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on Economic Geography |
| By: | Sébastien CHANTELOT (ESC Bretagne Brest); Stéphanie PERES (USC INRA 2032 GAIA); Stéphane VIROL (GREThA, UMR CNRS 5113) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the creative class geography in France, in 2006. This geography is seen here through the lens of Explanatory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA). This method brings originality to the question of creative people geography in addition to the spatial context, France, where this question hasn’t been deepened yet. Methodology allows measurement of spatial agglomeration degree and identification of creative people location patterns. First, by computing locational Gini index and Moran’s I statistic of global spatial autocorrelation. These measures provide an overview of the spatial distribution of creative people among French districts and the existence of some hotspot regions with strong dynamic of creative people accumulation. Second, Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) tools, such as Moran scatterplot and LISA statistics, allow to identify district clusters of creative people. It leads to evidence that creative people are unevenly geographically distributed across French districts. District clusters of creative occupations result from spreading of French largest cities influence. |
| Keywords: | Creative class, ESDA, location patterns, spatial autocorrelation, French districts |
| JEL: | C12 O18 R23 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2010-16&r=geo |
| By: | Pavlyuk, Dmitry |
| Abstract: | This paper aimed at a statistical analysis of competition for tourists between regions within Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and estimation relative efficiency levels of regions. We apply a modern approach called Spatial Stochastic Frontier and corresponded to spatial modification of a stochastic frontier model. We specify two alternative spatial stochastic frontier models – distance and travel-time based to identify an influence of existing transport network on research results. Using the model we analyse region-specific factors (tourism infrastructure, employment, geographical position and natural attractors) having an effect on a number of visitors and estimate regions' efficiency values. We discover a significant level of inefficiency of Baltic states regions and propose some ways to improve the situation. |
| Keywords: | spatial stochastic frontier; efficiency; competition; regional tourism; transport network |
| JEL: | C51 O18 R15 C31 L83 C33 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:25052&r=geo |
| By: | Todd Gabe; Jaison R. Abel; Adrienne Ross; Kevin Stolarick |
| Abstract: | This study identifies clusters of U.S. and Canadian metropolitan areas with similar knowledge traits. These groups—ranging from Making Regions, characterized by knowledge about manufacturing, to Thinking Regions, noted for knowledge about the arts, humanities, information technology, and commerce—can be used by analysts and policymakers for the purposes of regional benchmarking or comparing the types of programs and infrastructure available to support closely related economic activities. In addition these knowledge-based clusters help explain the types of regions that have levels of economic development that exceed, or fall short of, other places with similar amounts of college attainment. Regression results show that Engineering, Enterprising, and Building Regions are associated with higher levels of productivity and earnings per capita, while Teaching, Understanding, Working, and Comforting Regions have lower levels of economic development. |
| Keywords: | Regional economics ; Productivity ; Manufacturing industries ; Education - Economic aspects ; Professional employees |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:470&r=geo |
| By: | Alfredo Marvão Pereira (Department of Economics, The College of William and Mary); Jorge M. Andraz (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Algarve) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to identify the effects of railroad infrastructure investments on aggregate and regional economic performance in Portugal. At the aggregate level, we show that railroad investments crowd in private investment and employment and have strong effects on output. At the regional level, we show that railroad investments affect private investment positively in all regions, employment in only Lisbon and North, and output in all regions with the exception of Alentejo. The effects are regionally distributed in a rather uneven manner with Lisbon and North capturing the bulk of the effects. Our results also highlight the relevance of regional spillovers. In terms of the relative effects of comparable railroad investments in the region and elsewhere in the country, we find that North and Center benefit more from investments elsewhere while the remaining regions benefit more from local investments. Finally, from a country-wide perspective, railroad investments located in Lisbon generate the largest marginal benefits, which reflect, mostly, the large effects in the Lisbon region itself. By contrast, railroad investments in the remaining regions have a much lower marginal benefit to the country but these benefits reflect mostly spillovers. This highlights the difficulty in implementing policies that simultaneously maximize aggregate growth and reduce regional disparities. |
