Instituto Superior Técnico Masters in Civil Engineering. Theme 3: Regional Economic Impact of Private and Public Investment

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1 Instituto Superior Técnico Masters in Civil Engineering REGIÕES E REDES (REGIONS AND NETWORKS) Theme 3: Regional Economic Impact of Private and Public Investment Presentation of Assignment Theme 3 Filipe Moura 1

2 Assignment (I) Each group has to choose a rapidly growing (or declining) region and analyze the underlying reasons for the region s regrowth and resilience (or decline). During the paper (and presentation), the students will indicate how they have reviewed the region's cycles of economic development (history) considering some of the theories and techniques covered in class. Students will be encouraged to use cases that they are already familiar with. Some examples of regions that experienced fast economic growth over the last two decades. Barcelona/Catalunya (Spain), Glasgow (UK), Pittsburgh (USA), Lille (France), Ireland, Slovenia 2

3 Assignment (II) Students will divide into groups of three and will present a paper with no more than 5,000 words, i.e. approximately 15 pages, depending on the page format (excludes title, name of the students, abstract, keywords, or references). Your presentation is due by December, 17 th 2008 (18h000 in my mailbox filmoura@gmail.com). The final report will be due by January, 9 th 2009 (24h00 in my mailbox). Each group has 20 minutes to do the presentation and another 20 minutes for class discussion. In other words, each group will be given 40 minutes. Presentations are on December, 18 th and 19 th

4 Assignment (III) Grading Criteria: 1. Relevance and complexity of the case-study you chose 2. Rationale for explanation of the cycles of economic growth/decline/regrowth of the region. 3. Application of theories, techniques, and/or concepts covered in lectures. Additional theoretical aspects are evaluated with the same criteria and importance. We will judge the appropriateness, relevance and thoroughness of your analysis, when referring to theoretical aspects. 4. Appropriateness of information collected to sustaining your discussion. 5. Clarity and quality of the paper. We will evaluate the paper structure, quality of presentation and your writing skills. 4

5 Some questions and aspects you should consider (I) Is the region you chose experiencing economic growth or decline? Has there been previous periods of growth or decline? How long has been the region experiencing growth or decline? How did you measure growth or development? Indicators: GDP, value-added of the region, employment, population (pyramids are importance), level of education, others. What are the sources of growth (or decline)? Relate sources of growth to factors of production (inputs for production)? Natural resources? Minerals? Oil? More capital invested? Public or Private? New facilities/infrastructures provided by local/regional/national authorities? Technology-based restructuration? Industrial clusters? Investment on education (e.g., new universities/research centers)? 5

6 Some questions and aspects you should consider (II) What lessons can you draw from your case-study for other regions? Are these lessons case-specific or are they transferable to other regions? Although history and context are important (background), there are also real processes and actions that you can look at to help us think about planning development and policy interventions elsewhere. 6

7 The paper When writing the paper, we want you to be analytical, rather than descriptive: What question will you answer? (Background and introduction) What are your arguments? (what really happened that generated the changes you observe) What evidence can you draw on to support your claims? Evidence should be based mainly on facts and statistics (not only on other peoples/institutions judgment, although you can also refer to them). Sources can be statistics from regional/national/european authorities or, also, from reports (in the case they are produced by acknowledged institutions) and scientific papers. 7

8 Structure of paper (I) - Guidelines Abstract (300 words) Keywords (max. 5) The paper Introduction ( words) Present the motivation of the paper Explain what is(are) the main objective(s) of the paper Outline briefly how you will analyze the case-study (methodology) Present shortly the structure of the paper (usually, the structure follows closely the methodology of analysis) 8

9 Structure of paper (II) - Guidelines The paper Characterization of the case-study ( words) General aspects: location, city/region/country, geography (e.g., near the sea, mountains, valley, etc.), others that you think of. A bit of history. General statistics (time series): population (evolution), GDP (if adequate), employment, etc. Structure of the economy: primary/secondary/tertiary sectors, % contribution of local wealth, focus on the particularities of the city/region/country Provide terms of comparison (regional/national/eu statistics) 9

10 The paper Structure of paper (III) - Guidelines Cycles of economic growth/decline/regrowth? ( words) Based on the previous characterization, identify the striking features of evolution Identify the problems underlying the decline (that you observe today) Identify the striking features that lead to economic recovering (if any) Interpret the phenomenon you identify in light of the concepts, theory covered in class Are there any lessons to be retrieved or are the phenomena city/region/country specific? 10

11 Structure of paper (IV) - Guidelines The paper Conclusions? (500 words) Short summary of what you presented in the paper (including how you tackled the problem, the striking feature of your analysis, and your interpretation of what happened) Lessons learned, generalization in light of theories covered in class 11

12 References Structure of paper (VI) - Guidelines Do not copy what others have written. Quote or cite them? Quote when you use some author s text (ipsis verbis) and you should use quotation marks ( ). Cite when you use some authors information, reasoning, results,... In all cases, you should include a reference after the quotation or after you cite some author and include the corresponding reference at the end of the paper. 12

