write a policy brief to introduce a major policy initiative known as Transform Milwaukee

write a policy brief to introduce a major policy initiative known as Transform Milwaukee

 
Order Description
Suggested length: about 6-7 double spaced typewritten pages, plus a 1 page executive summary.

The Assignment

You have just been appointed Consulting Economist to the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. WHEDA is undertaking a major policy initiative known as Transform Milwaukee.

Your first task in your new job is to do what all good bureaucrats do: write a memo. Specifically, you’ll write a longer memo that we call a policy brief. Address it to WHEDA Executive Director Wyman Winston, cc’ing Mayor Barrett and Governor Walker.

In this memo, Executive Director Winston has asked you provide your initial thoughts on the project. More specifically, he (and the Mayor and the Governor) would like your views on (1) which element currently planned by WHEDA is likely to be most effective, and why; (2) which element is likely to be least effective, and why; and (3) which element you’d flag as important to the economic transformation of Milwaukee, but missing in the plans as laid out so far.

They also request any advice you have on specifics or details of these key elements, e.g. any advice on how best to implement an element, or other relevant details (where the devil resides’).

Prepare by reviewing WHEDA’s current plans, as detailed on the website, and by reviewing several independent sources of ideas for revitalizing cities (which can include, but are not limited to, papers by Bartik, by Malpezzi, and others, at Section 17 of the course website).

This note lays out the basic idea of the assignment, but from time to time I’ll provide additional instructions and/or hints. Speaking of hints, here are a few to start.

Hints on Writing a Good Policy Brief

Remember that this is a memo, albeit a long one; not a research paper.

Since you are writing in memo form, not in scholarly format, you may refer to any sources or references in passing (e.g., "as Smith argues" or "a paper by Jones showed that€¦") then simply list any sources or references you used at the end of your memo. Just be sure to cite them fully (including URLs where relevant).

A good memo will have some analytics behind it, although you might handle some of this by reference. Readings on agglomeration, urban form, local economic development, land use regulation, transportation, etc. may be useful; feel free to read ahead of the syllabus.

Again, since you are writing in memo form, if you want to present a graphical representation of a model or the like, a common device is to present the model in an appendix (I would suggest a page at most), then refer to the key result in the body of the memo ("as the model of urban this-and-that appended to this memo shows, €¦."). You may present any model you use in the body of the memo if you like; the use of an appendix is an option, not a requirement. For that matter, the presentation of a formal model is optional (though there will surely be some kind of model behind some of your advice €“ explain verbally, at least).

You may find useful background and ideas in sources like the quality press (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, etc.) But you should also refer to some more substantive, perhaps even scholarly literature. Examples of such articles will be provided at the course website, and you are free to use others as you wish.

Your grade for this essay has nothing to do with taking a particular position on the elements, and everything to do with writing a good, well-argued and supported memo.