Browsing by Subject "Economy"

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The Changing Structure of Local Economies: Implications for Public and Private Investment in Transportation Infrastructure in the Upper Midwest
(1992-10) Braslau, David; Campbell, Candace; Maki, Wilbur
This paper focuses on the changing structure of local economies in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. We include the entire states of Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, as well as Minnesota, in this region. The study objectives are to (1) document changes in the economic base and related economic activity of individual labor market areas and states in the Upper Midwest, with a focus on transportation system and good producers (2) analyze the inkages between these measures of local economic structure and transportation infrastructure expenditures, and (3) present alternative scenarios of local economic change and their implications for transportation systems policy and planning in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest states. The method of approach in the study of local economic change is macro-economic in its context but micro-economic in its analysis and application. This application addresses the information requirements of transportation infrastructure planning and policy issues in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest states.
Contradictory economies in post-socialist rural Hungary: the emergence, endurance and persistence of the hoop-house economy in Balastya.
(2009-11) Kaiser-Holt, Sara
This dissertation is based on ethnographic research conducted in the village of Balástya, Hungary between 2001-2003. It is concerned with the nature of post-socialist life as lived, interpreted, and negotiated by rural people after the collapse of state-socialism. It discusses post-socialist life and economy and how rural people express their conceptions of the past, present and future. My central question is simple. What happens to people's identity and how people invent new ways of generating livelihoods when the political, economic and social system of forty-five years of socialism--a frame of reference that people used and lived through--vanishes and an extralocal economic model is crudely mapped on the lived landscape of everyday reality? As this ethnography demonstrates, post-socialist life is filled with anxiety. I claim that the anxiety is driven and fueled by the transformation from socialism to capitalism, and by the visible gap between observed phenomena of the "lived post-socialism" and the political-economic discourses of "capitalism." This study examines this critical and anxious transformation through the prism of a local economic innovation that I coin the "hoop-house economy." It investigates its emergence, endurance and persistence over time and argues that the shifting meanings of the hoop-house economy accurately mirror this transformation from market-socialism to market-capitalism, all the way up to the creation of the EU's market. Conceptually, the model of the hoop-house economy demonstrates the dialectical relationship between economy's two spheres--house and market. I distinguish among three types of the hoop-house economy, which I call 1) minimal, 2) liminal and 3) maximal and argue that the liminal hoop-house economy best represents the tension between economy's two value domains--commensurate and incommensurate--in post-socialist Hungary. This work challenges generalizations and broad assumptions about the transformation from socialism to capitalism. By examining this transformation through the complexities of local practices and ordinary life, my dissertation extends, but also complicates macro-level analyses, illuminating the linkages between changing political and economic institutions and the micro-level of everyday reality.
Cook County Plan - Guiding Principles
(1997) Cook County
This document contains 87 points that govern planning and economic development for Cook County. A sense of balance is emphasized in implementing the plan, recognizing that some points may be in conflict with each other.
Economic Impacts from the Minnesota Zoo
(University of Minnesota Tourism Center, 2012) Erkkila, Daniel L.
Evaluation Plan for an Earthworm Rapid Assessment Tool Training Program for Land Managers in Northern Hardwood Forest Types in the Western Great Lakes Region
(2012) Hueffmeier, Ryan M
Invasive species are causing environmental and economic harm all across the globe. Stopping the introduction of non-native species is the most effective way to deal with them. Non-native earthworms are one particular invasive species affecting the Great Lakes region. There is a need for a rapid assessment method to understand current impacts and identifying areas still earthworm-free. Through research in Minnesota and Wisconsin an Invasive Earthworm Rapid Assessment Tool (IERAT) was developed. The IERAT is a tool for the identification of earthworm impacts using visual indicators. Once earthworms are established there is no known effective way to remove them from the landscape and it is proposed that outreach and education are an effective method to prevent new introductions and to slow the spread of earthworms in northern hardwood forests of the Great Lakes region. This project develops the evaluation framework of the IERAT training. Using the framework evaluators will be assessing the tools’ validity, reliability of land mangers to use the tool, ability of trainers to conduct workshops, best dissemination techniques, changes in participants’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviors from before and after the training, and effects on management decisions. The evaluation plan will be carried out during the second year of training season. The results of the evaluation will be used to make appropriate adjustments to the IERAT and trainings. With earthworm distribution data that the IERAT provides, land managers will be able to develop important areas of protection and work with other interested parties to protect these areas for future generations.
