|
on Urban and Real Estate Economics |
| By: | Jens Ludwig; Jeffrey R. Kling |
| Abstract: | Understanding whether criminal behavior is “contagious” is important for law enforcement and for policies that affect how people are sorted across social settings. We test the hypothesis that criminal behavior is contagious by using data from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) randomized housing-mobility experiment to examine the extent to which lower local-area crime rates decrease arrest rates among individuals. Our analysis exploits the fact that the effect of treatment group assignment yields different types of neighborhood changes across the five MTO demonstration sites. We use treatment-site interactions to instrument for measures of neighborhood crime rates, poverty and racial segregation in our analysis of individual arrest outcomes. We are unable to detect evidence in support of the contagion hypothesis. Neighborhood racial segregation appears to be the most important explanation for across-neighborhood variation in arrests for violent crimes in our sample, perhaps because drug market activity is more common in high-minority neighborhoods. |
| JEL: | H43 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12409&r=ure |
| By: | Gergely Kiss (Magyar Nemzeti Bank); Gábor Vadas (Magyar Nemzeti Bank) |
| Abstract: | As part of the monetary transmission studies of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, this paper attempts to analyse the role of the housing market in the monetary transmission mechanism of Hungary. The housing market can influence monetary transmission through three channels, namely, the nature of the interest burden of mortgage loans, asset (house) prices, and the credit channel. The study first summarises the experiences of developed countries, paying special attention to issues arising from the monetary union. It then examines the developments in the Hungarian housing and mortgage markets in the last 15 years, as well as the expected developments and changes attendant to the adoption of the euro. Using panel econometric techniques, the study investigates the link between macroeconomic variables and house prices in Hungary, and the effect of monetary policy on housing investment and consumption through the wealth effect and house equity withdrawal. |
| Keywords: | Housing, Monetary transmission, Mortgage market, Panel econometrics. |
| JEL: | E52 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnb:backgr:2005/3&r=ure |
| By: | Leah Brooks |
| Abstract: | When the median voter's preference sets the level of local public goods, some voters are left unsatisfied. Is there an institution by which subsets of voters can resolve the collective action problem and increase the local provision of public goods? If so, what are the consequences? In response to problems such as crime and vandalism, neighborhood property owners have established Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) to provide local public goods. When a BID is approved by a majority of property owners in a neighborhood, state law makes contributions to the BID budget mandatory. This resolution of the neighborhood's collective action problem reduces crime - BIDs in the city of Los Angeles are robustly associated with crime declines of 5 to 9 percent. Indeed, crime falls regardless of estimation technique: fixed effects; comparing BIDs to neighborhoods that considered, but did not adopt, BIDs; using propensity score matching; and comparing BIDs to their neighbors. Strikingly, these declines are purchased cheaply. Attributing all BID expenditure to violent crime reduction, and thus ignoring the impact of BID expenditure on many quality-of-life crimes, BIDs spend $21,000 to avert one violent crime. This higher bound estimate is substantially lower than the $57,000 social cost of a violent crime. |
| JEL: | R5 H7 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcl:mclwop:2006-04&r=ure |
| By: | Carl Schwartz (Reserve Bank of Australia); Tim Hampton (Reserve Bank of Australia); Christine Lewis (Reserve Bank of Australia); David Norman (Reserve Bank of Australia) |
| Abstract: | Over the past decade or so, aggregate data suggest a trend increase in housing equity withdrawal in Australia, potentially stimulating household spending. However, there has been little disaggregated information on how equity is being withdrawn and injected, the characteristics of households altering housing equity, and how funds from withdrawn equity are being used. This paper uses a survey of 4 500 households commissioned by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to address these questions. The results suggest that, during 2004, the most common method of withdrawing equity was for a household to increase the level of debt secured against a property they already owned. In contrast, most of the value of equity withdrawn was associated with property transactions, with the typical property transaction resulting in a net equity withdrawal. Turnover in the property market is therefore likely to be an important driver of cycles in aggregate housing equity withdrawal. Bivariate and logit analysis suggests a significant life-cycle influence, with the bulk of equity withdrawal being undertaken by older households, while younger households typically inject, primarily through mortgage repayments or deposits for property purchase. Finally, the results suggest that the bulk of the value of withdrawn equity was used to increase non-housing assets, although a significant proportion of households used the funds for consumption expenditure. |
