ECON 251 Syllabus Fall 2012 - California State University ...

Chalmers, Page

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S A CRA M E NT O S T A T E UNI VE RS I T Y DE PA RT M E NT OF E CONOM I CS FA LL 2012 E CON 251: Ur ba n Pr o bl e ms , E co n o mi cs , a n d Pu bl i c Po l i cy PROFE S S OR: Kace Chalmers CLA S S M E E T I NGS : OFFI CE : Tahoe Hall 3012 W 5:30 -8:30pm, Amador Hall 217 PH ONE : (916) 278-7080 OFFI CE H OURS : E - M A I L: [email protected] M 1:30-3pm, W 10:30am-12pm, & by app WE BS I T E : http ://w w w .cs u s .e du /i n di v/c/cha l me r s k/E CON251FA 12/E CON251FA 12.html

Co u r s e De s cr i p ti o n Historical development, economics and possible policy solutions of the most pressing problems facing central cities and urban areas in the U.S. are presented. Problems discussed include poverty, crime, urban abandonment/suburban sprawl, edge cities, deteriorating infrastructure, and fiscal stress. Pr e r e qu i s i te

PPA 220A or ECON 100B

Re qu i r e d T e xt

O’Sullivan, Arthur. Urban Economics, 8e. ISBN 978-007-351-1474 I encourage you to explore online used textbook sellers like www.half.com and www.directtextbook.com. To insure you get the right book, search by the ISBN number. You will want the 8 th edition.

S e co n da r y T e xts

Krugman. Geography and Trade Gillham. Limitless City Glaeser. Triumph of the City.

Re co mme n de d T e xts Jacobs. Death & Life of Great American Cities Brueckner. Lectures on Urban Economics.

NOT E ON T H E CONT E NT OF T H I S COURS E S YLLA BUS Ca ve a t By enrolling in this class, you are agreeing to the course policies and requirements as outlined below. This syllabus is not a contract. It is the planned course outline. Items may be added, subtracted, or changed at the discretion of the professor. I do not answer emails posing any question that can be answered by reading the syllabus or the assignments, all of which are available 24/7 online.

Chalmers Econ 251 Syllabus, Page

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E ma i l Never put any information that is confidential in an email to me. This includes any and all information regarding your grade in this class. I have an unfortunate tendency to hit the wrong button and your email may end up with an unintended audience. Private issues should be discussed in office hours. You must have a Saclink email account and check it da i l y for information regarding the course. Important information, assignments, or changes may be announced via email. When you contact me via email, allow for at least 2 working days for a response to your email. Students will be required to share an email address with their peers for the purposes of further study and inquiry via email exchanges, coordination of group work, or other situations, related to course work. These emails must be kept confidential and must not be released to anyone outside the class without their prior permission. We bs i te I will post course readings on the course website in addition to a copy of the syllabus for your convenience. Additional readings or addendums to the syllabus will also be posted online at my convenience. A tte n da n ce Attendance is mandatory because this is a seminar that is grounded in student participation. Being late twice (after attendance is taken) is considered an absence. Missing a scheduled conference is an absence. Leaving early is an absence. Conducting activity other than assigned or specifically course-related is an absence. If you have more than two unexcused absences, you may be asked to drop the course. If you give advance notification (before class starts) via email of illness, it will not count as an absence. Nota bene: It is yo u r responsibility to gather notes from your colleagues about the classes you miss. I will not rehearse a mini-lecture or discussion. I will not repeat assignment directions, but you must be sure to ask for any handouts or assignments distributed during class that you missed. Cl a s s e s Each class will have two sections: a seminar discussion, initiated by a mini-lecture by me and led by designated discussion leaders, and personal conferences with me. We will meet from 5:30 until 7:30 (with a quick break in the middle) in a seminar discussion format to consider the assigned readings for that week followed by two 30-minute one-on-one personal conferences in my office. This set-up serves two purposes—you will have the opportunity to fully engage with the concepts and theories we will cover by being personally responsible for them to the rest of the class—as well as a chance to discuss the readings, catch-up if you are behind the class, flesh out potential thesis topics, and generally hold office hours with me. Co l l a bo r a ti o n Collaboration is a main emphasis in this course. As this class is designed to be collaborative rather than competitive, I expect you to participate in class discussion actively by sharing ideas, responding to one another, and asking questions. Differences of opinion will occur, however, intellectual discussions must be carried out in a respectful manner.


