nep-geo New Economics Papers
on Economic Geography
Issue of 2005‒05‒07
twenty-six papers chosen by
Vassilis Monastiriotis
London School of Economics

  1. Convergence and public investment: Regional policies revisited By Santiago Lago-Peñas; Diego Martínez López
  2. The Economic Geography Effects of Trade Liberalisation on the National Regions of Spain By Henk J.E.M. Brand
  3. The Dynamics of Growth and Distribution in a Spatially Heterogeneous World By Paulo Brito
  4. Regional Specialization In The European Union By Roberto Ezcurra; Carlos Gil; Manuel Rapún
  5. Peer Effects in Employment: Results from Mexico's Poor Rural Communities By Caridad Araujo; Alain de Janvry; Elisabeth Sadoulet
  6. Input Specificity and Location By Jose Pedro Pontes
  7. Public Services Efficiency Provision in Italian Regions: a Non-Parametric Analysis By Antonio Afonso; Carla Scaglioni
  8. Price Index Convergence Among Provinces and Cities of Canada: 1978 - 2001" By Ajit Dayanandan; Mukesh Ralhan
  9. Social learning, neighborhood effects, and investment in human capital By Yamauchi, Futoshi
  10. Heterogeneity within Communities: A Stochastic Model with Tenure Choice By Ortalo-Magne, Francois; Rady, Sven
  11. Is the Melting Pot Still Hot? Explaining the Resurgence of Immigrant Segregation By David M. Cutler; Edward L. Glaeser; Jacob L. Vigdor
  12. Net Capital Flows and Productivty: Evidence from U.S. States By Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan; Ariell Reshef; Bent Sorensen; Oved Yosha
  13. Human Capital and Income across U.S. Native American Reservations and Trust Lands By Voxi Heinrich S Amavilah
  14. Tax Burden and the Mismeasurement of State Tax Policy By W. Robert Reed; Cynthia L. Rogers
  15. El analisis economico de los procesos de urbanizacion By Olga Alonso Villar
  16. Assessing the Determinants of Willingness to Pay for Urban Flood Control: The Role of Locational, Demographic and attitudinal Factors By David E. Clark; Robert Griffin; Vladimir Novoty
  17. A use-side trade margins matrix for the Andalusian economy By Thijs ten Raa; José M. Rueda-Cantuche
  18. Community empowerment and scaling-up in urban areas By Garrett, James
  19. Legislature and Constituency Size in Italian Regions: Forecasting the Effects of a Reform By Nadia Fiorino; Roberto Ricciuti
  20. INFRASTRUCTURAL v. SUPERSTRUCTURAL EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONS ON INCOME DETERMINATION ACROSS U.S. NATIVE AMERICAN ECONOMIES By Voxi Heinrich S Amavilah
  21. The Interregional Incidence of Public Budgets in Federations: Measurement Issues, Evidence from Canada, and Policy Relevance By Francois Vaillancourt; Richard M. Bird
  22. Estão os Portugueses a ‘votar com os pés’? Alguma evidência empírica By António Caleiro
  23. The Zoning of Group Homes for the Disabled...Zeroing in on a Reasonable Accommodation By Elizabeth Leamon
  24. Descentralización, integración y policentrismo en Barcelona By Ivan Muñiz Olivera; Miguel Angel Garcia Lopez
  25. Descentralización del empleo: ¿compactación policéntrica o dispersión? El caso de la región metropolitana de Barcelona 1986-1996 By Ivan Muñiz Olivera; Miguel Angel Garcia Lopez
  26. El impacto espacial de las economías de aglomeración y su efecto sobre la estructura urbana.El caso de la industria en Barcelona, 1986-1996 By Miguel Angel Garcia Lopez; Ivan Muñiz Olivera

  1. By: Santiago Lago-Peñas (Univesidad de Vigo); Diego Martínez López (Centro de Estudios Andaluces y Univesidad Pablo de Olavide)
    Abstract: The aim of this paper is to add new arguments to the debate on the redesign of regional policies. An endogenous growth model is presented with two regions where the crucial issue for the removal of regional disparities is public investment. When testing the model using data obtained from Spanish regions, evidence of convergence is not found, in spite of the redistribution pattern of regional allocation of public investment during the 80's and 90's and a high degree of private capital mobility. After analyzing other factors potentially affecting regional convergence, a number of recommendations are supplied in order to redefine European and Spanish regional policies.
