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on Economic Geography |
| By: | Lining He (Department of Economics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY 12180-3590, USA); Faye Duchin (Department of Economics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY 12180-3590, USA) |
| Abstract: | Significant economic disparities among China's Eastern, Central, and Western regions pose unequivocal challenges to social equality and political stability in the country. A major impediment to economic development, especially in the poor, remote Western region, is the shortage of transportation infrastructure. The Chinese government has committed to substantial investment for improving the accessibility of this vast, land-locked region as a mechanism for promoting its development. The paper examines the impacts of the intended transportation infrastructure buildup on the Western region's comparative advantage and its interregional trade. The World Trade Model is extended to represent this investment and applied to determine interregional trade in China based on region-specific technologies, factor endowments and prices, and consumption patterns as well as the capacities and costs of carrying goods among regions using the interregional transportation infrastructure in place in the base year of 1997 and that planned for 2010 and 2020. The model is implemented for 3 regions, 27 sectors, and 7 factors. The results indicate that the planned infrastructure buildup will be cost-effective, will increase benefits especially for the Western region, and that it can conserve energy overall at given levels of demand but substitute oil for coal. Based on these and other model results, some recommendations are offered about strategies for regional development in China. |
| JEL: | L98 O53 C61 C67 O18 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rpi:rpiwpe:0705&r=geo |
| By: | Cristina Guimarães Rodrigues (Cedeplar-UFMG); Rodrigo Ferreira Simões (Cedeplar-UFMG); Pedro Vasconcelos Amaral (Cedeplar-UFMG) |
| Abstract: | The goal of this paper is to analyze the spatial localization of health services supply at Brazilian north region. At Amazon region, where distances among localities are huge and the transport system has deficiencies, the supply of health infra-structure and human resources are crucial issues to identify the planning possibilities in order to improve the access to those services. We used municipal data on equipments, physical installations and human resources from Pesquisa de Assistência Médico-Sanitária 2002 (AMS). The urban network identification was held due to multivariate analysis, specifically cluster analysis. The clusters spatial association was tested by Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA). The results point to an unevenly distributed urban network of health services, concentrated on region's most important cities as Manaus and Belém. We could also realize the existence of big areas of absolute deficiencies in all kind of infrastructure - even those of primary attention - and an unfilled urban system, lacking central places of intermediate hierarchy. |
| Keywords: | health services supply; Brazil |
| JEL: | R53 I11 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td308&r=geo |
| By: | Andrés J. Marchante (Universidad de Málaga); Bienvenido Ortega (Universidad de Málaga) |
| Abstract: | El crecimiento de la tasa de ocupación ha sido la única fuente de crecimiento económico en Andalucía en los últimos años. Además, si en el periodo 1987-1994 la diferencia entre las tasas de crecimiento medias anuales de la productividad del trabajo en Andalucía y España fue de 0,48 puntos porcentuales, dicha diferencia se ha ampliado a 0,77 puntos en el periodo 1995-2000, registrándose en el caso de Andalucía una tasa de crecimiento real negativa. En este contexto el objetivo de este trabajo es analizar los posibles determinantes de este comportamiento diferencial. La evidencia obtenida muestra que el origen de este débil resultado puede encontrarse, además de en la insuficiente inversión en capital tecnológico y en las características de la especialización productiva regional, en el proceso de sustitución de trabajadores fijos por temporales. El análisis conjunto de los resultados ha permitido finalmente indicar posibles orientaciones futuras de política que contribuyan a sostener el crecimiento económico regional. |
| Keywords: | Productividad regional, políticas regionales, regional productivity, regional policies. |
| JEL: | O47 R11 R23 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cea:doctra:e2007_09&r=geo |
| By: | Rodrigo Ferreira Simões (Cedeplar-UFMG) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the Spanish experience on regional planning during the XXth century. It starts with a brief exposition about the Spanish regional imbalances and its institutional framework. After this the paper presents historically the Spanish experience on regional policy and planning, since the period of Franco Government until the entrance on European Union. It concludes speculating about the effects of European Cohesion Policy and Europe-21 in Spanish territory. |
| Keywords: | Spain; regional planning |
| JEL: | R58 N34 N94 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td307&r=geo |
| By: | Marie-Hélène Massot (LVMT - Laboratoire Ville, Mobilité, Transports - [INRETS] - [Université de Marne la Vallée] - [Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées]); Jimmy Armoogun (DEST - Département Economie et Sociologie des Transports - [INRETS]); Patrick Bonnel (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]); David Caubel (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]) |
| Abstract: | The aim of the present study is to evaluate the possible extent of modal shifts from car use to 'alternative modes' (public transport, cycling, walking) without any change in individual patterns of activity. Its approach is based on a transfer procedure that allows the simulation of the maximal potential market for transport modes other than the private car. The method is based on repeated iterations of a simulation model that assigns journeys to transport modes other than the automobile based on a number of improved public transport scenarios. Demand is channelled towards individual modes (walking, cycling), public transport, and a combination of individual and public modes, based on their relative time and distance performance. The modal transfer procedure is applied to several transport supply scenarios, which provide a picture of what is possible in the sphere of modal split. Each simulation entails a potential transfer of private vehicle-km to each of the other modes. Even where different public transport scenarios are simulated, the transfer is evaluated for round trips in both the Paris and Lyon surveys. There is therefore no modification in the activity pattern of the people surveyed nor trips induced by improvements in transport supply. The aim is not to predict what would be the modal split in other circumstances, but the upper limit of the shifts. This paper presents our methodology and the principal results obtained through numerical simulations based on figures for the Paris and Lyon conurbations. This approach demonstrates that a policy focused on modal shifts has the potential to reduce car use, but that this potential is limited. Any aspiration to reduce car use further would mean changes in the patterns and location of activity. |
| Keywords: | Urban transport ; Modal split ; modal split simulation method ; Transportation policy ; Car use reduction ; Public transport ; Individual daily mobility ; modal transfer ; Paris (France) ; Lyon (France) |
| Date: | 2007–05–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00102996_v1&r=geo |