A Citizen's Handbook for Evaluating Community Impacts: an Experiment in Community Education
Four nonmetropolitan communities were selected for an experimental community education program designed to train local citizens in the general procedures of economic impact research. It is argued that citizen participation is enhanced by a fuller understanding of the technical content of the planning problem at hand and that this understanding is best developed through involvement in a citizen research process prior to policy formulation. The experiment was only partially successful. A handbook was developed that is easily used by lay persons to make impact estimates, but a broad base of citizen involvement in research could not be developed. Community interest was strongest in places anticipating impacts in the near term. Retirees, citizens who could receive specific immediate benefits, and local planners and managers emerged as the best community analysts.
The Arizona Community Data Set: A Long-Term Project for Education and Research in Economic Geography.
Abstract The teaching of economic geography has received considerable attention in the literature over the last three years. This paper contributes to the debate by illustrating and analyzing a project based at the University of Arizona, the Arizona Community Data Set (ACDS). The ACDS is a long‐term field‐project that has given students the opportunity to go in the field to collect and analyze regional economic data and to apply theory and techniques learned in the classroom. This unique data set has yielded additional benefits in the area of basic research. It is argued that projects such as the ACDS complement some of the theoretical and analytical curriculum developed and recently published by other instructors in economic geography. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that some of the limitations commonly associated with field projects, especially the cost, can partly be overcome through sponsorship by community agencies.
A New Look at the Minimum Requirements Approach to Regional Economic Analysis
Edward Ullman and Michael Dacey popularized the minimum requirements method of estimating regional economic parameters in the early 1960s [5]. Since that time, there has been criticism of this technique by some scholars [1; 4], as well as a defense by Ullman [6]. In spite of the criticism, this technique remains as a valuable tool for regional and city planners. It has three virtues which are very important in the real world: it is inexpensive; it is fast; and it is reasonably accurate. This paper is intended to accomplish two objectives. First, it is an effort to update the estimates made by Ullman and Dacey using the 1970 census data. Second, it is intended to illustrate the extension of this technique to regional economic impact analyses. This involves using the minimum requirements method to estimate the regional multiplier.