|
on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Ludger Woessmann (University of Munich); Thomas Fuchs (University of Munich) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the relationship between family background, school characteristics, and student achievement in primary school in two Latin American countries, Argentina and Colombia, as well as several comparison countries. The database used is the student-level international achievement data of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), which tested the reading performance of fourth-grade students in 2001. The nationally representative samples have 3,300 students in Argentina and 5,131 students in Colombia. The emerging general pattern of results is that educational performance is strongly related to students' family background, weakly to some institutional school features, and hardly to schools' resource endowments. In an international perspective, estimated family background effects are relatively large in Argentina, and relatively small in Colombia. A specific Argentine feature is the lack of performance differences between rural and urban areas. A specific Colombian feature is the lack of significant differences between gender performance. Nonnative students and students not speaking Spanish at home have particularly weak performance in both countries. But there are no differences by parental occupation and no positive effects of kindergarten attendance. In Argentina, students perform better in schools with a centralized curriculum and ability-based class formation. |
| Keywords: | Education |
| Date: | 2005–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3537&r=ure |
| By: | Gavin Cameron (Dept of Economics, University of Oxford); John Muellbauer (Nuffield College, Oxford); Anthony Murphy (Nuffield College, Oxford) |
| Abstract: | We present and discuss an annual econometric model of regional house prices in Britain estimated over the period 1972 to 2003. The model, which consists of a system of inverted housing demand equations, is data consistent, incorporates spatial lags and errors, has some spatial coefficient heterogeneity, has a plausible long run solution and includes a full range of explanatory variables. We use our results to explain the periods of boom and bust and the ripple effect from London house prices to house prices elsewhere. We also address the issue of whether there has been a bubble in the British housing market |
| Keywords: | House Prices; Ripple Effect; Bubble |
| JEL: | C51 E39 |
| Date: | 2005–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpma:0512003&r=ure |
| By: | Daniel da Mata (DIRUR, Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA), Brasilia); Uwe Deichmann (The World Bank); J. Vernon Henderson (Brown University); Somik V. Lall (The World Bank); Hyoung Gun Wang (Brown University) |
| Abstract: | The authors examine the determinants of Brazilian city growth between 1970 and 2000. They consider a model of a city that combines aspects of standard urban economics and the new economic geography literatures. For the empirical analysis, the authors construct a dataset of 123 Brazilian agglomerations and estimate aspects of the demand and supply side, as well as a reduced form specification that describes city sizes and their growth. Their main findings are that increases in rural population supply, improvements in interregional transport connectivity, and education attainment of the labor force have strong impacts on city growth. They also find that local crime and violence, measured by homicide rates, impinge on growth. In contrast, a higher share of private sector industrial capital in the local economy stimulates growth. Using the residuals from the growth estimation, the authors also find that cities that better administer local land use and zoning laws have higher growth. Finally, their policy simulations show that diverting transport investments from large cities toward secondary cities does not provide significant gains in terms of national urban performance. |
| Keywords: | Infrastructure, Urban development, Public sector management |
| Date: | 2005–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3723&r=ure |
| By: | Daniel Kaufmann (The World Bank); Frannie Léautier (The World Bank); Massimo Mastruzzi (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | The authors contribute to the field of urban governance and globalization through an empirically-based exploration of determinants of the performance of cities. They construct a preliminary worldwide database for cities, containing variables and indicators of globalization (at the country and city level), city governance, city performance (access and quality of infrastructure service delivery), as well as other relevant city characteristics. This city database, encompassing hundreds of cities worldwide, integrates existing data with new data gathered for this research. The findings suggest that good governance and globalization (at both the country and city level) do matter for city-level performance in terms of access and quality of delivery of infrastructure services. The authors also find that globalization and good city governance are significantly related with each other. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that there are complex interactions between technology choices, governance, and city performance, as well as evidence of a nonlinear (U-shaped) relationship between city size and performance, challenging the view that very large cities necessarily exhibit lower performance and pointing instead to potential agglomeration economies. The framework also suggests a way of bridging two seemingly competing strands of the literature, namely viewing the city as a place or as an outcome. The authors conclude by pointing to the need for expanding the database and the econometric framework, and suggest research directions and policy implications emerging from this initial investigation on governance and the city. |
