|
on Economic Geography |
| By: | GOBILLON Laurent; MAGNAC Thierry; SELOD Harris |
| Abstract: | There are large spatial disparities in unemployment durations across the 1,300 France). In order to characterize these imbalances, we estimate a proportional on an exhaustive dataset of all unemployment spells starting in the first recover a survival function for each municipality that is purged of individual only 30% of the disparities in the survival rates relate to observed individual disparities are captured by local indicators, mainly segregation indices. |
| Keywords: | residential segregation, spatial mismatch, urban unemployment, duration model |
| JEL: | C41 J64 R23 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lea:leawpi:0703&r=geo |
| By: | Jean Eid (University of Toronto); Henry G. Overman (London School of Economics); Diego Puga (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and IMDEA); Matthew A. Turner (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between urban sprawl and obesity. Using data that tracks individuals over time, we find no evidence that urban sprawl causes obesity. We show that previous findings of a positive relationship most likely reflect a failure to properly control for the fact the individuals who are more likely to be obese choose to live in more sprawling neighborhoods. Our results indicate that current interest in changing the built environment to counter the rise in obesity is misguided. |
| Keywords: | urban sprawl; obesity; selection effects |
| JEL: | I12 R14 |
| Date: | 2007–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2007-01&r=geo |
| By: | Philippe Lemistre (LIRHE - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de recherche sur les Ressources Humaines et l'Emploi - [CNRS : UMR5066] - [Université des Sciences Sociales - Toulouse I]); Nicolas Moreau (LIRHE - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de recherche sur les Ressources Humaines et l'Emploi - [CNRS : UMR5066] - [Université des Sciences Sociales - Toulouse I]) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this article is to reevaluate the returns to geographic mobility and to the level<br />of education, taking into account the interaction between these two variables. We have at our<br />disposal an original French database that permits precise calculation of the distance between<br />the place of education and the location of first employment. We thus capture mobility without<br />a priori regarding the geographical areas selected, and we use kilometric thresholds to<br />estimate the returns to spatial mobility. Our results suggest decreasing returns to spatial<br />mobility as the distance covered rises and increasing returns to mobility with higher levels of<br />education. In addition, for all levels of education, including the lowest, returns to geographic<br />mobility prove to be positive, for one threshold at least and several distances. |
| Keywords: | spatial mobility; returns to schooling; earnings function |
| Date: | 2007–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00131849_v1&r=geo |
| By: | Henry G. Overman (London School of Economics); Diego Puga (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and IMDEA); Matthew A. Turner (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | This paper decomposes the growth in land occupied by residences in the United States to give the relative contributions of changing demographics versus increases in the land area used by individual households. Between 1976 and 1992 the amount of residential land in the United States grew 47.5% while population only grew 17.8%. At first glance, this suggest an important role for per-household increases. However, the calculations in this paper show that only 24.3% of the growth in residential land area can be attributed to State-level changes in land per household. 37.5% is due to overall population growth, 5.9% to the shift of population towards States with larger houses, 22.7% to an increase in the number of households over this period, and the remaining 9.5% to interactions between these changes. There are large differences across states and metropolitan areas in the relative importance of these components. |
| Keywords: | land use; population growth |
| JEL: | R14 O51 |
| Date: | 2007–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2007-02&r=geo |
| By: | Giulio Bottazzi; Giovanni Dosi; Giorgio Fagiolo; Angelo Secchi |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study a class of evolutionary models of industrial agglomeration with local positive feedbacks, which allow for a wide set of empirically-testable implications. Their roots rest in the Generalized Polya Urn framework. Here, however, we build on a birth-death process over a finite number of locations and a finite population of firms. The process of selection among production sites that are heterogeneous in their ?intrinsic attractiveness? occurs under a regime of dynamic increasing returns depending on the number of firms already present in each location. The general model is presented together with a few examples of small economies which help to illustrate the properties of the model and characterize its asymptotic behavior. Finally, we discuss a number of empirical applications of our theoretical framework. The basic model, once taken to the data, is able to empirically disentangle the relative strength of technologically-specific agglomeration drivers (affecting differently firms belonging to different industrial sectors in each location) from site-specific geographical forces (horizontally acting upon all sectors in each location). |