| Keywords: | housing equity withdrawal; housing turnover; household debt |
| JEL: | E21 E51 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rba:rbardp:rdp2006-08&r=ure |
| By: | Leah Brooks |
| Abstract: | A wealth of anecdotal evidence suggests that, in the wake of tax revolts, cities have responded with a proliferation of special assessment districts which directly link taxes and their local public good beneficiaries. Despite this, there is no systematic evidence on the adoption patterns of these districts, likely because they are not surveyed by the U.S. Census of Governments. This paper begins to fill this gap by reporting the results of a survey on the adoption patterns of one class of special assessment districts, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), in the state of California. A BID is formed when a majority of merchants or property owners in a commercial neighborhood vote in favor of a package of local taxes and expenditures; once passed, assessments are legally binding on all members of the commercial neighborhood. I find that roughly half of all larger cities in California have at least one BID; among the universe of cities in four Southern California counties, that figure falls to about one-fifth. On the demand side, theory and evidence suggest that BIDs should be adopted in heterogeneous cities to supplement local public goods to neighborhood taste. On the supply side, theory argues that BIDs solve the collective action problem arising in the provision of public goods when the number of group members is large. In particular, older commercial neighborhoods have many landowners who may have trouble coordinating the provision of local public goods, in contrast to the single mall developer who can write contracts to internalize externalities. Combining the survey data with demographic, institutional and political data, I find strong support for the supply-side story, and some evidence that the interaction of supply and demand explain BID adoption. |
| JEL: | R5 H7 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcl:mclwop:2006-03&r=ure |
| By: | Giorgio Ponti |
| Abstract: | The restoration of an historic school building in Battipaglia, Italy, will provide new public facilities and is hoped to boost urban renewal. The municipality of Battipaglia, in the province of Salerno, held an architectural competition for renovating the E. De Amicis Primary School and the surrounding area. The winning project, submitted by a group of Italian architects headed by Alfredo Amati, offers four main points of interest. |
| Keywords: | Italy, renovation |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2005/14-en&r=ure |
| By: | Robert Baade (Department of Economics and Business, Lake Forest College); Robert Baumann (Department of Economics, College of the Holy Cross); Victor Matheson (Department of Economics, College of the Holy Cross) |
| Abstract: | Professional sports franchises have used the lure of economic riches as an incentive for cities to construct new stadiums and arenas at considerable public expense. An analysis of taxable sales in Florida cities demonstrates that none of the 6 new franchises or 8 new stadiums and arenas in the state since 1980 have resulted in a statistically significant increase in taxable sales in the host metropolitan area. In addition, using the numerous work stoppages in professional sports as test cases, again no statistically significant effect on taxable sales is found from the sudden absence of professional sports due to strikes and lockouts. |
| Keywords: | sports, strikes, economic impact, baseball, football, basketball, hockey, stadiums |
| JEL: | L83 R53 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spe:wpaper:0609&r=ure |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | New Zealand’s special funding system allows state schools a greater level of independence in managing their property compared to most other countries. Schools receive a fixed budget as an entitlement from the three “pots” of the educational property funding structure. The government’s unique use of accrual accounting together with a new Five-Year Property Plan agreement gives schools a high degree of certainty of the property funding available, as well as responsibility for deciding how to modernise their own buildings. |
| Keywords: | New Zealand, financing, maintenance, management |
| Date: | 2004–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2004/12-en&r=ure |
