. Neighbouring towns in urban clusters of Canada exhibit similar levels of socio-economic development. However, when measured by different development indicators, inter-town development association differs in both nature and degree. In core areas, for instance, only population and housing variables exhibit a strong spatial association, while that of employment-related variables - average income, and unemployment rate - is weaker. This tendency reflects the fundamental difference between the two groups of variables. While population and housing variables are associated with the clustering of residents in socially homogenous areas, inter-town development similarity in respect to employment-related variables is weaker, apparently due to long-distance commuting. The article discusses the importance of urban clustering as a factor in regional development policies and programmes, and provides support for including cluster-related elements in a strategy to enhance urban growth in underdeveloped regions.
This article analyses the spatial pattern of plant start-ups and plant relocations in Portugal between 1986 and 1997. The results show that start-ups and relocations are not attracted by the same set of location characteristics. The probability of a plant start-up is more strongly related to increases in local market size and labour force qualification, lower labour costs, and a more diversified economic environment. In contrast, relocations show a greater preference for areas with better national market accessibility, availability of producer services and a larger industrial basis. Relocations are also much more strongly attracted by the provision of inter-regional motorways. The results are consistent with the assertion that firms value location attributes differently over the plant life cycle.
This article examines spatial aspects of distributional dynamics and finds that the distribution of US metropolitan incomes relative to their neighbours has diverged during the 1969-1999 period. Use of a spatial Markov approach shows that non-metropolitan neighbours of metropolitan regions have tended to converge during the period, with roughly equal rates of upward and downward mobility within the distribution. Non-metropolitan regions, not neighbouring metropolitan regions, show much less tendency to converge and reveal higher rates of downward rather than upward mobility. Results highlight regional differences in mobility coherence, with metropolitan areas in the West tending to outpace their non-metropolitan neighbours.
. We examine the relationship between county per capita income and toxic pollutants using a comprehensive model of the Environmental Kuznets Curve . The model incorporates ethnic diversity, spatial effects and most independent variables used in previous studies. Initial results suggest that the relationship follows an inverted-U-shape. However, incorporation of a cubic term for income reveals that toxic pollution eventually increases again as income continues to rise. Ethnic diversity and spatial effects are found to be important in understanding toxic pollution in US counties. We also detect an EKC-type relationship with respect to income inequality.
This article describes a study of how a cable TV channel, run by a small rural town in Japan, influences the awareness and behaviour of its residents. The study is based on a postal survey. Results indicate that the TV programmes increase residents’ interests in the community, communication among residents, and resident participation in public activities. They also show that such effects on the community are influenced by the usefulness of the programmes, viewing frequency, amount of community participation, and certain personal attributes of residents, such as gender, age and household type.
In this article we study the effect of interregional migration on gross income of labour. The empirical analysis is based on Swedish household data for the period 1994 to 1995. We are primarily concerned with the allocation effect of migration on economic growth in an economy where the incentives for migration may be hampered by relatively high income taxes and transfers. A treatment-effect model for migration and income is estimated. The results indicate significant income gains from migration for the unemployed as well as for those who were employed prior to migration. The estimation results also indicate negative correlation between errors in the migration function and the income function. The hypothesis of no self-selection can be rejected.
. Applying the lag-augmented vector autoregression approach developed by Toda and Yamamoto (1995), we analyse the causal relationships among GDP, private capital, transport user cost, and port capital in Japan, and investigates the dynamic and accumulated effects of port capital formation on other variables from 1966 to 1997. Results from our analysis indicate that the causal relationships between port capital and other variables are significant. Port capital development leads to accrual of considerable magnitudes of both flow and stock effects. We conclude that structural economic effects of forming port capital are substantial for Japan.
