I study urban economic development, workforce development and local labor markets
with the goal of informing public policy that supports employment opportunities, human
capital development and job mobility for people across the educational attainment
spectrum. I have written on the planning dilemmas inherent in decision-making on
industrial land use, on the history and politics of community development, on the role of
labor unions in the development of workforce skills and on the use of job linkage
programs in the context of real estate-led urban economic development. Planning
departments, economic development agencies, redevelopment authorities, labor unions and
community-based development organizations all help shape metropolitan economies and urban
neighborhoods. I study the complex, often contentious relationships among these
institutions and their relationship to the private economy,linking their behavior and
performance to social and economic outcomes. 

I teach Urban Economics in the core curriculum for the Masters in City Planning at UPenn
as well as several courses in the Community and Economic Development curriculum
concentration. 

Economic Development Policy and Politics

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Community Benefits Agreements in a Value Capture Context, Value Capture and Land Policies (2012)
 

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Urban industrial land and land policy: national context, American Planning Association Annual Conference (2010)
 

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Community Benefits Agreements and Local Government: A Review of Recent Evidence, Journal of the American Planning Association (2010)

As community benefits agreements (CBAs) become more common in urban redevelopment, they are generating conceptual...

 

Local Labor Markets and Workforce Development

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Human-capital-centred Regionalism in Economic Development: A Case of Analytics Outpacing Institutions?, Urban Studies (2012)

Drawing on the case of the Delaware Valley Innovation Network, a regional consortium funded under...

 

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Human capital-centered regionalism in economic development: The case of Philadelphia’s biosciences sector, Penn Institute for Urban Research White Paper Series on Sustainable Urban Development (2011)

The paper, drawing on a case study of a regional "talent development" consortium in the...

 

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Chains and Ladders: Exploring the Opportunities for Workforce Development and Poverty Reduction in the Hospital Sector (with Marla Nelson), Economic Development Quarterly (2010)

In this article, the authors investigate the potential of hospitals to offer low- and semiskilled...

 

planning and community development history

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Expanding Planning’s Public Sphere: STREET Magazine, Activist Planning and Community Development in Brooklyn, NY 1971-75, Journal of Planning Education and Research (2008)

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a paradigm of activist planning or critical city...

 

Urban theory and pedagogy

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Keeping Counterpublics Alive in Planning, Searching for the Just City: Debates In Urban Theory and Practice (2009)