URBAN ECONOMICS
Guidline for Writing Sample
Geography, History, and Economics of City X
Introduction
Geography plays a large role in the formation and development of a city. Natural
georaphy determines the initial economic activities of a village, a settlement, or a camp.
Over time, initial concentrations of economic activities lead to cities and metropolis due to
agglomeration economics. Cities continue to exist, and some even grow, after the initial
geographic advantages went obsolete. For example, one of the most important economic
activities in the 19th century Detroit is fur trade. Fur trade dwindled with the decline of
beaver population, yet Detroit reinvented itself into an automobile manufacturing center.
In this exercise, you are required to write a brief economic history of a city of your choice.
You need to explain the role geography played in the economic history of the city, and what
role it is still playing in shaping the city’s economic performance. Discuss whether and how
factors we have discussed in class have affected the evolution of the city’s economy. These
factors may include (and are not restricted to):
• Trade cost: proximity to a sea or river port, access to railway and highways, country or
state borders, etc.
• Type of industries: what industries does the city focus on and why they are there?
• Agglomeration economics, which includes localization economics and urbanization
economics.
• Access to natural resources such as mineral and energy reserves, animal products,
crops, and lumber, etc.
• Innovations in the city, which2
• Congestion effect: as a city gets bigger, firms and residents in the city incur higher costs
from higher rental price, worse road congestion, longer commuting time, and worse
air pollution, etc.
• Natural amenities: both to the residents and to the firms.
• Location in a system of cities.
Notice to pick a metropolitan area, which can be thought as a local economy. For example,
the economy of Okemos, a small town to the east of East Lansing, is by definition attched to
the economy of Lansing Metropolitan Area, so you should analyze the economy of the
Lansing area, not Okemos on its own.
Also note that cities are alway evolving. Shocks might occur in the course of history which
may fundamentally change the economic landscape of a city. This also means that you do
not necessarily need to start from the very beginning when the city was first settled.
Guiding Questions
These questions may help you organize your writing. Although you do not have to
answer all of these questions. Based on your reading and understanding of location-based
policies, you can also include additional discussions related to the topic.
• In the starting period of your history of the city, what economic activities was it
involved?
• What geographic features does the city have? Does geography of the city has anything
to do with its economics? Explain in detail.
• What economic activities does the city engage now? Are they still the same as the
those in the early days of the city? How did the key industry of the city grow?
– If the city has many key industries, pick one as a case study.
• Was the initial geographic advantage of the city still relevant nowadays?3
• Has the city been booming or declining? Does the decline or boom has to do with the
geography?
• How does agglomeration play a role in the development of the city?
• How does congestion effect limit the further expansion of the city?
• Does your city of choice suffer from urban sprawl?
• What is the city’s economic relation with neighboring cities?
• How does amenities play a role in the course of the city’s development? Geography is
one type of amenities. Amenities also include climate, terrain, crime and education,
etc.
Readings and Other Resources
• Read “The Global Distribution of Economic Activity: Nature, History, and the Role of
Trade”.
• Read “The United States as a Coastal Nation”.
– Read the two papers, you do not need to worry too much about the model or
statistical analyses. Try to get the key messages of the papers.
• Read the Wikipedia page (and/or other sources for basic background) for a brief
history of the city.
• Look up current economic indicators at the American Factor Finder
– URL: https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml
• Historical population data are available from the URL below
– https://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/hiscendata.html4
Writing and Editing Tips
You should edit your policy memo in Microsoft Word or similar text editing softwares.
All submissions should be electronic. .docx format (from Microsoft Word) is preferable
because it allows me to edit and comment on the document (Do not convert it to PDF). You
should use font size 12 and double space.
There is no minimum page requirement. The whole policy memo, including figures,
tables, and references, should be less than 3 pages.
Each student should write his/her policy memo individually.