13 Structure of paper (VII) - Guidelines References The basic rule in making references is that the reader should be able to obtain the document/data you used in your research (not necessarily available in the web) One example of reference system for 3 different document types: In text: (Silva, J., 2004, p.??)» Include pages if you quote a part of the text or if you refer to a specific table, figure, etc. At the end of the text: Journal paper: Silva, j. (2004), title, Journal title, Volume/issue, pages. Report: Silva, J. (2004), title, Institution, City/Country, URL (acces date) Conference Paper: Silva, J. (2004), title, Conference name, location, date, pages. 13

14 Structure of paper (VIII) - Guidelines In the beginning of the paper you should include: Title of your paper Name of the authors and affiliation (in this case you refer to Instituto Superio Técnico - Course of Regions and Networks) 14

15 Basic facts: Location: Spain / Catalonia Geographical features: near the sea Metropolitan Region of Barcelona Population: 4.3 million inhabitants (69% of Catalonia) Striking facts: Coal and steel industries grow and decline follows after the Civil War ( ) The city reaches saturation and dwellings develop towards the suburbs chaotically Serious problems of urban decay in both inner and peripheral districts Post period (referred to Barcelona model ): Barcelona model urban regeneration began with 92 Olympic game 6th position of European ranking in terms of population and local employment positions Polynuclear structure centered around Barcelona New projects: Urban regeneration of Ciutat Vella, Project 22@ - Transformation of Poblenou district, Forum 2004 Transformation of Sea side district of Barcelona 15

16 Glasgow Basic facts: Location: UK / Scotland Geographical features: inland but near a navigable river Population: 1.5 million inhabitants Striking facts: Built on old mines, revealing the importance of minerals in original prosperity Outstanding economic growth was followed by overcrowding city centre and housing deprivation Followed a period of desindustrialization and huge losses of employment Post- desindustrialization period: McInsey report (1985) Culture and image (a fashionable Glasgow Annual arts festival) Urban regeneration of docklands, old factories, warehouses, etc. 16

17 Basic facts: Location: USA / Pennsylvania Geographical features: inland but near a navigable river Population: 2.5 million inhabitants Nickname: Steel City, City of Bridges Striking facts: Pittsburgh Dominant coal and steel industry in the world showing high prosperity since the early 1930s Change in demand, foreign competition, factors of production lead to desinsdustrialization Declining steel sector since the 60s with huge jobs losses and unemployment high above 10% (50% I some areas) over more than a decade (80s-90s) Post- desindustrialization period: smoke control policies of more industrialized areas heavy industry left Increased attractiveness occupation by multinational corporation and fashionable housing Old-heavy industry substituted by high-tech firms (1980s) 17

18 Basic facts: Location: France / Nord-Pas de Calais (close to Belgium border) Geographical features: inland but near a navigable river Population: 250 thousand inhabitants Lille Peculiarity: Mayor is Martine Aubry (current president of the French Socialist party) Striking facts: Dominant coal, steel, metal industry and textile up to the 50s. Change in demand, foreign competition, factors of production lead to desinsdustrialization during the 60s and 70s Family-based, paternalistic entrepreneurship as long dominated discouraging new business introduction and creative spirit of employees Post- desindustrialization period: Construction of the TGV and repositioning in regional terms (close to big economic centres in France but in other Central European countries, e.g., Brussels) Shift towards service sector during the 1990s being successful in trade and commercerelated employment and financial services. Important endeavor: Trade Centre Euralille with dubious consequences 18

19 BIBLIOGRAPHY Group 1 Clusters and Regional Development Case Studies 1. Boari, C. (2001) Industrial Clusters, Focal Firms, and Economic Dynamism: A Perspective from Italy, Washington, USA, World Bank Institute, Nº37186, ( access in Nov., 28th, 2008). Longhi, C. (1999) Networks, Collective Learning and Technology Development in Innovative High Technology Regions: The Case of Sophia-Antipolis. Regional Studies, 33, Powers, P. (2006) Building the Austin technology cluster: the role of government and community collaboration in the human capital, Digital Regions Conference, Austin, Texas, ( access in Nov., 28th, 2008). 19

20 BIBLIOGRAPHY Group 2 Regional economics growth models and factors of production Cooke, P. & Leydesdorff, L. (2006) Regional Development in the Knowledge-Based Economy: The Construction of Advantage, The Journal of Technology Transfer, 31, Perreira, A., Andraz, J. (2006) Public investment in transportation infrastructures and regional asymmetries in Portugal, The annals of Regional Sciences, vol. 40 (pp ) 20

21 BIBLIOGRAPHY Group 3 High Speed Railways Cost-Benefit Analysis of project investment Randolph, S., Haveman, J., Egan, T. (2008), California High-Speed Rail Economic Benefits and Impacts in the San Francisco Bay Area, Report from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, San Francisco, US. Kantor, S. (2008), The Economic Impact of the California High- Speed Rail in the Sacramento/Central Valley Area, University of California, Merced,. US. 21

22 BIBLIOGRAPHY Group 4 Economic development and ICTs Castells, M. (1998) Information Technology, Globalization and Social Development. UNRISD Conference on Information Technologies and Social Development,. Palais des Nations, Geneva. Castells, M. (2000), Materials for an exploratory theory of the network society, British Journal of Sociology Vol. No. 51 Issue No. 1 (January/March) pp