The Forgotten El Salvador: A Study of the Emergence and Downfall of the “Bright Spot” of Central America, 1948-1978
(2021-05) Quijada, Pedro
In this study I examine the history of El Salvador during the years 1948 to 1978. Current narratives regard this period as part of a sequence of oppression and underdevelopment under military rule that existed in this nation since the early decades of the twentieth century and that eventually led the people to erupt in civil war in the 1980s. In this study I re-examine the above period and consequentially offer an alternative narrative.I demonstrate that, during the years in question, the government embarked on a series of national reconfiguration projects that brought significant industrial and economic development, political stability, and improvements in social programs. The impact of these projects is demonstrated by a body of accounts written by journalists and other researchers who, at the time, praised the ongoing projects and referred to El Salvador as a progressive nation and, as quoted in the title, as a “bright spot” in the Central American isthmus. This study is mainly based on print primary sources. It is also supplemented by other sources such as contemporary memoirs, economic statistics, oral histories, music and films. The findings made through oral history interviews, it should be noted, were what led me to the print sources that now form the basis of the study. This work reinterprets previous analyses that have asserted an inaccurate view El Salvador’s entire twentieth-century history. It shows 1948-1978 as a period with socio-economic features distinct from previous and posterior years.
Iron Range Fiscal Disparities Study
(2014) Minnesota Department of Revenue
This document examines disparities in the property tax base in counties and townships across Minnesota’s Iron Range communities, including coastal regions in the Sea Grant study area. There is no mention of water resources in this document, with the exception of cabins. Key points are reproduced below. “The concept of sharing commercial, industrial, and utility property tax base among the jurisdictions of a region is called “fiscal disparities.” This study examines the fiscal disparities in the Iron Range in northern Minnesota. The Iron Range Fiscal Disparities (IFRD) program, established in 1996, was set up to share commercial-industrial tax-base in the region known as the ‘taconite assistance area.’ Taconite assistance area tax base and Fiscal Disparities program have grown since 2001. Since 2001 the taconite assistance area has experienced tax base growth at twice the rate of the state as a whole (80% and 42% respectively). At the same time the area’s population has been unchanged while the state’s population has grown by 8%. Strong growth in commercial, industrial and utility values have caused the Iron Range Fiscal Disparities tax base sharing pool to grow by almost 600% since 2001. The amount of the area’s total tax base in the fiscal disparities pool is 3.7%, up from 1% in 2001.”
Northeast Minnesota Industry Cluster Study
(2001) Munnich, Lee W; Chatfield, Nathan; Schrock, Greg; Lichty, Richard W; McIntosh, Chris; Wittrock, Tiana
This major study explored factors contributing to the economic competitiveness of northeastern Minnesota communities and counties. It has a strong focus on economic and industrial development. The study focuses on four “clusters”: forest products, tourism, health services and information technology. The first two clusters are assumed to require an adequate supply of water, and are assumed to greatly influence the quality and quantity of water available for multiple uses. Summary: "This regional study sought to understand the issues shaping the competitiveness of Northeast Minnesota’s industry clusters. The study follows the Michael Porter 'industry cluster' approach to understanding competitiveness. The project identified four clusters for the region: 1) forest products, 2) tourism, 3) health services, and 4) information technology. Focus groups and individual interviews with local business leaders and economic development professionals offered insight into the industries. The study region encompassed a twelve-county area of northeastern Minnesota that centered on the city of Duluth (St. Louis County). Also included are Aitkin, Carlton, Chisago, Cook, Isanti, Itasca, Kanabec, Koochiching, Lake, Mille Lacs, and Pine Counties.”
