A central goal of urban and economic development planning is producing policies and programs to promote economic growth. Urban planners and economic planners always struggle to define economic development policies to improve the growth in way that enhance the quality of life in the community people live and work. Hence, investigation of factors affecting economic growth at the regional level helps decision makers such as urban planners and economic development planners develop smarter policies to increase more opportunities for economic growth. This project aims to look at economic growth from the perspective of urban economic development planners. The main questions of this study include: What is economic growth at the regional level, and what factors influence the growth of US urban regions? Is there any relationship between transportation investments and economic growth? What can urban planners and economic development planners learn from the findings of the growth literature that can better link urban planning with economic development planning and policies? I used research synthesis/meta-study method to review a wide range of studies devoted to economic growth. As neoclassical economists discussed, labor, capital, and human capital and technology are the primary production factors. However, contemporary literature reveals secondary factors that stimulate the efficiency and quality of these primary factors. My findings show that secondary factors such as transportation infrastructure, amenities (schools, housing, weather, and historical, cultural, and recreational centers) and disamenities (pollution, road congestion, and crime rate) influence regional economic growth process. These material factors of economic growth are typically addressed by economists and economic development planners via quantitative analysis of the variables associated with per-capita regional GDP growth. I find, however; that urban planners address a qualitative set of secondary factors related to social norms and institutions. The normative factors include equity, diversity, and housing affordability, and the procedural factors are: public participation, government policies over land use and land development. By reviewing existing regional economic planning, I highlight the lack of strong linkage between economic development planners and urban planners. In the end, an economic growth guideline is developed which might help decision makers such as urban planners and economic development planners derive smarter policies to increase opportunities for economic growth and development. / text

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

For a field of social science to have usefulness, it must have a conceptual framework that explains and predicts a set of empirical phenomena not explained or predicted by conceptual frameworks already in existence in other fields (Shane 2000). This study explored entrepreneurial oppòrtunities within franchising. On the surface, franchising appears to create a system whose underpinnings are standardization, replication, and compliance with detailed long-term contracts--a seemigly unpromising environment in which to explore entrepreneurial opportunities. I argue that heterogeneity and organizational complexity exist among franchising firms, attributes overlooked in studies that characterized the phenomenon narrowly as a uniform, dyadic relationship between franchisors and franchisees. This study found that contractual provisions, franchisee obligations, and organizational hierarchies varied among franchises, and that a relationship existed between the presence of these attributes and differential performance among franchising firms. As a contractual relationship between distinct entities, franchising is governed by a variety of disclosure, trade, and intellectual property laws. Its contractual provisions and formal disclosure documents defme a formal context in which franchising is conducted. In addition to franchising's formal context, an operational realm also exists, one in which daily operations of franchised businesses take place. This study revealed that franchising's operational realm is not always contained within the defined limits of its formal agreements, suggesting greater franchisee discretion may exist than revealed in the agreement. As a result of organizational discontinuities in franchising's formal context, and franchisee discretion within its operational context, diverse opportunities for entrepreneurship exist within franchising beyond the birh of a franchisor's firm.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a better economic basis for the discussion on how much natural capital the current generation should be allowed to deplete. Chapter I uses overlapping-generations models to show the effects of different assumptions about which generation owns the stock of a natural resource on the distribution of intergenerational welfare. An increase in the share of the resource stock that is owned by the first generation, reduces welfare of later generations. If the first generation owns the full resource stock, intermediate generations have to be sufficiently wealthy to buy the resource from the first generation and sell it to later generations. This channelling effect can lead to a situation of resource abundance followed by rapidly increasing resource prices and scarcity. Chapter II show that the incompleteness of intergenerational insurance markets constitutes a market failure that leads to inefficient intergenerational investment decisions. Risks that increase from generation to generation would be under-insured by the current generation. Examples of excessive reduction of biodiversity, excessive natural resource depletion, and inefficiently low protection against global warming are provided. Chapter III analyzes the decision theoretical foundation of environmental choices under uncertainty. Since ambiguity and ignorance are important aspects of many environmental problems, subjective expected utility theory (SEU) has significant limitations as a normative decision making model. The use of SEU leads to a systematic bias against the conservation of natural capital. An alternative decision model is suggested based on the Dempster-Shafer belief-function theory and Choquet expected utility. The synthesis in chapter IV suggests that the costs of natural capital depletion are systematically underestimated in conventional analysis. To remedy the biases against future generations and the complete valuation of natural capital, a sustainability constraint on the economic activities of the current generation is proposed. This constraint requires compensation for natural capital depletion through functional substitutes. From this sustainability constraint, an operational sustainable supply rule is derived for determining shadow prices of natural capital depletion.

Youth unemployment is a critical issue in Southern Africa, exacerbating poverty, crime, violence, food insecurity, and rural-urban migration. In Botswana, the Young Farmers Fund (YFF) was established to cultivate youth entrepreneurship in agriculture to mitigate these issues. The aim of this research is to explore and explain the experiences, circumstances and knowledge of youth participants and assess the extent to which the program succeeds as a development strategy. To do so, the research establishes a conceptual framework investigating how contextual and individual variables influence the outcomes of participants’ projects. Interviews with program participants and key informants and review of relevant literature expose critical themes. These are examined through content analysis and inform research conclusions. Findings reveal why the program is facing a number of challenges. The research is thus valuable for informing policy and program (re)development and affirms the value and adaptability of the conceptual framework across multiple development contexts. / SSHRC

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.