| Keywords: | railroad infrastructure, public investment, regional spillovers |
| JEL: | C32 H54 R53 |
| Date: | 2010–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwm:wpaper:96&r=geo |
| By: | Emanuel Shachmurove (Independent); Yochanan Shachmurove (Department of Economics,The City College of the City University of New YorkAuthor-Name:) |
| Abstract: | Economic Geography maintains that economic activities are not randomly distributed across space. This paper examines the impact of industrial and regional characteristics on venture capital activities in the United States from 1995 until 2009. The unique database allows for stratifications into seventeen industries within nineteen regions of the United States. This study affirms the significance of both Location and industry in venture capital investment. Both statistical and graphical methods are employed in order to better ascertain the dynamic nature of the data. |
| Keywords: | Venture Capital; Economic Geography; Location; Biotechnology; Business Products and Services; Computers and Peripherals; Consumer Products and Services; Electronics and Instrumentation; Financial Services; Healthcare Services; Industrial and Energy; Information Technology Services; Media and Entertainment; Medical Devices and Equipment; Networking and Equipment; Retailing and Distribution; Semiconductors; Software; Telecommunications. |
| JEL: | C12 D81 D92 E22 G24 G3 M13 M21 O16 O3 |
| Date: | 2010–08–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:10-030&r=geo |
| By: | Karl-Johan Lundquist; Lars-Olof Olander |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwsre:sre-disc-2010_04&r=geo |
| By: | Bianca Biagi; Claudio Detotto |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the linkage between tourism and crime with particular focus on the distortions generated onto criminal activities by the presence of visitors. Controlling for socio-demographic and economic variables, we empirically investigate the contribution of tourist arrivals to different types of crimes for 103 Italian provinces and for the year 2005. Possible spill-over effects of crime are taken into account by testing two spatial models (one spatial lag model and one spatial error model). We also test the hypothesis according to which the different geography of tourist destinations - i.e. urban, mountain, marine etc- alters the impact of tourism on crime. Finally, we measure the social cost of crime associated with tourist arrivals. |
| Keywords: | Crime; tourism; spill-over effect; negative externality |
| JEL: | K0 R0 L83 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:201015&r=geo |
| By: | Hellerstedt, Karin (Jönköping International Business School); Wennberg, Karl (The Ratio Institute and Stockholm School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an analysis of regional start-up rates in the knowledge intensive services and high-tech industries. To supplement prevailing frameworks focusing mainly on supply-side economic factors, we integrate insights from economic geography and population ecology to the entrepreneurship literature as to present a theoretical framework that captures both supply-and demand-side factors, with a specific emphasis on the demand side. Using a rich multi-level data material on all knowledge intensive start-ups across the 286 Swedish municipalities between 1994 and 2002, the empirical analysis focuses on how characteristics of the economic milieu of regions influence firm births. We find that economically affluent regions dominate entrepreneurial activity in terms of firm births, yet a number of much smaller rural region revealed high levels of start ups. Both economic and sociological variables such as knowledge spillovers from universities and firm R&D, and the political regulatory regime within the municipality, exhibit strong influences on firm births. These patterns points to strong support for the notion that ‘the geographic connection’ is important for analyzing entrepreneurial processes. |
| Keywords: | Firm birth; Geography; Entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | M13 R11 R23 |
| Date: | 2010–09–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0156&r=geo |
| By: | Thomas K. Bauer; Matthias Vorell |
| Abstract: | Using a matched employer-employee panel dataset for Germany, we analyze the external eff ects of education on individual wages. Following the basic framework of Moretti (2004), we allow spillover eff ects to occur both within a specifi c fi rm and a specifi c region rather than analyzing spillover eff ects only on a regional level. Controlling for individual- and fi rm-specifi c fi xed eff ects and using an instrumental variable strategy, our results confi rm the existence of positive but small external eff ects of human capital. Positive spillover eff ects within fi rms occur only for the group of high-skilled workers. |
| Keywords: | External eff ects; human capital; employer-employee matched data |
| JEL: | C23 D62 J31 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0195&r=geo |
