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on Economic Geography |
| By: | Ernest Miguelez (World Intellectual Property Organization, Economics and Statistics Division, Geneva, Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | The goal of this paper is to assess the influence of spatial mobility of knowledge workers on the formation of ties of scientific and industrial collaboration across European regions. Co-location has been traditionally invoked to ease formal collaboration between individuals and firms, since tie formation costs increase with physical distance between partners. In some instances, highly-skilled actors might become mobile and bridge regional networks across separate locations. This paper estimates a fixed effects logit model to ascertain precisely whether there exists a ‘previous co-location premium’ in the formation of networks across European regions. |
| Keywords: | inventors’ mobility, technological collaborations, co-location, European regions, panel data |
| JEL: | C8 J61 O31 O33 R0 |
| Date: | 2013–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wip:wpaper:07&r=geo |
| By: | Jesús Peiró-Palomino (Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain) |
| Abstract: | The number of contributions that have evaluated the convergence patterns across European regions using a wide variety of approaches is now substantial. However, if we focus on the most recent period (2003–2009), the number of contributions shrinks dramatically, and those considering the role of the intangible assets in the enlarged European Union are entirely yet to come. This article focuses on the convergence patterns of income per capita in 216 European regions during the period 1995–2009. Following the distribution dynamics approach, several conditioning schemes are considered, including geography and a set of intangible assets. Opposite to studies focused on earlier periods, the results suggest an intense process of convergence, especially in the most recent years. In addition, while the conditioning factors introduced in the analysis played a remarkable role at the beginning of the analyzed period (1995), facilitating convergence, their influence gradually decreases over time, indicating that regional convergence has obeyed to other forces in the latest years. |
| Keywords: | conditioning schemes, European regional convergence, income distribution dynamics, intangible assets |
| JEL: | C14 D30 O47 R11 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2013/11&r=geo |
| By: | Tony Champion; Mike Coombes; Ian Gordon |
| Abstract: | This paper uses evidence from the (British) Longitudinal Study to examine the influence on occupational advancement of the city-region of residence (an escalator effect) and of relocation between city-regions (an elevator effect). It shows both effects to be substantively important, though less so than the sector of employment. Elevator effects are found to be associated with moves from slacker to tighter regional labour markets. Escalator effects, on the other hand, are linked with residence in larger urban agglomerations, though not specifically London, but also across most of the Greater South East and in second/third order city-regions elsewhere. Sectoral escalator effects are found to be particularly strong in knowledge-intensive activities, with concentrations of these, as of other advanced job types (rather than of graduate labour), contributing strongly to the more dynamic city-regional escalators. The impact of the geographic effects is found to vary substantially with both observed and unobserved personal characteristics, being substantially stronger for the young and for those whose unobserved attributes (e.g. dynamic human capital) generally boost rates of occupational advance. |
| Keywords: | Escalator region, labour migration, elevator effect, city-regions, social mobility, career progression |
| JEL: | J24 J61 J62 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0139&r=geo |
| By: | Alexander Klein; Tim Leunig |
| Abstract: | This paper examines Gibrat's law in England and Wales between 1801 and 1911 using a unique data set covering the entire settlement size distribution. We find that Gibrat's law broadly holds even in the face of population doubling every fifty years, an industrial and transport revolution, and the absence of zoning laws to constrain growth. The result is strongest for the later period, and in counties most affected by the industrial revolution. The exception were villages in areas bypassed by the industrial revolution. We argue that agglomeration externalities balanced urban disamenities such as commuting costs and poor living conditions to ensure steady growth of many places, rather than exceptional growth of few. |
| Keywords: | Gibrat’s law, city-size distribution, industrial revolution |
| JEL: | N93 R12 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:sercdo0140&r=geo |
| By: | McIntyre Stuart G (Department of Econimics, University of Strathclyde) |
| Abstract: | Becker (1968) and Stigler (1970) provide the germinal works for an economic analysis of crime, and their approach has been utilised to consider the response of crime rates to a range of economic, criminal and socioeconomic factors. Until recently however this did not extend to a consideration of the role of personal indebtedness in explaining the observed pattern of crime. This paper uses the Becker (1968) and Stigler (1970) framework, and extends to a fuller consideration of the relationship between economic hardship and theft crimes in an urban setting. The increase in personal debt in the past decade has been significant, which combined with the recent global recession, has led to a spike in personal insolvencies. In the context of the recent recession it is important to understand how increases in personal indebtedness may spillover into increases in social problems like crime. This paper uses data available at the neighbourhood level for London, UK on county court judgments (CCJ’s) granted against residents in that neighbourhood, this is our measure of personal indebtedness, and examines the relationship between a range of community characteristics (economic, socio-economic, etc), including the number of CCJ’s granted against residents, and the observed pattern of theft crimes for three successive years using spatial econometric methods. Our results confirm that theft crimes in London follow a spatial process, that personal indebtedness is positively associated with theft crimes in London, and that the covariates we have chosen are important in explaining the spatial variation in theft crimes. We identify a number of interesting results, for instance that there is variation in the impact of covariates across crime types, and that the covariates which are important in explaining the pattern of each crime type are largely stable across the three periods considered in this analysis. |
| Keywords: | Spatial econometrics; Theft crime; Personal debt default; Economic conditions |
| JEL: | R1 K42 C11 C21 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:str:wpaper:1320&r=geo |
| By: | Michael Wyrwich (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) |