We evaluate the impact of technological externalities on the location choices of duopolistic firms in a Weber triangle. Assuming technological spillover effects to be decreasing in the distance between firms, we show that each firm’s optimum location is independent of a demand shock when the firm’s distance to market is constant. When distance to market is variable, a firm’s optimum location will not be independent of a demand shock if one of the duopolistic firms has non-linear technology. The optimum location of an IRS (DRS) firm moves away from (closer to) the market place if the other firm is CRS and if demand is not strongly concave or convex.
This article presents the following location problem: align a regularly spaced grid of new facilities as well as possible with a set of existing centres. The problem has some similarity to a problem in classical central place theory, namely the spatial arrangement of services with a particular range of coverage. The article poses the problem, gives a non-linear formulation, and details solution approaches. A robust heuristic, based on geometric insights, is also devised: if the basis for the new grid is centred on at least one fixed centre, an enumeration of various rotation angles will be effective for finding local minima (and maxima). As a practical application of this problem, a region may wish to supplement an existing system of fixed siren locations with additional facilities in such a way as to fill in, or complete, the partial coverage pattern. An evaluation of the siren system in Dublin, OH, USA, is utilised to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique.
The aim of this research note is two-fold, firstly, to clarify the growing interaction between regional science and Austrian economics and their awareness of each other. We elucidate the Austrian methodology, called praxeology, which is especially misunderstood in regional science. Secondly, we tentatively sketch a possible contribution of Austrian economics to regional science. The core of the new economic geography is the idea of external economies of scale. Agglomeration of firms often leads to lower costs of existing products, and is a stimulating environment for the invention of new products and the development of new ideas. Austrian economics, which places discovery at the centre of its analysis of the market process, should be able to explain why (public) regional investments may be unsuccessful and why they can be successful.
We propose a locational model for public service centres when they compete with private centres. Customers may be captured by the centre offering shorter distance or lower waiting times. Both types of centres provide paid services to high-income customers, and public centres also provide subsidised services to low-income customers. Equilibrium must be found in public centres between low-income population coverage and high-income population capture. We analyse the effects of waiting times on the design of the public service and apply the model to data for Santiago, Chile.
Reliable estimates of the economy-wide losses associated with industry closings are generally hard to obtain. In the input-output literature, numerous measures of the social value of industries have been proposed. These measures are mostly based on comparative statics results, whereas the recent upsurge of growth theories suggests a dynamic perspective. In this article “hypothetical extraction” methods are used in a new dynamic input-output growth model. The model also stresses the importance of technological linkages between industries and of international trade performance. The potential power of the dynamic extraction methodology is illustrated by simulation results for a hypothetical economy.
An individual’s travel and activity behaviour is influenced by temporal and spatial constraints, travel and activity characteristics and individual attributes. This article formulates an individual accessibility model to measure the accessibility benefits of daily activities undertaken through a trip, a trip chain or at home. The model is extended further to analyse individuals’ activity location choices, choices between activities at home and activities through travel, and activity timing and scheduling decisions, with the assumption that an individual chooses an activity/travel alternative with the maximum accessibility benefits. An individual’s choice among different locations for participating in an activity is shown to depend on the time budget and the locations of activities scheduled before and after this decided activity. The substitution of an activity at home for an activity through travel is shown to depend on the relative magnitude of activity location attraction and activity duration between these two types of activities and preference parameters. Finally, the article illustrates how an individual schedules one or several continuous or discontinuous activities with time-dependent accessibility benefits so as to maximise benefits.
With rapid urbanisation, the demand for office floor space also increases. Although high rise buildings are very common in urban areas, study of the rent for different stories in such buildings is relatively rare. Liu (1988) and Grimaud (1989) separately applied agglomeration economies to study the density variation in urban areas. However, these studies assumed that the floor rent in the same building is the same for each story. Such an assumption about floor rent may not fully reflect actual floor rent and, from the perspectives of theoretical completeness and practical usefulness, formulation for different floor rents in high rise buildings, and their effect on urban density variation should also be considered. This research note extends Ogawa and Fujita's locational potential function (1980) into two dimensions: flat dimension and story dimension. The modification of the locational potential function is then applied to revise Liu's model. Finally, the office distribution in a CBD (central business district) is then discussed.
