Book Description

This book is concerned with dynamic relations between urban division of labor, division of consumption and determination of prices structure within a perfectly competitive framework in spatial economy. Our analytical framework examines the issues related to urban dynamics raised in the traditional urban economic theories and provides insights into the issues related to interdependence between knowledge creation and utilization and spatial economies examined by the new urban/regional economic theory. The comparative advantage of our theory is that in providing rich insights into the complex of urban evolution it uses only a few concepts and simplified functional forms and accepts a few assumptions about the behavior of consumers, producers and institutional structures over space. ... Read more

Book Description

Cities are home to 525 million poor people, and the World Bank makes substantial investments in developing country cities every year. This study reviews the performance of 99 urban development operations completed since 1993 to see, in particular, how these interventions have improved the living conditions of the urban poor, the primary goal of the livability pillar of the World Bank’s current urban strategy.

Improving the Lives of Poor People by Investing in Cities finds that cities, who hosted World Bank supported urban projects, improved their livability conditions significantly more than similar cities without such projects. These improvements included better basic water, sewerage and solid waste disposal. Factors in the relative success of these urban development projects have been involvement of both beneficiaries and borrowers, without straining their capacities or resources, and the use of lessons from prior experiences.

The study also finds however, that despite the promising result, there is still much to learn about how many poor people are served by such projects and how many are not being served. The study calls for more systematic monitoring and evaluation of the poverty alleviation results of urban development assistance. This is a call echoed by practitioners who agree that knowing more about the results achieved thus far, can better inform assistance to the urban poor in the future. ... Read more

Book Description

Does your downtown have a cluster of businesses that provide specific products or services? How about furniture and home furnishings? Antiques? Children’s wear? Arts and entertainment? Upscale boutiques? Thrift shops? Or, do you have a particular group of customers? What about college students, office workers, retirees, parents with young children?

If you answered yes, then you have a downtown niche — one of the most powerful tools available for downtown revitalization.

These groupings of related businesses and services can give your downtown a competitive edge and provide the focus you need for successful promotion and recruitment programs.

Niche Strategies for Downtown Revitalization will take you step-by-step through the process of identifying current or potential niches in your downtown. It will show you how to use them as the focus for downtown organization, promotion and recruitment. And, it will give you the tools you need to use these powerful revitalization strategies in your downtown.

You’ll learn:

Tools and tips for performing market analysis to discover both potential and existing niches in your downtown and to evaluate their long-term feasibility.

How downtowns are prospering with niche strategies, including 80 unique examples from cities across the United States.

Important national and regional trends that will shape niches right now and for decades to come.

Successful techniques for organizing business owners and managers to get the most benefits for your downtown.

Proven strategies and tactics for successfully marketing downtown niches.

Innovative ideas for recruiting new businesses and retaining existing ones.

Pitfalls to avoid when identifying, organizing and promoting niches in your downtown.

Strategies for using niches to turn your downtown into the destination for multipurpose trips.

Niche Strategies for Downtown Revitalization contains more than 30 real-world examples, along with 30 tables and figures not found in any other publication.

You’ll learn from examples of actual data used in market analysis, sample data for trade area demographics, a wide range of district maps, plus actual promotion and recruitment materials.

Whether your downtown is large or small, you’ll find everything you need to make a niche strategy the cornerstone of your downtown revitalization efforts. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Helpful and instructive
Niche Strategies offers a refreshing and insightful way to understand and build a competitive retail marketplace in the downtown by creating a critical area of unique products and services, the identity of a downtown can be enhanced benefiting everyone. ... Read more

Book Description

Funding Downtown Promotions will show you how to raise the money you need for downtown marketing and promotions. Then it will show you how to make those dollars go farther with sponsorships, vendor fees, co-op advertising, volunteers and more.

This easy-to-use manual contains sample forms, letters, budgets and detailed case studies — everything you need to get started raising money for your downtown promotions. You’ll learn how to:

Get local and national sponsors

From the largest to the smallest downtown, sponsorship offers a wonderful opportunity to stretch your budget. Learn where to find sponsors, how to sell sponsorships and what to ask for.

Defray costs with vendor fees

Learn how vendor fees are structured and how one downtown tripled their fees with no resistance. Plus, you’ll find sample application forms for vendors.