    Keywords: Infrastructures, convergence, growth
    JEL: H54 R58
    Date: 2005
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cea:doctra:e2005_05&r=geo
  2. By: Henk J.E.M. Brand
    Abstract: This paper examines the effects of EU trade liberalisation on changes in the structure and econcentration of manufacturing industries in Spain. To achieve this objective, the analysis develops a simple three-region model to classify a country's administrative regions into Core regions, Adjaccent regions, and Periphery regions. The significance of this three-region CAP model is that it can be extended into a multi-regional CAP-model to provide a framework for analysing the forces of agglomeration and dispersion at the national regional levels where the shocks of economic intergration are intially felt. The model allows for the identification of CAP clusters within a country thereby revealing multi-agglomerate production structures and changes in their composition due to the endogenous forces of trade liberalisation. Since the CAP model is a national regional model, in contrast to a national geographic model as found in the empirical literature, it has necessitated the development of a new regional industry concentration measurement. The measurement is called the 'manufacturing labour-land concentration ratio', which simultaneously reveals relative and absolute regional industry concentration. This ration facilitates the analysis and comparison of regional manufacturing concentration per CAP cluster, the characterisitics of industries locating in each region type, and the characteristics of the CAP regions that attract specific industries. Finall, this paper addresses the empirical findings of Midelfart et al., (2000), that the 'spatial distribution of European manufacturing appears to be driven by developments in Southern Europe.' Their outcomes suggest a strong geograpic competition effect in Spain that outweighs the agglomeration effect of the geographic core. empirical analysis of this study appears to support the self-sufficiency theory of Venables and Limao (2002) based on a country's location, endowment of primary factors of production, commodity characteristics of transportation intensity, and factor endowments.
    JEL: F12 F15 J21 R11 R12 R23
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gla:glaewp:2004_8&r=geo
  3. By: Paulo Brito
    Abstract: This paper tries to reconcile growth and geographical economics by dealing directly with capital accumulation through time and space and by seeing growth convergence and spatial agglomeration as jointly generated by dynamic processes displaying pattern formation. It presents a centralized economy in which a Bergson-Samuelson- Millian central planner finds a flow of optimal distributions of consumption, subject to a spatial-temporal capital accumulation budget constraint. The main conclusions are: first, if the behavioral parameters are symmetric, but there is an asymmetric distribution of the capital stock, then the long run asymptotic distribution will be spatially homogeneous; second, if there is homogeneous distribution of the capital stock, but there is an asymmetric shock in any parameter, then the economy will converge towards a spatially heterogeneous asymptotic state; third, spatially heterogeneous asymptotic states will only emerge exogenously, not endogenously; fourth, the spatial propagation mechanism can give birth, when the production function is close to linear, to a Turing instability, which implies that for some parameter values, a conditionally stable spacetime distribution should display spatial pattern formation.
    Keywords: Optimal growth and distribution; Spatial growth; Optimal control of partial differential equations; Traveling waves; Fourier transforms; Turing instability.
    JEL: C6 D9 E1 R1
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:isegwp:wp142004&r=geo
  4. By: Roberto Ezcurra (Departamento de Economía-UPNA); Carlos Gil (Departamento de Economía-UPNA); Manuel Rapún (Departamento de Economía-UPNA)
    Abstract: This paper examines productive specialization in the regions of the European Union over the period 1977 to 1999 using the information provided by various methodological instruments. The results obtained reveal a process of convergence in regional productive structures during the twenty-three years considered. This has been due to the behavior of regions with high levels of specialization at the start of the period, whose productive structures have tended to shift towards the European average over time. The analysis carried out also highlights the major role played by regional size, level of development and geographical location in explaining specialization in the European context. Finally, the empirical evidence provided suggests that changes in regional productive structures are closely linked to the evolution of the spatial distribution of per capita income in the European Union.
