Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Zoning Out: Urban Agriculture, Sustainability, And Development In Portland, Oregon, Brian Elliott

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper examines the recent history of urban planning policy in and around Portland, Oregon with respect to efforts to enhance local agriculture. Despite recent and ongoing efforts to promote distribution and direct sale of local food products in the city, I argue that the dominant effect of the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) in place since the 1970s has been to push agricultural production further from the most populous areas of the city. Whereas the UGB at present cannot include areas zoned specifically for agricultural use, I argue that it must reformed to allow for "agricultural reserves" within the boundary. …

Oregon Highway Cost Allocation Study: Carbon Tax Issue Paper, Portland State University. College Of Urban And Public Affairs. Northwest Economic Research Center

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

The basic insight behind carbon pricing is not new, and is based in mainstream economic theory. If market interactions are leading to the overuse of resources outside of the market, imposing a price on the overused resource will bring it into the market and increase efficiency. Currently, the negative impacts associated with the release of carbon through fossil fuel combustion is not incorporated into the market. By imposing a price on carbon, fossil fuel consumers are incentivized to reduce their fuel usage. This reduction in fuel demand is not necessarily associated with lower economic output. In fact, depending on the …

The Effectiveness Of Public Development Banks: Designing Good Impact Evaluations, Alessandro Maffioli, Cesar M. Rodriguez

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

PDB programs have become a fundamental ingredient of productive development policy strategies in most emerging economies. Although the overall need for these interventions is rarely questioned, academics and policymakers often debate their effectiveness, as well as the optimal approaches and instruments necessary to implement them. Therefore, the need to produce rigorous evaluations of PDBs has become increasingly relevant for both government and civil society (see Chapter 2).

This chapter presents the main concepts and operational arguments regarding the execution of indepth impact evaluations of PDB initiatives and instruments. For a more practical approach, these arguments are presented with examples of …

Economic Development And Gender Equality: Is There A Gender Kuznets Curve?, Joshua Eastin, Aseem Prakash

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research note examines the relationship between economic development and gender equality. Drawing on the concept of the Kuznets curve, the authors hypothesize that the relationship between economic development and gender inequality is curvilinear (S shaped), with three distinct stages. In the first stage, economic development improves gender equality because it enables greater female labor-force participation. An independent income stream increases women's intrahousehold bargaining power. The opportunity to develop human capital confers greater political and social recognition. In the second stage, labor-force stratification and gender discrimination encourage divergent male/female income trajectories, which decrease the opportunity costs of female labor-force withdrawal …

Pearl District Market Study, Thomas Potiowsky, Scott Stewart

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

Economic viability assessment of the Pearl District in Portland, including descriptions of demography, industry, and office space supply and demand.

System Dynamics Implementation Of A Model Of Population And Resource Dynamics With Adaptation, Takuro Uehara, Yoko Nagase, Wayne Wakeland

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We build and analyze a dynamic ecological economic model that incorporates endogenous innovation on input substitutability. The use of the system dynamics method allows us to depart from conventional equilibrium thinking and conduct an out-of-equilibrium (adaptation) analysis. Simulation results show that while improvement in input substitutability will expand an economy, this change alone may not improve sustainability measured by indicators such as utility-per-capita and natural resource stock. It could, however, be possible that in combination with other technological progress, improvement in input substitutability will contribute to sustainable development. Sensitivity analysis also indicates a possible complication with the use of exogenous …

What Makes Developing Asia Resilient In A Financially Globalized World?, Hiro Ito, Juthathip Jongwanich, Akiko Terada-Hagiwara

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The pullbacks of capital inflows to developing Asia following the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008 have brought renewed attention to the role and benefits of financial globalization. A number of notable distinctions between the current global crisis and the Asian financial crisis have become evident. Solid domestic institutions, especially in the financial sector; swift policy responses; and a sound macroeconomic environment with adequate reserves have helped the region to manage well the adverse impacts of the global crisis. Empirical analysis examining the link between capital account openness and output volatility reveals that a developing country with a …

Climate, Water Navigability, And Economic Development, Andrew D. Mellinger, Jeffrey D. Sachs, John Luke Gallup

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Geographic information systems (GIS) data was used on a global scale to examine the relationship between climate (ecozones), water navigability, and economic development in terms of GDP per capita. GDP per capita and the spatial density of economic activity measured as GDP per km2 are high in temperate ecozones and in regions proximate to the sea (within 100 km of the ocean or a sea-navigable waterway). Temperate ecozones proximate to the sea account for 8 percent of the world’s inhabited land area, 23 percent of the world’s population, and 53 percent of the world’s GDP. The GDP densities in temperate …

"Energy Resources", Harrison Scott Brown

Special Collections: Oregon Public Speakers

With: Salter, C. L. The urban enigma.