http://hdl.handle.net/1903/2808 2013-06-19T23:46:50Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13530 Title: Three Essays on the Understanding of Urban Development Authors: Niu, Yi Abstract: Cities started the unprecedented growth about one hundred years ago. Their importance and significance are reflected by their high productivities and spatial concentrations. The understanding on urban development would help improve urban management and policies and increase wellbeing of urban residents. The three related essays in this dissertation try to improve the understanding from the perspectives of employment centers and agglomeration economies, interactions between labor and housing markets, and the behavior of local governments. The first essay examines the role of employment centers on economic development. The theoretical literature suggests that agglomeration economies are the main force behind the formation and evolution of employment centers, as well as behind economic growth in general. Applying the birth model to employment centers in Maryland, I find agglomeration effects are increased by the centers, particularly those with high employment size or industrial diversity. Ignoring employment centers may overestimate the agglomeration effects when using the fixed distance measurement. Policy implications are local officials may use employment centers as a vehicle to promote economic growth. In the second essay I test the impact of job loss on housing foreclosures. A great challenge in this study, as well as in interactions between labor and housing markets in general, is the geographic mismatch between employment and residential locations. This partially explains the mixed effects of job loss on foreclosures found in the literature. In order to gauge this effect, I develop a job loss vulnerability index using home-work commuting pairs. After fixing the attenuation bias from measurement errors, I find that job loss plays an important role in foreclosure decisions. This essay provides evidence for impact from labor market bust to housing market depression. The third essay estimates the spending pattern of off-budget revenues. The literature assumes different spending preferences of budgetary and off-budget revenues, but empirical evidence are scarce due to the lack of off-budget data. I use land revenues to proxy off-budget revenues in Chinese cities. I find that off-budget revenues do not crowd out budgetary expenditures, and they tend to support visible and tangible projects, rather than some other traditional public spending items that are not quite obvious. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13212 Title: NETWORK MODELS OF REGIONAL INNOVATION CLUSTERS AND THEIR IMPACT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH Authors: Dempwolf, Christopher Scott Abstract: This research uses social network analysis to develop models of regional innovation clusters using data from patent applications and other sources. These new models are more detailed than current industry cluster models, and they reveal actual and potential relationships among firms that industry cluster models cannot. The network models can identify specific clusters of firms with high potential for manufacturing job growth where business retention and expansion efforts may be targeted. They can also identify dense clusters of talent where innovation and entrepreneurial efforts may be targeted. Finally, this research measures relationships between network structure at the time of patent application and manufacturing job growth in subsequent years. This will permit the translation of a wide range of network-building activities into the ubiquitous "jobs created" metric. These new tools will help economic developers focus resources on high-yield activities, and measure the results of networking activities more effectively. There are three parts to this research. First, it evaluates the uses of social network analysis (SNA) in planning, reviewing the literature and empirical research where SNA has been used in planning related studies. Second, it presents the construction if innovation network models, covering methodology, data, results and direct applications of the network models themselves. Models are constructed for Pennsylvania between 1990 and 2007. The methodology presents a significant innovation in how networks and geography are modeled, embedding counties in the network as place nodes. The resulting network models more accurately reflect the complex and multiple relationships that firms and inventors have with each other and the locations where they interact. This approach makes it possible to evaluate relationships between innovation and economic growth at a smaller geographic level (counties) than previous research. Third, this research presents an econometric model that evaluates the influence of network structure on county-level manufacturing employment and value added. Network structure is measured in the year of patent application, with manufacturing employment and value added being measured annually for each subsequent year. Differences in network structure generally reflect differences in the level of social capital embedded in different parts of the network. I find that network structure influences manufacturing employment within three years (longer for medical devices and pharmaceuticals) but does not influence value added. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/12826 Title: Unsheltered Homelessness in Maryland: Impact and Spatial Change during the Foreclosure Crisis Authors: Boston, David L. Abstract: This research primarily looks at trends in unsheltered homelessness and foreclosures in Maryland between 2005 and 2011 in order to determine what kind of impact the foreclosure crisis has had on homelessness. To complement these quantitative data, qualitative information was gathered through interviews and local Continuum of Care plans. The results of this investigation do not support any direct causal relationship between new foreclosures and homelessness; however, it is possible that foreclosures have pushed higher-income renters into the rental market. Through the combined impacts of the build-up of the housing bubble and the injection of these new higher-income renters, rental costs have continued their upward trend. In this way, it is possible that foreclosures have indirectly led to an increase in homelessness by pushing rental costs upward even after the housing bubble had burst. However, this research also highlighted many shortcomings associated with the homeless point-in-time count methodology that make it difficult to identify causal relationships such as this with any high level of certainty. Several recommendations are provided at the conclusion of this research in order to help alleviate homelessness, improve the available data, and conduct additional research to further our collective knowledge on the nature of homelessness and its causes. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1903/12758 Title: Evaluating the Impacts of Top-down Protected Area Governance on Local Livelihoods - The Case of the Turkish Village of Kapikiri Authors: Yilmaz, Aysegul Abstract: This study evaluates the positive and negative impacts of strict protected area designation on the livelihoods and socioeconomic wellbeing of a resident community living within the boundaries of a protected area, and explores how these impacts are distributed across different community groups. The study also examines whether strict protected area designation compensates for a decrease in traditional income by increased tourism. A case study analysis was conducted in the Turkish village of Kapikiri, where two centuries ago, modern settlement began among the ruins of an ancient Greek city. The area's rich cultural and natural heritage resources and biodiversity prompted the Turkish government to designate it with strict culture-protected area status in 1989, and with nature-protected area status in 1994. The study involved conducting a household survey with a representative sample of households, interviews with different community groups, and interviews with officials at various levels of protected area governance. The study reveals that the Turkish government did not balance strict culture-protected area status with residents' socioeconomic development needs. An inflexible, to changing circumstances non-adaptive legal framework of cultural heritage conservation did not accommodate residents' development needs, prohibiting them any change on their built structures. Conversely, the broader nature-protected area status, intended to conserve the area's natural heritage resources and biodiversity, provided for the continuation of a traditional cultural landscape and encouraged tourism, creating a demand for tourism services and establishments. Increased demand in tourism combined with fines not high enough to deter illegal construction, however, did not discourage particularly business owners from building illegally. While business owners expanded their business capacity and increased their income, being able to absorb the costs of illegal activity, most farmers vulnerable to regional economic and agricultural influences, lacked finances to build or renovate illegally and provide new housing for subsequent generations. The case of Kapikiri points to a pressing need for long-term conservation and development strategies that address the unique and changing dynamics of local socioeconomic contexts. Protected area governance in Turkey needs to adopt a conservation policy that is pluralistic and responsive to changing local socioeconomic needs and environmental conditions; one that meets the needs of local communities while preserving heritage resources for generations to come. 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z