| By: | Chen, Jie (The Institute for Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | This paper extends the VECM cointegration model and PT (permanent-transitory) variance decomposition framework proposed by Lettau & Ludvigson (2004) and applies them on the Swedish data spanning from 1980q1 to 2004q4. There are strong statistical evidences that the movements of aggregate consumption, disposable income, housing wealth and financial wealth are tied together. However, it also suggests that the short run variations in the Swedish housing market are largely dissociated with consumer spending. Meanwhile, it is shown that the strength of the linkage between consumption and housing wealth is not sensitive to different model specifications and various measures of key variables. |
| Keywords: | housing wealth; consumption; wealth effect; VECM; PT decomposition |
| JEL: | E21 E32 E44 R31 |
| Date: | 2006–06–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2006_016&r=ure |
| By: | Victor Matheson (Department of Economics, College of the Holy Cross); Robert Baade (Department of Economics and Business, Lake Forest College); Mimi Nikolova (Department of Economics and Business, Lake Forest College) |
| Abstract: | Supporters of sports stadium construction often defend taxpayer subsidies for stadiums by suggesting that sports infrastructure can serve as an anchor for local economic redevelopment. Have such promises of economic rejuvenation been realized? The City of Chicago provides an interesting case study on how a new stadium, U. S. Cellular Field, has been integrated into its southside neighborhood in a way that may well have limited local economic activity. This economic outcome stands in stark contrast to Wrigley Field in northern Chicago which continues to experience a synergistic commercial relationship with its neighborhood. |
| Keywords: | sports, stadiums, development, baseball, Chicago, economic impact |
| JEL: | L83 O18 R53 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spe:wpaper:0614&r=ure |
| By: | Mukund Patel |
| Abstract: | State-of-the-art school buildings can improve educational standards and have a positive effect on everyone who uses them. That is why England’s Department for Education and Skills (DfES) launched an ambitious five year strategy to improve educational facilities for all children in the country and create high quality resources for the whole community. The programme, Building Schools for the Future, is backed by a record level of investment in school infrastructure, takes into account changes needed in the educational built environment, and gives special attention to exemplar designs. |
| Keywords: | United Kingdom, design |
| Date: | 2005–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2005/2-en&r=ure |
| By: | Katherine Kiel (Department of Economics, College of the Holy Cross) |
| Abstract: | In many communities throughout the United States, contaminated sites are identified and addressed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In each of these communities, the EPA presents a plan of action and provides the community with information about progress being made. Does the housing market adjust quickly after announcements by EPA concerning the existence and toxicity of Superfund sites? Other studies have shown that the levels of house prices fall when people suspect there is a problem, and again when the EPA announces that the site is toxic (e.g. Kiel, 1995), but how can we tell when or if the market has completely adjusted to the existence of such a site? If the site is always perceived as an externality, then the coefficient on distance from the house to the site in the hedonic regression on house values should remain statistically significant and negative. Thus merely looking at the coefficient does not aid in determining when, or if, the market has cleared. |
| Keywords: | hedonic models, environmental prices, housing, adjustment process |
| JEL: | Q51 Q53 R2 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hcx:wpaper:0607&r=ure |
| By: | Jeffrey J. Berk; Rita de Cassia Alves Vaz; João Honorio; Jadille Baza; Ricardo Torres Origel; Fredys Gomez |
| Abstract: | Many Latin American countries are undertaking projects, in line with practices disseminated by PEB, to share school facilities with the local community, to adapt traditional schools for students with disabilities, and to collaborate with private companies to finance educational buildings. The articles below describe current initiatives in five countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela. |
| Keywords: | Mexico, Brazil, Chile, financing, community, architecture, Venezuela, Argentina, disabilities, public-private partnerships |
| Date: | 2004–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2004/15-en&r=ure |