| Keywords: | Private sector development, Governance, Urban development, Public sector management |
| Date: | 2005–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3712&r=ure |
| By: | Somik V. Lall (The World Bank); Taye Mengistae (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | How do differences in the local business environment influence location of industry within countries? How do the benefits of a good business environment compare with those from good market access and agglomeration economies from industry clustering? The authors examine these questions by analyzing location decisions of individual firms. Using data from a recently completed survey of manufacturing firms in India, they find that both the local business environment and agglomeration economies significantly influence business location choices across cities. In particular, excessive regulation of labor and of other industrial activities reduces the probability of a business locating in a city. The authors' findings imply that in order to attract industrial activity, smaller or remoter cities need to offer even more attractive policy concessions or reforms to offset the effects of their relatively adverse (economic) geography. Their methodology pays special attention to the identification of agglomeration economies in the presence of unobserved sources of natural advantage. |
| Keywords: | Infrastructure, Industry, Private sector development, Governance, Urban development, Macroeconomics and growth |
| Date: | 2005–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3675&r=ure |
| By: | Somik V. Lall (The World Bank); Ajay Suri (Society for Development Studies, Delhi, India); Uwe Deichmann (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | Strategies to help the one billion people worldwide who live in informal settlements have mainly focused on slum upgrading, sites and services programs, and tenure security. In contrast, there has been less attention on what enables slum dwellers to transition into the formal housing sector, which has the dual benefits of improving service access and escaping social stigma. In this paper the authors investigate residential mobility among slum dwellers in Bhopal, India. Their analysis shows that one in five households succeeds in getting out of a slum settlement, and a major determinant is the household's ability to save on a regular basis. Due to limited outreach of institutional housing finance, most slum dwellers rely solely on household savings for purchasing a house. These findings underscore the urgent need to improve savings instruments for slum dwellers and to downmarket housing finance to reach the poorest residents of rapidly growing cities in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | Urban development |
| Date: | 2005–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3596&r=ure |
| By: | Rajashri Chakrabarti (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of voucher design on student sorting, and more specifically investigates whether there are feasible ways of designing vouchers that can reduce or eliminate student sorting. It studies these questions in the context of the first five years of the Milwaukee voucher program. Much of the existing literature investigates the question of sorting where private schools can screen students. However, the publicly funded U.S. voucher programs require private schools to accept all students unless oversubscribed and to pick students randomly if oversubscribed. This paper focuses on two crucial features of the Milwaukee voucher program - random private school selection and the absence of topping up of vouchers. In the context of a theoretical model, it argues that random private school selection alone cannot prevent student sorting. However, random private school selection coupled with the absence of topping up can preclude sorting by income, although there is still sorting by ability. Sorting by ability is not caused here by private school selection, but rather by parental self selection. Using a logit model and student level data from the Milwaukee voucher program for 1990-94, it then establishes that random selection has indeed taken place so that it provides an appropriate setting to test the corresponding theoretical predictions in the data. Next, using several alternative logit specifications, it demonstrates that these predictions are validated empirically. These findings have important policy implications. |
| Keywords: | Vouchers, Sorting, Cream Skimming, Private Schools |
| JEL: | H0 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2005–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:0512004&r=ure |
