Authors:Anil Rupasingha; Kyungsoon Wang Pages: 15 - 41 Abstract: In this paper, we use geographic and time variation of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) small business loans to study the effects of access to capital on small business growth in the USA at the county level. Grounded in theoretical models of imperfect financial markets and entrepreneurship dynamics, we use a panel of 3050 counties over the 1996–2010 period and find that, in general, CRA loans have a statistically significant positive effect on small business growth for the full sample of 3050 counties. This effect holds for different estimation techniques and robustness checks. More importantly, the results hold when we correct for the endogeneity of the CRA loans. The results also hold when the counties are classified into urban, rural, and low and moderate income. PubDate: 2017-07-01 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0814-9 Issue No:Vol. 59, No. 1 (2017)
Authors:Xiafei Chen; Zhiying Liu; Chaoliang Ma Pages: 43 - 68 Abstract: The implementation of innovation-driven strategy is of great significance. Analysis of the driving factors of innovation performance from quantitative and systematic perspectives is needed for policy making. By drawing upon the LMDI model, this study identifies the driving factors and their corresponding contributions in the innovation performance of 30 Chinese provincial-level regions during the period 2000–2012. The innovation performance is decomposed into the regional economic structure effect, R&D intensity effect, innovation efficiency effect, and economic development effect according to the driving mechanism. The results indicate that the third effect in this list, innovation efficiency, contributes the most to innovation performance at 54.28%, followed by the regional R&D intensity at 27.49%, and China’s economic development at 19.92%. The effect of the regional economic structure is negative, at −1.69%. This study further analyzes four major economic areas of China and identifies the channels through which each area conducts their innovation activities. The empirical findings provide information for policy measures to implement innovation-driven strategies. PubDate: 2017-07-01 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0818-5 Issue No:Vol. 59, No. 1 (2017)
Authors:Hien Thu Tran; Enrico Santarelli Pages: 69 - 100 Abstract: The prevalence of entrepreneurship varies not only across regions but also among industries. Using a unique panel dataset of 60 two-digit industries across 64 provinces from 2000 to 2010 in Vietnam, we investigate the importance of spatial and sectoral heterogeneity in an analysis of the determinants of entrepreneurship and empirically explore the interaction effect of geographic conditions and industry dynamism. Overall, our results confirm the significance of industry structural variables and their joint effect with geographic conditions in fostering new firm formation. Particularly, (i) growth-driven entries are generally higher in provinces that offer higher salaries; (ii) technology-intensive industries within regions that have strong knowledge spillover effects are appealing to new entries. Others noteworthy findings include: (i) ‘necessity entrepreneurship’ is prevalent in Vietnam, but limited to extractive and service industries that are typically labor intensive; (ii) firms tend to concentrate more in agglomerated locations. This effect, however, evaporates for high-tech industries; and (iii) industry profitability and niche dynamism all play a crucial role in stimulating new start-ups. We apply the system generalized method of moments to obtain empirical evidence in the study. PubDate: 2017-07-01 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0819-4 Issue No:Vol. 59, No. 1 (2017)
Authors:Thi Xuan Thu Nguyen; Javier Revilla Diez Pages: 101 - 138 Abstract: In many Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia, the appearance of multinational enterprises (MNEs) as a consequence of open and liberal market reforms is increasing the concentration process, especially in and around the capital regions. MNEs are attracted by positive externalities provided by the large agglomerations. Additionally, Vietnam introduced an open-door policy with the initiation of the transition process in 1986. The question arises of whether MNEs will contribute to a regional increase or decrease in the spatial concentration of economic activities. In short, the paper analyzes the locational pattern of MNEs and their spatial impact. Since the economic transition to a socialist-oriented market economy in 1986, a large inflow of FDI has come mainly to the two most important economic regions in Vietnam, namely the Red River Delta (RRD) and the Southeast. Historically, the business climate in the Southeast is more market-oriented, whereas the socialist heritage of the planning system is stronger in the RRD. At first sight, industry in the RRD is less highly concentrated compared to the Southeast because MNEs try to avoid the locations with socialist remains. However, by means of an analysis using the continuous spatial concentration index, we detect that industrial production is also becoming more concentrated in the RRD. PubDate: 2017-07-01 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0820-y Issue No:Vol. 59, No. 1 (2017)
Authors:Giuseppe Calignano; Rune Dahl Fitjar Pages: 139 - 169 Abstract: Studies of the effects of specific policy measures for innovation have focused mainly on actions based on direct R&D support. However, the innovation studies literature sees innovation as an interactive process, emphasising the role of knowledge exchange for successful innovation. Furthermore, it is increasingly accepted that co-location is not sufficient for knowledge exchange to occur. Consequently, there is also a need to assess the effectiveness of policy measures to promote knowledge exchange between co-located actors. The objective of this paper is to narrow this gap by exploring the outcome of an indirect policy in stimulating coordination and networking. The paper analyses policies for increased networking in a mechatronics district located in the peripheral and less innovative region Apulia (Southern Italy). The success of the coordination and networking action is examined by adopting a longitudinal approach. In order to assess the association of the policy with the overall network structure, social network analysis is used to analyse the data. We compare characteristics of the network in the early and later phase of the district across five dimensions of knowledge exchange, identifying a large increase in the use of partnerships as the main effect of the policy. PubDate: 2017-07-01 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0821-x Issue No:Vol. 59, No. 1 (2017)