    Keywords: Specialization, economic activity, regions, European Union.
    JEL: F15 R11 R12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nav:ecupna:'0404'&r=geo
  5. By: Caridad Araujo (The World Bank and Georgetown University); Alain de Janvry (University of California, Berkeley); Elisabeth Sadoulet (University of California, Berkeley)
    Abstract: Empirical evidence has shown that off-farm non-agricultural (OFNA) employment offers a major pathway from poverty for rural populations. However, the pattern of participation in these activities is heterogeneous across categories of individuals and poorly understood. We explore the role of spillovers from peers on an individual's participation in formal and informal OFNA employment using village census data for rural Mexico. We test and reject the possibility that peers' decisions could be proxying for unobserved individual, village-level, or individual-type effects. We find that peers' participation in OFNA employment has a large impact on an individual's ability to engage in this type of employment, both formal and informal, even after controlling for individual attributes and village characteristics. Peer effects are structured by similarities in gender, ethnicity, educational level, and land endowment. We find that marginal peer effects tend to be stronger for categories of individuals that are already more engaged in OFNA employment, such as men, non-indigenous people, the more educated, and the landless, contributing to reinforcing inequalities in accessing these jobs. However, the role of peer effects relative to that of education in obtaining formal OFNA employment is more important for members of groups that are less engaged in these jobs, such as women, indigenous people, the less educated, and smallholders.
    Keywords: off-farm employment, rural poverty, social aspects,
    Date: 2004–08–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:agrebk:991&r=geo
  6. By: Jose Pedro Pontes
    Abstract: In a two-region economy, two upstream firms supply an input to two consumer goods firms. For two different location patterns (site specificity and co-location of the suppliers), the firms play a three-stage game: the input suppliers select transport rates; then they choose outputs; finally the buyers select quantities of the consumer good. It is concluded that the site specificity of the input leads to a high transport cost and to its specialized adaptation to the needs of the local user.
    Keywords: Technological Choice; Spatial Oligopoly; Vertically-linked Industries.
    JEL: D43 R12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:isegwp:wp12005&r=geo
  7. By: Antonio Afonso; Carla Scaglioni
    Abstract: We measure the performance of public spending in Italian regions regarding the provision of public services, by constructing a so-called total regional performance indicator for strategic sectors such as general administration, energy, water and sewage, solid waste, and transports for 2001. This composite indicator is then the output measure selected to assess expenditure efficiency for the Italian regions, using the non-parametric DEA approach. The computation of efficiency scores allows to rank the regions and to detect some room for improvement in terms of efficiency gains at the regional level.
    Keywords: technical efficiency; DEA; regional expenditure; Italy.
    JEL: C14 H42 H72 R50
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:isegwp:wp22005&r=geo
  8. By: Ajit Dayanandan (Department of Economics, University of Northern B.C.); Mukesh Ralhan (Department of Economics, University of Victoria)
    Abstract: We study the convergence of price indices for Canadian provinces and cities for the period 1978-2001 for (a) ten provinces and nine commodity/price groups; and (b) fifteen cities a cross Canada and four commodity/price groups using panel unit root tests. The empirical results reject the unit root hypothesis for price data across provinces and cities. The estimated rate of convergence in Canada is comparatively faster than the rates for similar studies reported for U.S. c ities. The empirical results also reveal a relatively faster rate of convergence during the post-inflation targeting period (1991-2001), than earlier.
