Lay James Gibson

Estimating the Economic Base Multiplier: A Test of Alternative Procedures

Four different strategies for estimating economic base multipliers are evaluated for twenty small towns in Arizona. Three estimating techniques are compared with a comprehensive survey of the economies of the towns, and the minimum requirements method is found to be superior to the sample survey and location quotient approaches.

REGRESSION ESTIMATES OF ECONOMIC BASE MULTIPLIERS FOR SMALL COMMUNITIES

Applied researchers are increasingly realizing that small-area impact models should be calibrated by survey-based data. This paper uses a comprehensive, cross-sectional data set to calibrate the ec...

Regional science: back to the future?

After initiating a provocative discussion on “regional science in crisis” (Bailly and Coffey 1994; Gibson 1994; Plane 1994; Stough 1994; Anas 1994; Vickerman 1994; Casetti 1995), we now wish to present some additional thoughts on how regional scientists can simultaneously make their field more relevant scientifically and more useful for society. At a time when resources are tight, when the number of regional science students is small, when administrators are scrutinizing our budgets and our ability to generate outside money, we need to do something to regain (or is it simply to gain?) our place in the sun. In this paper, we argue that regional scientists will not reestablish their field by using classical approaches to regional analysis alone. It is essential that we look at new ways to answer questions raised by our social, economic, and political institutions. More specifically, we make some observations concerning the history of regional science, its role within universities, and its nature, as well as offering some suggestions concerning how regional scientists can attempt to improve the situation.

A Citizen's Handbook for Evaluating Community Impacts: an Experiment in Community Education

Four nonmetropolitan communities were selected for an experimental community education program designed to train local citizens in the general procedures of economic impact research. It is argued that citizen participation is enhanced by a fuller understanding of the technical content of the planning problem at hand and that this understanding is best developed through involvement in a citizen research process prior to policy formulation. The experiment was only partially successful. A handbook was developed that is easily used by lay persons to make impact estimates, but a broad base of citizen involvement in research could not be developed. Community interest was strongest in places anticipating impacts in the near term. Retirees, citizens who could receive specific immediate benefits, and local planners and managers emerged as the best community analysts.

Town Size and Functional Complexity in a Disrupted Landscape

CENTRAL PLACE theory suggests a settlement hierarchy whereby towns with large populations, large trade areas, and much functional complexity are widely spaced and surrounded by smaller less complex towns servicing smaller areas. To achieve the theoretical functional hierarchy and geometry, one must assume that towns develop on a featureless plain of uniform productivity and potential for movement. This reduces the relationship between customers and service centers to one of distance economies and diseconomies. Because qualities of the ideal landscape do not exist, geographers and economists since Lösch have done the next best thing—worked in such places as Iowa. In 1960 Thomas attempted to find and explain regularities in the relationship between town size and the number and kinds of activities performed in small Iowa towns.1 He defined a few simple measures of functional activity and correlated each with town population. Correlations were strong, a fact explicitly interpreted with respect to the dispersed populations of areas surrounding the towns and implicitly contributing to affirmation and elucidation of central place ideas. Several investigators have subsequently replicated substantial portions

Applied geography for the future

All academic fields evolve and geography is no exception. Geographers are broadening their perspectives, borrowing from related disciplines from other sciences including social behavioral and natural sciences. New examples of applied research have been explored in this book ranging from G.I.S. to medicometry, in different parts of the world. This is a chance to consider the future geography in light of increasing opportunities in the world of application.

Regional Dependence on Tourism: The Significance of Seasonality

Seasonal swings in employment and income flows can have significant implications for the economic health of regions. Resource-based industries such as forestry, agriculture, and outdoor recreation are notorious for being highly seasonal and for underutilizing both human resources and hard infrastructure during periods of the year. The development of a ski area housed within an Indian Reservation in east-central Arizona has helped reduce seasonal swings in demand for locally available goods by enhancing opportunities for winter tourism. This paper looks at winter tourism in general and skiing-driven tourism in particular. It also underscores the role and importance of the ski area on the region’s economy as well as how it is connected to the close but generally under appreciated relationship that exists between the Indian and non-Indian communities. Findings indicate that additional investments in the ski area would likely leverage existing investments and support income growth throughout the region. These findings are intended to inform policy makers who are asked to increase public investment in the ski resort.

Managing geography after Y2K

All academic disciplines evolve and geography is no exception. Physics, French, or even economics change over time, but at the end of the day (or decade) they are still physics, French, or economics. Geography is different — it can be a natural science, a social science, or a humanity. Ideally, perhaps geography is all three. Many feel that the inevitable tension between these three content areas and scientific and non-scientific orientations is not only healthy but essential. Keeping these perspectives in balance while recognizing that geography’s real value is tied to its role as a measurement oriented science and managing the tensions that are inherent in a discipline where both basic research and applied research are appropriate can be a challenge. Put all of this together with the fact that there is rapid change and increased competition for limited resources in the academic institutions that house geography departments and it seems worthwhile for us to revisit the ways that we manage our discipline and the ways that we position it within our universities and within the job markets that our graduates enter.

Regional science in the twenty-first century

Regional science has been a research field for over 50 years; it continues to enjoy a solid reputation as a useful approach for problem solving for economic, sociocultural, political, and even environmental issues. Its methods, techniques, and perspectives contribute to understandings of regions and of interactions both between regions and within a given region. Its challenge for the future is to fully incorporate new technologies and approaches such as geographic and regional information systems while continuing to be useful to those wishing to evaluate the structure and evolution of established regions and the emergence of new regional identities.

Economic base theory and applied geography

Economic base theory belongs to both economics and geography. The theory per se belongs to economics but it is geographers who have brought it to life by tieing it to real places and their economic landscapes. This paper identifies seven economic development problems commonly faced by development practitioners and illustrates how “best practice” solutions can be drawn from economic base studies. A number of studies are used to illustrate problems and approaches but two are featured; one is a regional economic base study that looks at both a large rural region and at five individual communities within the region. The other is a study of a single community that was initially completed in 1974 and replicated three times between 1974 and 1995.