| By: | YANNIS M. IOANNIDES (tufts university); Adriaan R. Soetevent (University of Amsterdam and Tinbergen Institute) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines social interactions when social networking is endogenous. It employs a linear-quadratic model that accommodates contextual e®ects, and endogenous local inter- actions, that is where individuals react to the decisions of their neighbors, and endogenous global ones, where individuals react to the mean decision in the economy, both with a lag. Unlike the simple V AR(1) structural model of individual interactions, the planner's problem here involves intertemporal optimization and leads to a system of linear di®erence equations with expectations. It highlights an asset-like property of socially optimal outcomes in every period which helps characterize the shadow values of connections among agents. Endogenous networking is easiest to characterize when individuals choose weights of social attachment to other agents. It highlights a simultaneity between decisions and patterns of social at- tachment. The paper also poses the inverse social interactions problem, asking whether it is possible to design a social network whose agents' decisions will obey an arbitrarily speci¯ed variance covariance matrix. |
| JEL: | D85 A14 J0 |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:0516&r=ure |
| By: | Rafael Lalive (University of Zurich, IEW, CEPR, CESifo, IFAU and IZA Bonn); Alejandra Cattaneo (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to study whether schooling choices are affected by social interactions. Such social interactions may be important because children enjoy spending time with other children or parents learn from other parents about the ability of their children. Identification is based on a randomized intervention that grants a cash subsidy encouraging school attendance among a sub-group of eligible children within small rural villages in Mexico. Results indicate that (i) the eligible children tend to attend school more frequently, (ii) but also the ineligible children acquire more schooling when the subsidy is introduced in their local village, (iii) social interactions are economically important, and (iv) they may arise due to changes in parents’ perception of their children’s ability. |
| Keywords: | peer effects, schooling, field experiment, PROGRESA |
| JEL: | C93 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2250&r=ure |
| By: | Patrick Bonnel (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]); Pascal Pochet (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]) |
| Abstract: | no abstract |
| Keywords: | Mobility ; car ; Public transport ; Trends ; cohort effect ; |
| Date: | 2006–08–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00088217_v1&r=ure |
| By: | David Gabel (Queens College); Carolyn Gideon (Tufts University) |
| Abstract: | There is growing sentiment that rate rebalancing to eliminate cross subsidies between local business and local residential telephone markets is necessary to induce efficient entry in the residential market. If the elasticity of supply with respect to the relative prices for business and residential local service is high in both the local business and local residential markets, then the efficiency gains from rebalancing may be large. Alternatively, other factors related to differences in characteristics between business and residential local telephone markets, such as lower costs, lower elasticity of demand, and greater willingness-to-pay for quality or redundancy in the business segment of local telephone may be more important determinants of entry. In this paper we simultaneously measure the elasticity of supply in the business market with regards to the price of business services relative to the price of residential service, using entry, economic and demographic data a the wire center level. We find that business entry is driven by market demand and cost characteristics, and that the effect of cross subsidies in prices on entry is less clear. |
| Date: | 2005–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:0515&r=ure |
| By: | Keith Thomson |
| Abstract: | In June 2004, the Scottish Executive published guidance on evaluating completed school building projects, <i>Building Our Future: Scotland’s School Estate</i>, as part of the School Estate Strategy; the guidance included a case study evaluation at an Edinburgh primary school (see <i>PEB Exchange</i>, no. 53, October 2004). The Executive is continuing to support evaluation work on the school estate by recently holding a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) workshop for local authorities and soon publishing a further demonstration case study, this time at secondary level, at Braes High School. |
| Keywords: | United Kingdom, evaluation, post-occupancy evaluation |
| Date: | 2006–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2006/4-en&r=ure |
| By: | Allen Abend; Sheila Walbe Ornstein; Emmanuel Baltas; Jaime de la Garza; Chris Watson; José Freire da Silva; Kurt Lange; Hannah von Ahlefeld |