| By: | Rajashri Chakrabarti (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I analyze the behavior of public schools facing vouchers. The literature on the effect of voucher programs on public schools typically focuses on student and mean school scores. This paper tries to go inside the black box to investigate some of the ways in which schools facing the threat of vouchers in Florida behaved. Florida schools getting an 'F' grade are exposed to the threat of vouchers, while vouchers are implemented if they get another 'F' grade in the next three years. Exploiting the institutional details of the 1999 program, I analyze the incentives built into the system and investigate whether the threatened public schools behaved strategically to respond to incentives. There is strong evidence that they did respond to incentives. Using highly disaggregated school level data, a difference- in-differences estimation strategy as well as a regression discontinuity analysis, I find that the threatened schools tended to focus more on students below the minimum criteria cutoffs rather than equally on all, but interestingly, this improvement did not come at the expense of higher performing students. Second, consistent with incentives, they focused mostly on writing rather than reading and math. Finally, consistent with substantial costs associated with such reclassification during that period, there is not much evidence of relative reclassification of low performing students in to special education categories exempt from the calculation of grades. These results are robust to controlling for differential pre-program trends, changes in demographic compositions, mean reversion and sorting. These findings have important policy implications and subsequent grading rule changes in Florida suggest that these policy changes have been a response to public school behavior. |
| Keywords: | Vouchers, Incentives, Strategic Behavior, Regression Discontinuity, Mean Reversion |
| JEL: | H4 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2005–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:0512002&r=ure |
| By: | Daniel da Mata (DIRUR, Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA), Brasilia); Uwe Deichmann (The World Bank); J. Vernon Henderson (Brown University); Somik V. Lall (The World Bank); Hyoung Gun Wang (Brown University) |
| Abstract: | The share of urban population in Brazil increased from 58 to 80 percent between 1970 and 2000 and all net population growth over the next 30 years is predicted to be in cities. This paper explores population growth and its implications for economic dynamics and income generation among 123 urban agglomerations. Incomes are higher in larger agglomerations and in the South, but there is some indication of regional convergence with higher rates of income growth in poorer areas. In particular, agglomerations in the North and Central-West are growing faster than the more established urban centers in the South. Economic dynamics point to a process of increased diversification among larger cities, and greater specialization among medium-sized agglomerations. In bigger centers there is a trend toward deconcentration toward the periphery. The paper provides a simple analysis of correlates of labor supply, as measured by population growth and economic productivity, which is proxied by changes in per capita income. |
| Keywords: | Infrastructure, Urban development, Public sector management |
| Date: | 2005–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3724&r=ure |
| By: | Somik V. Lall (The World Bank); Taye Mengistae (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | The authors' analysis of manufacturing plants sampled from India's major industrial centers shows large productivity gaps across cities. The gaps partly reflect differences in agglomeration economies and in market access. However, they are also explained to a greater extent by differences in the degree of labor regulation and in the severity of power shortages. This is an indication that governments can help narrow regional disparities in industrial growth by fostering the "right business environment" in locations where industry might otherwise be held back by powerful forces of economic geography. There is indeed a pattern in the data whereby geographically disadvantaged cities seem to compensate partially for their natural disadvantage by having a better business environment than more geographically advantaged locations. |
| Keywords: | Infrastructure, Industry, Private sector development, Governance, Urban development, Macroeconomics and growth |
| Date: | 2005–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3664&r=ure |
| By: | Judy Baker (The World Bank); Rakhi Basu (The World Bank); Maureen Cropper (The World Bank and University of Maryland); Somik Lall (The World Bank); Akie Takeuchi (University of Maryland) |
