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on Economic Geography |
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Issue of 2017‒05‒21
seven papers chosen by Andreas Koch Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung |
| By: | Todeva, Emanuela; Danson, Mike |
| Abstract: | This paper introduces the rationale and the articles in this special issue bridging the literature on regional development and the triple helix model. The concept of the triple helix at the sub-national, and specifically regional, level is established and examined, with especial regard to regional economic development founded on innovation and research activities. The discussion on regional competitiveness lays the foundations for the exploration of contrasting environments, sectors and administrations. We offer a framework that captures the array of institutions, driving factors, players and powers active at the regional level. In this introduction we present and summarise the collection of articles emphasising their contribution to the literature. We demonstrate how the articles in this selection exploit the triple helix model for analysis of the delivery of policy at a regional level, and describe how other models and characterisations of interactions and collaborations between institutions are being associated with the triple helix concept, highlighting their shortcomings and the way they enrich its application. |
| Keywords: | triple helix; innovation; regional governance; public policy; regional economic development |
| JEL: | H7 P5 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76776&r=geo |
| By: | Jenny Schuetz; Arturo Gonzalez; Jeff Larrimore; Ellen A. Merry; Barbara J. Robles |
| Abstract: | In the U.S., geography has long been viewed as a proxy for income and race. |
| Date: | 2017–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfn:2017-05-15&r=geo |
| By: | Julia Bachtrögler (Institute for International Economics, Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Christoph Hammer (Institute for International Economics and Development, Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Wolf Heinrich Reuter (German Council of Economic Experts); Florian Schwendinger (Institute for Statistics and Mathematics, Department Finance, Accounting & Statistics, Vienna University of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | This study introduces a new firm-level dataset containing over two million projects co-funded by the European Union’s (EU) structural and Cohesion funds in 25 EU member states in the multi-annual financial framework 2007-2013. Information on individual beneficiary firms and institutions published by regional authorities is linked with business data from Bureau van Dijk’s ORBIS database. Moreover, we show how modern text mining techniques can be used to categorise EU funded projects into fifteen thematic categories proposed by the European Commission. A first analysis of the dataset reveals substantial heterogeneity of beneficiaries and projects across and within countries. While in the majority of lagging regions the largest project expenditure is dedicated to transportation and energy infrastructure, in most other regions the major part is assigned to innovation and technological development as well as business (including SME) support. In an econometric analysis we control for project and firm characteristics and find that the highest single project values are associated with older beneficiary firms that are larger in size. Furthermore, the projects with topmost expenditure are carried out in Dutch and British regions. |
| Keywords: | Distribution of EU structural funds, Regional policy, Firm-level data, Cohesion, European Union |
| JEL: | E61 H77 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp246&r=geo |
| By: | Andrea Bassanini (IZA - Institute for the study of labor - Institute for the Study of Labor - IZA, OECD - Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development); Giorgio Brunello (Université de Padoue - Université de Padoue, IZA - Institute for the study of labor - Institute for the Study of Labor - IZA); Eve Caroli (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - Université Paris-Dauphine, IZA - Institute for the study of labor - Institute for the Study of Labor - IZA) |
| Abstract: | There is growing evidence that social pressure shapes firms' behavior. Given how sensitive communitiesare to downsizing, this suggests that firms are likely to be under strong social pressure when considering reducing employment. Using French linked employer-employee data, we show that social pressure induces firms torefrain from dismissing at short distance from their headquarters. More specifically, we find that, within firms, secondary establishments located further away fromheadquarters have higher dismissal rates than thoselocated closer, taking into account the possible endogeneity of plant location. We also find that the positive effect of distance on dismissals increases with the visibility of the firm in the local community of its headquarters. This effect is also stronger the greater the degree of selfishness of the community in which the headquarters are located. This suggests that local social pressure at headquarters is a key determinant of the positiverelationship between distance to headquarters and dismissals. We show that our results cannot be entirely accounted for by alternative explanations of the distance-dismissal relationship that are put forward in the literature. |
| Keywords: | Personnel Management,Labor Demand,social pressure,employment policies |
| Date: | 2017–04–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01511576&r=geo |
| By: | Toda, Alexis Akira |
| Abstract: | Existing explanations of Zipf's law (Pareto exponent approximately equal to 1) in size distributions require strong assumptions on growth rates or the minimum size. I show that Zipf's law naturally arises in general equilibrium when individual units solve a homogeneous problem (e.g., homothetic preferences, constant-returns-to-scale technology), the units enter/exit the economy at a small constant rate, and at least one production factor is in limited supply. My model explains why Zipf's law is empirically observed in the size distributions of cities and firms, which consist of people, but not in other quantities such as wealth, income, or consumption, which all have Pareto exponents well above 1. |
| Keywords: | Gibrat's law, homogeneous problem, power law |
| JEL: | D30 D52 D58 L11 R12 |
| Date: | 2016–09–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:78985&r=geo |
| By: | Xu, Hangtian |
| Abstract: | This study provides a new lens to look at urban redevelopment by focusing on the spatial reorganization within the redeveloped area. We begin by presenting a toy model of residents’ locational choice within a Metropolitan Area, which links crowded housing and market accessibility. A key ingredient in our model is the change in the location’s population bearing capacity before and after the redevelopment. Dense and high market accessibility locations stagnated due to crowded housing before the redevelopment, allowing for the expansion of less dense and low market accessibility locations. Redevelopment increased the land-use efficiency and relieved dense locations from crowded housing, allowing them to be denser and enter into a new phase of growth, at the cost of less dense locations. The urban spatial structure is thus reorganized. We then document substantial variation in population growth across locations within a Metropolitan Area of Japan, which underwent intensive redevelopment due to a seismic earthquake. Using the variation of pre- and post-redevelopment periods, as well as dense and less dense locations, in population growth, we find strong empirical support for the model’s predictions. Our results imply that urban redevelopment may be an appropriate strategy for developers to improve the spatial structure of a city, which is much needed for mega-cities. |
| Keywords: | natural disaster; urban redevelopment; spatial organization |
| JEL: | O18 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:78986&r=geo |
| By: | Yasuhiro Sato (Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo); Masaaki Toma (　Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | We examine the transition of the spatial distribution of human capital by using data on Japanese prefectures. We find substantive concentration of university enrollments in Tokyo and its neighboring prefectures. After graduation, slight dispersal occurs but the movements are limited to neighboring prefectures. Moreover, we examine the relationship between human capital distributions of different cohorts, and find that the concentration of university graduates of a particular age group attracts university graduates of adjacent age groups. However, such an effect becomes insignificant and sometimes opposite as the age differences grow. |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2016cf1046&r=geo |