I. Migration, Corporations and Development

What have you learned during this quarter which reinforces or corrects your earlier opinions about: the positive and/ or negative economic effects of

(1) immigration into the United States [i.e. impacts on (within) the United States]

or:

(2) the operations of American corporations in Third World countries [i.e. impacts on (within) such countries]

II. Communications and Economic Change

Our 207 cyber-discussion on February 26 was (upon your choosing) inordinately concerned with class logistics. Just in case you missed the two remaining cyber questions for the discussion, here they are again (in a slightly more explicit form). Select one:

(3) There are hardly any logical bases to suggest that the dynamics of "compositional" restructuring we have observed within the service sector have run their course. Discuss (critically) the proposition that our class use of electronic communications was not just a useful practice of skills for different kinds of future work in the public or private sector, but was in and by itself already an outcome of the productivity pressures behind such (educational) service restructuring.

or:

(4) Given the productivity pressures in most of our job environments, it is foreseeable that we will have to accept an increased "blurring" of the boundaries between working hours and leisure time. Discuss the use of electronic communications as a means to make our daily lives and logistics more manageable (e.g. permit partial telecommuting and 'remote resourcing' & learning)? [We are singularly interested in your logic and analysis, not in your off-hand beliefs]

III. Exports and Import Substitution:

(5) The export base proposition for regional growth suggests that regions depend on their exports. Yet, the world as a whole has no exports (disregarding the junk discarded in space). Does this mean that regions can grow but the world cannot?

or:

(6) The governor (of N.J.) asks her assistant to prepare some alternative state development strategies. Should the assistant include an "import-substitution" strategy in his presentation? Why and/or why not and/or under what conditions?

IV. Location and Spatial Structure

(7) Demonstrate that you have some understanding of the basics of the cost-minimizing "Weber" model by applying it (and a few of the Weber concepts: location triangle, ubiquitous or localized materials, weightloss, isodapanes, material index, etc.) to either (a) recreational, or: (b) residential location problems, or: (c) to an industrial location context with distance-sensitive environmental variables (pollution?)
Please be as explicit as you can as to how you suggest the original Weber variables should be "re-specified" or "re-identified" for your new model.

or:

(8) "Industrial Location Theory (a la Weber) asks (and partially answers) the question: Where should a given activity be located? Agricultural land use theory (a la von Thünen) asks the opposite question: What activity should be operated at a given location?" Is it that simple? Do these two theories complement each other and thereby say it all? Discuss.

V. Your "Higher Thinking Skills":

(9) "The incredibly increased access to more specialized, more global and simply more information (of all sorts) makes good conceptualization and rigorous deductive thought all the more important in Economic Geography." Discuss.

or:

(10) Describe the particular nature of some important ("relevant") "uncertainty" associated with the economic activities (and their environments) with which you were confronted in your concentration, case study or service learning experience. What might be an important cause for this uncertainty? Suggest how the primary actors have responded to this uncertainty (-ies) or could be expected to respond and why? [Goodall defines "uncertainty" as "the unpredictability of the outcome(s) of a particular decision or course of action... Uncertainty is always present in the real-world environment in which decision-making operates...". (p.485)]

BONUS: (1 point each, maximum 10 points)

Identify:

(1) "HTML"
(2) Chaebol
(3) Nick Leeson;
(4) U.S.Population?
(5) World Population?
(6) Size of U.S. GNP or GDP?
(7) Size of the Federal budget?
(8) Lowry Model (no, not the Gov.)
(9) 1988 (Federal) WARN ACT (U.S.);
10) Difference between GATT and WTO?
(11) Head of the U.S. Federal Reserve System
(12) What is a "direct and indirect input coefficient"?
(13) Who was Nikolai Dmitrijewitsch Kondratieff (or Kondratjew) (1892-1938)?
(14) Name a Nobel Prize Winner in Economics who can be linked to (which?) ideas covered in class.

