Social and Urban Policy

Vision Mumbai

Publication Date: July 01, 2008

In 2006, officials of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the State of Maharashtra were beginning to implement a plan to improve the economic fortunes of the city. Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, was India's richest city, with...

Parking in San Francisco

Publication Date: August 31, 2007

In 2006 planners in the City and County of San Francisco were promoting an overhaul of the city's parking policy that they claimed would correct unfair and unwise subsidies for automobile users.  The effort was designed to allow market...

Plans versus Politics: New Orleans after Katrina (Sequel)

Publication Date: May 31, 2007

This sequel accompanies the main case (1862.0). On Tuesday, August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans, causing inadequate levees to collapse and flood the city in what came to be widely seen as a man-made disaster. The Federal...

Plans versus Politics: New Orleans after Katrina

Publication Date: May 31, 2007

On Tuesday, August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans, causing inadequate levees to collapse and flood the city in what came to be widely seen as a man-made disaster. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) calculated that...

Scale without Growth: INFONAVIT's Expansion in the Mexican Mortgage Market

Publication Date: April 24, 2007

According to a World Bank report written in 2001, "in a modern, globally integrated Mexican economy, it is hard to argue for the continued existence of an institution such as INFONAVIT." The report went on to argue that the first-best option was...

City Renovation: New Images for Athens

Publication Date: January 27, 2006

In preparation for hosting the 2004 Olympics, the city of Athens, Greece embarked on an extensive renovation project, New Images for Athens, to beautify the city. In total, over 1,600 buildings received attention at a cost of over 4.5 million...

Parks and Partnership in New York City: The Spectrum of Engagement (B)

Publication Date: October 01, 2004

In a gradual but profound transition, New York's park system had become dependent on private partners. The private sector's involvement was pervasive by 2003, but came in very different forms. This case, a companion to Adrian Benepe's Challenge,...

Liconsa and the Program of Social Assistance for Milk

Publication Date: September 15, 2004

In 2003, officials in Mexico's Ministry of Social Development were debating whether to eliminate a long-standing program that provided subsidized milk to poor families. In its place, they would expand a new program that gave poor families...

Parks and Partnership in New York City: Adrian Benepe's Challenge (A)

Publication Date: June 01, 2004

New York's public parks, brought to their magnificent peak by the legendary Parks Commissioner Robert Moses in the mid-20th-century heyday of direct government activism, were in disarray in a new era of public-sector austerity. As the City's...

Corporate Values and Transformation (Sequel)

Publication Date: June 01, 2004

This case focuses on one of the largest and most successful of such microlenders, Mexico's Compartamos ("we share") organization, and raises questions about the most effective business model and scale of microlenders. Specifically, the case...

Corporate Values and Transformation: The Microlender Compartamos

Publication Date: June 01, 2004

Microlending, defined as very small loans advanced to very low-income entrepreneurs, has attracted wide attention as a potentially effective means to aid the economic development of impoverished nations. This case focuses on one of the largest...

Portland's Urban Growth Boundary and Housing Prices: Note on Measuring Housing Prices (B)

Publication Date: August 06, 2003

In December of 2002, the Metro Council of Portland, Oregon had to decide whether or not to expand the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) for the metropolitan area. The UGB had been created as a tool to help promote a more compact, livable, and...