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on Economic Geography |
| By: | Kristian Behrens; Théophile Bougna |
| Abstract: | We document the location patterns of Canadian manufacturing industries – as well as changes in those patterns over the first decade of 2000 – using detailed micro-geographic data. Depending on industry definitions and years, 40 to 60 percent of industries are clustered. According to our measures, manufacturing industries become less geographically concentrated in Canada, i.e., localization is decreasing. Yet, some of the most localized industries are becoming even more localized. We also document the locational trends specific to small firms, young firms, and exporters. We find that their location patterns do not differ significantly from that of the other firms in their industries. |
| Keywords: | Location patterns, manufacturing industries, micro-geographic data, Canada |
| JEL: | R12 L60 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:lacicr:1327&r=geo |
| By: | Tadashi Morita (Faculty of Economics, Osaka Gakuin University); Kazuhiro Yamamoto (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we construct an interregional trade model that has en- dogenous fertility rates in the manner of Helpman and Krugman (1985). The presented model shows that fertility rates in a large region become lower than those in a small region because of the agglomeration of man- ufacturing firms in the former. The agglomeration of firms in a region lowers the relative price of manufactured goods to child rearing costs, which raises the fertility rates. We also find that a decline in transportation costs results in the ag- glomeration of manufacturing firms, which lowers fertility rates in both large and small regions. Finally, we extend our two-region model to a multi-region model and find that the number of manufacturing firms in larger regions is always greater than that in smaller regions, meaning that fertility rates in the former are always lower than those in the latter. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration, fertility rates, transportation costs, consumerism |
| JEL: | J13 R10 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1323&r=geo |
| By: | Head, Keith; Mayer, Thierry |
| Abstract: | With increasing sophistication, economists have been estimating gravity equations for five decades. Robust evidence shows that borders and distance impede trade by much more than tariffs or transports costs can explain. We therefore advocate investigation of other sources of resistance, despite the greater difficulty involved in measuring and modeling them. From our selective review of recent findings, a unifying explanation emerges. A legacy of historical isolation and confl ict forged a world economy in which neither tastes nor information are homogeneously distributed. Cultural difference and inadequate information manifest themselves most strongly at national borders and over distance. |
| Keywords: | borders; distance; globalization; gravity; history; trade |
| JEL: | F1 |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9614&r=geo |
| By: | Cabral, Luís M B; Wang, Zhu; Xu, Yi (Daniel) |
| Abstract: | Taking the early U.S. automobile industry as an example, we evaluate four competing hypotheses on regional industry agglomeration: intra-industry local externalities, inter-industry local externalities, employee spinouts, and location fixed-effects. Our findings suggest that inter-industry spillovers, particularly the development of the carriage and wagon industry, play an important role. Spinouts play a secondary role and only contribute to agglomeration at later stages of industry evolution. The presence of other firms in the same industry has a negligible (or maybe even negative) effect on agglomeration. Finally, location fixed-effects account for some agglomeration, though to a lesser extent than inter-industry spillovers and spinouts. |
| Keywords: | Employee spinouts; Industry agglomeration; Local externalities |
| JEL: | J6 L0 R1 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9435&r=geo |
| By: | William Brock (University of Wisconsin, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, Columbia); Anastasios Xepapadeas (Athens University of Economics and Business Department of International and European Economic Studies); Athanasios Yannacopoulos (Athens University of Economics and Business, Department of Statistics) |
| Abstract: | We introduce knowledge spillovers as an externality in the production function of competitive firms operating in a finite spatial domain under adjustment costs. Spillovers are spatial as productive knowledge flows more easily among firms located nearby. When knowledge spillovers are not internalized by firms spatial agglomerations may emerge endogenously in a competitive equilibrium, however, they do not emerge at the steady state of the social optimum. |
| Keywords: | Investment Theory, Adjustment Costs, Spatial Agglomerations |
| JEL: | D21 R3 C61 |
| Date: | 2013–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2013.68&r=geo |
| By: | Román Mínguez; María Durbán; José María Montero; Dae-Jin Lee |
| Abstract: | In this work we propose the combination of P-splines with traditional spatial econometric models in such a way that it allows for their representation as a mixed model. The advantages of combining these models include: (i) dealing with complex non-linear and non-separable trends, (ii) estimating short-range spatial correlation together with the large-scale spatial trend, (iii) decomposing the systematic spatial variation into those two components and (iv) estimating the smoothing parameters included in the penalized splines together with the other parameters of the model. The performance of the proposed spatial non-parametric models is checked by both simulation and a empirical study. More specifically, we simulate 3,600 datasets generated by those models (with both linear and non-linear-non-separable global spatial trends). As for the empirical case, we use the well-known Lucas county data on housing prices. Our results indicate that the proposed models have a better performance than the traditional spatial strategies, specially in the presence of nonlinear trend |
| Keywords: | Global spatial trend, Mixed models, P-splines, PS-SAR, PS-SEM |
| JEL: | C14 C15 C21 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:wsrepe:ws132925&r=geo |
| By: | Desmet, Klaus; Ghani, Ejaz; O'Connell, Stephen D; Rossi-Hansberg, Esteban |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the recent spatial development of India. Services, and to a lesser extent manufacturing, are increasingly concentrating in high-density clusters. This stands in contrast with the United States, where in the last decades services have tended to grow fastest in medium-density locations, such as Silicon Valley. India's experience is not common to all fast-growing developing economies. The spatial growth pattern of China looks more similar to that in the U.S. than to that of India. Our findings suggest that certain frictions are keeping medium-density places in India from growing faster. |
| Keywords: | economic geography; India; services; spatial development; spatial distribution of economic activity |
| JEL: | O1 O18 O53 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9433&r=geo |
| By: | Borowiecki, Karol J. (Department of Business and Economics) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates agglomeration effects for classical music production in a wide range of cities for a global sample of composers born between 1750 and 1899. Theory suggests a trade-off between agglomeration economies (peer effects) and diseconomies (peer crowding). I test this hypothesis using historical data on composers and employ a unique instrumental variable – a measure of birth centrality, calculated as the average distance between a composer’s birthplace and the birthplace of his peers. I find a strong causal impact of peer group size on the number of important compositions written in a given year. Consistent with theory, the productivity gain eventually decreases and is characterized by an inverted U-shaped relationship. These results are robust to a large series of tests, including checks for quality of peers, city characteristics, various measures of composers’ productivity, and across different estimations in which also time-varying birth centrality measures are used as instrumental variables. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration economies; density effects; peer effects; productivity; urban history; cities; composer |
| JEL: | D24 J24 N90 R12 Z11 |
| Date: | 2013–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sdueko:2013_013&r=geo |
| By: | Alessandra Colombelli (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis [UNS] - CNRS : UMR6227); Francesco Quatraro (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS : UMR7321 - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis [UNS]) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between the creation of new firms and the properties of the local knowledge bases, like coherence, cognitive distance and variety. By combining the literature on the knowledge spillovers of entrepreneurship and that on the recombinant knowledge approach, we posit that locally available knowledge matters to the entrepreneurial process, but the type of knowledge underlying theses dynamics deserve to be analyzed. The analysis is carried out on 104 Italian NUTS 3 regions observed over the time span 1995-2011. The results show that the complementarity degree of local knowledge is important, while increasing similarity yields negative effects. This suggests that the creation of new firms in Italy is associated to the exploitation of well established technological trajectories grounded on competences accumulated over time, although cognitive proximity is likely to engender lock-in effects and hinder such process. |
| Keywords: | New Firm Formation; Knowledge-Spillovers Theory of Entrepreneurship; Recombinant Knowledge; Knowledge Coherence; Variety; Cognitive Distance; Italy |
| Date: | 2013–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00858989&r=geo |
| By: | Friedrich Dornbusch (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Competence Center Policy and Regions); Sidonia von Proff (Economic geography and Location Research, Philipps-Universität Marburg); Thomas Brenner (Economic geography and Location Research, Philipps-Universität Marburg) |
| Abstract: | Collaboration over distance is difficult to maintain in innovation projects which require a great deal of regional collaboration. However, patent documents reveal that a number of inventor teams are able to overcome long distances. Earlier literature started to investigate factors, which increase the probability of long-distance innovation co-operation. The paper at hand is restricted to patents with academic participation, but takes a close look at two types of factors in the environment of the inventors: (1) the characteristics of the university that employs the academic inventor(s), and (2) the influence of the regional environment. Research on the impact of these factors is still underdeveloped in the literature. By considering only patents with at least one academic inventor we have a relatively homogeneous subset of patents and can concentrate on the external impacts. We find that a similar research area structure, a high absorptive capacity as well as a high start-up rate foster intra-regional collaboration. More TTO staff and a larger university lead to more long-distance collaboration while the industry orientation of the university does not exert an influence on the distance between inventors. |
| Keywords: | patents, research collaboration, academic patents, collaboration over distance, Germany |
| JEL: | O31 R12 L14 |
| Date: | 2013–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pum:wpaper:2013-11&r=geo |
| By: | Dreyer, Heiko |
| Abstract: | In this contribution it is argued and empirical proven, complementary to the existing literature, that distance to a trading partner especially in agricultural trade does not only reflect transport costs but also different areas of cultivation. The study accounts for the described patterns by modeling different areas of cultivation. Without doing so the effect of distance would be underestimated. |
| Keywords: | Food and agricultural trade, distance, growing areas, panel analysis, Germany, gravity approach, International Relations/Trade, |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gewi13:156226&r=geo |
| By: | Michalopoulos, Stelios (Brown University and NBER); Papaioannou, Elias (London Business School, NBER and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the role of national institutions on subnational African development in a novel framework that accounts both for local geography and cultural-genetic traits. We exploit the fact that the political boundaries in the eve of African independence partitioned more than two hundred ethnic groups across adjacent countries subjecting similar cultures, residing in homogeneous geographic areas, to different formal institutions. Using both a matching-type and a spatial regression discontinuity approach we show that differences in countrywide institutional structures across the national border do not explain within-ethnicity differences in economic performance, as captured by satellite images of light density. The average non-effect of national institutions on ethnic development masks considerable heterogeneity partially driven by the diminishing role of national institutions in areas further from the capital cities. |
| Keywords: | Africa, Borders, Ethnicities, Development, National Institutions, Regression Discontinuity |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:warwcg:153&r=geo |
| By: | Giovanni Andrea Cornia (Università degli Studi di Firenze); Bruno Martorano |
| Abstract: | The paper discusses the income inequality changes which have taken place in a few representative developing regions during the last 30 years. While inequality rose in the majority of the countries of these regions in the 1980s and 1990s, the last decade was characterized by a bifurcation of inequality trends. This divergence offers the possibility to contrast the experience of virtuous regions (Latin America and parts of East and South-East Asia) and non-virtuous regions (the European economies in transition and China) so as to draw useful lessons. Since the global economic conditions affecting inequality in these countries were not too dissimilar and since no major variations in endogenous factors were evident across the regions analysed, the difference in inequality trends between virtuous and non-virtuous regions was most likely due to institutional factors and public policies. An econometric test confirms that the reduction of inequality is possible even under open economy conditions if a given set of appropriate macroeconomic, labour, fiscal and social policies is adopted by governments. |
| Keywords: | trends in income inequality, factor income distribution, democracy, policy reforms, international economic integration, international crisis, China, South East Asia, Latin America, transition economies of Europe. |
| JEL: | D31 E60 I38 J08 P51 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2013_13.rdf&r=geo |
| By: | Jean Dubé (Université du Québec à Rimouski); Diègo Legros (LEG/AMIE - CNRS FRE 3496 - Université de Bourgogne) |
| Abstract: | (VF)L'article s'attache à présenter la particularité des données spatiales empilées et montre pourquoi il peut être contre-indiqué d'utiliser les approches spatiales développées pour les données en coupe transversale empilées dans le temps. La dimension temps implique des relations unidirectionnelles, par opposition aux relations multidirectionnelles spatiales. La construction d'une matrice de pondérations spatio-temporelles unique, à partir de matrices de pondérations spatiales et temporelles, permet d'utiliser les modèles et les tests développés pour les données spatiales tout en tenant compte des deux dimensions simultanément. Une série d'applications empiriques montre que la non prise en compte de la dimension temporelle dans les analyses a pour conséquence de surévaluer les mesures de la dépendance spatiale en plus de surévaluer les coefficients autorégressifs spatiaux estimés. Finalement, la prise en compte des deux dimensions, spatiales et temporelles, permet de générer de nouvelles variables explicatives dynamiques, comparables à des effets de pairs, qui s'avèrent significatives dans l’explication des prix de vente immobiliers. (VA)This paper presents the characteristics of spatial data pooled over time and show why these data bases cannot be considered as the same way as spatial panel data or strictly spatial data. The temporal dimension implies a unidirectionality of relations, while spatial relations are multidirectional. The construction of spatio-temporal weights matrix, lying on spatial and temporal weights matrices, allow to use usual statistic models and tests developed for spatial analysis while accounting simultaneously for temporal and spatial dimensions. Empirical examples established the impact of neglecting the temporal dimension in spatial analysis and show how such approach overestimate the pattern of spatial dependence as well as overestimate the spatial autoregressive coefficient estimated. Finally, accounting for both dimensions, spatial and temporal, allow to generate additional independent variables, considering dynamic effect, that appear to play a significant role on determination of real estate prices. |
| Keywords: | (VF)Effets frontières ; Blocs régionaux ; Autocorrélation spatiale ; Afrique Sub-Saharienne. (VA)Border effects; Regional blocs; Spatial Autocorrelation; Sub-Saharan Africa. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lat:legeco:e2013-01&r=geo |