. The article examines the extent to which foreign manufacturing firms in the UK promote productivity growth in the domestically owned manufacturing sector through their buying and supplying relationships. Evidence for intra- and inter-regional externalities from the presence of foreign manufacturing, and intra- and inter-industry effects is brought to light. Externalities in the domestic sector are most noticeable where foreign manufacturing sells to domestic manufacturing. These externalities are, however, not wholly robust to different specifications of spatial dependence. The findings are positioned in a debate, which has tended to view backward (as opposed to forward) linkages from multinationals to domestically owned supply bases as a critical driver of indirect economic benefits.
This article examines whether the growth of information technology (IT) is associated with a dispersion or concentration of economic activities. The locational Gini coefficient and Moran’s I are first applied to ascertain the relationship between the growth of information technology and the distribution pattern of economic activities at the metropolitan scale. Next, using the G i * statistic as the dependent variable and the level of information infrastructure as the independent variable, the above relationship is analysed at an intra-metropolitan scale. The results suggest that trends at a metropolitan scale do not necessarily reflect the trends at an intra-metropolitan scale in association.
Papers in Regional ScienceVolume 83, Issue 3 p. 513-514 Award of the Founder's Medal to Peter Nijkamp Peter Batey, Peter Batey Chair, RSAI Founder's Medal Award CommitteeSearch for more papers by this author Peter Batey, Peter Batey Chair, RSAI Founder's Medal Award CommitteeSearch for more papers by this author First published: 23 August 2005 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1435-5597.2004.tb01922.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume83, Issue3July 2004Pages 513-514 RelatedInformation
This article tests whether diversity, growth, plant size, and export intensity are empirically related to manufacturing employment volatility levels across Canadian regions during the period 1976-1997. Using cross-sectional analysis, we indicate that the regions tending to be more stable are more diverse; they have lower-than-average growth rates, larger plant sizes and higher export intensity. First-difference analysis indicates that increases in diversity and export intensity are associated with decreased volatility in larger regions, but these variables have the opposite effect for smaller regions. The analysis also shows that in areas where trade has increased, ceteris paribus, plants have grown larger and diversity has decreased. The former tends to dampen volatility and the latter tends to magnify it. When these offsetting effects are taken into account, increased trade liberalisation is found to reduce volatility for large regions, but volatility increases in smaller manufacturing centres.
This research note investigates the relationship between output and unemployment in Greece at a regional level through the implementation of Okuns's law. Current practice is primarily restricted to the national level, and thus ignores the regional dimension of this relationship. To this end, we apply modern unit root test and cointegration techniques based on panel data settings. Using panel data is necessary because typical spans of economic time series are short, so the entire panel must be exploited in order to draw sharper inferences. The empirical results reveal that Okun's law can be confirmed for six out of the 13 regions we examine.
Spatial interaction (SI) is the process whereby entities at different points in physical space make contacts, demand/supply decisions or locational choices. The entities can be individuals or firms and the choices can include housing, jobs, production quantities, exports, imports, face-to-face contacts, schools, retail centres and activity centres. The first SI models can be grouped under the generic heading gravity models. Their main characteristic is that they model the behaviour of demand or supply segments, rather than that of individuals and firms. This article traces the development of these models from their inception in the early part of the twentieth century to the present. The key advances include the replacement of the gravity analogy by the more general concepts of entropy or information theory, a statistical framework commonly used in physics. With the arrival of the regional science paradigm over 50 years ago, a key challenge has been to broaden these models compared to those arising in spatial economics, thus arriving at a more inclusive probabilistic framework. These efforts are discussed here, as well as inclusion of geographical advances, embracing activities as generators of travel, time-geography, recognition of spatial interdependencies, and use of neuro-computing principles.