Authors:Hector M. Nuñez; Dusan Paredes; Rafael Garduño-Rivera Pages: 171 - 187 Abstract: Since Roback’s seminal work (J Polit Econ 90(6):1257–1278, 1982), the literature on hedonic prices has evaluated the role of amenities in equilibrating regional differentials in nominal wages and prices. While these studies generally find evidence for traditional amenities and disamenities in developed countries, there remains little research on how characteristics such as violence affect the equilibrium in less developed countries. This article explores violence and other local characteristics as an amenity or disamenity for Mexico and employs the hedonic wage and rent theory proposed by Roback. This research uses a multilevel estimation technique using data from the Mexican Household Income and Expenditure Survey, along with other information from the municipal and state levels. This article finds evidence to suggest that illegal earning opportunities outweigh crime disamenity by inhabitants of some traditional drug-trafficking regions, because such crime appears to be the modus vivendi in those regions in a way that does not reduce economic performance. PubDate: 2017-07-01 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0823-8 Issue No:Vol. 59, No. 1 (2017)
Authors:Theresa Chaudhry; Muhammad Haseeb; Maryiam Haroon Pages: 189 - 208 Abstract: In this article, we explore whether localization of industries can reduce economic distortions and dispersion in total factor productivity (TFP) among firms in Punjab, Pakistan’s largest province economically. We consider two types of misallocation: (i) dispersion in the distribution of output-based TFP (TFPQ), in particular the survival of low productivity firms in the left tail; and (ii) dispersion in revenue-based TFP (TFPR), indicative of allocative inefficiency. The results are mixed: On the one hand, we find that the distribution of TFPQ is less dispersed in more agglomerated areas, measured by the localization quotient, local productive concentration, and average firm size. At the same time, we find that average TFPQ is also positively related to localization, especially the presence of small firms in the same sector, even though own-firm TFP is lowest for small firms. On the other hand, we do not find evidence that agglomeration improves allocative efficiency measured as deviations in TFPR from the sector average, concluding rather that greater localization of small firms is associated with firms being more output and capital constrained. PubDate: 2017-07-01 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0824-7 Issue No:Vol. 59, No. 1 (2017)
Authors:J. Sebastian Leguizamon; Susane Leguizamon Abstract: Previous studies argue that homosexuals can affect house prices through two mechanisms: an esthetic–amenity premium and a tolerance (or open culture) premium. We find that this relationship varies with respect to areas with different compositions of educational attainment and race. While we find evidence of a premium in areas with higher share of college-educated individuals, we find no premium in low-educated areas. Based on the mechanisms above, these results suggest either that low-educated individuals and homosexuals diverge in their preferences for types of amenities, or that the open culture preference from buyers could be biased toward highly educated areas. Interestingly, the magnitude of the premium (or discount for areas with low shares of educated residents) is lower when the number of black residents increases. This suggests that the presence of blacks may help the ‘openness’ perception for areas with low levels of educational attainment, but also highlights differences in preferences for amenities between African-Americans and homosexuals. PubDate: 2017-06-20 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0835-4
Authors:Héctor M. Posada; Ana I. Moreno-Monroy Abstract: In this paper, we study the relationship between informal employment and city structure, in the presence of informal housing. We build an urban search-matching model incorporating informal labor, informal housing, and rural–urban migration. We find that a greater decentralization of informal jobs leads to a higher informality rate in the labor market. This, in turn, pushes the expected income in the city downward and reduces incentives for rural workers to migrate. Surprisingly, rural–urban migration increases. This happens because greater decentralization relaxes the competition for land throughout the city, which reduces urban costs for all urban residents and effectively increases the expected income in the city. PubDate: 2017-06-19 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0834-5
Authors:Mutsumi Matsumoto; Kota Sugahara Abstract: Gugl and Zodrow (Natl Tax J 68:767–802, 2015) derive a general condition for (in)efficient public-input provision under production-tax financing. Their condition is described in terms of log modularity of production technology. This paper shows that in the case of “factor-augmenting” public inputs, the Gugl–Zodrow condition can be characterized in terms of the technical changes caused by public-input provision. PubDate: 2017-06-13 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0837-2