| Abstract: | In 2005, the OECD Programme on Educational Building (PEB) organised two international experts’ group meetings to discuss how countries define and evaluate quality in educational facilities. The research and experiences of six experts are presented in this article, in addition to the lessons learned from the experts’ group meetings. The director of a state construction programme describes the standards used to assess the educational adequacy of all public school facilities in the State of Maryland in the United States. A researcher presents a post-occupancy evaluation methodology used in schools in São Paulo, Brazil. Another researcher presents a data collection tool used to develop indicators on educational infrastructure in a number of municipalities in Greece. Two administrators discuss the development of norms to ensure minimum standards of quality and security in educational facilities in Mexico. Two architects present the results of a recent post-occupancy evaluation conducted in a new school in Pendão, Portugal. And an urban planner presents an international project to construct new schools in El Salvador using quality criteria. |
| Keywords: | Mexico, Greece, Portugal, United States, security, Brazil, standards, evaluation, post-occupancy, norms, El Salvador |
| Date: | 2006–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2006/1-en&r=ure |
| By: | Giovanni Peri |
| Abstract: | The recent literature on externalities of schooling in the U.S. is rather mixed: positive external effects of average education are hardly found at all, while often positive externalities from the share of college graduates are identified. This paper proposes a simple model to explain this fact and tests it using U.S. states data. The key idea is that advanced technologies, associated with high total factor productivity and high returns to skills, are complementary to highly educated workers, as opposed to traditional technologies, complementary to less educated. Our calibrated model predicts that workers with twelve years of schooling (high school graduates) are indifferent between traditional and advanced technologies, while more educated workers adopt the advanced technologies and benefit from the larger private and social returns associated to them. Only shifts in education above high school graduation are therefore associated with positive social returns stemming from more efficient technologies. The empirical analysis, using compulsory attendance laws, immigration of highly educated workers and the location of land-grant colleges as instruments confirm that an increase in the share of college graduates, but not an increase in the share of high school graduates, had large positive production externalities in U.S. States. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 O41 R11 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12440&r=ure |
| By: | Rick Draper; Emma Cadzow |
| Abstract: | Applying CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) strategies to schools can significantly contribute to a safer learning environment by influencing the behaviour of students and visitors. CPTED has three overlapping primary concepts that are intended to reduce opportunities for crime as well as fear of crime: access control, surveillance and territorial reinforcement. |
| Keywords: | security |
| Date: | 2004–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2004/13-en&r=ure |
| By: | Susan Stuebing |
| Abstract: | Innovative teaching methods and organisational change make new demands on our future learning environments. The Brink and the Laak Clusters are two related examples of a new type of building for a community in the Netherlands. The Firebird School (<i>Vuurvogel</i>), a primary school for students from ages 4 to 12, is currently housed in the Brink Cluster and will move to the Laak when it opens in 2006. The Firebird School’s needs and the resulting flexible building design are described here along with useful characteristics for creating flexibility in the learning environment. |
| Keywords: | Netherlands, flexibility, design |
| Date: | 2005–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2005/6-en&r=ure |
| By: | Robert Baade (Department of Economics and Business, Lake Forest College); Robert Baumann (Department of Economics, College of the Holy Cross); Victor Matheson (Department of Economics, College of the Holy Cross) |
| Abstract: | Professional sports leagues, franchises, and civic boosters, have used the promise of an all star game or league championship as an incentive for host cities to construct new stadiums or arenas at considerable public expense. Past league-sponsored studies have estimated that Super Bowls, All-Star games and other sports mega-events increase economic activity by hundreds of millions of dollars in host cities. Our analysis fails to support these claims. Our detailed regression analysis of taxable sales in Florida over the period 1980 to 2004 reveals that on, average, mega-events ranging from the World Cup to the World Series have been associated with reductions in taxable sales in host regions of $5 to $10 million per month. Likewise, strikes in Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and the National Basketball League, each of which has resulted in the cancellation of large parts of entire seasons, appear to have also had no demonstrable negative effect on taxable sales in host cities. |
| Keywords: | impact analysis, sports, mega-event, championship |
| JEL: | L83 R53 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spe:wpaper:0610&r=ure |
