RURAL, URBAN, AND REGIONAL ECONOMICS

Economics 376

Prof. Kilkenny mail to: kilkenny@iastate.edu

Fall 2003

Syllabus

calendar (w/presentation dates)

textbook

F03 class issues

TERM PROJECT outline (again)

FINAL: Thursday, Dec 18, noon-2pm

ßEXAM 2 Extra Credit problem solution:

optimal output is decreasing and strictly concave in distance:

Q*’ = -(t/6)[(P-td)/3]^-1/2 < 0

Q*’’ = -(t²/36)[(P-td)/3]^-3/2 < 0 (you need the chain rule)

Check out this Really Cool Clock: http://www.yugop.com/ver3/stuff/03/fla.html

ASSIGNMENTS AND KEYS:

LECTURE MATERIAL and Additional required READING:

Markets Failures and Public Goods Friday, Nov 14

Product Cycle model, Weds, Nov. 12

land as an asset Friday, Oct 17

summary of business location

rank-size rule Wednesday, Oct 1

measuring spatial concentration and specialization Monday, Sept. 29

classifying places Monday, Sept. 29

scale economies Friday, Sept. 19

shipping and shopping goods market areas Monday, Sept. 15

Comparative Advantage Wednesday, Sept. 3

History of Urbanization Friday, August 29

Extra Stuff (FYI)

“Gorilla Pasta Plant” median location example

NUG30 (multiple location problem)

TERM PAPER; $ Student Paper CONTESTS $

example of proof by (empirical) contradiction

Previous Econ 376 students’ term papers: wind energy , city rankings , property values

Contests: http://www.narsc.org/reg_awards.html

WRSA 2004 Tiebout Prize graduate term paper competition: http://www.u.arizona.edu/%7Eplane/Tiebout18.html

DATA and DOCUMENTATION

CLICKABLE LINKS TO INFORMATION ON THE WEB:

Iowa places (2000 Census); IOWA; Maps showing everything about farming across the 50 states (at county-level detail); Cool animated maps and tables ; Animated GIS maps; Homepage for U.S. Dept. of Census (main source for the latest USA regional data): Census data A-Z  ; County Business Pattern data (for calculating LQ's) . All about USA's metropolitan areas ; and describing rural USA. “New Economy” across the 50 States, zipstats; Building permits, elections, retail trade, poverty (time series-county level data), Jobs and wages (national-state-metro areas); Socioeconomic, housing, income, tax base, and hundreds of other data: US cities and counties ; Commuting in USA; links to over 100 countries statistical webpages; international: InfoNation

America’s Job Bank<- if you are looking for a job soon

occupational projections to the year 2008