Authors:Jetpan Wetwitoo; Hironori Kato Abstract: This study investigates the benefit of agglomeration to regional productivity, highlighting the issue of accessibility with empirical data from Japan. We analyze empirically the impacts of agglomeration on regional economic return using an econometric approach, assuming three types of agglomeration economics: urbanization agglomeration, localization agglomeration, and mixed agglomeration. We estimate the agglomeration elasticities of 11 industries using inter-regional transportation network data and regional socioeconomic panel data for 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, and 2006, covering 47 prefectures in Japan. Our results show that, on average, the indirect benefit of regional productivity improvement from localization agglomeration tends to be more significant than that from urbanization agglomeration. While the mining industry enjoys significant benefit from urbanization rather than localization agglomeration and the transportation/communication industry enjoys significant benefit from localization rather than urbanization agglomeration, finance/insurance and real estate can benefit from both agglomeration economies. We further find negative elasticities in the agriculture and service industries; this could be partly due to the industries’ characteristics. A case study on Japan shows the importance of coordination between land-use and transportation investment for maximizing regional productivity through agglomeration. PubDate: 2017-06-12 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0833-6
Authors:Jaewon Lim Abstract: During the Great Recession in the USA, the four Sand States—Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada—suffered from plunging home prices, massive layoffs and much slower population growth. Some metro areas in these states experienced the unprecedented net loss of population with increasing out-migration. Were the devastating labor market conditions in these four Sand States strong enough to force out a massive number of migrants to other states? Using multinomial logit models, this paper finds that the labor market status of an individual (part-time worker, unemployed and not in labor force) serves as an important factor for out-migration decision during a recession. The pushing effects of labor market status among the at-risk population in devastated labor markets are the largest for movers to intrastate destinations beyond metropolitan borders. The effects of labor market status for interstate out-migration are still significant but largely limited, due to higher moving costs and growing uncertainty. For the at-risk population with lower socioeconomic status, depressing labor market status triggers speculative migration; however, the speculative behavior among the overall at-risk population continuously slowed during the Great Recession, as the rather risk-aversive “wait and see” attitude had increased. PubDate: 2017-05-26 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0832-7
Authors:Katja Görlitz; Sylvi Rzepka Abstract: Using data from the National Educational Panel Study of 2009/2010, this paper investigates the correlation between regional training supply and employees’ training participation. Controlling for other regional factors such as the local unemployment rate, the educational level, the population density and the regional industry composition, the results indicate that training participation is significantly higher in regions with many firms in the training supply market. The predictive power of the other regional factors is rather minor. PubDate: 2017-05-22 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0831-8
Authors:Stefano Manzocchi; Beniamino Quintieri; Gianluca Santoni Abstract: We analyse productivity differentials across about 63,000 manufacturing firms located in 103 Italian counties, in order to shed light on the relation between the business environment and firm performance. We find that a limited set of local variables related to institutional quality, local credit development, market access and innovation environment significantly contribute to explaining manufacturing productivity differentials in Italy. Our empirical findings confirm that firm competitiveness reacts to the local business environment on a multidimensional scale. This suggests that better targeted regional policies at the national and EU level, including measures for fostering convergence or decentralizing wage negotiations, should take into account the interdependence between productivity and the economic environment. PubDate: 2017-05-13 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0830-9
Authors:Ugo Fratesi; Giovanni Perucca Abstract: Starting in 2007–2008, an economic crisis with no comparable precedent after WWII has affected most of the World, and Europe in particular. Yet, despite the pervasiveness of the crisis, its impact was highly differentiated across countries. The macroeconomic country-level effects are very important, but also within countries the impact on the various regions has been far from uniform, with some regions, often the most urban, able to resist the crisis better than others. Among the many factors which can have influenced the differential impact of the crisis in Europe, this paper looks at the regional endowment of structural territorial assets, those which have been labelled as “territorial capital”. Territorial capital comprehends all those assets, being material or immaterial, public or private, which represent the development potential of places. Territorial capital enhances regional growth in ordinary times, and, being structural, can be expected to also act as a factor of resilience in times of crisis. To investigate this hypothesis, a database of territorial capital indicators for all regions of the European Union at NUTS3 level is exploited, and a classification of regions based on the endowment of territorial capital is built. It appears that regions belonging to different groups, i.e. being differently endowed with territorial capital, have had different degrees of resilience, with some being able to maintain their income levels better than their country and others losing ground. The structure of regions is hence an important determinant of how they can afford periods of distress, and in particular, more resilient have been those regions endowed with less mobile territorial capital assets and with those territorial capital assets of mixed levels of materiality and rivalry. PubDate: 2017-05-11 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0828-3