    Keywords: Intra-national PPP, Panel unit root, Canada, CPI, Half-life
    JEL: E31 F41
    Date: 2005–05–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vic:vicewp:0504&r=geo
  9. By: Yamauchi, Futoshi
    Abstract: "This paper empirically identifies social learning and neighborhood effects in schooling investments in a new technology regime. The estimates of learning-investment rule from farm household panel data at the onset of the Green Revolution in India, show that (1) agents learn about schooling returns from income realizations of their neighbors and (2) schooling distribution of the parents' generation in a community has externalities to schooling investments in children that are consistent with social learning. Simulations show that variations in schooling distributions within and across communities generate through social learning substantial variations in child enrollment rate and average household income. The results suggest that imperfect information hinders investment in human capital." Author's Abstract
    Keywords: Human capital ,Risk ,Social learning ,School enrollment ,technological changes ,Green Revolution ,
    Date: 2005
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:fcnddp:190&r=geo
  10. By: Ortalo-Magne, Francois; Rady, Sven
    Abstract: Standard explanations for the income heterogeneity within neighborhoods rely on differences of preferences across households and heterogeneity of the housing stock. We propose an alternative and complementary explanation. We construct a stochastic equilibrium sorting model where (1) income is the sole dimension of household heterogeneity, (2) households form state-contingent housing location plans that may involve moves over their lifetimes, (3) households choose whether to own or rent depending on the housing expenditure risk associated with each tenure mode, and (4) there is a probability that newcomer households move in and compete for homes with native households. Income mixing within neighborhood arises for two reasons. First, allowing natives to form state-contingent housing location plans breaks the indivisibility of housing consumption implicit in the literature where households choose their location once and for all. Second, natives can insure themselves against rent fluctuations by buying their home prior to the realization of the population shock; newcomers cannot. As a result, poorer natives stay in the more desirable communities and only richer newcomers move in these communities. Evidence from U.S. metropolitan areas supports the effects predicted by the model.
    JEL: R21 R12 D31
    Date: 2005–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:594&r=geo
  11. By: David M. Cutler; Edward L. Glaeser; Jacob L. Vigdor
    Abstract: This paper uses decennial Census data to examine trends in immigrant segregation in the United States between 1910 and 2000. Immigrant segregation declined in the first half of the century, but has been rising over the past few decades. Analysis of restricted access 1990 Census microdata suggests that this rise would be even more striking if the native-born children of immigrants could be consistently excluded from the analysis. We analyze longitudinal variation in immigrant segregation, as well as housing price patterns across metropolitan areas, to test four hypotheses of immigrant segregation. Immigration itself has surged in recent decades, but the tendency for newly arrived immigrants to be younger and of lower socioeconomic status explains very little of the recent rise in immigrant segregation. We also find little evidence of increased nativism in the housing market. Evidence instead points to changes in urban form, manifested in particular as native-driven suburbanization and the decline of public transit as a transportation mode, as a central explanation for the new immigrant segregation.
    JEL: J1 N3 R0
    Date: 2005–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11295&r=geo
  12. By: Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan; Ariell Reshef; Bent Sorensen; Oved Yosha
    Abstract: We study net capital flows between U.S. states. We present a simple neoclassical model in which total factor productivity (TFP) varies across states and over time and where capital freely moves across state borders. In this framework capital flows to states that experience a relative increase in TFP thus creating net cross-state capital ownership positions. Net ownership positions converge to zero over time in the absence of further TFP movements. While TFP can not be directly observed, we can identify states with high TFP growth as states with high output growth. By comparing the level of personal income to output, we construct indicators of net capital flows into a state. We then examine empirically if the level of net capital flows between states following relative movements in TFP corresponds to the predictions of the model and whether net ownership positions tend to converge to zero. Our empirical results imply large flows of capital between states; for example, we find that a state with annual per capita output growth 1 percent higher than the average state over 10 years would attract capital in the amount of $9,900 per capita over those 10 years. These magnitudes are in close agreement with the predictions of the model. We conclude that frictions associated with borders are likely to be the main explanation for "low" international capital flows.
