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on Economic Geography |
| By: | Iris Wanzenböck (Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) Vienna); Thomas Scherngell (Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) Vienna); Thomas Brenner (Philipps-Universität Marburg) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the embeddedness of European regions in different types of inter-regional knowledge networks, namely project based R and D collaborations within the EU Framework Programmes (FPs), co-patent networks and co-publication networks. Embeddedness refers to the network positioning of regions captured in terms of social network analytic (SNA) centrality measures. The objective is to estimate how region-internal and region-external factors influence network embeddedness in the distinct network types, in order to identify differences in their driving factors at the regional level. In our modelling approach, we apply advanced spatial econometric techniques by means of a mixed effects panel version of the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM), and introduce a set of variables accounting for a capacity-specific, a relational as well as a spatial dimension in regional knowledge production activities. The results reveal conspicuous differences between the knowledge networks. Internal capacity- and technology-related aspects but also spatial spillover impacts from surrounding regions prove to be particularly important for centrality in the co-patent network. We also find significant - region-internal and region-external - impacts of general economic conditions on a region’s centrality in the FP network. However, we cannot observe substantial spill-over effects of region-external factors on centrality in the co-publication network. Thus, the distinctive knowledge creation foci in each network seem to find expression in the network structure as well as its regional determinants. |
| Keywords: | knowledge networks, network embeddedness, network centrality, regional knowledge production, panel Spatial Durbin model. |
| JEL: | L14 N74 O33 R15 |
| Date: | 2013–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pum:wpaper:2013-07&r=geo |
| By: | Cassi, Lorenzo; Plunket, Anne |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how network relations, proximity and their interplay affect collaboration and their inventive performance. Using patent citations as a proxy for patent quality, we investigate how the network and proximity characteristics of co-inventors enable them to access different sources of knowledge, in different geographical and organizational contexts, and finally affect the quality of inventive collaboration. Our findings enable to address the proximity paradox, which states that proximity facilitates collaboration and knowledge sharing, but it does not necessarily increase innovative performance, too much proximity may even harm innovation (Boschma and Frenken, 2009; Broekel and Boschma, 2011). |
| Keywords: | Social networks, geographical proximity, technological proximity, co-patenting, network formation. |
| JEL: | D85 L65 O31 O33 R11 |
| Date: | 2013–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:47388&r=geo |
| By: | Guilherme Mendes Resende; Alexandre Xavier Ywata de Carvalho; Patrícia Alessandra Morita Sakowski |
| Abstract: | O objetivo deste estudo consiste em avaliar os resultados de estimações de crescimento econômico regional em múltiplas escalas espaciais, utilizando modelos de painel espacial. As escalas espaciais examinadas são áreas mínimas comparáveis, microrregiões, mesorregiões e estados no período entre 1970 e 2000. Modelos alternativos de painel espacial com efeitos fixos foram estimados sistematicamente nestas escalas espaciais para demonstrar que os coeficientes estimados variam de acordo com a escala utilizada. Os resultados mostram que as conclusões obtidas a partir de regressões de crescimento dependem da escolha da escala espacial. Primeiramente, a hipótese de convergência de clube não pode ser rejeitada, sugerindo haver diferenças nos processos de convergência entre o norte e o sul do Brasil. Além disso, quanto mais agregada for a escala espacial utilizada, maior será o coeficiente positivo da média de anos de escolaridade. O efeito de custos de transporte é positivo e estatisticamente significante para o crescimento econômico apenas no nível do estado. Os coeficientes da densidade populacional mostram que áreas mais densamente povoadas são prejudiciais para o crescimento econômico, sugerindo efeitos de congestionamento no nível de áreas mínimas comparáveis (AMCs), microrregiões e mesorregiões, mas a magnitude destes coeficientes varia de acordo com a escala geográfica. Finalmente, os coeficientes de transbordamento espacial também variam conforme a escala espacial sob análise. Em geral, estes coeficientes são estatisticamente significantes nos níveis de AMC, microrregião e mesorregião; mas, no nível estadual, deixam de ser estatisticamente significantes, sugerindo que transbordamentos espaciais são limitados no espaço. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the results of regional economic growth estimates at multiple spatial scales using spatial panel data models. The spatial scales examined are minimum comparable areas, micro-regions, meso-regions and states over the period between 1970 and 2000. Alternative spatial panel data models with fixed effects were systematically estimated across those spatial scales to demonstrate that the estimated coefficients change with the scale level. The results show that the conclusions obtained from growth regressions are dependent on the choice of spatial scale. First, club convergence hypothesis cannot be rejected suggesting there are differences in the convergence processes between the north and south in Brazil. Moreover, the positive average-years-of-schooling coefficient gets larger as more aggregate spatial scales are used. Transportation costs effect is positive and statistically significant to economic growth only at the state level. Population density coefficients show that higher populated areas are harmful to economic growth demonstrating somehow that congestion effects are operating at the MCA, micro-regional and meso-regional spatial scales, but their magnitudes vary across the geographic scales. Finally, the values of spatial spillovers coefficients also vary according to the spatial scale under analysis. In general, such coefficients are statistically significant at the MCA, micro-regional and meso-regional levels; but, at state level those coefficients are no longer statistically significant suggesting that spatial spillovers are bounded in space. |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipe:ipetds:1830a&r=geo |