| Abstract: | This paper reports the results of a survey of 5,000 households in the Greater Mumbai Region conducted in the winter of 2004. The goal of the survey was to better understand the demand for transport services by the poor, the factors affecting this demand, and the inter-linkages between transport decisions and other vital decisions such as where to live and work. This paper, the first of several research outputs, describes the salient facts about travel patterns in Mumbai for both poor and non-poor households. A striking finding of the survey is the extent to which all households-especially poor households-rely on walking. Overall, 44 percent of commuters in Mumbai walk to work. The proportion of the poor who walk to work is even higher-63 percent. Walking is an even higher modal share for nonwork than for work trips. A second finding is that public transit remains an important factor in the mobility of the poor, and especially in the mobility of the middle class. Overall, rail remains the main mode to work for 23 percent of commuters, while bus remains the main mode for 16 percent of commuters. The modal shares for bus are highest for the poor in zones 1-3 (21 percent of the poor in zone 2 take the bus to work), while rail shares are highest for the poor in the suburbs (25 percent of the poor in zone 6 take rail to work). Is the cost and lack of accessibility to transit a barrier to the mobility of the poor? Does it keep them from obtaining better housing and better jobs? This is a difficult question to answer without further analysis of the survey data. But it appears that transport is less of a barrier to the poor who live in central Mumbai (zones 1-3) than it is to the poor who live in the suburbs (zones 4-6). The poor who live in zones 1-3 (central Mumbai) live closer to the non-poor than do poor households in the suburbs. They also live closer to higher-paying jobs for unskilled workers. Workers in these households, on average, commute short distances (less than 3 kilometers), although a non-negligible fraction of them (one-third in zone 2) take public transit to work. It is true that the cost of housing for the poor is higher in central Mumbai than in the suburbs, but the quality of slum housing is at least as good in central Mumbai as in the suburbs. The poor who live in the suburbs of Mumbai, especially in zones 5 and 6, are more isolated from the rich than the poor in central Mumbai: 37 percent of the poor live in zones 5 and 6, whereas only one-fifth of higher income groups do. Wages for skilled and unskilled labor are generally lower in zones 5 and 6 than in the central city, and it appears that unemployment rates for poor males are also higher in these zones. The lower cost of slum and chawl housing in zones 5 and 6 may partly compensate for lower wages. However, a larger proportion of workers in poor households leave zones 5 and 6 to work than is true for poor workers in other zones. Commuting distances are much higher for poor workers in the suburbs than for poor workers in zones 1-3. |
| Keywords: | Infrastructure, Urban development, Poverty |
| Date: | 2005–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3693&r=ure |
| By: | Frédérick Demers |
| Abstract: | The author proposes and evaluates econometric models that try to explain and forecast real quarterly housing expenditures in Canada. Structural and leading-indicator models of the Canadian housing sector are described. The long-run relationship between expenditure and its determinants is shown to have shifted during the late 1970s, which implies that important changes have occurred in how the housing market is driven. The author finds that the response of housing investment to interest rates has become more pronounced over time. He compares out-of-sample forecasts from linear and non-linear cointegration models (which make use of information on fundamentals such as wealth and demographics) with forecasts from simple leading-indicator models (which exploit information such as housing starts or household indebtedness). The author finds that simple leading-indicator models can provide relatively accurate near-term forecasts. The preferred structural model, which allows for a shift in the cointegrating vector, provides a rich analysis of the housing sector, with good forecast accuracy on the construction side but not on the resale side, which is more difficult to predict. |
| Keywords: | Economic models; Econometric and statistical methods |
| JEL: | R21 E27 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bca:bocawp:05-41&r=ure |
| By: | Rajashri Chakrabarti (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | The Milwaukee voucher program, as implemented in 1990, allowed only non- sectarian private schools to participate in the program. Following a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling, the program saw a major shift and entered into its second phase, when religious private schools were allowed to participate for the first time in 1998. This led to more than a three-fold increase in the number of private schools and almost a four-fold increase in the number of choice students. Moreover, due to some changes in funding provisions, the revenue loss per student from vouchers increased in the second phase of the program. This paper analyzes, both theoretically and empirically, the impacts of these changes on public school performance in Milwaukee. It argues that voucher design matters and that the choice of parameters in a voucher program is crucial as far as impacts on public school incentives and performance are concerned. In the context of a theoretical model of public school and household behavior, the paper establishes that the policy changes will lead to an improvement of the public schools in the second phase of the program as compared to the first phase. Following Hoxby (2003a, 2003b) in treatment-control group classification, using data from 1987 to 2002, and a difference-in-differences estimation strategy in trends, the paper then shows that the theoretical prediction is validated empirically. This result is robust to alternative samples and specifications, and survive robustness checks including correcting for mean reversion. |