| By: | Arthur Grimes (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, University of Waikato); Mark Holmes (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | House price trends in each of New Zealand and Australia are frequently discussed as national level developments. Sub-national developments are also important, especially where regions display idiosyncratic trends driven either by demand factors (differential income patterns) or by supply factors (geographical or regulatory restrictions). At a broader scale, it is possible that the New Zealand housing market, or a specific regional housing market (e.g. Auckland), is part of a broader Australasian housing market. If this were the case, New Zealand house prices would converge to a broadly stable ratio of house prices in Australia. One reason this could occur is if international macroeconomic and asset price trends dominate housing market outcomes. New Zealand authorities may then be relatively powerless to control the major real determinants of house prices through regulatory or other policies. We extract the major drivers of house prices at regional levels within New Zealand and Australia to examine the degree of differentiation across regional housing markets. While some minor regional differences are apparent, the evidence points to the dominance of a single trans-Tasman housing trend. |
| Keywords: | House price convergence; international housing markets; Australasia |
| JEL: | R21 R31 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:10_07&r=geo |
| By: | Calo-Blanco Aitor (Pablo de Olavide University; Ivie); Villar Notario Antonio (Pablo de Olavide University; Ivie) |
| Abstract: | This working paper analyzes the performance of the Spanish educational system according to the 2006 PISA report, focussing on the equality of opportunity. The basic idea is that a good educational system should produce outcomes that depend basically on the students effort and not on the students external circumstances (parental background here). We present a simple formula to estimate the inequality of opportunity and analyze empirically the behaviour of Spain and its constituent regions, both with respect to quality (mean scores) and with respect to the inequality of opportunity. We find that Spain performs better than the European average in terms of equality of opportunity and worse in terms of quality. We also find large and systematic differences between the Spanish regions |
| Keywords: | Quality of education, equality of opportunity, PISA report, regional disparities |
| Date: | 2010–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fbb:wpaper:20104&r=geo |
| By: | Areal, Francisco J; Balcombe, Kelvin; Tiffin, R |
| Abstract: | An approach to incorporate spatial dependence into Stochastic Frontier analysis is developed and applied to a sample of 215 dairy farms in England and Wales. A number of alternative specifications for the spatial weight matrix are used to analyse the effect of these on the estimation of spatial dependence. Estimation is conducted using a Bayesian approach and results indicate that spatial dependence is present when explaining technical inefficiency. |
| Keywords: | Spatial dependence; technical efficiency; Bayesian; spatial weight matrix |
| JEL: | C51 C13 C23 Q12 C11 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:24961&r=geo |
| By: | Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M.; Feddersen, Arne |
| Abstract: | This paper presents evidence that high speed rail systems, by bringing economic agents closer together, sustainably promote economic activity within regions that enjoy an increase in accessibility. Our results on the one hand confirm expectations that have led to huge public investments into high speed rail all over the world. On the other hand, they confirm theoretical predictions arising from a consolidate body of (New) Economic Geography literature taking a positive, man-made and reproducible shock as a case in point. We argue that the economic geography framework can help to derive ex-ante predictions on the economic impact of transport projects. The subject case is the German high speed rail track connecting Cologne and Frankfurt, which, as we argue, provides exogenous variation in access to regions due to the construction of intermediate stations in the towns of Limburg and Montabaur. |
| Keywords: | NEG; high speed rail; transport policy; market access; acces-sibility |
| JEL: | R12 R48 R38 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:25106&r=geo |
| By: | Pisani, Elena |
| Abstract: | A recent transition in the field of agrarian economics theory for rural development is the move from a narrow agricultural sector approach, to one which adopts broader territorial vision. This passage seeks to interpret interactions between urban and rural worlds in a more comprehensive manner.This relatively new theoretical perspective is of particular interest to academics and politicians in Latin American countries where, since the mid 1990s, the concept of new rurality has been seen as the source of a new approach to rural development. Therefore the theoretical purpose of this research is to clarify the analytical signposts of the new rurality theme in Latin America and to identify the differences between sectoral and territorial approaches considering the socio-economic, institutional and environmental aspects involved. The transition from sectoral to territorial approaches also means, from an operative point of view, the recognition of homogeneous areas for the suggestion of rural development strategies. The operative purpose of this research consists in proposing a methodology to identify these areas with an application in the Maule Region in Chile. The conclusion underlines some critical elements that should be considered in the definition of territorial rural development strategies. |
| Keywords: | sectoral and territorial approaches; rural development policy; new rurality; Latin America; Chile; cluster analysis |
