The course studies the theory and policy of the growth and development of metropolitan areas. Some of the policy-related problems discussed are income and poverty and their related statistics, residential, industrial, and commercial land use and traffic patterns. The course is designed to study cities while developing a set of formal tools for analyzing their economies. The course will be run as a seminar, so in order to perform well in class, you must be a self-starter and be willing to participate in class discussions and exercises.
Attendance is vital.
Often your task will include searching for data on the internet or at the library, finding the data, entering it into a spreadsheet, massaging it to produce the appropriate descriptive and analytical statistics, then writing up your results and presenting your findings to the class. The class requirements are fluid but, if you participate, I assure you that the knowledge you gain will be worthwhile. If you only want three credits, try another class. Data manipulation, analysis, and presentation using Excel. Writing short descriptive economic reports.