Alan Peters

Clawbacks and the Administration of Economic Development Policy in the Midwest

Over the past decade, competition for private investment among the American states has attracted much negative comment. Clawbacks have been proposed as a way of imposing controls on the provision of state economic development subsidies. Clawbacks stipulate that a publicly subsidized firm not achieving agreed-upon employment performance targets must pay back a portion of the subsidy it received. This article reviews the arguments made in favor of clawbacks and presents new data on clawback usage in major midwestern grant and loan incentive programs that indicate clawback provisions are reasonably widely used. However, there is considerable divergence in the operation and organization of clawbacks across programs, and there appears to be little agreement on how firm employment performance should be evaluated. Most directors of state grant and loan programs feel that the inherent riskiness of business should be taken into account when deciding whether clawback sanctions should be applied to under performing firms.

Towards a comprehensive green infrastructure typology: a systematic review of approaches, methods and typologies

There is no consensus on a comprehensive classification for green infrastructure (GI). This is a consequence of the diversity of disciplines, application contexts, methods, terminologies, purposes and valuation criteria for which a GI typology is required. The aim of this systematic literature review is to evaluate the existing evidence on how GI is being categorised and characterised worldwide. We reviewed a total of 85 studies from 15 countries that were analysed for contextual trends, methods, parameters and typologies. Results show that relevant literature lacks a common terminology and that a universal typology for all scenarios is impractical. Analysis reveals that GI can be organised into four main GI categories: (a) tree canopy, (b) green open spaces, (c) green roofs and (d) vertical greenery systems (facades/walls). Green open spaces and tree canopy attracted the attention of researchers due to their complexity, variability and important roles in GI planning. Evidence suggests that a ternary approach in terms of the functional (purpose, use, services), structural (morphology) and configurational (spatial arrangements) attributes of GI should be applied for a more comprehensive classification. Although this approximation is inherently generic, since it can be used across different research disciplines, it is also sufficiently specific to be implemented for individual scopes, scenarios and settings. Further research is needed to develop a typology capable of responding to particular research aims and performance analyses based upon the findings discussed in this paper.

SPATIAL CONSTRAINTS ON RURAL WOMEN WORKERS

Rural women represent an increasingly differentiated labor force, but do they experience the “friction of distance” entailed by the emergence of distinct metropolitan and nonmetropolitan labor markets in different ways? This paper uses survey data to examine the differential impacts of spatial constraints on groups of women workers. Cluster analysis is used to differentiate the labor force experiences of our employed survey respondents; significant differences exist in the transportation resources and labor force participation decisions among the three clusters identified and there is some indication that these differences also pose problems for intermittent participants in the labor force. The paper presents conclusions about concrete ways that space intervenes to shape (rather than merely contain) labor-force participation.

Rural Women in a Restructuring Economy: Work and Commuting in Eastern Iowa

Rural womens labor-force participation rates have increased rapidly over the past decade and a half, simultaneous with economic restructuring in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. This article examines womens labor-force participation and returns to employment within four nonmetropolitan counties in eastern Iowa, contiguous with three metropolitan areas. The job structures and job rewards of women employed in four industry groups in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan job locations are compared in the context of the constraints posed by commuting costs. Also examined are findings about the nature and extent of nonmetropolitan womens labor-force participation in the context of the employment restructuring trends in the metropolitan and nonmetropolitan portions of the study area.

Measuring the competitiveness of state and local economic development incentives

Abstract American states and cities now regularly give tax and discretionary incentives to firms. This paper describes a method to quantify, in a precise and theoretically sound manner, the impact of incentives on firm location decisions. The “hypothetical firm” technique measures the impact of incentives on a firms long-term after-tax income. The computational complexities of implementing this method in Excel 5.0, VBA and MapInfo are discussed. Finally, problems raised by the geographical targeting of incentives by states and cities (usually at poorer communities) are examined, in particular the need to integrate hypothetical firm modeling with information managed by a GIS.

Mapping Local Climate Zones for urban morphology classification based on airborne remote sensing data

there is ample evidence of the cooling effects of green infrastructure (GI) that has been extensively documented in the literature. However, the study of the thermal profiles of different GI typologies requires the classification of urban sites for a meaningful comparison of results, since specific spatial and physical characteristics produce distinct microclimates. In this paper, the Local Climate Zones (LCZ), a scheme of thermally relatively homogeneous urban structures proposed by Stewart and Oke, was used for mapping and classifying the urban morphology of a study area in Sydney, Australia. A GIS-based workflow for an automated classification based on airborne remote sensing data is presented. The datasets employed include high resolution hyperspectral imagery, LiDAR (light detection and ranging), and cadastral information. This paper also proposes a standardised and replicable workflow that can be applied by researchers and practitioners from novices to experts. The results presented here provide evidence that LCZ can be effectively derived from multiple airborne remote sensing datasets, which can then be used to identify morphological profiles to support varied climatological studies. Future stages of this research include coupling this method with a newly developed GI typology for a more comprehensive analysis of the cooling effects of GI by taking into account the morphological disparities of LCZ.