| By: | Berliant, Marcus; Weiss, Adam |
| Abstract: | We examine spatial econometric issues arising from the model specification in Henderson, Storeygard and Weil (2012), that uses night light data to proxy for missing or unreliable GDP growth data. |
| Keywords: | GDP, Night light data, Spatial autocorrelation |
| JEL: | C21 C23 |
| Date: | 2013–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:47340&r=geo |
| By: | Tom Broekel (Leibnitz-University Hannover); Nicky Rogge (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven); Thomas Brenner (Philipps-Universität Marburg) |
| Abstract: | The paper contributes to the debate on how to measure regions’ innovation performance. On the basis of the concept of regional innovation efficiency, we propose a new measure that eases the issue of choosing between industry-specific or global measures. We argue for the use of a robust shared-input DEA-model to estimate regions’ innovation efficiency in a global manner, while it can be disaggregated into industry-specific innovation efficiency measures. The latter is particularly useful when relating the innovative output to the R and D input involves the use of blurry matching procedures. We illustrate the use of the method by investigating the innovation efficiency as well as its change in time of German labor market regions. It is shown that the method treats regions that have industry structures skewed towards industries with high and low innovation intensities more fairly than traditional approaches. |
| Keywords: | Keywords: regional innovation efficiency, shared-input DEA, nonparametric efficiency analysis, regional innovation. |
| JEL: | R12 O18 O31 |
| Date: | 2013–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pum:wpaper:2013-08&r=geo |
| By: | Palmberg, Johanna (Entrepreneurship Forum, CESIS, KTH) |
| Abstract: | The importance of cities to economic dynamism and growth cannot be emphasized enough. It is crucial for our understanding of what drives economic growth to understand how cities emerge, develop and prosper. This paper investigates the emergence of cities from a spontaneous order and urban economics perspective. The analysis focus on agglomeration effects, externalities and regional clustering as explanations of cities and regional growth. Factors such as local knowledge and dispersion of knowledge are identified as important growth factors. With origin in Hayek’s famous citation “particular circumstances of time and place” these factors are thoroughly discussed in a spontaneous order framework. |
| Keywords: | Spontaneous orders; cities; urban economics; dynamic externalities; knowledge-flows |
| JEL: | B25 B53 O18 R10 R12 |
| Date: | 2013–05–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0310&r=geo |
| By: | José M. Albert (Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Marta R. Casanova (Department of Applied Economics, University of Valencia, Spain); Jorge Mateu (Department of Mathematics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Vicente Orts (IEI & Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we propose a non-cumulative function for evaluating the spatial concentration of economic activity. This function, which we have called the M marginal function, comes from the tradition of spatial statistics but, at the same time, incorporates some key features from the economic geography approach to measure the tendency of economic activity to cluster. Our technique is a straightforward extension of the ‘modified Ripley’s K function’, converted into a non-cumulative function and more similar in spirit to Duranton and Overman’s K density function. Furthermore, it fulfils all the requirements that have already been recognised by the literature on economic geography as the ones that must be met by any measure of localisation. This M marginal function is enough to provide a global view of the spatial structure of economic activity, to test for localisation and to obtain far more detailed information about cluster structures at fairly short distances. Finally, the two distance-based methods are implemented on a comprehensive set of micro-geographic data from Spanish manufacturing sectors to observe how they behave. |
| Keywords: | distance-based method, non-cumulative function, micro-geographic data, Ripley’s K function, K-density function, spatial location patterns |
| JEL: | C15 C40 C60 R12 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2013/07&r=geo |
| By: | Jeffrey C. Brinkman |
| Abstract: | Congestion pricing has long been held up by economists as a panacea for the problems associated with ever increasing traffic congestion in urban areas. In addition, the concept has gained traction as a viable solution among planners, policymakers, and the general public. While congestion costs in urban areas are significant and clearly represent a negative externality, economists also recognize the advantages of density in the form of positive agglomeration externalities. The long-run equilibrium outcomes in economies with multiple correlated, but offsetting, externalities have yet to be fully explored in the literature. To this end, I develop a spatial equilibrium model of urban structure that includes both congestion costs and agglomeration externalities. I then estimate the structural parameters of the model by using a computational solution algorithm and match the spatial distribution of employment, population, land use, land rents, and commute times in the data. Policy simulations based on the estimates suggest that naive optimal congestion pricing can lead to net negative economic outcomes. |
| Keywords: | Externalities (Economics) ; Urban economics |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedpwp:13-25&r=geo |
| By: | Nguyen Thang Dao (CORE - Center of Operation Research and Econometrics [Louvain] - Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) - Belgique); Julio Davila (CORE - Center of Operation Research and Econometrics [Louvain] - Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) - Belgique, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | We extend Galor and Weil (2000) by including geographical factors in order to show that under some initial conditions, an economy may be locked in Malthusian stagnation and never take off. Specifically, we characterize the set of geographical factors for which this happens, and this way we show how the interplay of the available "land", its suitability for living, and its degree of isolation, determines whether an economy can escape stagnation. |