    JEL: F21 F41
    Date: 2005–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11301&r=geo
  13. By: Voxi Heinrich S Amavilah (REEPS & Glendale College)
    Abstract: The current research emphasis on institutions as key determinants of economic performance has uncovered important questions for further research. For example, if institutions are central to economic performance, then what explains observed differences in performance across parts of one economy sharing similar institutions? This paper suggests that two broad aspects of institutions are involved - infrastructure and superstructure. It develops and then applies a simple model to 50 U.S. reservation economies to assess how the two aspects affect income. The results show that resources and resource productivity are necessary but insufficient determinants of income in reservation economies. Human capital is a constraint for two institutional reasons. First, infrastructures for fostering human capital are either inadequate or inappropriate. Second, the local superstructure seems resistant to existing infrastructures that were supposed to enhance human capital formation. Since infrastructural and superstructural aspects of institutions are competitive rather than complementary, the Nelson- Phelps channel for transmitting external technology into USRATLs appears clogged up.
    Keywords: Income constraints, infrastructure, superstructure, institutions, human capital, Native American reservation economies
    JEL: O51 O15 R30 F43 D24 C31
    Date: 2005–05–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpge:0505001&r=geo
  14. By: W. Robert Reed (Department of Economics, University of Oklahoma); Cynthia L. Rogers (Department of Economics, University of Oklahoma)
    Abstract: Tax Burden, defined as the ratio of total tax revenues over personal income, is prominently used to summarize state tax policy. We analyze the empirical relationship between changes in Tax Burden and changes in state tax policy from 1987 to 2000 – as measured by states’ own forecasts of the revenue impacts of tax legislation – and find that Tax Burden contains substantial measurement error. We explain this result by decomposing Tax Burden changes into three components: (1) changes in state tax policy, (2) income-induced changes in revenue that are unrelated to state tax policy, and (3) other factors that do not measure state tax policy. We empirically demonstrate the statistical significance of the second component, highlighting important consequences for studies that estimate the impact of taxes on economic growth.
    Keywords: Tax Policy, Fiscal Policy, Tax Burden, State Economic Development, Tax Rates
    JEL: E62 H20 H71 R11
    Date: 2005–05–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:0505001&r=geo
  15. By: Olga Alonso Villar (Universidade de Vigo)
    Abstract: Concentration of economic activity and, in particular, concentration of population emerges as a relevant feature of this century. The grave problems associated with large cities (urban traffic congestion, pollution, crime, etc.) have made the study of them an important topic. The first step to be taken in this study is to determine which elements favor the agglomeration of economic activity and which ones put a stop to it. In this paper we present an overview of the principal models involved with cities focusing in the most recent lines of research.
    Keywords: Capital humano; Ciudades; Concentracion; Rendimientos Crecientes
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edg:anecon:0004&r=geo
  16. By: David E. Clark (Department of Economics, Marquette University); Robert Griffin (Department of Communications, Marquette University); Vladimir Novoty (Department of Civil and Enviornmental Engineering, Northeastern University)
    Abstract: The urbanization of urban watersheds can influence flooding risks. Traditional Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood risk maps identify 100 year floodplains. These maps are updated infrequently. However, as a community urbanizes, flood risks can change, especially for downstream residents. Thus, one would expect that the willingness to pay (WTP) to prevent the worsening of flooding risk would depend in part on the location of the household in the community and their associated flooding risk. Economists and regional scientists have evaluated the role played by traditional demographic factors. However, attitudinal factors measuring community norms, political philosophy, and other psychological factors that may be unique to the individual have not received the same level of scrutiny. Milwaukee, WI has experienced major flooding events, classified as floods with an expected frequency of once every 100 years or less, in 1986 and most recently in 1997 and 1998. In this study, 1000 residents of the Menomonee watershed in Milwaukee were interviewed in a two-wave panel survey (i.e., telephone interviews took place in 2000 and 2001) to determine their willingness to pay for a referendum which would prevent flood risks from worsening. The interviews queried respondents about their attitudes concerning flooding and ecological risks, political beliefs, information seeking behavior, and other psychological factors unique to the respondent. Information was also gathered on demographic characteristics of the respondent, and also that individuals address. The address was geocoded and hydrologic modeling was used to determine the unique flood risk associated with the residence. A willingness to pay function was estimated using Tobit analysis. Preliminary findings indicated that all three categories of factors influence willingness to pay, with psychological factors and flood risk factors having a relatively strong impact on willingness to pay. Paper prepared for the 2005 Annual Meetings of the Midcontinent Regional Science Association and the Southern Regional Science Association in Arlington VA, April 8-10, 2005. PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE WITHOUT PERMISSION.
