2. You are a geographer hired as a consultant to a city considering acquiring a sports franchise. Two business groups are lobbying hard for a baseball team and a football team. Discuss the important factors the city should consider in making a decision between a baseball team and football team. Be sure to discuss the economic and spatial implications of each alternative.

[The question suggest that you should discuss (initially maybe separately) (a) the locational/ marketing/ threshold considerations; and (b) the (positive and negative?) economic (income, employment, tax-revenue- etc.) effects of different types of (sports) entertainment...]

3. You are the research assistant to a local politician (running for a position on the city or county council) concerned about the lack of public facilities such as libraries or parks. Which concepts and/or theories that we have discussed in class would you try to present and explain to our candidate so that she will be better prepared to make her own arguments and respond to her opponent's arguments related to the size and location of such facilities.

[The core of this question aims for the interdependence of scale economies, consumer preferences for small versus large facilities or for different types and "packages" of public services in Libraries or Parks, and access/convenience etc. Thus, our discussion of thresholds, spatial demand curves and other market area considerations would be appropriate as well as scale and cost considerations. Another major point could be the relationships between distance/access questions and the policy objectives behind the provision of public services (e.g. would a local government simply accept the existing distance elasticity of demand for such services or would or should it be interested influencing (increasing or reducing) such elasticity].

Name-Dropping BONUS: Identify these VIPs by their contribution(s) to Economic Geography:

1. Edward L. Ullman: former UW geographer, well known for his work in urban- and transportation Geography; "bases for spatial interaction: complementarity, transferability + (lack of) intervening opportunities. (Goodall, p.485)

2. Torsten Hagerstrand: Swedish geographer (Lund) interested in, among many other subjects, the interdependence of temporal and spatial facets. (Goodall, p.471 - "time geography")

3. Walter Christaller: German Central Place Theorist (Book published in 1933 on Central Places in Southern Germany)

4. Nikolai Kondratieff: Russian economist promoting "long-wave theory" (Healey & Ilbery, p.15)

5. Harold Hotelling: Former Harvard economist (M.A. from UW) who among other contributions, published a famous paper (in 1929) on the stability of spatial competition for the spatial duopoly (competition involving two competitors). "Ice-cream-vendor-on-the-beach" model. (Goodall, p.214)

Select 5 (five) from the following 7 items (3 points each). Please define and/or identify the terms' conceptual or analytical use in Economic Geography.

(1) "Cohort"
		Goodall, p.77

(2) "Isodapane"
		Goodall, p.247

(3) "Engel's Curve" or "Engel's Law" (associated with Ernst Engel, a 
German statistician)
		Goodall, p.153

(4) "Material Index" (in Alfred Weber's Theory of Industrial Location)
		Goodall, p.294

(5) Difference between "Spatial Threshold" and "Range of a Good or Service":
		Goodall, p.391 ("range"); p.471 ("threshold")
			p.116 ("demand cone")

(6) "Terms of Trade"
		Goodall, p.466

(7) "Economies of Scale"
		Goodall, p.146

All of these terms were also referred to and defined in class; consult 
your notes. Most of them were also used in Healey and Ilbery.


											                     P.T.O.
PART II   (Mini-Essay)  15 Points

	Please respond to one of the following questions with a (at least 
paragraph-long) statement:
1. How would (or could) you  apply the concept of a "population pyramid" 
to the compositional structure of a regional labor force? What kinds of 
insights might you be able to derive from quantitative data (if they 
would be available) organized in such a  pyramidal fashion?

	[Could be answered either by referring to the age and sex structure of 
people in the labor force, or, alternatively, by identifying some other 
variable (e.g. skill-levels or income levels) which tends to result in a 
pyramidal shape. The insights will depend on the information included..
with age distribution having the advantage of providing dynamic insights 
(i.e. the likely impact of aging on the age structure).]


2.Assume you are a location consultant for the parent company of  (a) 
Seven-Eleven  stores,  or  (b) Wal-Mart stores, and are asked to sketch 
out how the firm should  differentiate, conceptualize and assess  
different regional markets and different components of specific markets  
in preparation for major expansion plans and corresponding location 
decisions. Be specific as to reasons (or justification) for any specific 
proposition and be aware that  adding any variable to the market study 
implies substantial additional costs.

	[market area analysis; demand structure: by income, household 
size, car ownership, residential location, business clients; development 
activities in the area etc. etc.]


3. As an industrial  location consultant you have decided that there is 
money to be made by using Alfred Weber's location model as a "base 
model", i.e. as an appropriate and convenient  starting point  (and easy 
to communicate to clients) for the process of searching for a location 
and a site for industrial clients.  Describe how you would set up your 
first face-to-face interview (consulting session) with your client's 
representatives.

