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on Economic Geography |
| By: | Chun-Yu Ho (Department of Economics, Boston University); Dan Li (Department of Economics, Boston University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the evolution of Chinese urban income distribution across space and time in post-reform era. Our results suggest no evidence on income convergence across cities during the period 1984-2003. We find that cities with comparable income level are likely to be co-located in the same region; further, cities tend to mirror the mobility of their counterparts located in the same province, but not the same region. The divergence in urban income across the nation will continue if the current economic growth pattern persists in the future. |
| Keywords: | City Income Distribution; Convergence; Markov Process; Spatial Dependence; China |
| JEL: | O15 O18 R12 R58 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:wpaper:wp2007-23&r=geo |
| By: | Judith Hellerstein; Melissa McInerney; David Neumark |
| Abstract: | We contrast the spatial mismatch hypothesis with what we term the racial mismatch hypothesis - that the problem is not a lack of jobs, per se, where blacks live, but a lack of jobs into which blacks are hired, whether because of discrimination or labor market networks in which race matters. We first report new evidence on the spatial mismatch hypothesis, using data from Census Long-Form respondents. We construct direct measures of the presence of jobs in detailed geographic areas, and find that these job density measures are related to employment of black male residents in ways that would be predicted by the spatial mismatch hypothesis - in particular that spatial mismatch is primarily an issue for low-skilled black male workers. We then look at racial mismatch, by estimating the effects of job density measures that are disaggregated by race. We find that it is primarily black job density that influences black male employment, whereas white job density has little if any influence on their employment. This evidence implies that space alone plays a relatively minor role in low black male employment rates. |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:07-16&r=geo |
| By: | Mourao, Paulo |
| Abstract: | Abstract: Planning on the space needs sharing, conceiving, dividing and acting: sharing resources, conceiving policies, dividing the territory, deciding by an enlightened way and acting with efficiency and with efficacy. This work shows the richness related to the definition of regional space and it verifies the multiple complexities of the processes of planning, deeply dependent on the quality of the financing instruments or on the economic and political structures, also discussed recurring to the examples of Portugal and of the European communitarian project. |
| Keywords: | Keywords: Regional planning / Region / European Union |
| JEL: | R58 R11 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:4378&r=geo |
| By: | Edgar Morgenroth (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)) |
| Abstract: | In Ireland as in many other countries there has been an ongoing debate on the nature, degree and trends of regional imbalance, which has led to substantial research output. While much is now known about these trends, the degree to which they are ameliorated by existing public policies has not been systematically examined. This paper considers two aspects of public policy namely the fiscal system and public expenditure. In particular regional government accounts are constructed, which identify the level of taxation, subsidisation and public expenditure at the regional level. These are then used to identify the degree of regional re-distribution. That analysis confirms that the fiscal system does reduce relative income differences in Ireland. Dublin and the South-West contribute to a substantial resource transfer to other regions. In contrast to the findings for the UK, the level of transfers is found to be highly related to the state of development. In other words the fiscal system works in a progressive manner in relation to regional disparities. Nevertheless the better off regions receive an above average level of expenditure so that the system only partially equalises. |
| Keywords: | Regional disparities, government expenditure, taxes |
| JEL: | H72 H77 R11 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp195&r=geo |
| By: | Chun- Yu Ho (Department of Economics, Boston University); Dan Li (Department of Economics, Boston University) |
| Abstract: | Abstract. Regional inequality is severe in China since regional development is uneven due to various initial conditions and government policies. We employ unit root tests allowing for structural breaks to alternative inequality measures from 1952 to 2000. Empirical results indicate that (1) the regional inequality is trend stationary with structural breaks rather than follow a random walk. Thus, ignoring structural changes might induce incorrect inference and misleading policy implications; (2) the break points are associated with episodic events in Chinese economic history such as the Cultural Revolution and market reforms. It implies that the policies had a long-lasting and fundamental effect on the inequality. |
| Keywords: | Structural break; unit root; inequality; China |
| JEL: | C22 O15 R58 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:wpaper:wp2007-014&r=geo |
| By: | Kristian, BEHRENS; Johnathan H. HAMILTON; Gianmarco I.P., OTTAVIANO |
| Abstract: | We develop a model of commodity tax competition with monopolistically competitive internationally mobile firms, transport costs, and asymmetric country sizes. We investigate the impacts of non-cooperative tax setting, as well as of tax harmonization and changes in the tax principle, in both the short and the long run. The origin principle, when compared to the destination principle, is shown to exacerbate tax competition and to erode tax revenues, yet leads to a more equal spatial distribution of economic activity. This suggests that federations which care about spatial inequality, like the European Union, face a non-trivial- choice for their tax principle that goes beyond the standard considerations of tax revenue redistribution. |