| Keywords: | Geographical factors; loss of technology; human capital |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00824847&r=geo |
| By: | Erkan Gören (University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the economic growth impact of cultural diversity, both domestically and in neighbouring countries, in a balanced panel of 94 countries covering the period 1970 to 2004. The measures of cultural diversity used in this article were derived from a recently developed computer algorithm intended primarily to measure linguistic distances in an automated fashion. The empirical analysis suggests that the degree of cultural diversity in contiguous neighbouring countries has substantial positive effects on domestic per capita income growth, even controlling for a broad set of regional, institutional, religious and other proximate factors of economic growth. The conclusion is that culturally homogeneous countries gain a strategic advantage over their culturally diverse neighbours. |
| Keywords: | cultural diversity; ethnic diversity; economic growth |
| JEL: | O11 O5 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:old:dpaper:352&r=geo |
| By: | Marta Kaska; Tiiu Paas |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to outline differences in the socio-demographic and employment characteristics of Estonian people who have worked in a neighbouring country – Finland, Sweden, Latvia or Russia. The empirical part of this paper relies on data from CV Keskus – an online employment portal bringing together jobseekers and vacant job posts. The results of our analysis show that different destination regions – the wealthier countries of Finland and Sweden (referred to as East-West mobility) and Latvia and Russia (referred to as East-East mobility) have attracted workers with different personal and job-related characteristics. Ethnicity and higher education are important determinants in explaining differences between East-West and East-East labour flows. Non-Estonians and people with a higher education have been less likely to work in Finland or Sweden. |
| Keywords: | geographic labour mobility, neighbouring countries, cross-country labour flows, Estonia |
| JEL: | J61 O57 R P52 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2013016&r=geo |
| By: | ISHIKAWA Jota; OKUBO Toshihiro |
| Abstract: | This paper studies greenhouse gas (GHG) emission controls in the presence of international carbon leakage through international firm relocation. In a trade and geography framework with two countries ("North" and "South"), only North sets a target for GHG emissions. We compare the consequences of emission quotas, emission taxes, and emission standards under trade liberalization for the location of pollution-intensive and less pollution-intensive sectors and the degree of carbon leakage. With low trade costs, further trade liberalization increases global emissions by facilitating carbon leakage. Regulation by quotas leads to spatial sorting with less carbon leakage and less global emissions than regulation by taxes and standards. |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:13045&r=geo |
| By: | Guilherme Mendes Resende; João Carlos Ramos Magalhães |
| Abstract: | Este texto investiga a evolução das disparidades do produto interno bruto (PIB) per capita brasileiro – cunhada na literatura de convergência sigma (σ) –, entre 1970 e 2008, em quatro escalas regionais (municípios, microrregiões, mesorregiões e Unidades da Federação), utilizando quatro diferentes estatísticas: coeficiente de variação, desvio-padrão, índice de Theil e índice de Gini. Os resultados revelam que, quanto menor a escala de análise, menor é a queda da desigualdade entre 1970 e 2008. A mesma análise feita para dois subconjuntos (ou clubes) de regiões mostra que a significativa queda da desigualdade ocorrida entre os estados do Norte e Nordeste desaparece quando a escala de análise é menor e, segundo alguns indicadores, chega a aumentar entre as microrregiões e municípios. No entanto, os resultados para o resto do país não são tão afetados pela mudança de escala. Assim, pode-se sugerir a ocorrência de processos distintos de convergência do PIB per capita entre os dois grupos de regiões analisados. Isto é, verifica-se um processo de divergência dos PIBs per capita em âmbito microrregional e municipal nas regiões Norte e Nordeste e um processo de convergência no “resto do país”. Este resultado mostrou que não existe uma escala de análise capaz de sintetizar toda a dinâmica regional e que seja mais precisa que as outras, sendo que uma abordagem multiescalar revela-se útil para um melhor entendimento das disparidades dos PIBs per capita regionais no Brasil. This paper investigates the evolution of the Brazilian per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – known as sigma (σ)-convergence –, between 1970 and 2008 across four geographic scales (municipalities, micro-regions, meso-regions and states), using four different statistics – coefficient of variation, standard deviation, Theil index and Gini index. The results reveal that the smaller the scale of analysis the smaller the decrease in inequality between 1970 and 2008. The same analysis conducted for two groups (or clubs) shows that the significant reduction in inequality which happened among the states from the North and Northeast disappears as the scale of analysis gets smaller and, according to two of the four statistics, it even increases between the micro-regions and municipalities. As for the rest of the country the results are not strongly affected by the scale reduction. This suggests the occurrence of a distinct convergence process of the per capita GPD between the two groups of regions, characterized by the divergence of the per capita GDP among the micro-regions and municipalities from the North and Northeast and the convergence for the “rest of the country”. This result shows that there is not one scale that is able to synthesize all the regional dynamics and that is more accurate than the others. In this sense, a multi-scale approach may be useful for a better understanding of the regional per capita GDP disparities in Brazil. |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipe:ipetds:1833&r=geo |