Planning support systems: best practice and new methods, edited by Stan Geertman and John Stillwell: Springer Science & Business Media, Berlin, 2009, £162.00,

makers in addressing semistructured or unstructured spatial problems in an interactive and iterative way with functionality for handling spatial and nonspatial databases, analytical modeling capabilities, decision support utilities such as scenario analysis and effective data and information presentation utilities.’ From this, they state that GIS alone does not qualify as a SDSS (p. 14), or put more simply, the authors consider GIS not suitable to handle unstructured spatial decision problems, because this asks for dedicated SDSS. The question then arises, why then putting so much effort on explaining the basics of GIS when it lacks suitability as a SDSS? Moreover, looking further on at given examples of SDSS (e.g., Index, CommunityViz) (p. 201) I doubt not just about the demarcation between SDSS and GIS, but also the demarcation between SDSS and so-called planning support systems (PSS) too. In fact nowhere in the book is PSS mentioned, while it should be acknowledged both are much related kind of systems. It would have been useful for the authors to define more strictly what they consider a SDSS to be and in what sense it is different from or congruent to related kind of systems like GIS and PSS. However, despite these criticisms, I consider this book a very valuable contribution to the field of SDSS and believe it will be of interest to many working in this area. While minor improvements could be made, as Marc Armstrong – generally considered a SDSS legend – puts it forward in his foreword ‘. . . I came away from it wishing that the book had been available to me many years ago when I was beginning to struggle with the SDSS concepts that now seem rather straightforward after having read these chapters.’ I fully support his opinion.

249.00, €169.99, ISBN 978-4020-8951-0

or land-use consequences for society and the environment. Importantly, they differentiate between spatial planning and land-use planning and argue that, whilst more a loosely defined entity, spatial planning has the advantage over land-use planning of being able to respond more holistically to the natural and environmental resources that underpin human societies. The key thesis of the book is that spatial planning has immense scope to play a key role in climate change management but must be better understood as a profession to fully accept this challenge. The institutional nature of spatial planning, planning discourses, influence and interference from the state and other actors, as well as temporal spatial scales are all identified as crucial factors in conditioning the nature and potential success of spatial planning as an agent of climate change management. These factors are examined from a variety of perspectives throughout the rest of book. Part Two examines specific perspectives on spatial planning and climate change. Particular attention is paid to the tensions that exist both between and within the climate change and spatial planning discourses. The UK is highlighted as an illustrative example. The authors examine the role of various policy networks and discourse coalitions in framing, influencing and, in some cases, interfering with efforts to establish policy bases for integrating climate change considerations into UK spatial planning. Contrasting experiences in the Netherlands are also demonstrated, although with significantly less detail. Other subjects examined in Part Two include the complexities that climate change brings to bear on governance scales for spatial planning, the role of multi-scale governance networks, planning for future generations, intra-generational equity and social justice. This reviewer found the section very useful, as my own research focuses on institutional dialogues and how these condition the capacity for spatial planning to respond to climate adaptation. However, it was felt that there was an over-reliance on the UK as a case study. Part Three focuses on spatial planning processes and how planning decisions around locating development, transport provision, energy supply and upgrading the environmental performance of building stock should aim to reconcile demands for both mitigation and adaptation. The authors correctly argue that policies for mitigation and adaptation in the built environment to the 2050s and beyond will need to address both existing and new development. Examples of successful planning strategies in this regard are presented, including the use of certain green infrastructure and the promotion of alternative settlement models, including eco-towns. However, there is again an over-reliance on UK examples. Other issues addressed in Part Three include planning for water resources under climate change, flood risk management, strategies for marine and coastal spatial planning, as well as planning for biodiversity under climate change. The final part of this book addresses prospects for future improvements in how spatial planning can better respond to the demands that climate change places upon it. Particular attention is paid to learning as a means of delivering improved responses. The potential gains from utilising different types of learning are addressed, including institutional, social, cross-national and network learning. The authors also examine how spatial planning might advance its future role in climate change management by better integrating mitigation and adaptation aims into planning processes. It is argued that setting clear objectives is required and that the use of impact assessment tools may be beneficial in ensuring they are met. The section concludes by setting out seven key themes that climate change raises for spatial planning. This book will be valuable to both technical and non-technical readers. As well as detailed textual analyses, it contains a meticulous glossary and bibliography, along with many illustrative figures and tables. As the authors note, the speed of change and the pace at which new thought is emerging in this field of enquiry means that any book published on the subject is in immediate danger of losing ground to new research. This is certainly true, but for now, Wilson and Piper’s book is essential reading for anyone interested in the nexus between spatial planning and climate change.

Affluence, mobility and second home ownership

Abstract This paper describes the skill and gender structure of the Scottish electronics industry. Scottish electronics had proportionally fewer high‐skill employees and more female employees than British electronics. Female electronics workers in Scotland experienced greater occupational segregation than did females in Britain. Across the various electronics subsectors, the level of skills and the degree of feminization varied widely. Scottish electronics subsectors were not segregated into overlapping skill and gender divisions of labour. With few exceptions, increasing relative feminization of Scottish electronics subsectors was related to employment expansion; decreasing relative feminization to employment decline.