    Date: 2005–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrq:wpaper:0503&r=geo
  17. By: Thijs ten Raa (Universidad de Tilburg); José M. Rueda-Cantuche (Universidad Pablo de Olavide)
    Abstract: According to the National Accounting Systems proposed by United Nations (1993) and Eurostat (1996), use and make (or supply) matrices should be measured before goods and services are conveyed to the markets (basic values). Actually, the make table is defined in basic values (excluding trade and transport margins and net commodity taxes) whereas the use table is in purchasers' values (including them). This paper shows how these margins and taxes can be removed from the use table with the purpose of entering both of them in the so-called material balance equation. With respect to trade margins, our approach is based on the use-side procedure from the ESA-95 Input-Output Manual (Eurostat, 2002) and is also being applied to the forthcoming 2000 Andalusian Input-Output Framework.
    Keywords: Input-output analysis, use and make matrices, trade margins, National Accounts
    JEL: D57 C82 R15 C67
    Date: 2005
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cea:doctra:e2005_06&r=geo
  18. By: Garrett, James
    Abstract: "CARE began PROSPECT (Program of Support for Poverty Elimination and Community Transformation) in 1998. PROSPECT aims to reduce poverty in peri-urban areas of Lusaka. It employs a community-based approach to carry out three types of activities: social empowerment (institution building at the local level), personal empowerment (microfinance), and infrastructure improvement (mostly water supply schemes). PROSPECT has attempted to carry out these activities largely through its support of area-based organizations (ABOs) that now form part of city government. The zone development committees (ZDCs) and residents' development committees (RDCs) are the basic components of the ABO structure. These are community-level representations of municipal government; they are the community's mechanisms for expressing its voice and driving development. PROSPECT is itself an extension of an earlier project, PUSH II (Peri-Urban Self-Help Project). PUSH II and PROSPECT are fundamentally about developing community-based and community-driven development (CDD) mechanisms and strengthening community capacities to identify and respond to community needs. The paper examines the scaling-up experience of PUSH II and PROSPECT, looking especially at the mechanisms of CDD, the ABOs." Authors' Abstract
    Keywords: CARE ,Poverty alleviation ,Community organizations ,Urban poor ,Peri-urban areas ,
    Date: 2004
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:fcndbr:177&r=geo
  19. By: Nadia Fiorino; Roberto Ricciuti
    Abstract: In this paper we analyze the effect of different legislature and constituency size on per capita regional expenditure in Italy. According to the theory, legislature size has an indefinite effect on government spending because logrolling and transaction costs may have canceling effects. In turn, smaller constituency size is predicted to decrease government spending, because of homogeneity of interests and low monitoring costs. We find a large and significantly positive effect of the number of legislators and a negative effect for constituency size. We use these findings to forecast the effects of the increase in the number of legislators that are occurring in some regions
    Keywords: Legislature size, constituency size, regional expenditure
    JEL: H72 H73
    Date: 2005–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:448&r=geo
  20. By: Voxi Heinrich S Amavilah (REEPS & Glendale College)
    Abstract: Institutions either promote or constrain economic performance, but which part of institutions does so, and why do economies sharing similar institutions sometimes perform differently? This paper applies a novel model that is capable of separating infrastructural and superstructural effects of institutions on aggregate and average income using a cross- section of 84 U.S. Native American economies (USNAEs). It finds that aggregate and average incomes for these economies depend mainly on the accumulation of physical resources. However, resources and resource productivity are necessary but insufficient determinants of income for institutional reasons. Infrastructures that aid human capital formation are inadequate so that even when the local superstructure is generally accepting of external technology, the impact of human capital on income (performance) remains modest. It appears that infrastructural and superstructural aspects of institutions are competitive rather than complementary, thereby weakening the Nelson-Phelps channel for transmitting external technology into USNAEs.