| JEL: | R58 O54 R11 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:24975&r=geo |
| By: | Francisco María Pertierra Cánepa |
| Abstract: | A lo largo de este trabajo analizaremos la figura del fideicomiso en su aplicación a los proyectos donde participa el Estado Argentino, sea nacional, provincial o municipal, desempeñando el rol de promotor o directamente como líder del emprendimiento. Se los denomina fideicomisos públicos o fondos fiduciarios y tomando como punto de partida el fideicomiso argentino de la ley 24.441 que pertenece al derecho privado, se buscará identificar en el utilizado por el Estado, los elementos tipificantes de la figura, demostrando que estos fideicomisos deberían ser privados pero con la característica diferencial que deben tener acción directa sobre el bienestar público y común, dada su premisa fundacional. A través del estudio de casos prácticos seleccionados se identificarán en los fideicomisos actuales impulsados por el Estado, con el supuesto objetivo del mayor bienestar e interés público, las desviaciones con respecto al espíritu y marco teórico que define al contrato de fiducia en su aplicación a los fines nobles que un Estado debe perseguir en beneficio de la comunidad involucrada. También se profundizará en el enfoque regional analizando comparativamente la situación Argentina con las experiencias ocurridas en Chile, Colombia y México en el uso del fideicomiso por parte del Estado. Se definieron estos tres países en particular dado que presentan diferentes experiencias y particularidades frente a la aplicación de esta herramienta. Finalmente y en función de las líneas presentadas, se desarrollaran las conclusiones con el fin de aportar una serie de medidas que permitan un mejor uso del fideicomiso, en todos los casos donde el Estado desempeñe el rol de fiduciante. |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cem:doctra:429&r=geo |
| By: | Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M.; Georgios, Kavetsos |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the channels through which stadium externalities capitalize into property prices. We investigate two of the largest stadium investment projects of the recent decade – the This paper focuses on the channels through which stadium externalities capitalize into property prices. We investigate two of the largest stadium investment projects of the recent decade – the New Wembley and the Emirates stadium in London, UK. Evidence suggests positive stadium externalities, which are large compared to construction costs. Notable anticipation effects are found immediately following the announcement of the final stadium plans. Our results emphasize the role stadium architecture plays in promoting positive spillovers to the neighbourhood. We therefore recommend public funding of large-scale sports facilities to be made conditional on a comprehensive urban design strategy that maximizes the external benefits. |
| Keywords: | Property prices Stadium impact |
| JEL: | R53 R58 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:25003&r=geo |
| By: | Hoyt Bleakley; Jeffrey Lin. |
| Abstract: | The authors examine portage sites in the U.S. South, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest, including those on the fall line, a geomorphologic feature in the southeastern U.S. marking the final rapids on rivers before the ocean. Historically, waterborne transport of goods required portage around the falls at these points, while some falls provided water power during early industrialization. These factors attracted commerce and manufacturing. Although these original advantages have long since been made obsolete, the authors document the continuing-and even increasing-importance of these portage sites over time. They interpret this finding in a model with path dependence arising from local increasing returns to scale. |
| Keywords: | Geography ; Urban economics |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:10-27&r=geo |
| By: | F. Combes (Université Paris Est - LVMT); André De Palma (ENS Cachan - Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan - École normale supérieure de Cachan - ENS Cachan, Department of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique - CNRS : UMR7176 - Polytechnique - X) |
| Abstract: | We set a framework where an individual has to choose one among a set of spatially distributed activities. The individual knows the price of each activity, as well as the distance to reach it. She has either full or zero information about each activity's quality. Qualities are modeled by i.i.d. random variables. Under the full information regime, the individual knows the realizations of the qualities; while under the no information regime, she only knows the distribution of the qualities. In that case, she can decide either ex ante, or en route, how many activities to patronize. We analyze the impact of information availability on the choice process, on the distance the individual covers, and on the individual's expected utility. In this framework, more information yields longer distance traveled, but also higher utility. We compute the individual's willingness to pay for information. Finally, we show that providing information may decrease the individual's benefit when congestion arises. |
| Keywords: | travel demand, search, logit, information regimes, value of information, differentiation |
| Date: | 2010–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00517718_v1&r=geo |