Sustainable Economic Development

01.16.2012

I’ll be teaching sustainable economic development at the University of Texas at Austin this semester. This will be the second class on economics I’ve taught to graduate students, but the first dealing with sustainability. The course is part of the Community and Regional Planning program, so I imagine there will be plenty of interest in land use and environmental issues. But I’d also like to encourage the students to think about sustainability in terms of what economic development policy can do to improve labor market outcomes–i.e. what, as practitioners, are we doing to ensure that workers and households are benefiting from economic development programs? Surely this will be a hot topic given the recent Occupy Wall Street protests.

Be afraid for the next generation of city planners. I apologize in advance for any permanent damage. If you have any suggestions for class readings, please send them to me using the contact form on the homepage.

Update 01/20/12:

Thanks to the following people who have agreed to be guest speakers this semester. We’re looking forward to having you in class.

Jon Roberts, TIP Strategies

Brewster McCracken, Pecan Street Inc.

Jim Walker, The University of Texas at Austin

Ryan Robinson, City of Austin

Rosa Rios Valdez and Raquel Valdez, BCL of Texas

Susan Davenport, Austin Chamber of Commerce

Hopeton Hay, Economic Perspectives

Alan Miller, Workforce Solutions Capital Area

Robin Rather, Collective Strength

Eve Richter and Michael Knox, City of Austin