	[presumably you would want to have the activity described to you in
terms of variables which are needed for the Weberian model... expressed in
terms which your industrial client understands. The data you need should,
as much as possible, be readily available in the firm's accounting
system....  However, since this is a search for a new location with new 
capital goods and possibly a different (more modern) technology, past
data may not be appropriate. You also want to get a sense how flexible such
"productions functions" are, that is, how much the production methods 
(and input requirements) can be adjusted to specific conditions found at 
alternative locations. Check the discussion of the Weber model in Healey 
and Ilbery, as well as Goodall]



BONUS:  Please tell us (again?) (1) the "working title" of your Case 
Study (Project Part 2) (2) the major question or focus you will be 
concentrating on; (3) whether it will be a research effort; a business or 
carrier plan or a Service Learning report; (4) what form of presentation 
you are likely to select; and (5) how you are planning to use the Lab or 
your remote access on Monday in pursuit of your question/focus?

1. The (yearly) U.S.Budget Deficit?____________________________________

2. The (yearly) U.S. Balance of Trade Deficit? ________________________

3. Bill Gates' reputed total "net worth"?______________________________

PART I (Mini-Questions) 15 Points

Select 5 (five) from the following 8 items (3 points each). Please define and/or identify the terms' conceptual or analytical use in Economic Geography.

(1) "Location Quotient"

[see Goodall, p.276: "location quotient"; and class notes of January 4th]

(2) "Independent Variable"

[see Goodall, p.494 (under "variable"); and class notes]

(3)"Deduction" (or "deductive reasoning")

[see Goodall, p.114-115; under "deduction" and class notes of Jan. 2 + later]

(4) "Tertiary Sector"

[see Goodall, p.468-469 ("tertiary activity/sector"); also: Healey & Ilberry, p.8; also: class notes]

(5) "Factor of Production":

[see: Healey & Ilberry: Ch.4 (pp.45ff.)]

(6) "Distance Elasticity of Demand"

[see class notes from January 2, 1996 (first day of class)]

(7) "Flexible Specialization"

[see Healey & Ilberry, p.12]

(8) "Informal Economy"

[see Healey & Ilberry, p.12]

BONUS: (a) Describe the location of Carlos Tovares' office. When does he have office hours? Or: In which precise part of the electronic 207 Syllabus-System would you be able to find this information?

Carlos' Office: 430 Smith ("tugged away at the very (West) end of the 4th floor) (b) What are the three content-oriented options for part 2 of the project?

(1) "Research Paper"

(2) Business or Employment (Internship) "Plan"

(3) Service Learning (Internship) "journal" or "report"_

PART II: (Mini-Essay); 15 Points

Please respond to one of the following questions with a (at least paragraph-long) statement :

(A) It has been suggested that locational perspectives in Economic Geography can be summarized as dealing with two types of forces (or "independent variables"), namely (a) those promoting agglomeration or spatial concentration, and (b) those promoting dispersion (or "deglomeration" or spatial decentralization). Such forces tend to pull in different directions and together create the many different spatial structures and configurations of society's economic functions, actors and artifacts which we may want to refer to as the "space economy". On the basis of the (very limited) discussion we had so far in class and your own deductive or inductive capabilities, identify and briefly discuss a few of such agglomerative and deglomerative forces.

[we discussed briefly such agglomeration and deglomeration forces during our very first meeting in the context of spatial competition [our "ice-cream-vendor-on-the-beach" model. Real world tendencies to this effect are quite well known in the context of urbanization and sub-urbanization. The question, however, did NOT ask you merely to describe such tendencies but to begin to identify "forces" behind such tendencies. We will explore a whole range of such forces during the quarter, and you may want to keep a "log" or account of such explanations of both agglomeration and spatial decentralization]

(B) Briefly identify and discuss the major variations which you have detected between different definitions of this remarkable and distinguished discipline known as "Economic Geography".

[This question did not ask for all the different subdisciplines which could be included in Economic Geography. Instead, it asked whether you had found varying definitions of this field during your first two weeks of exploring different text books in OUGL (on Reserve), as had been recommended.

(C) We suspect that you have concluded already that this class is "different" from what you expected it to be. As an aspiring economic or business geographer we compliment you that you are willing to "take the risk" and face the challenge of a new opportunity not free of uncertainties. Based on what you now know about the objectives, syllabus, plans and resources associated with this class, what are your expectations as to the extent to which you will not only passively learn textbook concepts, principles and theories (a lot of them), but will also participate in a process during which you have the opportunity to pick up (and experiment with) a host of skills which might be very useful "out there" in the "real world".

[the emphasis here was on the "host of skills" which I wanted you to detect in the syllabus and the class discussion of the objectives of Geog.207.: critical thinking; analytical skills; collaboration (team work); small-business and labor-market related skills; academic and professional resource (including Library and Internet) skills; communication skills etc.]