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on Economic Geography |
| By: | Luca D'Acci |
| Abstract: | I propose and briefly define the concept of Urban Isobenefit Lines by using functions as easy as efficient, whose results can offer a rich tool to use into spatial equilibrium analysis involving cities. They are line joining urban points with equal level of positional advantage from city amenities. The results which one obtain by implementing a chosen function, gave specific scenarios: numerically described by indicators and graphically visualized by efficient city matrix views. This is also a theoretical concept for the Urban Economics theory and Spatial Equilibrium analysis in cities. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1210.4461&r=geo |
| By: | Ghani, Ejaz; Kerr, William R.; O'Connell, Stephen D. |
| Abstract: | Despite rapid economic growth, gender disparities in women's economic participation have remained deep and persistent in India. What explains these huge gender disparities? Is it poor infrastructure, limited education, and gender composition of the labor force and industries? Or is it deficiencies in social and business networks and a low share of incumbent female entrepreneurs?This paper analyzes the spatial determinants of female entrepreneurship in India in the manufacturing and services sectors. Good infrastructure and education predict higher female entry shares. There are strong agglomeration economies in both manufacturing and services, where higher female ownership among incumbent businesses within a district-industry predicts a greater share of subsequent entrepreneurs will be female. Moreover, higher female ownership of local businesses in related industries (similar labor needs, input-output markets) predicts greater relative female entry rates. Gender networks thus clearly matter for women's economic participation. However, there is a need to develop a better understanding of how gender networks influence aggregate efficiency. There is no doubt that gender empowerment can be the escalator to realizing human potential and for creating a robust platform for growth and job creation. |
| Keywords: | Banks&Banking Reform,Housing&Human Habitats,Water and Industry,E-Business,Gender and Law |
| Date: | 2012–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6228&r=geo |
| By: | Meng, Bo; Zhang, Yaxiong; Guo, Jiemin; Fang, Yong |
| Abstract: | Attempts to understand China’s role in global value chains have often noted the case of Apple's iPhone production, in particular the fact that the value added during the Chinese portion of the iPhone’s supply chain is no more than 4%. However, when we examine the Chinese economy as a whole in global production networks, China’s share in total induced value added by China’s exports of final products to the USA is about 75% in 2005. This leads us to investigate how Chinese value added is created and distributed not only internationally but also domestically. To elucidate the increasing complexity of China’s domestic production networks, this paper focuses on the measure of Domestic Value Chains (DVCs) across regions and their linkages with global markets. By using China’s 1997 and 2007 interregional input-output tables, we can understand in detail the structural changes in domestic trade in terms of value added, as well as the position and degree of participation of different regions within the DVCs. |
| Keywords: | China, International trade, International competition, Local economy, Trade in value added, Value chain, Vertical specialization, Comparative advantage |
| JEL: | C6 F4 O18 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper359&r=geo |
| By: | Stephen L. Ross (University of Connecticut); Xiaofang Dong (Xiamen University) |
| Abstract: | Lucas and Rossi-Hansberg (2002) and Fujita and Ogawa (1982, 1989) develop urban models in which economic activity self-organizes due to spillovers in production. However, Fujita and Ogawa (1982, 1989) show that rents and employment density are flat or falling as the city center is approached, while in the simulations of Lucas and Rossi-Hansberg (2002) rents rise at an increasing rate towards the center suggesting a concentration of employment near the center. For the Lucas and Rossi-Hansberg model, we prove that land rents and density must be flat or falling near the center. We explain how using a polar coordinate system when approximating a two-dimensional integral can create systematic imprecision in their simulations, and then present revised simulations. The proofs and simulations suggest that in urban models where economic activity self-organizes firms do not unduly cluster at the center of a central business district even in monocentric equilibria. JEL Classification: R13, R14, R30 Key words: non-monocentric cities, rent gradient, employment density, polar coordinate simulations |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2012-34&r=geo |
| By: | Tanaka, Kiyoyasu; Hashiguchi, Yoshihiro |