| Keywords: | Industrial Location, Agglomeration, Dynamic Increasing Returns, Markov Chains, Polya Urns. |
| Date: | 2007–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2007/06&r=geo |
| By: | Ghebreegziabiher Debrezion (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Eric Pels (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Piet Rietveld (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This study models the choices of Dutch railway users (aggregated at the 4 digit post code area) for access mode and departure railway stations. For each post code area a set of four access modes: car, public transport, bicycle and walking and a set three departure railway stations are identified. A nested logit model is estimated based on 1440 post code areas using a number of access and rail station features. The access features include distance to the departure station, car ownership level, public transport frequency and travel time by public transport to the departure stations. The station features used in the estimation include rail service quality index and supplementary facilities such as availability of parking space and bicycle standing place. Distance has a negative effect on the utility of departure stations. A steeper effect is observed on the choice of departure stations accessed by the non-motorized modes of walking and bicycle. Availability of parking places and bicycle standing areas have a positive effect on the choice of departure railway stations accessed by car and bicycle respectively. Public transport frequency has a positive whereas public transport travel time has a negative effect on the choice of departure stations accessed by public transport. The rail service quality index of a station has a significant and positive effect on the choice of departure stations accessed by all modes. |
| Keywords: | departure railway station choice; access mode choice; nested logit model |
| JEL: | R2 R4 |
| Date: | 2007–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20070012&r=geo |
| By: | Katharina Frosch (Rostock Centre for the Study of Demographic Change, Germany); Thusnelda Tivig (University of Rostock and Rostock Centre for the Study of Demographic Change, Germany) |
| Abstract: | An aging labor force is often associated with a decreasing innovative performance on aggregate, firm or individual level. Using a regional knowledge production function to explain patenting activity in German districts, we propose to include the effect of age in a twofold specification: First, we account indirectly for age by including the aggregate, age-heterogeneous human capital available in each district and estimating its effect on patenting performance. Second, we assume that there is an age effect that is independent of human capital and therefore include the age structure of the districts' labor force directly, too. Possible explanations for an independent age-effect are age-dependent differences in the ability to exploit innovation-relevant human capital or age-specific motivation to lead creative ideas to successful inventions. Departing from these conceptualizations provided by economics and I-O psychology, we estimate a negative binomial regression model appropriate for count data. Results on German district level indicate that engineering knowledge in the younger as well as the prime age group significantly enhances patenting performance, whereas we do not find any efect for the age group 50+. However, for older ages, the stock of experience has a positive influence. On aggregate level, we find a positive independent age effect. |
| Keywords: | knowledge production function, regional innovation analysis, human capital, aging, demographic change, patents |
| JEL: | O31 J24 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ros:wpaper:71&r=geo |
| By: | Pieter A. Gautier (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Arjen Siegmann (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Aico van Vuuren (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the impact of the murder of film maker Theo van Gogh on November 2, 2004, on listed house prices in Amsterdam with a unique dataset. We use an hedonic-market approach to show that general attitudes towards Muslim minorities were negatively affected by the murder. Specifically, we test for an effect on listed house prices in neighborhoods where more than 25% of the people belong to an ethnic minority from a Muslim country (type I). Relative to the other neighborhoods, house prices in type I neighborhoods decreased by on average 3%, with a widening gap over time. The results are robust to several adjustments including changes in the control group. There is no significant difference in the time it takes for houses to be sold in type I versus other neighborhoods. Finally, people belonging to the Muslim minority were more likely to buy and less likely to sell a house in a type I neighborhood after the murder than before |
| Keywords: | Differences-in-differences; Terror; housing market |
| JEL: | C31 C41 R21 R23 R31 |
| Date: | 2007–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20070013&r=geo |