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on Economic Geography |
| By: | Riccardo Crescenzi |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at the recent economic geography literature and sets out to explore the evolution of its intersections with innovation theories. The replacement of the linear model with more sophisticated conceptualisations of the process of innovation has made it possible to account for persistent disparities in innovative performance across space and has motivated researchers to incorporate the role of space and places in the analysis of innovation processes. From the physical-metrical approach of geography as distance, to the emphasis on specialisation and diversification patterns (geography as economic place), institutional-relational factors, non-spatial proximities and 'integrated' frameworks, economic geography theory has substantially evolved in terms of its contribution to the understanding of technological dynamics with significant implications for the rationale, design and implementation of innovation policies. |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1408&r=geo |
| By: | Ron Boschma |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes an evolutionary perspective on regional resilience. We conceptualize resilience not just as the ability of a region to accommodate shocks, but we extend it to the long-term ability of regions to develop new growth paths. We propose a comprehensive view on regional resilience, in which history is key to understand how regions develop new growth paths, and in which industrial, network and institutional dimensions of resilience come together. Resilient regions are capable of overcoming a trade-off between adaptation and adaptability, as embodied in their industrial (related and unrelated variety), network (open, loosely coupled) and institutional (loosely coherent) structures. |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1409&r=geo |
| By: | Steve Gibbons; Max Nathan; Henry G. Overman |
| Abstract: | In most countries economic prosperity is very unevenly distributed across space: regions, cities and neighbourhoods seem to be very unequal, whether we look at average earnings, employment, education or almost any other socio-economic outcome. Regional, urban and neighbourhood policies are often based on concerns about these kinds of disparities, and reducing such disparities is a key policy objective in many countries. This paper considers the role of empirical analysis in informing the development of these policies. It is particularly concerned with issues arising in the quantitative evaluation of the impact of policy, the major barriers to more effective evaluation and how these might be addressed in future. |
| Keywords: | Spatial economics, evaluation, impact evaluation, econometrics, research design, public policy, economic development |
| JEL: | A11 C81 C93 R00 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercpp:012&r=geo |
| By: | Alberto Días Dapena; Fernando Rubiera Morollón (REGIOlab, Laboratorio de Análisis Económico Regional - Universidad de Oviedo); Dusan Paredes Araya (IDEAR - Department of Economics, Universidad Católica del Norte - Chile) |
| Abstract: | The large literature about economic convergence explores widely different ways of measure convergence as well as sophisticates and improves the econometrical techniques. Contradictory the number of contributions that analyze how relevant is the data spatial desegregation is reduced. Our hypothesis is that the spatial unit of analysis definition could affect significantly the convergence conclusions. The assumptions of the Neoclassical models of economic growth might not to be affected by the spatial desegregation but New Economic Geography framework pointed out the core-periphery behaviors and if the spatial unit is too much aggregated it could make diffuse this processes. To study it in this paper a multilevel perspective is proposed. That allows differentiating possible different local behaviors inside regions. It is applied to the U.S. economy: States and counties. The results show high intra class correlation indexes that indicate that there exists a significant variance inside of the States. A general behavior of convergence is observed coherent with previous studies but we can indentify some States that present internal behaviors of divergence or significant changes in the speed of convergence. |
| Keywords: | Convergence studies, regional and local growth, multilevel analysis and US. |
| JEL: | R11 R15 O47 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cat:dtecon:dt201401&r=geo |
| By: | Rafael Alvarado (Department of Economics, Universidad Tecnica Particular de Loja); Miguel Atienza (IDEAR - ORDHUM - Department of Economics, Universidad Católica del Norte - Chile) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the effect of market access and human capital on regional wage disparities in Ecuador using the wage equation of the core-periphery model of the New Economic Geography and a multi-level model. Our results, based on cross-sectional data, suggest that market access has a positive and statistically significant effect on wages, although this effect is relatively small. Only a small degree of regional wage variation can be attributed to the effect of market size, while the composition of the labor force explains a significant part of the reduction of regional wage disparities. Consequently, efforts to reduce the unequal spatial distribution of human capital can contribute to the reduction of regional income disparity. |
| Keywords: | Market access, Human capital, Wages, NEG. Multilevel regression, Ecuador. |
| JEL: | J31 R12 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cat:dtecon:dt201404&r=geo |
| By: | Calá, Carla Daniela; Manjón Antolín, Miguel C.; Arauzo Carod, Josep Maria |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the regional determinants of exit in Argentina. We find evidence of a dynamic revolving door by which past entrants increase current exits, particularly in the peripheral regions. In the central regions, current and past incumbents cause an analogous displacement effect. Also, exit shows a U-shaped relationship with respect to the informal economy, although the positive effect is weaker in the central regions. These findings point to the existence of a core-periphery structure in the spatial distribution of exits. Key words: firm exit, count data models, Argentina JEL: R12; R30; C33 |