Increase membership and participation

Dues are the backbone of most downtown promotion programs. Learn how to get everyone involved in membership recruitment and how to develop an effective direct mail membership campaign. Plus, you’ll find sample letters to start or improve your own membership campaign.

Run successful fundraising programs

You’ll see how downtowns are raising money and getting positive publicity with gala events, raffles and product sales.

Use a Business Improvement District

More and more small towns and big cities are looking to business improvement district assessments to pay for their marketing and promotions. You’ll learn how BIDs are formed, how they’re funded and how they’re using their money for promotions.

Stretch your budget with volunteers

Volunteers are the cheapest form of labor for downtown events and promotions. We’ll show you where to find them, how to use them effectively, and how to keep them coming back event after event. Plus, you’ll find a sample volunteer recruitment form.

Share the cost of advertising

Cooperative advertising can stretch your downtown’s budget and enhance its image. You’ll find examples of co-op advertising in newspapers, radio, TV and even on placemats.

Throughout this guide, you’ll find very specific tips and advice based on the experiences of downtowners who are successfully raising the funds for their downtown marketing and promotions. ... Read more

Book Description

A collection of the first section of the Fundamentals of Pure and Applied Economics series, Regional and Urban Economics: Parts One and Two is an encyclopaedia containing eight titles:
This volume highlights original contributions in regional and urban economics, concentrating mainly on urban economic theory. The contributions focus on the treatment of space in economic theory. Drawing on the body of literature developed by Von Thunen, Christaller and Losch, these chapters explore empirical, theoretical and applied aspects of urban and regional economics which can be divided into the following areas:
Location Theory, Jean Jaskold Gabszewicz, Jacques-Francois Thisse, Masahisa Fujita and Urs Schwiezer
Urban Public Finance, David E. Wildasin
Urban Dynamics and Urban Externalities, Takahiro Miyao and Yoshitsugu Kanemoto
Systems of Cities and Facility Location, ... Read more

Book Description

Asia Meets Europe raises questions about the nature of regions and, in particular, about the role of inter-regionalism in a rapidly changing environment.

Julie Gilson considers the correlation between Asia and Europe within the framework of the unique post Cold War inter-regional Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). The author then examines the nature of this new type of interaction and its various economic and political forms by exploring the historical precedents and prevailing ideas of region that shape and distort it.

The book also encompasses the challenging roles of private enterprise and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) when faced with state actors who continue to regard regional and inter-regional cooperation with ambivalence.

Asia Meets Europe will be of special interest to academics and researchers of Asian studies, Asia-Europe relations and international political economy. Practitioners involved in policy making in East Asia and Europe will also find the book of use. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Asia Meets Europe
A rollercoaster read from start to finish! A must for anyone interested in contemporary Asia-Europe relations. ... Read more

Book Description

Cities and the Creative Class gathers in one place for the first time the research leading up to Richard Florida’s theory on how the growth of the creative economy shapes the development of cities and regions.In a new introduction, Florida updates this theory and responds to the critics of his 2002 bestseller, The Rise of the Creative Class. The essays that make up Cities then spell out in full empirical detail and analysis the key premises on which the argument of Rise are based.He argues that people are the key economic growth asset, and that cities and regions can therefore no longer compete simply by attracting companies or by developing big-ticket venues like sports stadiums and downtown development districts.To truly prosper, they must tap and harness the full creative potential of all people, basing their strategies on a comprehensive blend of the 3 Ts of economic development: Technology, Talent, and Tolerance.Long-run success requires a reinvention of regions into the kind of open and diverse places that can attract and retain talent from across the social spectrum – by allowing people to validate their varied identities and to pursue the lifestyles and jobs they choose. ... Read more

Book Description

The new Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics: Cities and Geography reviews, synthesizes and extends the key developments in urban and regional economics and their strong connection to other recent developments in modern economics. Of particular interest is the development of the new economic geography and its incorporation along with innovations in industrial organization, endogenous growth, network theory and applied econometrics into urban and regional economics.

