ECON-201: Economic Thinking for Planners and Developers
ECON-201: Economic Thinking for Planners and Developers
Course Access
6 months
Instructor
Peter Gordon, PhD
Registration
$99.00
AICP CM Credits
This course has been approved to provide 4 CM credits.
Course materials are accessible for 6 months from the day of registration. Enroll anytime!
Many people report that they have passed through one or more economics classes in their lives. Unfortunately, few remember anything useful. Many do recall graphs and/or formulas, which they barely know how to judge or apply. In contrast, the emphasis in this course will be on applications. The course will focus on economic thinking rather than on economic science. What do we know about the performance of highways, schools, health care and all of the other sectors from which we consume? Economic thinking can provide the answers to many of these kinds of questions of interest to planners, and this self-paced course will cover cities, regions, neighborhoods and how and why they prosper -- or not.
- Course Instructor
- Course Outline
- Course Overview
- AICP Certification Maintenance
- Returning Student Discount
- Purchasing Information
Course Instructor
Peter Gordon is a Professor in the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning and Development. He is also attached to USC's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorist Events. Professor Gordon's research interests are in applied urban economics. He has recently written on the problems of the "sprawl" debate. He is also the co-editor (with David Beito and Alexander Tabarrok) of The Voluntary City (The University of Michigan Press, 2002). Gordon and his colleagues have developed various economic impact models which they apply to the study of the effects of infrastructure investments or disruptions from natural events or terrorist attacks. Professor Gordon has published in most of the major urban planning, urban transportation and urban economics journals. His recent papers are at www-rcf.usc.edu/~pgordon. He has consulted for local, state and federal agencies, the World Bank, the United Nations and many private groups. Professor Gordon received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.
Course Outline
Topic 1: An Introduction To Economic Thinking (ET)- Lesson 1: Learning Objectives and Introduction
- Lesson 2: Economic Thinking
- Lesson 3: Human Action
- Lesson 4: Trade-offs
- Lesson 5: Opportunity Costs
- Lesson 6: Deciding at the Margin
- Lesson 7: Incentives
- Lesson 8: Gains From Trade
- Lesson 9: Markets, Efficiency and Scarcity
- Lesson 10: Human Action and Economic Progress
- Topic 1 Quiz
- Lesson 1: Learning Objectives and Introduction
- Lesson 2: Prices Are Determined By Supply And Demand
- Lesson 3: Prices Determine Quantities Demanded And Quantities Supplied
- Lesson 4: Shifting Demand And Supply, Price Controls And Non-Price Rationing
- Lesson 5: The Dynamics
- Lesson 6: If Price Is Not Allowed To Ration, Something Else Will
- Lesson 7: Market Prices And Efficiency
- Lesson 8: Prices, Efficiency And Prosperity
- Topic 2 Quiz
- Lesson 1: Learning Objectives and Introduction
- Lesson 2: Price Takers
- Lesson 3: Price-Searching
- Lesson 4: Price Discrimination
- Lesson 5: Cartels And Anti-Trust
- Lesson 6: It's All About Competition
- Topic 3 Quiz
- Lesson 1: Learning Objectives and Introduction
- Lesson 2: Property Rights Basics
- Lesson 3: Property Rights, Real Property, Zoning and Land Use
- Lesson 4: Conclusions
- Topic 4 Quiz
- Lesson 1: Learning Objectives and Introduction
- Lesson 2: Capital Markets, Supply And Demand
- Lesson 3: Risk And Inflation
- Lesson 4: Equities And Borrowing
- Lesson 5: Housing And Development Bubbles
- Lesson 6: Efficient Markets
- Lesson 7: International Trade And Capital
- Lesson 8: Financial Intermediaries and Conclusions
- Topic 5 Quiz
- Lesson 1: Learning Objectives and Introduction
- Lesson 2: A Medium Of Exchange
- Lesson 3: Banks And Credit
- Lesson 4: The Federal Reserve, Money Supply And Business Cycles and Conclusions
- Topic 6 Quiz
- Lesson 1: Learning Objectives and Introduction
- Lesson 2: Migration And How Markets Allocate Labor
- Lesson 3: Supply And Demand For Labor
- Lesson 4: Labor Markets And 'Full Employment'
- Lesson 5: Minimum And 'Living' Wages and Conclusions
- Topic 7 Quiz
- Lesson 1: Learning Objectives and Introduction
- Lesson 2: Why Look At Local Economies?
- Lesson 3: Facts On The Ground
- Lesson 4: Three U.S. Settlement Trends
- Lesson 5: Private Communities, Property Rules And Planning and Conclusions
- Topic 8 Quiz
- Lesson 1: Learning Objectives and Introduction
- Lesson 2: Accessibility Matters
- Lesson 3: Accessibility And Land Rents
- Lesson 4: Urban Growth And Urban Form and Conclusions
- Topic 9 Quiz
- Lesson 1: Learning Objectives and Introduction
- Lesson 2: Supply And Demand
- Lesson 3: Politics And Rhetoric
- Lesson 4: Distributions
- Lesson 5: Policy Trade-Offs and Conclusions
- Topic 10 Quiz
- Lesson 1: Learning Objectives and Introduction
- Lesson 2: Institutions
- Lesson 3: Getting The Prices Right
- Lesson 4: Getting Prices Right Or Getting Quantities Right?
- Lesson 5: Beneficial Spillovers And Markets
- Lesson 6: Property And Poverty and Conclusions
- Topic 11 Quiz
- Lesson 1: Learning Objectives and Introduction
- Lesson 2: The Role Of Government In The U.S. Economy
- Lesson 3: Public Choice Economics
- Lesson 4: The U.S. Federal System
- Lesson 5: The Economics Of Insurance And Social Insurance
- Lesson 6: Social Insurance Programs
- Lesson 7: Other Realms Of Government Activity and Conclusions
- Topic 12 Quiz
- Lesson 1: Learning Objectives and Introduction
- Lesson 2: ET Background
- Lesson 3: The Choice Of Interest Rate
- Lesson 4: An Application Of CBA and Conclusions
- Topic 13 Quiz
- Lesson 1: Concluding Thoughts
- Topic 14 Quiz
Course Overview
Many people report that they have passed through one or more economics classes in their lives. Unfortunately, few remember anything useful.
Many do recall graphs and/or formulas, which they barely know how to judge or apply. In contrast, the emphasis here is on applications. There is seemingly more and more such application among economists and others these days (consider the best-seller success of Freakonomics).
We explore the concept of Economic Thinking, rather than economic science. The latter preoccupies most academic economists and is an impressive body of literature but it offers little to the lay person, trying to succeed in planning, development, business, and in daily life. What do we know about the performance of highways, schools, health care and all of the other sectors from which we consume? Economic Thinking has a lot to teach us about each of these.
Applied Economics for Planners is not a vanilla-flavored approach. Compared to other introductory courses and texts, much of what follows focuses on cities, regions, neighborhoods and how and why they prosper -- or not. That is our most important area of application.
The course is meant as an introduction. Each lesson in each topic is designed to be an eye-opener -- and to open doors for further exploratory studying and reading. Questions associated with each Topic offer a way to apply what you have learned. They are as important as the actual course reading.
AICP Certification Maintenance
This course has been approved to provide 4 credits for the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) Certification Maintenance program.
To claim your CM credits, review the Guide to Claiming AICP CM Credits for Planetizen Courses.
Returning Student Discount
Returning Planetizen Courses students can also take advantage of a 15% discount off the price of another Planetizen Course (PLAN-310 and PLAN-315 exempted). To receive this discount, contact us at info@planetizen.com.
Purchasing Information
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