Financing economic development

Lectures: Two sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Recitations: 1 meeting / week, 1 hour / meeting

There are no prerequisites for this course.

This course focuses on the tools and programs available to economic development practicioners to address capital needs for businesses and economic development projects. The course content is divided into four sections:

The course concludes by revisiting development finance systems and how the different tools, policies, and models work together and are related to other components of the development ecosystem. Throughout the semester, we will use Detroit as a case example on how different tools, policies, and institutional models are used, and how they function both in supporting individual projects and enterprise, and in combination as a development finance system that advances Detroit's community and economic development. We will also look at examples of how development finance tools and policies are being applied to address sustainable development goals, particularly around energy efficiency and renewable energy development.

The objective of this course is to provide students with a comprehensive overview of economic development finance practices in the United States and develop a knowledge base and skills to either be a development finance practicioner or apply economic development finance approaches to other fields of planning and community development. Students can expect to gain the following knowledge and skills from the course:

Grading will be based on each student's demonstration of their knowledge of the course material and capacity to apply this knowledge to projects, programs, and development finance needs. All course work will be considered in determining grades, with class participation in case study and other discussions accounting for 1/3 of your grade; the five written case study assignments for 1/3; and the term project for the final 1/3.

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