Copyright (c) 2009 University of Pennsylvania All rights reserved. http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers Recent documents in Penn IUR Publications en-us Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:02:22 PST 3600 http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/20 http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/20 Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:58:37 PST Lynne B. Sagalyn Economics, Economic Development and Real Estate http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/19 http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/19 Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:57:16 PST Design competitions are commissioned for many reasons, almost none of which have to do with design and all of which have to do with political motivations. A political agenda always presides over the important but ancillary search for new design possibilities, innovative solutions, or a compelling architectural or urban vision. Though political agendas vary quite a lot, they are lodged in the fundamental need to create or cultivate a strong constituency and garner the necessary resources to advance a desired project. Lynne B. Sagalyn Economics, Economic Development and Real Estate http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/18 http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/18 Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:09:37 PST The financial payback to the City of Boston from the development of Faneuil Hall Marketplace provides a starting point for analyzing the benefits of public-private downtown project development deals. Lynne B. Sagalyn Economics, Economic Development and Real Estate http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/17 http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/17 Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:23:18 PDT This essay, based on a lecture sponsored by the Penn Institute for Urban Research, presents a brief history of the Supreme Court on race issues, from the Marshall Court to the present, beginning by focusing on Brown v. Board of Education and the development in the mid-1970s of a narrow purposeful discrimination rule that has made it near impossible for minority claims of discrimination to succeed. David Kairys Race and Social Welfare http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/16 http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/16 Tue, 18 Jul 2006 08:51:55 PDT This dissertation explores the underlying concepts of enterprise zones, assesses their effectiveness, and seeks to identify conditions under which enterprise zones work. It covers 70 zones in California, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia (roughly one-tenth of the nation's locally administered zones established before 1987). It first reviews previous studies and exposes common methodological problems and theoretical weaknesses they confront. Pulling literature from industrial location, local economic development, and taxation studies, it develops and applies an analytical framework for classifying and evaluating zone performance. It measures zone performance in terms of the difference in the percent changes in employment and business establishment between zones and their regions. Next, it conducts a survey to investigate how zones are structured and managed. Combining survey results and zone performance data, it uses regression models to identify determinants of zone success. Finally, it includes case studies of three zones, all with an above-average performance to further validate previous statistical findings and to provide insights on the operation of 'successful' zones. This research finds that there is considerable variability among zones, but most of them do not adhere to the original laissez-faire conception of enterprise zones. In general, changes in employment and business establishment within a zone differ little from those of its region. However, active management and outreach by zone administrators tends to improve zone performance. Successful zones are typically those which are small, actively managed, with a simple program structure, located in a growing region, and with some basic location advantages. This dissertation research cannot link any specific economic development tool adopted in enterprise zones to their performance. Instead, regression models and case studies find that zone performance is determined by regional growth, initial zone conditions, and the employment size of the zone. Finally, income and employment levels in enterprise zone communities are found barely changing even when zones are experiencing rapid employment growth. Sidney Wong Economics, Economic Development and Real Estate Housing and Community Development Land Use, Infrastructure and Transportation http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/15 http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/15 Thu, 13 Jul 2006 06:41:45 PDT We present a general framework for generating trajectories and actuator forces that will take a robot system from an initial configuration to a goal configuration in the presence of obstacles observed with noisy sensors. The central idea is to find the motion plan that optimizes a performance criterion dictated by specific task requirements. The approach is motivated by studies of human voluntary manipulation tasks that suggest that human motions can be described as solutions of certain optimization problems. R. Vijay Kumar Land Use, Infrastructure and Transportation Urban Data Systems http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/14 http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/14 Fri, 07 Jul 2006 11:09:48 PDT Overtown, once the center of African American life in Miami, lost 40% of its population when Interstate 95 was built through the heart of the community in the 1960s. Even though a variety of non-policy factors played a role in the decline of the area, expressway construction and urban renewal greatly accelerated the process. Just as important, efforts to mitigate the impact of the highway were delayed for many years, thus magnifying the negative effects of public policies. The political barriers preventing the redevelopment of Overtown are described and analyzed. The future of Overtown is critically examined and evaluated. Milan Dluhy Arts, Culture and Design Economics, Economic Development and Real Estate Governance and Politics Housing and Community Development Land Use, Infrastructure and Transportation Race and Social Welfare http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/13 http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/13 Fri, 07 Jul 2006 06:35:43 PDT This study examines the performance of home purchase loans originated by a major depository institution in Philadelphia under a flexible lending program between 1988 and 1994. We examine long-term delinquency in relation to neighborhood housing market conditions, borrower credit-history scores and other factors. We find that likelihood of delinquency declines with increasing neighborhood housing market activity. Also, likelihood of delinquency is greater for borrowers with low credit-history scores and those with high ratios of housing expense to income, and when the property is unusually expensive for the neighborhood where it is located. Paul S. Calem Economics, Economic Development and Real Estate Housing and Community Development http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/12 http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/12 Fri, 07 Jul 2006 05:55:58 PDT American policy analysts have assumed that poverty is increasingly concentrating in the inner suburbs of large cities. This study demonstrates that that assumption is inaccurate. Using data on household income and poverty for suburban civil divisions from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 US Censuses, this article calculates values for two indicators of the change in the relative concentration of income and poverty, the coefficient of variation, and a regression of changes on initial values. Results indicate that poverty and income concentrations have not generally increased among suburbs over the last twenty years. There is evidence, however, that poverty has increasingly concentrated within some suburban municipalities of older metropolitan areas in the northeast and midwest. Janice F. Madden Economics, Economic Development and Real Estate Governance and Politics Housing and Community Development http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/11 http://repository.upenn.edu/penniur_papers/11 Thu, 06 Jul 2006 10:46:34 PDT This paper utilizes micro data to directly quantify the impact of mortgage underwriting criteria on individual homeownership propensities. To determine whether a family is constrained by these criteria, the optimal home purchase price is estimated. The results indicate that wealth and income constraints both reduce homeownership propensities, with a stronger impact for wealth constraints. Mortgage market innovations of the early 1980s seem to have reduced these effects. The research indicates, however, that even in well-developed capital markets, the presence of borrowing constraints adversely affects homeownership propensities. Peter D. Linneman Economics, Economic Development and Real Estate Housing and Community Development