| Abstract: | Previous research on market economies characterized by stable framework conditions shows that several regional factors determine start-up activity. Not much is known about what drives entrepreneurship in unstable environments characterized by significant institutional changes that affect the availability of entrepreneurial opportunities. To fill this gap, this paper focuses on post- communist regions in which start-up activity was basically nonexistent under socialism but significantly more in evidence after the institutional shock of introducing a market economy. It is argued and shown that the allocation of talent into productive entrepreneurship is higher in areas abundantly endowed with individuals who have a relatively high ability to detect viable entrepreneurial opportunities, as indicated by their qualification, and in regions home to a population that is characterized by a high alertness toward opportunities, as indicated by remnants of an entrepreneurial culture that pre- dates socialism. How institutional context affects entrepreneurship over the course of transition is reflected by the negative relationship between urbanization and entrepreneurship that presumably has to do with ill-devised socialist urban planning policies. The regional application of the theory on institutions and entrepreneurship outlined in this paper shows that an entrepreneurial rebound after an adverse large-scale shock accompanied by massive structural change and economic dislocation is most pronounced in areas with a strong human capital basis and a regional culture that favors entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, regional knowledge, transition |
| JEL: | L26 R1 P25 |
| Date: | 2013–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2013-037&r=geo |
| By: | ITO Banri; XU Zhaoyuan; YASHIRO Naomitsu |
| Abstract: | This study empirically examines the role of agglomeration in enabling firms to begin exporting, using a large dataset of Chinese firms. Knowledge spillover caused by the agglomeration of exporters can reduce the initial cost of export, thereby lowering the "productivity cut-off" required to export. A parametric estimation of an export entry model indicates that the agglomeration of incumbent exporters contributes significantly to export participation, although its magnitude is limited. These spillover effects are generated not only by the agglomeration of exporting foreign invested firms (FIFs), but also, more importantly, by that of indigenous Chinese exporters. In fact, the agglomeration of exporting FIFs only contributes to the export entry of FIFs, yet has a negative impact on indigenous Chinese firms' export participation. |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:13081&r=geo |
| By: | Koen Frenken; Elena Cefis; Erik Stam |
| Abstract: | We review the literature on clusters and their effects on entry, exit and growth of firms as well on the evolutionary dynamics underlying the process of cluster formation. Our extensive review shows that there is strong evidence that clusters promote entry, but little evidence that clusters enhance firm growth and firm survival. The emergence of clusters is best understood as an evolutionary process of capability transmission between parent firms and their spinoffs, rather than as an outcome of localisation economies that would increase the performance firms in clusters compared to firms outside clusters. From a number of open questions we distil various future research avenues stressing the importance of understanding firm heterogeneity and the exact mechanisms underlying localisation economies. |
| Keywords: | entry, exit, industrial cluster, localisation economies, product lifecycle, industry lifecycle, evolutionary economic geography, firm heterogeneity |
| JEL: | L10 L20 L26 R10 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:1311&r=geo |
| By: | Mukim, Megha |
| Abstract: | A large and growing informal sector is a major feature of developing countries. This paper analyzes coagglomeration patterns between formal and informal manufacturing enterprises in India. It studies (a) the causes underlying these patterns and (b) the positive externalities, if any, on the entry of new firms. The analysis finds that buyer-supplier and technology linkages explain much of formal-informal coagglomeration. Also, within-industry coagglomeration matters mostly to small- and medium-sized formal firm births. Traditional measures of agglomeration remain important in explaining new industrial activity, whether in the formal or the informal sector. |
| Keywords: | Microfinance,Water and Industry,Small Scale Enterprise,E-Business,Industrial Management |
| Date: | 2013–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6622&r=geo |
| By: | Keith Head; Thierry Mayer |
| Abstract: | With increasing sophistication, economists have been estimating gravity equations for five decades. Robust evidence shows that borders and distance impede trade by much more than tariffs or transport costs can explain. We therefore advocate investigation of other sources of resistance, despite the greater difficult involved in measuring and modeling them. From our selective review of recent findings, a unifying explanation emerges. A legacy of historical isolation and conflict forged a world economy in which neither tastes nor information are homogeneously distributed. Cultural difference and inadequate information manifest themselves most strongly at national borders and over distance. |
| Keywords: | Globalization;Gravity;Cultural differences |
| JEL: | F10 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2013-26&r=geo |
| By: | Les Oxley (University of Waikato); Shangqin Hong (University of Canterbury); Philip McCann (University of Groningen) |
| Abstract: | The economic performance of the New Zealand economy is something of an enigma. Although ranked number one (of 144 countries) for four important 'growth fundamentals' New Zealand is 'middle of the pack' when it comes to economic growth, productivity and innovation. So what is missing in this story of New Zealand performance? Using three iterations (2005, 2007 and 2009) of the Business Operations Survey, the paper seeks to answer the question using a bivariate probit regression (biprobit) approach applied to samples in excess of 2,000 unit record observations of New Zealand firms. The results suggest that factors such as firm size, high perceived quality product, investment/R&D capability, major technology change, application of formal IP protection and new export markets are systematically and positively related to innovation; while many external issues such as those related to geography, market structure, business environment, appear to have little influence. At the firm level, innovations in New Zealand are highly dependent on the firms’ internal ability to develop new technologies and market demand. (Small) size does matter in New Zealand where ultimately government may need to be involved to maintain a viable (minimum) scale for domestic R&D. |
| Keywords: | innovation; New Zealand Business Operations Survey (BOS); new economic geography (NEG). |
| Date: | 2013–09–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:13/13&r=geo |