The chapters cover theoretical developments concerning the forces of agglomeration, the nature of neighborhoods and human capital externalities, the foundations of systems of cities, the development of local political institutions, regional agglomerations and regional growth. Such massive progress in understanding the theory behind urban and regional phenomenon is consistent with on-going progress in the field since the late 1960s. What is unprecedented are the developments on the empirical side: the development of a wide body of knowledge concerning the nature of urban externalities, city size distributions, urban sprawl, urban and regional trade, and regional convergence, as well as a body of knowledge on specific regions of the worldEurope, Asia and North America, both current and historical.

The Handbook is a key reference piece for anyone wishing to understand the developments in the field. ... Read more

Book Description

This book tells the story of The Woodlands, one of the most successful master-planned communities in the United States. Built from the ground up near Houston, beginning in the 1960s, The Woodlands is not just another suburban housing development. It is a new "hometown" where people live, work, shop, and become involved in their community in a way not often seen in modern-day America.

Told as a first-person series of reminiscences by an insider directly involved in The Woodlands’ development, this book takes you "behind the scenes" and tells you the stories of the people who were instrumental in building the community and of the challenges they faced. It provides a little-known account of how they wrangled with governments and school districts, dealt with near bankruptcy, figured out what worked and what didn’t, and influenced and changed the decisions of the planners and developers along the way.

A novel concept for its time, The Woodlands was born from the vision of George Mitchell, a self-made oil and gas tycoon, who turned to real estate development to diversify his business, and the federal government’s experiment in support of the development of new suburban towns that would attract people from problem-plagued cities.

Brought back from the brink of financial disaster in its formative years, The Woodlands grew into a healthy adulthood and a solid business success. Today, The Woodlands is home to over 75,000 residents and 3,000 employers, and it is still growing. What makes it a real hometown is not just where people sleep at night, but where and how they spend the rest of the day: The Woodlands community has won international acclaim for its successful mix of commercial, retail, and residential components; its ability to attract and sustain jobs; and for its protection of the natural environment. ... Read more

Book Description

Today, the study of regions is central to academic analysis and policy deliberation on how to respond to the rise of the knowledge economy. Regional Economies as Knowledge Laboratories illustrates how newer types of regional analysis - utilizing scientometrics, knowledge services measures and university networks, and concepts such as knowledge life cycles, experimental knowledge creation, and knowledge ethics - are leading to a perception that regional economies increasingly resemble knowledge laboratories.

In addition to these measures and concepts, the book features case studies and assessments of policies implemented to facilitate regional engagement with the knowledge economy, and a critique of ‘knowledge economy’ as ideology. The importance of maintaining a balanced perspective in assessing the depth and reach of the role of knowledge in the market economy is also examined.

Aiming to contribute to the better understanding of theories and practices associated with knowledge regions, this book will appeal to a wide ranging audience, including regional and industrial economists, innovation scientists, academics and practitioners with an interest in knowledge and management organization, regional scientists, economic geographers, and economic sociologists. ... Read more

Book Description

This volume contains the key innovative papers in economic geography, encompassing work on core-periphery structures of countries and on systems of cities. It includes theory papers on core-periphery structures, on urban systems and industrial urban structures, and on the dynamics of evolution of urban and industrial concentrations. It also includes empirical work, starting with a more recent literature based on the new economic geography, as well as key empirical papers on agglomeration economies, spatial concentration, and urban evolution.

This insightful volume highlights the achievement of economic geography in recent years as well as providing strong econometric evidence to substantiate theoretical developments. It will be invaluable to researchers and practitioners alike. ... Read more

Book Description

*The first empirical examination of urban governance and the sustainability agenda -- presents research findings from 40 European cities *Charts the future course for urban governance and sustainability for cities in Europe and worldwide*Written by top experts in urban governance, planning and sustainability for an international audienceUrban governance and sustainability are rapidly becoming key issues around the world and the EU is currently finalizing its Urban Thematic Strategy, which will guide European urban environmental policy for the next decade. Based on three years of field research in 40 European cities, this book is the first to empirically test the assumptions of the ‘sustainability agenda,’ developed in Rio and embodied in Local Agenda/Action 21. These assumptions state that good governance is a necessary precondition for the achievement of sustainable development, particularly at the local level, and that the mobilization of local communities is an essential part of this process. This book examines the processes of urban governance in sustainable development and draws upon hard data to provide conclusions and direction for policy process, politicians, policy makers, activists, planners and academics in Europe, North America and world-wide. ... Read more