THEORY

 

Write and turn in a draft of conceptual (theory Section). In this homework you will start working on the “conceptual model” part of your airport paper. The idea is to develop an argument that helps explain the change in airport size over time. Things you may want to do: Have a look at the trend graph you obtained in first homework. Are there any major breakdowns? When did they happen? What happened? etc. It may also be elpful to search more about your airport and find out if there is anything unique about the airport or about the place that it’s located. Try to bring what you know about your airport together with the changes in passenger traffic to come up with a conceptual model. You can do a scholar.google.com search for economics articles on firm size, airport size, growth, etc. to get an idea on how to do it.
Most of the factors that explain size and growth of airports can be thought of and presented using simple supply and demand. For example, increases in income are rightward shifts in demand, major construction projects are rightward shifts in supply. In your background review you may have identified other factors that are germane. Try to think of them in economic terms. You in essence are explaining the quantity that results from an underlying economic model.

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