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Participation and preparation is a significant portion of the semester’s grade. You should be ready to demonstrate that you have read, thought about, and understood the readings by participating actively in discussion on a weekly basis because there is no way, other than quizzes, to make clear that you have. Thus, participation and preparation means you must show that you have done those tasks. Your silence will not give me enough evidence that you have completed and prepared the readings, thus your grade will suffer. The minimum ways to demonstrate your preparation are to: • pay attention to, listen to, and engage with the ideas of your colleagues • discuss the material in a thoughtful and respectful manner • raise questions and offer comments about the readings at each class meeting Di s cu s s i o n Le a de r s Discussion leaders have an opportunity to initiate and lead seminar discussion on the weekly readings. Your presentation should be roughly 15-20 minutes and then you will lead the discussion for the week. You may sign up for any week, one student per week. You should develop a total of 5 questions, distributed throughout the readings. You should explain why you asked the question, why it is important, and offer an answer to your own question, or at least indicate where in the text we might begin to look to being able to answer it. The introduction of each question should take no more than a few minutes. Each student will prepare a handout with the questions/main topics that will be distributed to the class at the beginning of the presentation. Your presentations should be formal in presentation style. You will be graded on your preparation (how well do you know the material, how closely have you worked it, and does it show), the quality of the questions you pose to the class (are they manageable, do they provoke and promote discussion, are they relevant to the course goals), the ability to draw out your classmates in dialog (are you able to draw out your quieter colleagues), your ability to manage the discussion in productive manner (are you able to bring the discussion back to focus if it wanders, are you able to provide room for many voices, or do you depend on a few), and other aspects. I will post a copy of my grading rubric for this aspect of the class on the course website. Re s e a r ch Pa p e r A research paper will be developed over the latter two-thirds of the course, emphasizing the applications of the theories and tools of urban economics to a topic of personal interest. Very short presentations of student research will take place during the final 2 weeks of the course. Plagiarism will NOT be tolerated. All direct and indirect quotations from other sources should be properly acknowledged. And yes, I have failed graduate students who plagiarized. An abstract and draft outline of your paper is due on No ve mbe r 7, 2012. The paper is due on De ce mbe r 12. E xa m You will be evaluated on your knowledge of urban economic theory in the 8 th week of the semester. You may regard the exam date listed below as carved in stone. Put it in your calendar immediately because there are no make-up exams and very few acceptable excuses for missing one. If you find that you are unable to take an exam on its scheduled date, please make arrangements with me immediately. You are responsible for bringing a bluebook


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(either size is fine), a pencil/pen, and a non-cell-phone calculator to all exams. Exams are closed-book, closed-note, and closed-friend/neighbor.

A S S I GNM E NT S CH E DULE Di s cu s s i o n Le a de r s hi p & Co l l a bo r a ti o n Co n fe r e n ce Pa r ti ci p a ti o n E xa m T e r m Pa p e r ?

cr e di t/n o cr e di t cr e di t/n o cr e di t Octo be r 16 De ce mbe r 12

5:30- 7:30p m 6:00p m

15% 5% 40% 40%

A DDI T I ONA L RE Q UE S T S •

I know about the traffic/parking nightmares on campus and am sympathetic, but I do request that you be o n ti me if you choose to attend. If you arrive late, please come in quietly, settle quickly, and at least muster an apologetic expression for me. It is your responsibility to get any material that you miss. I will n o t provide lecture notes under any circumstances, so I recommend that you find a study-buddy or two in class.

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Please make sure that all cell phones and pagers are shut off during lecture. At a minimum, put these devices in silent mode and refrain from answering calls/pages/text messages during class.

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If you have a physical or learning disability that requires accommodation, please let me know as soon as possible and contact Services to Students with Disabilities at (916) 278-6955 to get the proper documentation well in advance of the first exam. Please note that legally, I cannot provide you accommodation without this documentation.

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Don’t cheat. Ever. Under any circumstances. My job is to teach you economics and then give you a grade that accurately reflects your knowledge of the subject. If you cheat, you force me to assume that you have cheated because you know nothing and your grade will reflect that assumption. If you are dumb enough to plagiarize, the result will NOT be pretty.

