February 28, 1997 -- Your Name:___________________________

Midterm - Quiz # 4 (Geog.207)

(http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/207/exams/midterm4.html)

PART I (Mini-Questions) 15 Points

Select 5 (five) from the following 7 items (3 points each) for "two-sentence answers". First, please identify the term's conceptual meaning. In a second sentence, please suggest why this concept may be relevant or how it may be used in Economic Geography. (Use the back of this page if needed)

(1) a "cohort" - based explanation of behavior (as different from life-stage based):

1. Goodall, p.77 (definition of cohort) 2. Spatially significant behaviors associated with a particular cohort (e.g. babyboomers); could include specific impacts on the economic environments, such as the housing or labor markets. Such behaviors or impacts could just be related to the size of the cohort or, more interestingly, with specific common experiences which cohort members might have had at a particular stage of their lives.
Life-stage behaviors are behaviors typical for a particular stage in a person's life cycle.
(2) the "range of a good", as different from the "threshold range":
1. range of a good: maximum distance customers are willing to travel or incur transport costs for in order to purchase a good at a given (f.o.b.) price.
threshold range: the minimum radius of a market area needed to generate sufficient demand to support the supply of a good
2. theoretical (equilibrium) concepts associated with market area analysis and central place theory: The range has to be larger than the threshold range. More here
(3) Alan Pred's "Behavioral Matrix":
1. Healey & Ilbery, p.24. Differentiates the amount of information available from the ability to use information
2. Addresses the role of information use in behavioral approaches to location.
(4) economies of scope, as different from "economies of scale":
1. savings resulting from the fact that different products are produced or different activities are pursued under one roof or in close proximity
2. there are different views as to to what "different" might mean. Healey & Ilbery seem to equate scope economies with economies of vertical integration (p.130). Thus also acceptable: All savings or cost reductions associated with anything happening close-by except scale.

More here

(5) attributes of "Economic Man":
1. Healey & Ilbery, p.23 (assumptions of perfect information and perfect ability to use such information)
2. attributes of this non-human "person" which performs the role of ideal actor in classical micro-economic and location theories processing information into globally optimal (locational) outcomes or spatial equilibrium patterns.
(6) "FDI":
1. foreign direct investments: investments undertaken by multinational firms in pursuit of their own organizational objectives
2. concept important in the discussion of multinational corporations and their economic & social impacts on home and host economies.
(7) a regional "diversification" policy or strategy:
1. policy designed to reduce the dependence of a regional economy on specialized types of activities or markets by shifting to a broader range of activities or markets. 2. important concept in the discussion of the advantages and shortcomings of different regional economic structures, incl. specialized and diversified structures. (was discussed in class e.g. in the context of the use of the location quotient. If a region has location quotients close to "1", the region tends to be more diversified than regions which have much higher and much lower location quotients.

PART II (Mini-Essay) 15 Points

Please respond to one of the following two questions: (Use the back of this page for your answer (please do NOT use the back of the first page); please write legibly)

1. Organization in Space: "Organizational behaviors, structures and/or processes contribute important (intermediating) variables to our attempt to understand and explain spatial patterns and changes in such patterns." Explain this statement based on insights gleaned from Healey & Ilbery's Ch.7 ("The Organizational Context") and from class.

or

2. Case Study: Explain the significance of either (a) the phenomenon of "uncertainty" or (b) the "Engel's Law" to specific issues or questions related to the context of your area of concentration or case study. It should be understood that you need to define and explain the concept itself as well as to differentiate and articulate the concept and/or the context of application sufficiently to be able to make insightful and unambiguous statements (about the "significance").

BONUS(3 points maximum) Who are / What is:

(1) Alan Greenspan: Federal Reserve Bank Chairman || Greenspan speaks, but who listens? (Seattle Times, March 2, 1997).

(2) Nikolai Dmitrijewitsch Kondratieff (1892 - 1938): H&I, p.15 (long waves etc.)

(3) Torsten Hägerstrand: Swedish Geographer (from Lund) who, among many other contributions, introduced time-geographic notions into human & economic geography. || More here

(4) NAFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement/Association

(5) Approximate present value of one U.S. Dollar in Japanese Yen: 121 Yen to the Dollar (as of this past week) || More here!

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[February 28, 1997; econgeog@u.washington.edu]