| Keywords: | commodity tax competitions; origin principle; destination principle; tax harmonization; industry location |
| JEL: | F12 H22 H87 R12 |
| Date: | 2007–07–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvec:2007020&r=geo |
| By: | Raffaella SANTOLINI (Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Economia) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to conduct an empirical investigation regarding the presence of political and informative trends in tax setting of local governments as an alternative theoretical explanation to the tax mimick-ing. Both phenomena have been tested on municipalities' cross-sectional data of the Marche region with a spatial econometrics model. Discrimi-nating among several sources of tax mimicking, including public spend-ing spill-over, some evidence was found in favour of the political trend. As regards the informative trend, non significant results were observed testing tax interaction among heterogeneous coalitions. However, some evidence is present on local public spending. |
| Keywords: | informative trend, political trend, spatial econometrics, tax mimicking |
| JEL: | C31 H71 H72 H77 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:294&r=geo |
| By: | Klaus Desmet; Esteban Rossi-Hansberg |
| Abstract: | U.S. county data for the last 20 or 30 years show that manufacturing employment has been deconcentrating. In contrast, the service sector exhibits concentration in counties with intermediate levels of employment. This paper presents a theory where local sectoral growth is driven by technological diffusion across space. The age of an industry -- measured as the time elapsed since the last major general purpose technology innovation in the sector -- determines the pattern of scale dependence in growth rates. Young industries exhibit non-monotone relationships between employment levels and growth rates, while old industries experience negative scale dependence in growth rates. The model then predicts that the relationship between county employment growth rates and county employment levels in manufacturing at the turn of the 20th century should be similar to the same relationship in services in the last 20 years. We provide evidence consistent with this prediction. |
| JEL: | E2 O3 O4 R1 |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13302&r=geo |
| By: | Ian Davidoff; Andrew Leigh |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between housing prices and the quality of public schools in the Australian Capital Territory. To disentangle the effects of schools and other neighbourhood characteristics on the value of residential properties, we compare sale prices of homes on either side of high school attendance boundaries. We find that a 5 percent increase in test scores (approximately one standard deviation) is associated with a 3.5 percent increase in house prices. Our result is in line with private school tuition costs, and accords with prior research from Britain and the United States. Estimating the effect of school quality on house prices provides a possible measure of the extent to which parents value better educational outcomes. |
| Keywords: | housing demand, school quality |
| JEL: | I22 R21 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:558&r=geo |
| By: | Antonio Rafael Peña Sánchez (Universidad de Cádiz) |
| Abstract: | El objetivo del presente trabajo es doble. Por un lado, tratamos de ofrecer una visión panorámica de la concentración de la producción en el interior de Andalucía en la década de los noventa,y por otro lado, analizamos algunos de los factores que pueden estar condicionando dicha distribución, como son la densidad de población y la distribución territorial de las infraestructuras y del nivel de inversión, y limitando el proceso de crecimiento provocando fuertes disparidades económicas en el territorio andaluz. |
| Keywords: | concentración productiva, aglomeración, densidad de riqueza monetaria,distribución territorial. |
| JEL: | D33 J11 R10 R11 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cea:doctra:e2007_12&r=geo |
| By: | Giancarlo Corò (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Stefano Micelli (Department of Business, University Of Venice Cà Foscari) |
| Abstract: | This essay examines the situation and the lines of development of industrial districts from the point of view of local systems of innovation. First of all, this article points out to the modernity factors of the district model – which are ascribable to the supply chain economy, to entrepreneurial dynamics and to the importance of geography as a competitive resource – through the analysis of recent contributions of economic literature that examined the emerging organizational models in knowledge economy. Secondly, the outcomes of recent research on leading companies of Italian industrial districts will be presented, looking at three particularly topics of ongoing changes: the process of international opening of the value chain, the technological conditions of competitive advantage, the relationship between strategies and economic performance. Finally, some considerations on the issue of policies will be developed. Such considerations underline the need to re-think the traditional models of local governance of development and suggest to look at the new external district economies, based on service economies, on much more considerable investments in training, technological and cultural activities and, finally, on more aware institutional actions with reference to the association of companies in innovation projects. |
| Keywords: | Industrial districts, Innovation Systems, Entrepreneurship, Global Value Chain |
| JEL: | L26 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:04_07&r=geo |