The Political Psychology Of Immigration Attitudes: A Compound Threat Sensitivity Framework
(2020-05) Weiner, Elliot
Immigration attitudes are shaped by complex interactions between contextual factors and individual differences. Whereas prior work has generally considered these interactions in isolation, I contend that we can gain a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of immigration attitudes by assessing individual differences in sensitivity to simultaneous contextual changes. I develop a compound threat sensitivity framework, which proposes that the influence of population change on immigration attitudes is dependent on concurrent changes in economic wellbeing and crime, as well as individual differences associated with preferences for security/order over social freedom (e.g., authoritarianism; see Altemeyer, 1981; Stenner, 2005), and those associated with preferences for power/dominance over egalitarianism (e.g., social dominance orientation; see Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle, 1994). Correspondingly, the influence of economic conditions and crime on immigration attitudes depends on concurrent changes in the rate of immigration, as well as these individual differences. I tested these ideas in two studies. Study 1 assessed the contingent influence of objective country-level contextual factors, using data from the European Social Survey. Study 2 tested these ideas experimentally by manipulating information about concurrent changes in society. The results provide support for a compound threat sensitivity framework. These findings expand upon and qualify both the Dual Process Model of Prejudice (DPM; Duckitt & Sibley, 2009) and research on the influence of demographic change on political attitudes (e.g., Craig & Richeson, 2014). In addition to enhancing our theoretical understanding of “person X context” interactions in the domain of immigration, this work also has practical implications regarding messages that are likely to influence support for immigration.
Ronald Reagan and the resurgence of the puritan covenantal tradition: the “City on a Hill” and a reorientation of the people of the United States into an “Economy of Grace”
(2012-07) Kunde, Margaret H.
When the Puritans first settled in New England on the "city on a hill," they used covenantal thought as a framework by which to understand their social, economic, political, and spiritual obligations and relationships. This project explores how President Ronald Reagan also rhetorically managed covenantal ideas, or used covenantal form, during the 1980s to morally legitimate his economic policies of limited government, lower taxes, and reductions in welfare spending. I argue that he grounded his policies in an "economy of grace," which gave the people of the United States the freedom to fulfill their covenantal obligations in a self-serving manner and the faith that God would ultimately protect them from economic disaster.
Transportation and Economic Development
(1988-07) Stephanedes, Yorgos J.
This report summarizes the results of a project undertaken by a University of Minnesota team for the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Minnesota DOT) to determine the existence and extent of relationships between transportation and economic development (in particular, employment) in Minnesota. The interdisciplinary team was directed by the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering and included experts from Civil & Mineral Engineering, Geography, Economics (both Twin Cities and Duluth campuses), Applied & Agricultural Economics, Industrial Engineering & Operations Research, and Regional Economics.
Transportation and the Economy: Part 1. Alternative U.S. Futures for Transportation Policy and Planning
(1992-06) Maki, Wilbur
The primary task of this report series is to provide conceptual and analytical frameworks and data for (1) assessing the productivity of resource use in the transportation sector and (2) facilitating transportation system adjustments to local and regional economic change. The report series provides a regional data base showing likely changes in the volume and variety of commodity and passenger traffic within a given region and between the region and the rest of the State and the rest of world. The regional data also show present and prospective transportation expenditures for transportation services and facilities. This report starts with the most widely accepted US statistical series representing alternative global and national futures that critically influence local and regional economies. It provides an overall frame of reference and supporting data for the use current transportation origin-destination models to demonstrate the implications of state and regional shifts in population and economic activity for transportation systems planning. It helps build an ongoing capability for monitoring changes in state and regional economies and introducing these changes in shaping and evaluating of transportation development priorities.

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