UEN621S - URBAN ECONOMICS - 2ND OPP - JAN 2024


UEN621S - URBAN ECONOMICS - 2ND OPP - JAN 2024



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nAm I BIA un IVERSITY
OF SCIEnCE Ano TECHnOLOGY
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND SPATIAL SCIENCES
QUALIFICATION(S): BACHELOR OF PROPERTY STUDIES
DIPLOMA IN PROPERTY STUDIES
QUALIFICATION(S) CODE: 08BPRS
06DPRS
NQF LEVEL: 6
COURSE CODE: UEN621S
COURSE NAME: URBAN ECONOMICS
EXAMS SESSION: JANUARY 2024
PAPER:
THEORY
DURATION:
3 HOURS
MARKS:
100
SECOND OPPORTUNITY/SUPPLEMENTARY EXAMINATION QUESTION PAPER
EXAMINER(S) MR SAMUEL ATO K. HAYFORD
MODERATOR: MRS ELINA TEODOL
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Read the entire question paper before answering the Questions.
2. Please write clearly and legibly!
3. The question paper contains a total of 5 questions.
4. You must answer ALL QUESTIONS.
5. Make sure your Student Number is on the EXAMINATION BOOK(S}.
PERMISSIBLE MATERIALS
Usage of non-programmable Scientific Calculator is permitted.
THIS QUESTION PAPER CONSISTS OF 6 PAGES (Including this front page}

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Urban Economics
Question 1
UEN621S
For each of the following statements indicate whether it is 'TRUE' or 'FALSE'. Each correct answer
carries 1 mark.
(20}
a) Open spaces especially cemeteries are usually created and maintained for profit making
purpose.
b) An urban area may be defined exclusively by using demographic and economic criteria.
c) Immobility or limited mobility and heterogeneity of land parcels especially as affected by
location are primarily responsible for the imperfect nature of the land market.
d) A fall in basic employment will result in the decline in non-basic employment and this will
correspondingly indicate a decline of an urban area.
e) The growth of the non-basic sector, also known as the Service sector, is independent of the
basic sector, and it primarily produces goods and services for export rather than domestic
consumption.
f) Basic sector industries refer to those industries in the urban economy which produce goods
and services for external demand, bring income to the urban economy and thus create
employment in the non-basic sector and by so doing stimulate urban growth.
g) According to the central place model the extent of market for activities located within an
urban area is determined by the processing and transportation costs in that area relative to
the cost of production in, plus the cost of transport from, other urban areas to the potential
consumers.
h} The Green belt has the aim of maintaining a town's identity by preventing neighbouring
towns from merging.
Second Opportunity/Supplementary Question Paper Page 2 of 6
January 2024

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Urban Economics
UEN621S
i) Green belt policy has the aim of preventing the loss of agricultural land by wasteful urban
spread.
j) Under the economic base theory of urban growth, non-basic activities involve industries
producing goods and services for consumption by the inhabitants of the urban areas only.
k) According to Button (1976), "an urban area refers to spatial concentration of people and
economic activities within a segregated network of economic markets situated in a limited
spatial area".
I) The rapid population increase in Windhoek the capital of Namibia necessarily indicates over-
urbanisation.
m) Though population growth, economic growth or both influence the physical growth of a
town/city, economic growth can conveniently be considered as the dominant factor
responsible for physical urban growth.
n) Shortage of space restricts urban growth because lateral as well as vertical growths are
impossible in the short term.
o) Town planning regulations especially green belt policy encourage vertical growth of urban
area and protect agricultural lands from new developments by law.
p} According to von ThOnen's Least-cost location theory as applied to agricultural land use,
transportation costs are so important that they have significant effects on (land} rent paying
ability and the quantity of products can be sold profitably.
q) Given any location, different competing land uses have the same rent paying abilities
r) The principal weakness of the Keynesian approach to urban growth is the lack of statistical
data available at a local level.
Second Opportunity/Supplementary Question Paper Page 3 of 6
January 2024

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Urban Economics
UEN621S
s) According to the economic base theory of urban growth, non-basic activities are seen as the
dominant cause of urban growth.
t) In the short-term housing supply is inelastic (completely fixed). It cannot be increased fast
because of higher costs of construction, high costs of land and shortage of building materials.
[20]
Question 2
a) List the four (4) economic forces that are likely to reinforce the original impetus for the
emergence of a town or city.
(4)
b) 'Neither the demand based nor the supply-based models of urban growth provide a
satisfactory explanation of urban growth, but rather the union of the two types of urban
growth models'. Briefly elaborate on this statement.
(14)
c) Mention any three (3) sources of leakages and four (4) sources of injection that affect the
growth of an urban area according to the Keynesian approach to urban growth.
(7)
d) Suppose an 'injection' generates money inflow amounting to N$60,000,000.00 (sixty million
Namibian dollars) to be spent in Oshakati city.
i) Determine the next two net incomes generated in the urban economy if you assume 8%
and 15% respectively for any two items of leakages mentioned in question c) i).
(2)
ii) What is the total income generated if the successive rounds of incomes are added up.
(1)
e) Given that the Marginal propensity to consume internally/locally produced goods in the
Oshakati economy is 75%, what will be the multiplier (extent of growth of Oshakati)? (2)
[30]
Second Opportunity/Supplementary Question Paper Page4 of 6
January 2024

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Urban Economics
Question 3
a} What is meant by Urban Poverty?
b} Enumerate any six (6) indicators of urban poverty.
c} Outline any three (3) peculiarities exhibited by Housing as a commodity?
UEN621S
(1}
(3)
(3)
d) "Advantages of centralised urbanisation (primate cities) far outweigh the diseconomies
associated with it and for that reason should not be controlled". Discuss.
(14)
[21)
Question 4
a) List the two (2) factors or conditions that contributed to the high rates of male and infant
mortality in 19th-century urban settings.
(3)
b) Briefly explain any four (4) characteristics of 19th century urbanization.
(4)
c) "The decision to locate any activity on any location is influenced by the profitability or utility
(satisfaction) occurring from the use of that site". List four (4) factors that influence retail
stores or shopping land use location decisions.
(4)
d) Define 'Rent Control'
(2}
e) Mention any five (5) effects of Rent Control policy where it is effectively implemented. (5)
f) Give two (2) reasons for urban primacy in developing countries.
(3)
[21)
Second Opportunity/Supplementary Question Paper Page 5 of 6
January 2024

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Urban Economics
Question 5
a) State the difference between the following terms;
i) Betterment and Worsenment.
ii) Public Goods and Merit Goods
UEN621S
(2)
(2)
b) Briefly describe any (2) circumstances (in each case) under which Betterment OR
Worsenment may arise.
(4)
[8)
Second Opportunity/Supplementary Question Paper Page 6 of 6
January 2024