Authors:Runsen Zhang; Kakuya Matsushima; Kiyoshi Kobayashi Abstract: Urban agglomeration has attracted attentions of urban planners, economists, and policymakers. For the sake of urban agglomeration simulation, this paper attempts to develop a computable urban economic (CUE) model incorporated with economies of scale, through the approach of new economic geography. It is assumed that each firm produces a product variant in a monopolistic competition market, and the number of firms is explicit and determined endogenously. The Dixit–Stiglitz type utility function with product variety is adopted into the households’ behavior to reflect consumers’ preference for variety. On the other hand, internal increasing returns to scale and fixed cost are introduced in firms’ behavior to extend the model with economies of scale. The model’s parameter estimations and calibration are conducted on the basis of empirical data from several approved sources for Changzhou in 2008. Numerical computations are implemented by employing the extended CUE model incorporated with economies of scale to explain and examine how the urban agglomeration comes into being. Simulation results show that the extended model incorporated with economies of scale is able to commendably represent the urban agglomeration mechanism, providing a promising simulation tool for urban planning and policymaking. PubDate: 2017-05-08 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0829-2
Authors:Ferhan Gezici; Burçin Yazgı Walsh; Sinem Metin Kacar Abstract: The geography of the manufacturing industry has been changing due to technological development, flexible production and reducing transportation costs regarding the new specialization and distribution process in the world. While manufacturing production has been moving from developed countries to the relatively less developed ones, which have become the emerging economies over the last two decades, the concentration of these activities within the countries has always received the attention of researchers. On the other hand, not only the geographical shift but also structural shifts have increasingly been an important phenomenon of the twenty-first century. It is known that the level of technology and innovation makes a significant contribution to regional economic development. Determinants of manufacturing agglomerations have created a wide literature based on different empirical studies. Moreover the structural changes of industry need to be investigated regarding the spatial agglomerations. The aim of this paper is to explore how the factors of manufacturing agglomerations have differentiated due to the technological level across the country. Furthermore, we assume that the agglomeration mechanism is likely to vary across the space. Therefore, we have run both global and local regression models based on the employment data of the 81 NUTS III level regions (provinces) of Turkey in 2012. The results point out that the factors of agglomerations are different in the east and west provinces, while GWR has significantly improved global results. PubDate: 2017-05-05 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0827-4
Authors:Alan T. Murray Abstract: This paper was originally presented as a presidential address for the 56th Annual Meeting of the Western Regional Science Association, held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on February 15–18, 2017. The intent of the paper is to discuss the continued importance of analytical methods to further knowledge and understanding, and in doing so contribute to enhanced analysis, planning, policy and decision making in a variety of contexts. Regional science is founded on the principle of being a multi-disciplinary effort, bringing together a range of quantitative approaches to study societal issues and concerns through planning and policy efforts, hopefully to bring about positive change. Analytics is an increasingly popular reference to the methods employed by a discipline or specialty area. Given the prominence of methods in regional science, it is suggestive of a more nuanced term like regional analytics. It is hoped that reflecting on regional analytics will reinforce the significance and strength of our discipline in the coming years and decades. It is only through our actions that we will make a difference, and we hope that such actions are based on the best information and scientific reasoning possible. PubDate: 2017-04-13 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0825-6
Authors:Alberto Díaz Dapena; Fernando Rubiera Morollón; Dusan Paredes Araya Abstract: The extensive literature on economic convergence has explored a wide variety of ways of measuring convergence in addition to finely tuning and improving the applicable econometric techniques. However, very few contributions analyze the relevance of the spatial level of analysis. Our hypothesis is that studying the convergence at the level of large regions (states) could conceal intraregional heterogeneity. This hypothesis is consistent with the New Economic Geography framework, which highlighted core-periphery patterns at the local level. However, this polarization mechanism may become difficult to identify with aggregated data or neoclassical dynamics operating at the same time. This paper proposes a multilevel approach to study this question. It allows the identification of possible heterogeneous local patterns of behavior within regions. It is applied to the US economy in a hierarchy of two levels: states and counties. The results show high intraclass correlation, indicating significant variance within states. An overall pattern of convergence is observed in line with previous results, although some states present internal patterns of divergence or significant changes in the rate of convergence. PubDate: 2017-02-13 DOI: 10.1007/s00168-017-0811-z
Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles)
[2345 journals]