Please note:

• This examination consists of 5 equally weighted questions. You have two hours for your answers. Thus, you have approx. 20 minutes per question + 20 minutes for getting organized and for Bonus questions.
• Please carefully select and think about all your answers before starting to write. 'Long' questions will tend to require more specific answers than the 'short' ones that place more of the conceptualizing burden on you. Remember, we are looking for more than one-paragraph answers.
• We also have to be able to read your handwriting to give you any points.
• In case you feel tempted to copy formulations from any of your printed/xeroxed Notebook documents, all anti-plagiarism rules apply: literally copied statements have to be placed in quotation marks (with source); paraphrased excerpts have to be referenced in the text.
• Avoid repetition

1) LOCATION (20%; Select one)

1a) Write a theoretical statement on "Time & Location", i.e., in more specific terms, on "The Role of Time in Specifying ('independent') Production- & Transport- Cost and/ or Demand Variables for Locational Explanations."

1b) Develop the geographic dimensions of a market analysis for a new QFC (or Larry's Market) food store. What we are looking for is some organized evidence of your understanding of the "spatial demand structure" and the extent to which potential customers with different demographic and socio-economic characteristics and different locations will affect this store's spatial demand curve.

2) SPATIAL INTERACTION (20%; Select one)

2a) As an Economic Geographer, write an essay on the significance, limitations and needed supplementations of David Ricardo's principle of comparative advantage.

2b) Transporting Mass or Messages? What can we, as economic geographers, contribute to the debate as to what kinds of interaction infrastructures are needed for the future?

3) GEOGRAPHY OF ECONOMIC CHANGE (20%; Select one)

3a) Early this quarter, one of you suggested in an e-mail comment, that we were spending too much time in class on the "service sector" and not enough time on "manufacturing" and that manufacturing is a more important sector for economic development. How do you think about this issue of "relatve importance for economic development" now, at the end of the quarter, in light of all our various readings in H&I, Packages and other sources of wisdom?

3b) Some people have suggested that the Product Cycle Concept is merely an extension of the Sectoral Theory of Regional Development (TSH). Would you agree? If yes or no, why? If 'it depends', how so?

4) INTERDEPENDENCE & DEVELOPMENT (20%; Select one)

4a) "Multipliers (as constant coefficients) help in the identification of economic change in regions. Yet multipliers are themselves subject to variations and change." Discuss.

4b) Economic (Export) Base Theory suggests that regions grow on the basis of their exports. Yet, for the world as a whole, there are no (significant) exports. Does that mean that large regions cannot grow and develop economicly, that this theory is a lot of ... (e.d.)... or what?

5) READING AND RESEARCH (20%; Select one)

5a) Review a reading assigned to the class that has particularly stimulated you. In your review, make sure you do both, namely (1) focus on the intellectual basis for this "stimulation" (and where it might take you in the future); and (2) explain the relationship of this reading to other class materials, the class framework and your understanding of it.

5b) During your work on your concentration and project, many of you felt you could safely ignore my advice to move from our class framework and content towards your particular research and business interests and not the other way around. As a result, some of you were not able to return to Geography 207, make use of its concepts and theories and thereby avoid to become exceedingly descriptive. Here is another chance for those of you who have not made use of class concepts in your final paper. Prove to us that your conceptual and theoretical understanding is deeper than it may be reflected in your project that was supposed to be an integral part of this class.

5c) If you are convinced that this (5b) does not apply to you, make a proposal for a project that will take your project beyond the confines which -- due to time constraints -- you had to set yourself during this short quarter. Identify the need for this extended project and then develop a conceptual model or framework that reflects your now expanded horizons (something that admittedly was difficult to do earlier during this introductory course). Be as specific as you can be, that is, do not only tell us which ideas will be part of your model, but also how and why such ideas will be integrated into your conceptual construct.

BONUS: (1 point each, maximum 10 points)

Identify: