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on Economic Geography |
| By: | Oren Ziv |
| Abstract: | Geography models have introduced and estimated a set of competing explanations for the persistent relationships between firm and location characteristics, but cannot identify these forces. I introduce a solution method for models in arbitrary geographies that generates reduced-form predictions and tests to identify forces acting through geographic linkages. This theoretical approach creates a new strategy for spatial empirics. Using the correct observables, the model shows that geographic forces can be taken into account without being directly estimated; establishment and employment density emerge as sufficient statistics for all geographic forces. I present two applications. First, the model can be used to evaluate whether geographic linkages matter and when simplified models suffice: the mono-centric model is a good fit for business services firms but cannot capture the geography of manufactures. Second, the model generates reduced-form tests that distinguish between spillovers and firm sorting and finds evidence of sorting. |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:17-10&r=geo |
| By: | Mizuki Kawabata (Faculty of Economics, Keio University); Yukiko Abe (Graduate School of Economics and Business Administration, Hokkaido University) |
| Abstract: | We examine intra-metropolitan patterns of geographic disparities in female participation in the labor market and their associations with commuting time in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Our analysis based on the Global Moran's I and Getis-Ord Gi* statistics reveals that the spatial patterns of labor force participation and regular employment rates differ markedly by marital status and the presence of children. Compared with unmarried women and married women without children, married women with children exhibit more significant spatial clustering of high and low values of labor force participation and regular employment rates, and these rates are negatively correlated with male commuting time. The non-spatial and spatial regression results show that for married women with children, longer commuting time is significantly associated with lower participation and regular employment rates, while for unmarried women and married women without children, the associations are mostly insignificant. These results are robust to different model specifications and spatial weights. Our findings suggest that policies alleviating commuting constraints help women with children in dual-earner couples more actively participate in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | female labor force participation, spatial patterns, geographic information systems (GIS), spatial statistics, Tokyo metropolitan area |
| JEL: | J21 R12 C30 |
| Date: | 2016–11–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:2016-024&r=geo |
| By: | Sultan Orazbayev |
| Abstract: | Face-to-face contact, even temporary one, helps researchers form personal ties and transfer tacit knowledge. The ability of researchers to colocate, including attendance at international conferences, workshops and seminars, is affected by the administrative barriers to international mobility. This paper uses a gravity-style empirical framework to examine the link between international knowledge flows and immigration policies. The results suggest that the paper walls erected by such policies reduce not just the mobility of individuals, but also the diffusion of knowledge. A moderately restrictive mobility barrier reduces incoming and outgoing knowledge flows by about 0.8-1.3% per year. The effect of knowledge-exporting country's policy persists for nearly 10 years. There is also a short-term asymmetry: diffusion of recent knowledge is affected more by the immigration policy of a knowledge-exporter rather than a knowledge-importer. |
| Keywords: | diffusion of knowledge; academic mobility; immigration policy; visa policy; migration |
| JEL: | F10 F29 O33 R10 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:see:wpaper:2017:1&r=geo |
| By: | Tadashi Ito (Faculty of International Social Science, Gakushuin University); Toshiyuki Matsuura (Keio Economic Observatory, Keio University); Chih-Hai Yang (National Central University) |
| Abstract: | The concern regarding the hollowing out by FDI has re-emerged in Japan, with both large and small firms relocating their plants to China since the late 1990s. This study sheds lights on the effects of agglomeration and firm characteristics upon the complementary relationship between FDI and import of intermediate input from home country, which has been overlooked in the literature. Estimating the duration model of Japanese affiliates' input trade by using parent?affiliate, productlevel data from 2000 to 2006, we found while firms in agglomerated regions with more foreign affiliates shorten its duration, small firms import for a longer duration. |
| Keywords: | FDI by SMEs, Trade duration, Intermediate goods, Agglomeration |
| JEL: | F14 F21 F23 |
| Date: | 2016–11–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:2016-025&r=geo |
| By: | Lévêque, Christophe; Saleh, Mohamed |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of state industrialization on residential segregation between Muslims and non-Muslims in nineteenth-century Cairo using individual-level census samples from 1848 and1868. We measure local segregation by a simple inter-group isolation index, where Muslims' (non-Muslims') isolation is measured by the share of Muslim (non-Muslim) households in the local environment of each location. We find that relative to locations that did not witness changes in industrialization, the opening of Cairo railway station in 1856 differentially increased Muslims' isolation from non-Muslims (conversely, decreased non-Muslims' isolation) in its proximity and that the closures of textiles firms in 1848-1868 differentially decreased it. The results are arguably driven by a labor market mechanism, whereby state rms crowded in unskilled jobs that attracted greater net inows of rural immigrants and unskilled workers who were predominantly Muslims. |
| Keywords: | local segregation; industrialization; Middle East; railways; slums |
| JEL: | N35 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:iastwp:31397&r=geo |
| By: | Wu, Yiyun (Asian Development Bank Institute); Zhu, Xiwei (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the trends and determinants of geographic concentration and industrial specialization in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) using interprovincial panel data for the period from 1999 to 2010. It shows that, after 2005, both geographic concentration and industrial specialization began to decrease, resulting in an increased similarity of provincial industrial structure. Industrial policies of provincial governments cause geographic dispersion and inverse specialization. The result is robust when using instrumental variables to deal with possible reverse causality and omitted variable problems. The mechanism behind this is that central government industrial policy, which tends to last for several years, is an important reference document for each provincial planner. This causes the less-developed regions to deviate from their comparative advantages, resulting in a combination of insufficient geographic concentration and inverse specialization in the PRC. |
| Keywords: | geographic concentration; dispersal; industrial policy; specialization; local government; provincial government; economic geography |
| JEL: | L59 L60 R12 |
| Date: | 2017–01–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0633&r=geo |