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I am interested in your feedback and would prefer not to rely on the generic and basically useless evaluation questions that I am only able to read after the semester is already over. I am happy to listen to suggestions and criticisms in person or via email, but if you feel uncomfortable telling me what you really think, I’ve set up an anonymous feedback form on my website at www.csus.edu/indiv/c/chalmersk/Links%20Teaching.html. Yes, it’s really anonymous.


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Co u r s e Ou tl i n e a n d Re a di n g s : Readings available at http://www.csus.edu/indiv/c/chalmersk/ECON251FA12/ECON251FA12.html A ug 2 9 : Int rod uct ion, A x ioms of Urb an Economics O’Sullivan, CH 1, Appendix Glaeser. Triumph of the City, INTRO Glaeser, Edward, “Why Economists Still Like Cities,” City Journal (Spring 1996): 70-77. Sept 4 : Why and Where d o Cit ies Develop? Cit ies in H ist ory : T he H ist ory of West ern Urb anizat ion O’Sullivan, CH 2 Glaeser. Triumph of the City, CH 2 Glaeser, Edward “Reinventing Boston: 1640-2003.” Glaeser, Edward “Urban Colossus: Why New York is America’s Largest City.” Discussion L ead er( s) : Conference #1 : Conference #2 : Sept 1 1 , 1 8 : Int rod uct ion t o Economic Geography and Regional Grow t h O’Sullivan, CH 3 Krugman. Geography and Trade, CH 1, 2, 3 Glaeser. Triumph of the City, CH 1, 5 Quigley, John M. (1998) "Urban Diversity and Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 12, #2 Porter, Michael E. “Clusters and the New Economic Competition,” Harvard Business Review (November/December 1998), 77-90. Discussion L ead er( s) : Conference #1 : Conference #2 : Sept 2 5 : Sy st em of Cit ies and t he Urb an H ierarchy ( Cent ral Place T heory ) O’Sullivan, CH 4 Glaeser. Triumph of the City, CH 6. Carlton, D.W., “The Location and Employment Choices of New Firms.” Review of Economics and Statistics 65 (1983), pp. 440449. Elison, Glen, and Edward Glaeser, “The Geographic Concentration of Industry: Does Natural Advantage Explain Agglomeration?” American Economic Review 89 (1999), pp. 311-316. Gottlieb, Paul, “Amenities as Economic Development,” Economic Development Quarterly 8 (1994): 270-285. Qian, Haifeng, Zoltan Acs, and Rough Stough. (2012) “Regional Systems of Entrepreneurship: The Nexus of Human Capital, Knowledge, and New Firm Formation.” Journal of Economic Geography. Discussion L ead er( s) : Conference #1 : Conference #2 : Oct 2 : Urb an L and and L ab or M arket s O’Sullivan, CH 5, 6 Courant, Paul N. “How Would You Know a Good Economic Development Policy if You Tripped Over One? Hint: You Don’t Just Count Jobs.” National Tax Journal 47: 863-881.