    Keywords: infrastructural and superstructural constraints, institutions, human capital, U.S. Native American economies
    JEL: O15 O57 R30 D24 C31 P47 O51
    Date: 2005–05–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpdc:0505004&r=geo
  21. By: Francois Vaillancourt (Departement de sciences ecomiques, Universite de Montreal); Richard M. Bird (Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto)
    Abstract: In this paper, we examine the issue of the incidence of central government budgets in federal countries. In Section 1, we discuss a number of reasons why the picture painted of reality by even the best fiscal flow analysis is inevitably partial and hence inherently flawed to an unknowable extent. Despite these cautions, in Section 2 we review the evidence on the regional incidence of federal budgets in Canada, considering both aggregate results and some specific federal expenditure programs (e.g. equalization and employment insurance), as well as some relevant issues (e.g. the regional effect of some regulatory programs) not depicted in fiscal flows. We find that the regional distributional patterns revealed in this analysis are both robust to various reasonable adjustments and relatively stable over time. Nonetheless, we conclude in Section 3 that, while such studies are potentially useful in terms of providing a base-line for assessing performance in some respects, they cannot be used to demonstrate that e.g. one region is paying (or receiving) 'too much' or 'too little', let alone that there is a 'fiscal imbalance' that needs to be corrected. Numbers are necessary, and good numbers are better than bad ones; but they have to be interpreted carefully and in context before drawing any policy conclusions.
    Keywords: regional fiscal flows, regional incidence, fiscal balance, Canada
    JEL: H19 R51 P43
    Date: 2005–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ttp:itpwps:0510&r=geo
  22. By: António Caleiro (Department of Economics, University of Évora)
    Abstract: Como é sabido, os movimentos migratórios à escala regional são fruto de uma diversidade de factores. Sendo entendidos como uma reacção, por parte da população, a desvantagens (inaceitáveis) de natureza económica apresentadas pela região de origem, estes movimentos demográficos constituem um importante exemplo da chamada ‘votação com os pés’. Claramente, a inexistência (ou a mera ineficácia) de políticas regionais que tenham como objectivo combater este fenómeno acarreta a inevitável desertificação humana a qual, certamente, constitui um crucial entrave ao desenvolvimento regional. Aliás, uma perspectiva, ainda que parcial, deste fenómeno demográfico admite ser esta, ela própria, a consequência lógica de políticas de incidência regional, as quais, sendo atendedoras ao peso eleitoral das diversas regiões, tendem a privilegiar as regiões já por si mais povoadas. Sendo certo que a decisão de migrar acarreta custos óbvios e só se justifica se (hipoteticamente) as condições de vida na região de destino se apresentarem inequivocamente melhores que as existentes na região de origem, tal significa que a ‘votação com os pés’ é, quase sempre, sinónimo de uma efectiva deslocalização da população activa (bem como das camadas populacionais mais jovens que dela dependem). Assim sendo, a este fenómeno demográfico, para além da desertificação humana, associa-se, quase inevitavelmente, o envelhecimento das regiões de origem por contrapartida do rejuvenescimento das regiões de destino. O objectivo principal deste trabalho é, assim, o de verificar se existe evidência empírica, em Portugal, suportando a hipótese de que aos movimentos migratórios regionais se pode associar o fenómeno da ‘votação com os pés’. Dado que o espaço de tempo decorrido entre os dois últimos Censos da População nos parece ser suficiente para se puderem observar com alguma segurança as tendências migratórias verificadas em Portugal, aquele objectivo pretende ser atingido usando os dados dos Censos de 1991 e 2001, recorrendo a uma metodologia que se baseia no uso de técnicas estatísticas especialmente adequadas no tratamento de variáveis que se apresentam localizadas no espaço nacional.