| By: | Michael Pflüger (University of Passau, DIW Berlin and IZA Bonn); Jens Südekum (University of Konstanz and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Models of the new economic geography share a number of common conclusions, but also exhibit notable differences, in particular with respect to the shape of the location pattern and the efficiency of the market equilibrium. This reflects the fact that these models rely heavily on specific functional forms. In this paper we approach the properties of the 'footloose entrepreneur' class of new economic geography models with a unifying framework based on the indirect utility function of mobile agents. This approach has several payoffs. We are able to provide general, yet handy, formulae to determine the break point, the bifurcation pattern and the welfare properties of the market equilibrium. Moreover, an application of this framework allows us to show how specific results in the literature can be reconciled as special cases, thereby allowing us to highlight the origin of their differences. |
| Keywords: | new economic geography, agglomeration, location pattern, regional policy |
| JEL: | R12 R50 F12 F15 F22 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2256&r=ure |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Joinedupdesignforschools explores how good design can improve the quality of life in schools by listening to the voices of the clients: pupils. The programme is an initiative in the United Kingdom that joins client teams of pupils with the country’s leading design practices to provide solutions for practical improvements in schools, to highlight the benefits of a close partnership between the design industry and schools, and to develop pupils’ life skills. |
| Keywords: | United Kingdom, design, evaluation, community |
| Date: | 2005–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2005/5-en&r=ure |
| By: | Nicholas Economides (Stern School of Business, NYU); V. Brian Viard (Graduate School of Business, Stanford University); Katja Seim (Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | See http://www.netinst.org/NET_Working_Papers.html #46 |
| JEL: | D43 K23 L11 L13 L96 |
| Date: | 2005–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:net:wpaper:0508&r=ure |
| By: | Lant Pritchett |
| Abstract: | Ghost towns dot the West of the United States. These cities boomed for a period and then, for various reasons, fell into a process of decline and have shrunk to a small fraction of their former population. Are there ghost countries—countries that, if there were population mobility, would only have a very small fraction of their current population? This paper carries out four empirical illustrations of the potential magnitude of the “ghost country” problem by showing that the “desired population” of any given geographic region varies substantially. First, the variance of growth rates of populations due to mobility across regions of the same country is often twice large as the variance across all developing countries in the world. While the variance of per capita output or income growth is much smaller. The ratio of the variance of the growth of population to the variance of the growth of output per head across regions within countries is 4 to 14 times as large as the same ratio across developing countries. Second, using county level data I construct “ghost regions” of the United States —contiguous collections of counties that are the size of many countries and have only a third the population they would have had without out-migration. Third, I compare the historical evolution of labor force and real wages of Ireland in the nineteenth century to the response of labor force and wages (or output per head) to negative shocks when labor mobility is restricted. Fourth, I calculate the changes in the labor force that would restore GDP per capita to its previous peak. All of these calculations suggest that even with thorough going “globalization” —the free mobility of goods and capital— and complete “policy reform” —common economic institutions and policies— there will remain substantial pressures for labor mobility. This also implies there will be both boom towns and ghost countries. |
| Keywords: | population mobility, migration, population growth, |
| JEL: | O15 F22 J23 J61 J68 N30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:36&r=ure |
| By: | Michael Fritsch; Pamela Mueller |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effects of new business formation on employment change in German regions. A special focus is on the lag-structure of this effect and on differences between regions. The different phases of the effects of new business formation on regional development are relatively pronounced in agglomerations as well as in regions with a high-level of labor productivity. In low-productivity regions, the overall employment effect of new business formation activity might be negative. The interregional differences indicate that regional factors play an important role. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, new business formation, regional development |
| JEL: | M13 O1 O18 R11 |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:egpdis:2006-19&r=ure |