| Keywords: | Vouchers, Public School Performance, Competition, Mean Reversion |
| JEL: | H4 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2005–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:0512003&r=ure |
| By: | Kenneth M. Chomitz (The World Bank); Daniel da Mata (Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA)); Alexandre Ywata de Carvalho (Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA)); João Carlos Magalhães (Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA)) |
| Abstract: | There was substantial spatial variation in labor market outcomes in Brazil over the 1990s. In 2000, about one-fifth of workers lived in apparently economically stagnant municipios where real wages declined but employment increased faster than the national population growth rate. More than one-third lived in apparently dynamic municipios, experiencing both real wage growth and faster-than-average employment growth. These areas absorbed more than half of net employment growth over the period. To elucidate this spatial variation, the authors estimate spatial labor supply and demand equations describing wage and employment changes of Brazilian municipios. They use Conley's spatial GMM technique to allow for instrumental variable estimation in the presence of spatially autocorrelated errors. The main findings include: (1) a very strong influence of initial workforce educational levels on subsequent wage growth (controlling for possibly confounding variables such as remoteness and climate); (2) evidence of positive spillover effects of own-municipio growth onto neighbors' wage and employment levels; (3) an exodus from farming areas; (4) relatively elastic response of wages to an increase in labor supply; and (5) evidence of a local multiplier effect from government transfers. |
| Keywords: | Rural development, Labor and employment |
| Date: | 2005–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3752&r=ure |
| By: | Kim-Song Tan (Singapore Management University); Sock-Yong Phang (Singapore Management University) |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at Singapore's efforts to transform the economic growth base from one that is predominantly efficiency-driven to one that is more innovation-driven. To accelerate the transition process, the government is aggressively investing in "innovation infrastructure"-systems and institutions that make the city a more conducive environment for innovations. The modus operandi, with a distinctive "winner-picking" flavor, mirrors that of its earlier strategic industrial policy in building up the manufacturing sector. It is also in sync with the new urban growth literature which argues that the success of any innovation-driven growth strategy depends on a city's ability to attract a large community of creative individuals in different fields. Innovation infrastructure building requires more than putting in the right systems. It also requires a mindset change at various levels of society. This paper looks at how the government's policy philosophy and practices have evolved over time, and discusses the effectiveness of the government-led, strategic supply-push approach in propelling Singapore onto an innovation-driven growth path. It takes into consideration the city-state's underlying comparative advantages (or disadvantages) and asks how Singapore's existing strength in efficiency infrastructure may give it a first mover advantage in attracting creative talent, how its success may be affected by the small size of the economy, and the various political and social constraints that a small sovereign city-state faces. These issues are explored against the backdrop of the keen competition among the major cities in the region to become an innovation hub. |
| Keywords: | Private sector development, Urban development, Labor and employment |
| Date: | 2005–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3569&r=ure |
| By: | Jishnu Das (The World Bank); Stefan Dercon (Oxford University); James Habyarimana (Georgetown University); Pramila Krishnan (Cambridge University) |
| Abstract: | A large literature examines the link between shocks to households and the educational attainment of children. The authors use new data to estimate the impact of shocks to teachers on student learning in mathematics and English. Using absenteeism in the 30 days preceding the survey as a measure of these shocks they find large impacts: A 5 percent increase in the teacher's absence rate reduces learning by 4 to 8 percent of average gains over the year. This reduction in learning achievement likely reflects both the direct effect of increased absenteeism and the indirect effects of less lesson preparation and lower teaching quality when in class. The authors document that health problems-primarily teachers' own illness and the illnesses of their family members-account for more than 60 percent of teacher absences; not surprising in a country struggling with an HIV/AIDS epidemic. The relationship between shocks to teachers and student learning suggests that households are unable to substitute adequately for teaching inputs. Excess teaching capacity that allows for the greater use of substitute teachers could lead to larger gains in student learning. |