| Keywords: | Economia regional, Localització industrial, Argentina, Anàlisi de dades de panel, Anàlisi de sèries temporals, 332 - Economia regional i territorial. Economia del sòl i de la vivenda, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/225299&r=geo |
| By: | Kristoffer Moeller |
| Abstract: | Knowledge based firms like IT companies do neither have a capital- nor a land intensive production. They predominantly rely on qualified labour and increasingly depend on the location of its (potential) employees. This implies that it is more likely that firms follow workers rather than the other way around. Contributing to the literature of firm location and consumer cities I empirically test the amenity oriented firm location hypothesis. In particular I investigate whether Berlin internet start-up firms, representing a footloose knowledge-based service industry, locate in urban amenity-rich places. Identification builds on the sudden fall of the Berlin Wall. The intra-city analysis yields a significant impact of urban amenities on the location of internet start-up. A comparison with other service industries suggests that amenities are significant to the location choice of creative sectors whereas no effect can be observed for non-creative firms. |
| Keywords: | Firm location, urban amenities, consumer city, internet start-ups, entrepreneurs, Berlin |
| JEL: | R30 D22 L26 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0157&r=geo |
| By: | Toshihiro Okubo (Keio University, Japan); Pierre Picard (CREA, Université de Luxembourg); Jacques-François Thisse (Université catholique de Louvain) |
| Abstract: | We study how the level of trade costs and the intensity of competition interact to explain the nature and intensity of trade within a given industry and the location of firms across countries. As trade costs decrease from very high to very low values, the global economy moves from autarky to two-way trade, through one-way trade from the larger to the smaller region. By exploring the intensive and extensive margins of exports, we investigate how the intensity of trade reacts to the degree of competitiveness. Furthermore, when firms are free to change location, they flow from the small to the large country, and the larger country is always a net exported on the manufactured good. Firms located in the big country have a bigger size than those located in the small one. Under one-way trade, the relocation of firms changes their attitude toward export. |
| Keywords: | trade, competition, firm location, capital mobility |
| JEL: | F12 H22 H87 R12 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:14-05&r=geo |
| By: | Cassi, Lorenzo; Morrison, Andrea; Rabellotti, Roberta |
| Abstract: | International collaboration among researchers is a far from linear and straightforward process. Scientometric studies provide a good way of understanding why and how international research collaboration occurs and what are its costs and benefits. Our study investigates patterns of international scientific collaboration in a specific field: wine related research. We test a gravity model that accounts for geographical, cultural, commercial, technological, structural and institutional differences among a group of Old World (OW) and New World (NW) producers and consumers. Our findings confirm the problems imposed by geographical and technological distance on international research collaboration. Furthermore, they show that similarity in trade patterns has a positive impact on international scientific collaboration. We also find that international research collaboration is more likely among peers, in other words, among wine producing countries that belong to the same group, e.g. OW producers or newcomers to the wine industry. |
| Keywords: | Proximity, International scientific collaboration, Wine industry, Gravity model, Scientometrics, Emerging countries, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Industrial Organization, |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aawewp:164649&r=geo |
| By: | Ubarevičienė, Rūta (Lithuanian Social Research Centre); van Ham, Maarten (Delft University of Technology); Burneika, Donatas (Lithuanian Social Research Centre) |
| Abstract: | Shrinking populations have been gaining increasing attention, especially in post-socialist East and Central European countries. While most studies focus on the population decline of capital cities and their regions, much less is known about the spatial dimension of population decline on the national level. Lithuania is one of the countries which have experienced very high levels of population decline in the last decades. This study uses Lithuanian Census data from the years 2001 and 2011 to get insight into the geography of population change for the whole country. The results show a sharp population decline in Lithuania of 17.2% between 1989 and 2011, with the decrease being more intense during the second decade of the period. The population dropped in most areas, including the main cities, but increased in the regions surrounding these cities. The predictive models show a clear geographical dimension of population decline, but also reveal that population composition and investments play a role in the process of decline. |
| Keywords: | post-socialist transition, shrinking regions, population decline, suburbanization, Lithuania |
| JEL: | J11 J61 P20 R23 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8026&r=geo |
| By: | Iritié, B. G. Jean-Jacques |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze the issues of innovation clusters-based industrial policy through the economic issues of three industrial dynamics, i. e. R and D (or innovation), location of innovation activities and technology cooperation. It appears that the key elements that justify these new policies are the production and sharing of knowledge, sharing of indivisibility and economic growth. Then, we focuse on the french poles of competitiveness. |
| Keywords: | Clusters, innovation, industrial location, technology cooperation |
| JEL: | O25 O30 R10 |
| Date: | 2014–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:54429&r=geo |