Department of Real Estate & Construction

RECO6016 Assessment Tasks (2022-2023)

Urban and Land Economics (6016) – assessment tasks

The Doctrine of Coursework Design

• One Course (urban and land economics), Two Horizons (macroeconomic and
microeconomic), Three Capabilities (critical thinking, teamwork spirit, and
problem-solving capability).
• Assessment Objectives: Two individual assignments (two paper reviews follow
by one open question for two weeks) (the first concerns urban economic growth; the
second concerns land value and property market); One groupwork assignment (Form a
research team to make investment strategy on behalf of corporate interests).
• Individual and group assignments are connected.

Task 2: Individual Assignment (30%)

• Students will be assigned an academic paper to review. This paper concerns the
determinants of land value and property price. It can be downloaded from Moodle
or HKU Library.
• The paper review is designed to test students’ capability to interlink learned theories
and realistic situation. Thus, this paper is an empirical study which uses realistic data
to investigate the sources of land value and discover the determinants of land price at
intra-metropolitan scale.
• Two major criteria are used to assess students’ understanding of learned theories in
paper review: 1) the depth of theoretical understanding and 2) critical thinking for
research design and other limitations.
• The template table for paper review will be provided with clear structure and
questions to address. Read the paper while bearing questions in mind.
• An open question in relation to Hong Kong’s land and property market is followed
by the summary table of paper review in order to improve students’ capability of
applying learned knowledge in practice. Students need to make arguments based on the
knowledge learned from lectures and reviewed article. Relevant evidence and data
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 Department of Real Estate & Construction
RECO6016 Assessment Tasks (2022-2023)

are required to justify your arguments. The evidence could be either from collecting
data from the database of government, companies, and other institutions, or from
referring to others’ findings with robust findings with citations.
• Students are expected to learn how an empirical study is designed and organised and
how the regression model is specified to address research question from reviewing the
paper. This will help you to design final groupwork project which aims at evaluating
the economic performance of cities and target valuable assets on behalf of your
company.
• Students are required to accomplish this paper review assignment within two weeks.
Thus, the deadline to submit paper review via Moodle will be on 17th March 2023.
• Format guidance: 1.5 line space and Times New Roman 12 Font Size.
• Word limit: maximum 1000 words (around 700 words for paper review table and 300
words for the open question).

Other Notes:

• Late submission will be penalized.

• If a student is found to copy another student’s work, both students will be penalized.
• When you borrow others’ words, ideas, data, etc., remember to acknowledge them by
proper citation; otherwise, not only will a failure grade be given but also a plagiarism
complaint will be filed to the University.
• Do not take other people's arguments for granted and as facts. Be critical.

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 Department of Real Estate & Construction
RECO6016 Assessment Tasks (2022-2023)

Title, author, and journal Land use regulations and the value of land and
information housing: An intra-metropolitan analysis.

Nils Kok, Paavo Monkkonen, John M. Quigley

Journal of Urban Economics

Key findings from abstract

What are major theories and relevant

literature for this study?

(Hint: it is relevant to our lectures that

elaborate on the sources of land value
and property price.)

What are main research questions

and hypotheses?

(Hint: under research question, what

are authors’ expectation on the sign of
explanatory variables such as
topographical features, land regulation,
and job accessibility; what are the
reasons behind expected signs?)

What are main research methods and

how is its methodological design
justified?

(Hint: why is there endogeneity

relationship between regulation and
land price? What are available methods
to solve the endogeneity issue? Why do

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RECO6016 Assessment Tasks (2022-2023)

authors choose one method rather than

other solutions?)

Data source and validity of data

quality

Principal conclusions

Policy Implications

Weaknesses and constructive

suggestions

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 Department of Real Estate & Construction
RECO6016 Assessment Tasks (2022-2023)

Open question:
In recent years, there is a heated discussion surrounding the possibility of developing the land
at the boundary between country parks and urban areas in order to address Hong Kong’s short
land supply issue. However, the land in country parks is strictly protected by the law and land
development is highly regulated in Hong Kong. What do you think of the relationship between
Hong Kong’s property price and natural reservation laws? Do you support the proposal of
developing country park land? Why or why not?
(Hint: property price is composed of several parts; in text, Glaeser and Ward (2009)
highlighted “the ultimate impact of supply restrictions on land prices in cities within a
metropolitan area depends on how close cities are to being substitutes”.)