| Keywords: | Poverty, Rural development, Labor and employment, Education |
| Date: | 2005–04–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3602&r=ure |
| By: | Rita Almeida (World Bank Research Department) |
| Abstract: | The author tests how the local economic structure-measured by a region's sector specialization, competition, and diversity-affects the technological growth of manufacturing sectors. Most of the empirical literature on this topic assumes that in the long run more productive regions will attract more workers and use employment growth as a measure of local productivity growth. However, this approach is based on strong assumptions about national labor markets. The author shows that when these assumptions are relaxed, regional adjusted wage growth is a better measure of regional productivity growth than employment growth. She compares the two measures using data for Portugal between 1985 and 1994. With the regional adjusted wage growth, the author finds evidence of Marshall-Arrow-Romer (MAR) externalities in some sectors and no evidence of Jacobs or Porter externalities in most of the manufacturing sectors. These results are at odds with her findings for employment-based regressions, which show that concentration and region size have a negative and significant effect in most of the manufacturing sectors. These employment-based results are in line with most of the existing literature, which suggests that using employment growth to proxy for productivity growth leads to misleading results. |
| Keywords: | Urban development |
| Date: | 2005–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3728&r=ure |
| By: | Saumitra Jha (Stanford University); Vijayendra Rao (The World Bank); Michael Woolcock (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | The authors use detailed ethnographic evidence to design and interpret a broad representative survey of 800 households in Delhi's slums, examining the processes by which residents gain access to formal government and develop their own informal modes of leadership. While ethnically homogeneous slums transplant rural institutions to the city, newer and ethnically diverse slums depend on informal leaders who gain their authority through political connections, education, and network entrepreneurship. Education and political affiliation are more important than seniority in determining a leader's influence. Informal leaders are accessible to all slum dwellers, but formal government figures are most accessed by the wealthy and the well-connected. |
| Keywords: | Governance, Urban development, Poverty, Social Development |
| Date: | 2005–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3694&r=ure |
| By: | Poh Kam Wong (National University of Singapore); Yuen Ping Ho (National University of Singapore); Annette Singh (National University of Singapore) |
| Abstract: | The city-state of Singapore has achieved rapid economic development in the past by its positioning as an efficient business hub in Asia. To remain competitive in the global knowledge economy, however, Singapore needs to move beyond efficiency by developing a strong "innovative" edge as well. This paper examines the challenges that Singapore faces in seeking to do so through an explorative survey of 40 firms from three innovative sectors: high-tech manufacturing industries, knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), and creative content industries. Overall, while the survey confirms Singapore's continuing competitive strength in efficiency infrastructure, it also finds a favorable perception of Singapore as an innovative city. Indeed, many of the industry actors indicated that an efficient business infrastructure is a prerequisite for locating their innovative activities in Singapore, suggesting that the relationship between innovation and efficiency is complementary, rather than substitutional. While the study found that intellectual property and its protection are widely recognized by actors in all three sectors, interesting differences exist. In particular, intellectual property protection appears to be of greater concern to the high-tech research and development-intensive manufacturing sector and the creative contents sector than to the KIBS sector. Another interesting difference is that while competition in high-tech innovation tends to be global, competition in creative content tends to have a stronger local or regional dimension. Public policy in East Asia has traditionally emphasized the development of technological innovation capabilities in the manufacturing sector. In light of the findings, public policymakers may need to be more sensitive to the nuanced differences in policies needed to promote the new creative content industries and the associated supporting KIBS. |
| Keywords: | Industry, Private sector development, Urban development |
| Date: | 2005–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3568&r=ure |
| By: | Maurice Catin (CRERI, University of South Toulon-Var, France); Xubei Luo (The World Bank); Christophe Van Huffel (CRERI, University of South Toulon-Var, France) |