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Glaeser, Edward L, Jed Kolko, and Albert Satz (2001) “Consumer City,” Journal of Economic Geography, Vol. I Richard Florida, Charlotta Mellander, and Kevin Stolarick (2008) “Inside the Black Box of Regional Development—Human Capital, the Creative Class, and Tolerance.” Journal of Economic Geography 8: 615-649. Discussion L ead er( s) : Conference #1 : Conference #2 : Oct 9 : L and Use Pat t erns—M onocent ric Cit ies and Urb an Spraw l O’Sullivan, CH 7 Gillham. Limitless City. Glaeser. Triumph of the City, CH 7 Mieszkowski, Peter, and Edwin S. Mills, “The Causes of Metropolitan Suburbanization,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 7(1993): 135-147. Downs, Anthony, “How America’s Cities Are Growing: The Big Picture,” The Brookings Review (Fall 1998): 8-12. Glaeser/Kahn. “Sprawl and Urban Growth.” Discussion L ead er( s) : Conference #1 : Conference #2 : Oct 1 6 : Ex am on T heory , 5 :3 0 -7 :3 0 7 :3 0 Conference: 8 :0 0 Conference: PRA CT ICA L A PPL ICA T IONS OF T H EORY IN A N URB A N SET T ING: Oct 2 3 : Urb an T ransport at ion O’Sullivan, CH 10, 11 Downs, Stuck in Traffic, selected excerpts Kenneth A. Small, “Urban Traffic Congestion: A New Approach to the Gordian Knot,” The Brookings Review (Spring 1993), 611. Don H. Pickrell, "A Desire Named Streetcar: Fantasy and Fact in Rail Transit Planning," APA Journal (Spring 1992), 158-176. Janet Rothenburg Pack, “I’ll Ride, You Pay: Social Benefits and Transit Subsidies,” The Brookings Review (Summer 1992), 48-51. Discussion L ead er( s) : Oct 3 0 , Nov 7 : T he Economics of H ousing, Z oning and Urb an Renew al O’Sullivan, CH 9, 14, 15 Glaeser. Triumph of the City, CH 4, 8 Ladd, Helen F., “Evidence on Discrimination in Mortgage Lending,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 12(1998): 41-62. William Tucker, "How Housing Regulations Cause Homelessness," The Public Interest (Winter 1992), 78-88. Gordon Berlin and William McAllister, “Homelessness: Why Nothing Has Worked – And What Will,” Brookings Review (Fall 1992), 12-17. James R. Barth and Robert E. Litan, “Uncle Sam in the Housing Market: the Section 8 Rental Subsidy Disaster,” The Brookings Review (Fall 1996), 22-25 Glaeser/Gyourko/Saks. “Why Have Housing Prices Gone Up?” Discussion L ead er( s) : Discussion L ead er( s) : Conference #1 : Conference #1 : Conference #2 : Conference #2 :


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Nov 1 4 : Ed ucat ion O’Sullivan, CH 12 Ladd, Helen. (2002). “School Vouchers: A Critical View.” Journal of Economic Perspectives. 16(4): 3-24. Katz, Lawrence, Jeffrey Kling, and Jeffrey Liebman, “Moving to Opportunity in Boston: Early Results of a Randomized Mobility Experiment,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 116 (May 2001): 607-654. Discussion L ead er( s) : Conference #1 : Conference #2 : Nov 2 8 : Crime & Povert y O’Sullivan, CH 13 Freeman “Why Do So Many Young American Men Commit Crimes and What Can We Do About It?” Freeman “Crime and the Economic Status of Disadvantaged Young Men.” Kenneth J.Arrow, “What Has Economics to Say About Racial Discrimination?” Journal of Economic Perspectives (Spring 1998), 91-100. Isaac Ehrlich, “Crime, Punishment and the Market for Offenses,” Journal of Economic Perspectives (Winter 1996), pp. 43-67. John J. DiIulio, Jr., “Help Wanted: Economists, Crime and Public Policy,” Journal of Economic Perspectives (Winter 1996), pp. 324. Martin Feldstein, “Reducing Poverty, not Inequality,” The Public Interest (Fall 1999), 33-41. Discussion L ead er( s) : Conference #1 : Conference #2 : Dec 5 : Neighb orhood Choice, Urb an Povert y and Ghet t o-izat ion O’Sullivan, CH 8 Glaeser. Triumph of the City, CH 3 Porter, Michael, “The Competitive Advantage of the Inner-City.” Harvard Business Review (May/June 1995): 55-71. Cutler and Glaeser, “Are Ghettos Good or Bad?” Bates, Timothy, “Political Economy of Urban Poverty in the 21st Century: How Progress and Public Policy Generate Rising Poverty.” Review of Black Political Economy (1995). Oakland, William H., F. T. Sparrow, and H. L. Stettler III, "Ghetto Multipliers: A Case Study of Hough," Journal of Regional Science, 11, 3 (December 1971), 337-345. Kottis, A.P. and G.C. Kottis. (1973). “Average Propensity to Spend Inside the Ghetto Areas: A Comment.” Journal of Regional Science 13, 1 (December 1973) Oakland, William H., F. T. Sparrow, and H. L. Stettler III, "More on Ghetto Multipliers," Journal of Regional Science, 13, 1 (December 1973), Discussion L ead er( s) : Conference #1 : Conference #2 :