| Abstract: | Foreign firms have clustered together in the Yangtze River Delta, and their impact on domestic firms is an important policy issue. This paper studies the spatial effect of FDI agglomeration on the regional productivity of domestic firms, using Chinese firm-level data. To identify local FDI spillovers, we estimate the causal impact of foreign firms on domestic firms in the same county and similar industries. We then estimate a spatial-autoregressive model to examine spatial spillovers from FDI clusters to other domestic firms in distant counties. Our results show that FDI agglomeration generates positive spillovers for domestic firms, which are stronger in nearby areas than in distant areas. |
| Keywords: | China, Foreign investments, International business enterprises, Productivity, FDI, Multinational firms, Spillovers |
| JEL: | C21 F21 F23 R12 R58 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper354&r=geo |
| By: | Tripathi, Sabyasachi |
| Abstract: | This paper calculates select urban inequality and poverty indices and finds their policy linkages. In addition, the determinants of urban poverty and inequality are estimated by using data of 52 large cities in India. The main results show that higher city economic growth and large city population agglomeration are associated with reduction in city poverty and increase in inequality between cities. |
| Keywords: | Urban Economic Growth; Inequality; Poverty; Urban India |
| JEL: | A10 I32 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:42022&r=geo |
| By: | Helen Caraveli; Efthymios G. Tsionas |
| Abstract: | In the debate concerning a country’s structural weaknesses there is an obvious neglect of space issues, an important component of which is regional imbalances. Yet, the persistence of such imbalances within countries has dictated the continuous investigation of their causes and of the required policy reforms for their reduction. Structural changes, economic integration on a global or regional scale and economic crises have been considered major factors for increasing or decreasing domestic regional concentration and disparities, while economic policy can mitigate (or strengthen) their effect. This paper attempts to examine and critically evaluate the above issues for the case of Greece, where regional inequalities, measured by per capita GDP, have widened over time consolidating the country’s polarized structure and where restrictive macroeconomic measures as well as regional policy implemented through the Community Support Frameworks appear to have been inadequate in most cases or even to have intensified the above picture. A discussion of future prospects under Greece’s current difficult situation is attempted in the conclusions. |
| Keywords: | regional inequalities in Greece; structural changes; debt crisis; restrictive macroeconomic measures; regional policy. |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hel:greese:61&r=geo |
| By: | Tobias Scholl (University Frankfurt); Thomas Brenner (Department of Geography, Philipps University Marburg); Martin Wendel (University Mainz) |
| Abstract: | We investigate company foundations in the German micro technology industry by means of a spatial-temporal micro-geographic analysis. In order to deal with our unusual detailed data, we develop a new distance-based framework for a logistic regression that is able to present results in a continuous space. Locations of company foundations are investigated with respect to their spatial proximity to similar firms, patent owner, related industries and research institutions and are benchmarked with the overall distribution of company foundations in Germany. We demonstrate that spatial proximity has a clear influence on where new companies are founded. Furthermore, the influence of proximity to different agents is not constant over times but evolves with the industry’s life cycle. |
| Keywords: | Spatial concentration, localization, clusters, MAUP, distance-based measures |
| JEL: | C40 M13 R12 |
| Date: | 2012–10–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pum:wpaper:2012-05&r=geo |
| By: | Li, QC; Tether, BS; Mina, A |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imp:wpaper:9793&r=geo |
| By: | Lukas Schrott; Martin Gächter; Engelbert Theurl |
| Abstract: | Since its implementation in 1990 the human development index (HDI), the flagship indicator of multidimensional development, has attracted a great deal of attention and critics in academic, political and media circles. It initiated a new stage in the discussion of appropriate indicators to measure socioeconomic development. Until now, the vast majority of empirical work using the HDI-concept takes a cross country perspective, mainly on a world wide, but also on world region scales. We add additional insights to the HDI-concept by applying it to regional differences in the socioeconomic development in a highly developed country. Thereby, a modified version of the HDI, called RDI, is applied to recent cross section data at the district level for Austria. There exists considerably heterogeneity across districts in the RDI and its components. Our Theil-decomposition reveals that the overwhelming part of the observed heterogeneity is based on differences within provinces (96 percent), although the differences in life expectancy between the provinces explain a substantial part of the overall heterogeneity in this indicator (54 percent). |