| Abstract: | Rapid development, a widening regional gap, and growing concentration of activities have characterized the Chinese economy since the reforms in the late 1970s. This paper examines the spatial disparities of the economic concentration in different stages of development from a geographic approach in the case of China. It aims at offering empirical supports on (1) how concentrated the economic activities are; (2) what factors determine the economic concentration; and (3) whether this concentration differs in the coastal and inland regions. The results show that the high-technology industries highly concentrate in the coastal provinces. The limited diffusion of the labor intensive activities within the coastal region does not significantly modify the major trend of the location and specialization of the industries in the inland region, and does not contribute to narrowing the regional disparities. The paper argues that in order to stimulate the geographic diffusion of economic activities to the inland region, it is important to appropriately alleviate internal migration control, reduce unnecessary state intervention, and further encourage domestic market integration. |
| Keywords: | Macroeconomics and growth |
| Date: | 2005–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3706&r=ure |
| By: | Uri Raich (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | Empowerment of local governments and citizens is a primary object of decentralization. Using the analytic lens of empowerment, the author explores the nature of decentralized governance and how this type of structure is likely to be more or less empowering. His primary concern is fiscal decentralization, specifically the association between fiscal determinants and the degree of empowerment of both citizens and local governments. The author's main argument is that both the revenue and expenditure characteristics of local public finances have an effect on the degree of empowerment. His hypothesis is that in a context of decentralized local governance, empowerment is most likely to occur when three conditions prevail: low costs of participation, large and flexible budgets, and a high proportion of tax revenues from a local base. But these ingredients for empowerment will not necessarily produce outcomes that are progressive and pro-poor. The author contrasts the intrinsic and the instrumental approaches to empowerment, but he does not assess the impact of empowerment on instrumental outcomes. For this hypothesis to support an instrumentalist perspective on empowerment, further empirical work must be conducted. |
| Keywords: | Governance |
| Date: | 2005–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3705&r=ure |
| By: | Vijayendra Rao (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | Most economists think of common property as physical-a body of water, a forest-and as bounded within geographic space. In this paper, building on work in social theory, the author argues that common property can also be social-defined within symbolic space. People can be bound by well-defined symbolic agglomerations that have characteristics similar to common property. He calls these "symbolic public goods" (SPGs) and make the case that such constructs are central to understanding collective action. He illustrates the point by contrasting how conceptions of nationalism in Indonesia and India created SPGs that resulted in very different strategies of local development. Indonesia emphasized collective action by the poor that resulted in a form of regressive taxation, enforced by the ideology of svadaya gotong royong (community self-help) that was both internalized and coercively enforced. India emphasized democratic decentralization through the panchayat system driven by the Gandhian ideology of gram swaraj (self-reliant villages). This has resulted in an unusual equity-efficiency tradeoff. Indonesia has delivered public services much more efficiently than India did, but at the cost of democratic freedoms and voice. The author argues that the challenge for these countries is not to undermine their existing SPGs but to build on them. Indonesia should retain the spirit of svadaya gotong royong but channel it in an equitable and democratic direction, while India should build the capacity of the panchayat system by giving it fiscal teeth, while promoting underutilized institutions such as Gram Sabhas (village meetings) that encourage accountability and transparency. |
| Keywords: | Governance, Urban development, Poverty, Rural development, Social Development |
| Date: | 2005–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3685&r=ure |
| By: | Anne van den Nouweland (Department of Economics, University of Oregon); Myrna H. Wooders (Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University) |
| Abstract: | We introduce a concept of status equilibrium for local public good economies. A status equilibrium specifies one status index for each agent in an economy. These indices determine agents' cost shares in any possible jurisdiction to which the agent might belong. We provide an axiomatic charaterization of status equilibrium using consistency properties. |
| Keywords: | Local public goods, status equilibrium, axiomatic characterization |
| JEL: | H41 D71 D51 |
| Date: | 2005–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:van:wpaper:0523&r=ure |
| By: | Jici Wang (Peking University); Xin Tong (Peking University) |
