Core faculty: Professors Paige Clayton and Brian An (Public Policy).
Economic development planning seeks to build a stable economic base that preserves and raises a community or region’s standard of living through sustainably developing its human and physical infrastructure. Economic development planners address issues such as the following:
- How do we create resilient economies that can successfully adjust to restructuring and recover from economic or natural disasters?
- How can we improve the quantity and quality of jobs in a community?
- How can we ensure there are community economic benefits from proposed large scale projects such as a proposed convention facility?
- What can we do to revitalize an area suffering from commercial or industrial decline? From the presence of brownfields?
- How can we promote entrepreneurship and harness science, technology, and innovation to promote regional economic prosperity?
- How can we use the tools of economic development to address inequalities between places and demographic groups?
While the broad fields of economic development overall is concerned with the promotion of jobs, businesses, land and infrastructure for community and regional growth, its practice from a planning and public policy perspective also incorporates issues of equity, access, distribution, and quality of life for individuals, communities, regions, and nations. The context for economic development changes continuously with shifts in economic structures, rapid technological development, increased globalization, climate change, and ongoing debate about the role and effectiveness of planning and public policy in tackling development issues.
The City of Atlanta, surrounding metro region, and state of Georgia are quintessential laboratories for students interested in the economic development planning. Further, Georgia Tech plays a major role in the state’s technology-based economic development as well as a larger role in developing many of the innovations that fundamentally reshape the global economy. The Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute (EDI) is a major center for economic development assistance and research (where students frequently find graduate assistantships). There are numerous community and regional groups focused on economic development issues. The many SCaRP graduates are practicing economic development planning in the metro area are a major resource for the concentration.
Student interns and graduates with economic development concentrations find jobs in local, state and federal government, with non-governmental organizations (development authorities, community development organizations, business/community improvement district staff…), and with the private sector (large and small consulting firms, real estate developers…). The demand for economic development planners and policy analysts is present in strong and weak economic periods.
The economic development specialization gives students the opportunity to study the conceptual foundations of the field, learn key analytical techniques, and apply this knowledge to practical economic development issues in local, regional, national, and international contexts. Students learn how industrial restructuring and technological advances frame the possibilities for economic development, and how economic development is dependent upon conditions of land use, infrastructure, housing, and the environment.
The required course in the Economic Development specialization is:
CP 6412 Foundations of Local Economic Development Planning and Policy
Students must also take three additional courses (minimum of 12 credit hours total) in their particular interest area in economic development from the School of City and Regional Planning, the School of Public Policy, other Georgia Tech units, or at Georgia State University. Available courses include:
- CP 6630 Government and Housing Markets (annual)
- CP 6612 Community Development (annual)
- CP 6233 Sustainable Urban Development (annual)
- CP 6640 Applied Real Estate Methods (annual)
- CP 6570 Socioeconomic GIS (elective; do our best to offer annually)
- CP 6611 Real Estate Finance and Development (annual)
- BC 6270 Community Design and Development
- PUBP 6415 Technology, Regions, and Policy
- ECON 6360 Development Economics
- MGT 6119 Leading Teams in Organizations
- MGT 6165 Venture Creation
- MGT 6450 Project Management
- GSU ECON8600 Economics of Development (international course)
Other related courses of interest to those studying economic development include those in community development, labor economics, urban economics, public finance, real estate, science and technology policy, housing, and international development. Students can customize the electives they take in the economic development field, and also combine their interests in economic development with other concentrations.