| Keywords: | welfare, prosperity, development, regional, life expectancy, education, income, decomposition, Austria |
| JEL: | O10 O15 O18 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2012-23&r=geo |
| By: | Anastassios Chardas |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this article is to assess to what extent the European Union Regional Policy (EURP) has altered the patterns of participation by the sub-national actors in the implementation of the policy in Greece. It does that through the deployment of the theoretical frameworks of Multi-level Governance (MLG) and the application of the principle of partnership. The principle of partnership has been an integral aspect of the regulatory framework governing the EURP and has remained so after all the reforms of the Structural Funds. The aim of the principle is to promote bottom-up democratic participation in the areas where the EURP programmes are implemented hence provide opportunities for more active involvement on behalf of the sub-national authorities. In this way centralised patterns of policy making can be challenged towards the direction of participation closer to those envisaged by MLG. These processes however are mediated through domestic policy practices which in the case of Greece have been highly centralised and have remained so despite the EURP intervention. The evidence presented about the third programming period indicates that there has hardly been any turn towards MLG whilst the principle of partnership was only applied in a superficial way. An early assessment regarding these patterns about the current programming period indicates similar processes in action. These issues are particularly pertinent in light of the ‘Kalikratis’ plan that has followed the ‘Kapodistrias’ plan in modernising the sub-national authorities as well as the fiscal crisis that has engulfed Greece since 2009. It remains to be seen whether the combination of these forces can lead to anything other than the rescaling of governance in the direction of less spending and diminished capacities for the sub-national authorities or the substantive reorganisation of the regional and local authorities hence their improvement in terms of participation in the EURP programmes. The conclusion is that for this to happen, there is a need for the domestic reforms that relate with the decentralisation of administrative and fiscal competences to be strengthened and properly implemented so as to countenance the negative impact of the austerity measures imposed after the fiscal crisis of 2009. |
| Keywords: | Multi-level Governance; Partnership principle; EU Regional Policy; ‘Kalikratis’; sub-national authorities. |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hel:greese:56&r=geo |
| By: | Pierre-Philippe Combes (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS); Bruno Decreuse (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS); Benoît Schmutz (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS and Georgetown University); Alain Trannoy (Aix-Marseille University (Aix-Marseille School of Economics), CNRS & EHESS) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a method to single out customer-based discrimination in the housing market. We build a matching model with ethnic externalities where landlords differ in the number of housing units they own within the same building. Multiple-dwelling landlords discriminate more often than single-dwelling landlords only if some tenants are prejudiced against the minority group. By testing the null hypothesis whereby minority tenants are equally likely to have a multiple-dwelling landlord, we can test whether there is customer discrimination or not. We run the test on French data and show evidence of customer discrimination in the rental market. |
| Keywords: | Customer Discrimination, Matching frictions, Neighborhood Externalities, Housing Market. |
| JEL: | R21 J71 |
| Date: | 2012–09–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:1224&r=geo |
| By: | Gobillon, Laurent (INED, France); Milcent, Carine (Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Using a French exhaustive dataset, this paper studies the determinants of regional disparities in mortality for patients admitted to hospitals for a heart attack. These disparities are large, with an 80% difference in the propensity to die within 15 days between extreme regions. They may reflect spatial differences in patient characteristics, treatments, hospital characteristics, and local healthcare market structure. To distinguish between these factors, we estimate a flexible duration model. The estimated model is aggregated at the regional level and a spatial variance analysis is conducted. We find that spatial differences in the use of innovative treatments play a major role whereas the local composition of hospitals by ownership does not have any noticeable effect. Moreover, the higher the local concentration of patients in a few large hospitals rather than many small ones, the lower the mortality. Regional unobserved effects account for around 20% of spatial disparities. |
