economic Atlas.”  Read Pages 1 – 9.  Just look over the rest to get a sense of the findings.  This shows how we might consider dividing the state up into distinct, yet overlapping functional trade territories.  Here

 

*There is also a summary of economic base at this FSU web address: Link 

 

*Bruckner and Hastings. “An introduction to regional input-output analysis.” Here

 

Swenson & Eathington.  “A Modern Economic Development Romance: Courting the Creative Worker.   (Parts 1 and 2 only – the rest is really boring)  Paper.

 

*Swenson (yup, it’s me again), “Introduction to Economic Impact Assessment.”  Here.

 

*BEA RIMS II Regional Multipliers Users Handbook.  Here (read to page 9 and case studies 3 and 4).

 

* Swenson (yet again), “Confessions of an Economic Impact Analyst.”  Here

 

*”Mitsubishi Cuts Hurt, But Area Chugs On,” Chicago Tribune.  article.

 

Students needing official classifications of government finance terms can go to http://www.census.gov/govs/www/class.html   

 

Readings on economic development issues: (* are required)

 

*Matt Kane, Public-sector economic development.  Here

 

*Peter Fisher, The fiscal consequences of competition for capital.  Here

 

 Kenneth P. Thomas, The Sources and Processes of Tax and Subsidy Competition.  Here

 

*Timothy J. Bartik,  Incentive Solutions.  Here

 

*Greg LeRoy  Eight Concrete Ways to Curtail the Economic War Among the States.  Here

 

*Rachel Weber, Negotiating the Ideal Deal.  Here

 

 

I did a piece on Tax Increment Financing a couple of years ago.   It caused a fuss with one faculty member in my department, a lot of city folks, and chamber of commerce types.   It also led to a couple of legislative committee hearings on the topic of TIF abuse in Iowa.  If you’re interested in reading it (it’s not mandatory) and some associated pieces, look below.

 

Dave Swenson & Liesl Eathington, Do Tax Increment Finance Districts Spur Social and Economic Growth?  Here

 

Along the same vein, Peter Fisher and Charles Bruner did this piece, which also was in response to Iowa’s TIFs:  here

 

Last, I have not been idle.  Eathington and I did another report on TIFs: “Tax Increment Financing Growth in Iowa.”

You can link to it here.

 

Last  Section Section:  Evaluation and Benefit Cost Analysis

 

First:

Read my piece on evaluation in economics at Link: Evaluating Public Sector Spending in Support of the Economy: A Call for an Economic Development Principles Dialogue in Iowa.

Paul Portney,  Benefit Cost Analysis Link

Then go to Garrett and Leatherman in the Web Book of Regional Science, Chapter 5:  Here

 

Next:

(I’m going to add some more modern examples as we get closer to this portion of the class)

Edward R. Gramlich, The Methodology of Benefit-Cost Analysis Link

Here are federal general guidelines for benefit cost analysis.  Link