UIC Urban Planning and Policy Program, Masters Project entitled “Searching for Racial Integration in Chicago’s Neighborhoods- Evidence from Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Data from the 1990s.” selected by faculty as one of three best projects. Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, Delta Chapter of Pennsylvania, May 1999. Norman Glickman Award for Best Urban Studies Senior Seminar Paper, May 1999 Book Chapters Persky, Joseph, Kurban, Haydar and Lester, T. William. 2000. “The Impact of Federal and State Expenditures on Residential Land Absorption in Metropolitan Chicago: A Quantitative Case Study”, in Sprawl in Chicago: Public Policy and Private Decisions, Wim Wiewel and Joseph Persky (eds.). pp. 228-255. Refereed Publications Working papers to be submitted Lester, T. William “Replacing Truth with Social Hope and Progress with Re-description: Can the Pragmatist Philosophy of Richard Rorty Help Reinvigorate Planning?” Planning Theory. (to be submitted October, 2013) Dube, Arindrajit, Lester, T. William and Eidlin, Barry, “Firm Entry and Wages: Impact of Wal-Mart Growth on Earnings Throughout the Retail Sector” Under review Lester, T. William and Kaza, Nikhil “Making Room for Manufacturing: Understanding Threats to Industrial Land Conversion in Cities” Journal of the American Planning Association. (submitted September 1st, 2013). Lester, T. William and Nuygen, Mai “The Economic Integration of Immigrants and Regional Resilience” Journal of Urban Affairs (revision requested). Lester, T. William and Hartley, Daniel “The Long Term Employment Impacts of Gentrification in the 1990s” Regional Science and Urban Economics. (submitted April 1st, 2013). Lester, T. William. “The Politics of Rapid Labor Market Institutional Change in San Francisco” Labor History. (submitted September 2013). Dube, Arindrajit, Lester, T. William and Reich, Michael. 2013. “Minimum Wage Shocks, Employment Flows and Labor Market Frictions” Journal of Labor Economics. (revisions resubmitted July 2013)
Institutions and Regional Resilience” (with Mai Nguyen) Building Resillent Regions Research Network Symposium, May 31st, 2013, Washington D.C. “Business Incentives: Where They Work and Where They Don’t” North Carolina Policy Watch Crucial Conversations Series. September 20th, 2012. Raleigh, NC. “The Job(s) of Retrofitting Cities: Job Creation Estimates from State and Local Governmental Energy Efficiency Policies in the U.S.” Presented at Guizhou University, Guizhou Privince, China in conjunction with the Eco-Forum Global. Guiyang. July 23rd, 2012. “Mediating Incentive Use: A Time-Series Assessment of Economic Development Deals in North Carolina” UNC Working Group on Economic Development (WGED). Chapel Hill, NC. February 16th, 2012. “The Impact of Living Wage Laws on Urban Economic Development Patterns and the Local Business Climate: Evidence from California Cities” Invited lecture to: Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, April 28th, 2010. “The Impact of Living Wage Laws on Employment in California Cities” Presented at: Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) Fall 2009 seminar series. Sept, 14th, 2009. Berkeley, CA “The Living Wage Movement: The Impact on Urban Economic Development in California Cities” Job talk presentation to the Department of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina, January 15th, 2009, Chapel Hill, NC. “Suburban Employment Subcenters and the Jobs-Affordable Housing Mismatch: A Detailed Description of the Policy Problem, 1990-2000” Presented at: Interpreting Neighborhood Change in Chicago, April 4th, 2003, Chicago, IL Professional reports and planning tools “Economic Impact Analysis of Biofuels Alternatives in Pitt County, North Carolina” April 11th, 2013. (with Mark Little, Jen Slessinger and G. Jason Jolly) Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise. “Mediated Incentives: Making North Carolina's Economic Development Incentive Programs Work Better through Strategic Investments” October 5th, 2012. (with Nichola Lowe and Allan Freyer). North Carolina Budget and Tax Center. Nov. 2011. A Policy Brief for the Big Ideas for Job Creation Project, a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the UC Berkeley Institute or Research on Labor and Employment. “California Workforce Education & Training Needs Assessment For Energy Efficiency, Distributed Generation, and Demand Response” (Co-author), March 17th, 2011. Prepared for the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).