Urban Competitiveness and US Metropolitan Centres

This is the third paper Kresl and Singh have published on this subject. The first was for an OECD conference that was published in 1995. The second was published in Urban Studies in 1999. Hence in this most recent study they can examine urban competitiveness in the US over a period of three decades. Their methodology is distinctive in that it is statistical rather than subjective, as is the case with studies that use a benchmarking or a structural methodology. Their results can be used by city planners in design of a strategic-economic plan. They also capture the major changes in broad regional competitiveness

Scenario planning for the Edinburgh city region

This paper examines the application of scenario planning techniques to the detailed and daunting challenge of city re-positioning when policy makers are faced with a heavy history and a complex future context. It reviews a process of scenario planning undertaken in the Edinburgh city region, exploring the scenario process and its contribution to strategies and policies for city repositioning. Strongly rooted in the recent literature on urban and regional economic development, the text outlines how key individuals and organisations involved in the process participated in far-reaching analyses of the possible future worlds in which the Edinburgh city region might find itself

Citizen Participation in Canada and the United States: the case of health care reform

Since the end of World War Two, successive governments of the United States have argued that the US version of democracy was the most efficacious for the rest of the world. President after president has sought to transplant the US model of democracy in foreign soils in the belief that if this could be done conflict would be ended and the peoples of the host countries would live more satisfying lives. Perhaps they intuitively comprehended the argument made by Michael Doyle that democracies do ..

Peripheral Regions and Policy Formation

Political discourse in many countries is significantly impacted by the existence of populations that live in urban centers and other populations that live in rural or peripheral places. Due to factors such as population density, economic activity, proximity to schools, retail and health facilities, attachment to religion, and access to diverse political opinions, people living in the peripheral areas tend to be relatively conservative and those in urban areas are relatively liberal. Thus we have two elements of the population that tend to live in silos, having little dialogue or even contact with the other. This results in a national political dialogue that is not at all productive or capable of generating policies that would benefit the population. In many countries of Europe and the Americas, the politically left and right parties or movements are, figuratively speaking, at war with each other. In spite of this, an examination of the reality of many areas of public policy reveals that there are, in fact, many areas of public policy that are of benefit to both urban and periphery dwellers such as, education, access to health care, management of water and waterways, funding of small businesses and banks and local governments, and infrastructure. I have recently compiled a set of 40 such policies that could be adopted because they are of direct benefit to dwellers in both silos (Kresl, 2021). Recognition of this mutual benefit could advance the discussion of public policy and even lead to implementation of some of these policies. Those living on the periphery and in the inner city could engage in a dialogue that would be of benefit to both of these groups, and peripherality would no longer be identified with exclusion from a beneficial political discourse

The Centrality of Urban Economies to the Study of Competitiveness

In recent decades the role of cities and of urban areas in the enhancement of competitiveness has become steadily more important and central to policy formation. The study of urban competitiveness is of interest, first, because it allows us to more fully understand to bases for policy and, second, because it allows us to evaluate the performance of a number of cities so as to determine what policies lead to success and what factors lead to failure or to steady decline. This research should be of interest to scholars as well as to urban practitioners

Urban Economy

In a call for papers, for the special issue to be devoted to “Urban Economy” late in 2015, that the Economies editors issued recently, I noted the increased attention that has been given to urban economies during the past quarter century. This is concomitant with the increased importance and role in policy that cities have attained. This is, in part, due to the diminished capacity of national and sub-national governments to find the funds needed for urban projects and services, and in part to the understanding that cities are the key to the economies and societies of most if not all nations.[...

Currency revaluation : theory, and the 1961 deutsch mark appreciation

Includes bibliographical references (pages [146]-151)The primary stimulus to this study was a general lack of writing on both the theoretical aspects of currency appreciation and the actual appreciation of the Deutsch Mark in 1961. Economists have generally been more concerned with devaluation of currency. This is probably because public opinion and national policy makers are, as a rule, more responsive to a deficit in the foreign balance than to a surplus. To the uninformed, a surplus appears to be desirable since there is a vague implication that the nation in somehow accumulating something. In reality the nation is giving material goods to other nations in exchange for their promises to pay. Domestic consumption and investment are depressed, and the material benefits of the nation's production flow abroad. This aspect of a surplus is not usually considered, or at least not usually expressed. It was actually international concern over the flow of the reserves to Germany, and to a lesser degree German concern over domestic inflation, which caused German officials to appreciate the Deutsch Mark. In the theoretical discussion on currency revaluation it was found that the basic task lay in reconciling the two general approaches - the elasticities and absorption approaches - to the question revaluation. The point of controversy is the importance of the effects of changes in income to the final effects of a revaluation. When data of the 1961 appreciation are applied to the formulas of the two approaches, the later, 'improved' formula was found to give results which are less realistic than those of the earlier formula. This conclusion may, however, be due to the fact that the Deutsch Mark appreciation of 4.76 per cent was not stable enough to generate and/or redistribute income to the degree which is required by the later and supposedly more inclusive formula. The study is divided into six chapters. The first is the Introduction, Chapter Two describes the two theoretical approaches to the analysis of currency depreciation. It also describes the attempts at synthesis which have been made. The third and fourth chapters examine Germany before and after the appreciation. In these chapters both the conditions which created the need for appreciation, and its actual effects on the Germany economy are developed. Chapter Five adapts the theoretical tools developed in Chapter Two to the conditions of an upward revaluation. Therein the actual data of the 1961 Deutsch Mark appreciation are applied to the revived formulas. The final chapter presents a summary of the study and some of the major conclusions.M.A. (Master of Arts