| Keywords: | spatial health disparities, economic geography, stratified duration model |
| JEL: | I11 C41 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6936&r=geo |
| By: | A. Kubis; Lutz Schneider |
| Abstract: | Since the fall of the iron curtain in 1989, the migration deficit of the Eastern part of Germany has accumulated to 1.8 million people, which is over ten percent of its initial population. Depending on their human capital endowment, these migrants might either – in the case of low-skilled migration – accelerate or – in high-skilled case – impede convergence. Due to the availability of detailed data on regional human capital, migration and productivity growth, we are able to test how geographic mobility affects convergence via the human capital selectivity of migration. With regard to the endogeneity of the migration flows and human capital, we apply a dynamic panel data model within the framework of β-convergence and account for spatial dependence. The regressions indicate a positive, robust, but modest effect of a migration surplus on regional productivity growth. After controlling for human capital, the effect of migration decreases; this decrease indicates that skill selectivity is one way that migration impacts growth. |
| Keywords: | human capital mobility, regional growth, spatial panel models |
| JEL: | R23 R11 C23 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwh:dispap:9-12&r=geo |
| By: | Pessoa, Argentino |
| Abstract: | Nowadays, policy makers in charge of designing innovation policies, especially at the regional level, are more and more looking at the cluster approach either with a view to accelerate the existing clusters or for providing the basis for the emergence of new ones. In fact, not only as a consequence of their appeal as an interactive and territorially embedded vision of innovation but also owing to a lot of other reasons, clusters are usually considered as key instruments for promoting competitiveness, industrial development, innovation and growth. But, although cluster policies have a potential for generating benefits, the presence of potential benefits from cluster initiatives is not per se a sufficient foundation or a validation for policymakers to get involved, since clustering is something that has been happening spontaneously during time. The key question is whether and how policymakers can add value through appropriate measures, beyond the outcomes that markets and market players produce on their own. While there is an extensive literature that focuses on the cluster analysis, the connection between clusters and policy has been mainly ignored. This paper tries to shed light on this issue, highlighting the key features of both the cluster concept and policy. It also aims at contributing to diminish the existing gap between theory and policy comparing two broad models of cluster policy: the Asian and the OECD approach. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration; clusters; cluster policy; innovation; competitiveness; externalities; regional economic development |
| JEL: | R58 R1 L26 R11 |
| Date: | 2012–10–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:42024&r=geo |
| By: | Gächter, Martin (Oesterreichische Nationalbank); Schwazer, Peter (Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Innsbruck); Theurl, Engelbert (Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Innsbruck); Winner, Hannes (University of Salzburg) |
| Abstract: | Objectives: We investigated the determinants of disparities in the regional density of private dentists in Austria. Specifically, we focused on the relationship between the density of private dentists and their public counterparts, thereby controlling for other possible covariates of dentist density. Methods: Dentist density was measured at the district level. We used panel data of dentist density from 121 Austrian districts over the years 2001 to 2008. We applied a Hausman-Taylor framework to cope with possible endogeneity and to control for cross-district effects in the dentist density. Results: A significant negative relationship was found between the density of private and public dentists, indicating a substitution effect between the two dentist groups. A significant positive spatial relationship also existed for private and public dentists in the neighboring regions. Dental capacities in public and private hospitals and dental laboratories run by the public health insurance system did not have a significant effect on private dentist density. Conclusions: Although a strong negative relationship existed between private and public dentists within the districts, one should not draw the conclusion that private dentists in Austria are close substitutes for public dentists. Such a conclusion would require further empirical analysis on the utilization patterns of dental services and their relationships with financing mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | Competition in health care markets; dentist location and density; models with panel data |
| JEL: | I11 I18 I23 |
| Date: | 2012–10–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:sbgwpe:2012_008&r=geo |