PPD 498 Fall Syllabus

PPD 498: Senior Honors Seminar in Policy, Planning and Development
University of Southern California
Professor Richard K. Green
richarkg@usc.edu
Keynesian.richard@gmail.com
213-740-4093

This is a senior honors course on topics in Urban Development. This emphasis of the course is on reading, presenting and critically reviewing some classics, old and new, on issues important to those who wish to do research on cities and their regions.

The requirements of the course are three:
(1) Doing the reading before class and participating in class. Your performance in participating will determine 1/3 of your grade.

(2) Leading a ½ hour class discussion on a reading of your choice. You will need to get clearance from me on the reading, and you must let me know your proposed reading by October 1, 2010. This will determine another 1/3 of your grade.

(3) A critical literature review of a topic of interest to you involving an urban topic. The lit review must discuss a minimum of five papers (more would be better) and should be 15-20 double spaced, 12-font, pages long. This will determine the final 1/3 of your grade.

All of USC’s academic conduct rules apply to this course; because you are choosing to be in it, I am assuming this will not be an issue with any of you.

Topics and Readings
August 25 Lenses of Social Science
George Orwell, Why I write.

September 1 New York
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities I

September 8 Growth in Cities
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities II
John Quigley (1998) Urban Diversity and Economic Growth, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12(2):127-38.

September 15 Urbanization and Development
J. Vernon Henderson (2004), Urbanization and Growth, Brown University Working Paper
Marianne Fay and Charlotte Opal (1999), Urbanization without Growth, World Bank Research Working Paper.

September 22 Sprawl
Reid Ewing (1997), Is Los Angeles-Style Sprawl Desirable? Journal of the American Planning Association, 63:1, 107-126.
Peter Gordon and Harry Richardson (1997) Are Compact Cities a Desirable Planning Goal? Journal of the American Planning Association, 63:1, 95-106.
George Galster, Royce Hansen, Michael Ratcliffe, Harold Wolman, Stephen Coleman and Jason Freihage (2001), Wrestling Sprawl to the Ground, Housing Policy Debate, 12(4), 681-717.

September 29 Anti-Sprawl
Ed Glaeser, The Triumph of the City I

October 6 Agglomeration
Ed Glaeser, The Triumph of the City II
Paul Krugman, Development, Geography and Economic Theory

October 13 Guest

October 20 Housing
Stephen Malpezzi (1996) , Housing Prices, Externalities and Regulation in US Metropolitan Areas, Journal of Housing Research, 7(2) 209-242.
Richard K. Green (1996), Should the Stagnant Homeownership Rate be a Source of Concern, Regional Science and Urban Economics.

October 27 Cities and Health
Charles Rosenberg, The Cholera Years.

November 3
William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis I

November 10
William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis II

November 17
Student Led Discussions I

December 1
Student Led Discussions II