| Abstract: | The authors examine the diverse prospects of innovative sectors in Beijing and Shanghai using available indicators and data collected for this study through surveys. Beijing is the first choice for companies locating in China, but foreign employees prefer Shanghai for living convenience and cultural amenities. While Shanghai lags behind Beijing in knowledge creation and the generation of startup companies in the innovative sectors, it takes the lead in the commercialization of technological innovations and the development of creative cultural industries. The municipal authorities of Beijing and Shanghai have improved the innovation environment of the cities, but certain elements still stunt the growth of innovative industries, which cannot be removed easily. Three kinds of knowledge-intensive enterprises included in innovative sectors in the survey are high-tech manufacturers, knowledge-intensive business services, and creative content providers. The survey found that the clustering of the firms arose from the attraction of preferential policies and the purchase by governments or state-owned enterprises of information technology products. The survey shows that interaction among firms is inadequate in the knowledge-based industrial clusters in both Beijing and Shanghai. Hence, it may be some time before clustering leads to substantial gains in collective efficiency for innovative industry in Beijing and Shanghai. |
| Keywords: | Industry, Private sector development, Urban development |
| Date: | 2005–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3545&r=ure |
| By: | Loren Brandt (University of Toronto); Carsten Holz (Hong Kong University of Science & Technology) |
| Abstract: | Prices differ across space: from province to province, from rural (or urban) areas in one province to rural (or urban) areas in another province, and from rural to urban areas within one province. Systematic differences in prices across a range of goods and services in different localities imply regional differences in the costs of living. If high- income provinces also have high costs of living, and low-income provinces have low costs of living, the use of nominal income measures in explaining such economic outcomes as inequality can lead to misinterpretations. Income should be adjusted for costs of living. We are interested in the sign and magnitude of the adjustments needed, their changes over time, and their impact on economic outcomes in China. In this article, we construct a set of (rural, urban, total) provincial- level spatial price deflators for the years 1984-2002 that can be used to obtain provincial-level income measures adjusted for purchasing power. We provide illustrations of the significant effect of ignoring spatial price differences in the analysis of China’s economy. |
| Keywords: | spatial deflators, inequality, income differences, regional absolute price levels, China |
| JEL: | D3 D31 C43 D63 O18 O53 |
| Date: | 2005–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpmi:0512001&r=ure |
| By: | Jean-François, RICHARD; Henry, TULKENS; Magali, Verdonck |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to test econometrically the existence of fiscal interactions between Belgian municipalities. At the time of writing, the motivation was to provide scientific support to the lively debate on fiscal competition that took place among Belgian politicians in the late nineties. Two types of taxes are considered, for which Belgian municipalities have the decision power as to rates : the “centimes additionnels” on the personal income tax and the “précompte immobilier” which is a property tax. A dynamic adjustment model is specified and estimated using panel data for 598 municipalities over 15 years. The empirical results obtained bear upon two main points : (i) Some interaction definitely has prevailed between the municipalities’ fiscal choices made during the observation period, for both taxes; (ii) However, the adjustment reactions to the other municipalities’ fiscal choices have occured over time at the very low yearly pace of 6% and 10% respectively, of the discrepancy between the actual rates and the preferred rates. |
| Date: | 2005–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvec:2005039&r=ure |
| By: | Marco Francesconi (Department of Economics, University of Essex); Stephen P. Jenkins (Institute for Social and Economic Research); Thomas Siedler (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the impact on schooling outcomes of growing up in a family headed by a single mother. Growing up in a non-intact family in Germany is associated with worse outcomes in models that do not control for possible correlations between common unobserved determinants of family structure and educational performance. But once endogeneity is accounted for, whether by using sibling-difference estimators or two types of instrumental variable estimator, the evidence that family structure affects schooling outcomes is much less conclusive. Although almost all the point estimates indicate that non-intactness has an adverse effect on schooling outcomes, confidence intervals are large and span zero. |
| Keywords: | childhood family structure, education success, instrumental variables, lone parents, sibling differences, treatment effects |
| Date: | 2005–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2005-22&r=ure |