    Keywords: Demografia Regional, Desemprego, Econometria Espacial, Movimentos Migratórios
    JEL: E24 J61 J64 R15
    Date: 2005
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:evo:wpecon:7_2005&r=geo
  23. By: Elizabeth Leamon (Judicial Clerk, Connecticut Supreme Court)
    Abstract: The Fair Housing Amendments Act ("FHAA") of 1988 mandates reasonable accommodations to provide the disabled equal access to housing. Since its enactment, group homes for the disabled and townships have debated the reach of the federal law over local zoning regulations. Fourteen years after passage of the FHAA the idea of a group home, especially, a group home for recovering addicts, located in a residential neighborhood still meets with formidable resistance. This attitude prevails in spite of research that reveals a group home generates no adverse impact on the community in which it operates. Nonetheless, public opposition to a group home "next door" continues to be a powerful weapon against integration and, ultimately, recovery from substance abuse.
    Keywords: Disability Law,
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bep:conpil:uconn_cpilj-1003&r=geo
  24. By: Ivan Muñiz Olivera (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona); Miguel Angel Garcia Lopez (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona)
    Abstract: En este trabajo se identifican los subcentros de empleo de la Región Metropolitana de Barcelona utilizando diferentes criterios. Una vez catalogados en función de su naturaleza, esto es, subcentros surgidos de la integración y de la descentralización, se contrasta si su impacto sobre la densidad de población depende de su origen. Los resultados obtenidos confirman un mayor impacto de los subcentros integrados en comparación con los descentralizados, amplificada, a su vez, por el hecho de que los primeros están más lejos del CBD y presentan una mayor autocontención en el mercado de trabajo.
    Keywords: Descentralización del empleo, policentrismo, integración metropolitana
    JEL: R12 R14
    Date: 2005–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea0505&r=geo
  25. By: Ivan Muñiz Olivera (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona); Miguel Angel Garcia Lopez (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona)
    Abstract: La Región Metropolitana de Barcelona (RMB) ha sido caracterizada en repetidas ocasiones como un sistema urbano de tipo policéntrico. Este trabajo pretende corroborar esta afirmación haciendo uso de una metodología que permite identificar los subcentros de empleo y valorar el grado de policentrismo de la RMB en 1986 y 1996. Los resultados obtenidos en los dos años confirman la existencia y extensión del policentrismo.
    Keywords: Subcentros de empleo, identificación, descentralización, dispersión, compactación, policentrismo
    JEL: R12 R14
    Date: 2005–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea0506&r=geo
  26. By: Miguel Angel Garcia Lopez (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona); Ivan Muñiz Olivera (Departament d'Economia Aplicada, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona)
    Abstract: Este trabajo trata sobre el papel de la accesibilidad espacial a las economías de aglomeración en el cambio de la estructura espacial del empleo industrial para el caso de la Región Metropolitana de Barcelona (RMB). Utilizando como indicador de cambios en la estructura espacial del empleo el crecimiento de la densidad bruta del empleo municipal entre 1986 y 1996 para siete subsectores industriales, se explora el impacto espacial de las economías de aglomeración que operan a escala local –el municipio y tres áreas de 5, 8 y 12 kilómetros que rodean al propio municipio-, aquellas que emergen del CBD y de los principales subcentros especializados de la región, y las economías de red asociadas al total de puestos de trabajo de la región cuyo acceso depende de la distancia respecto a las principales infraestructuras de transporte.
    Keywords: economías de aglomeración, crecimiento empleo industrial, localización intrametropolitana, estructura espacial
    JEL: R11 R12 R14 R30 L60
    Date: 2005–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea0509&r=geo

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