Spatial Agglomeration of Manufacturing in Greece: Sectoral Patterns and Determinants

This article aims to demonstrate how the industry characteristics of manufacturing sectors affect the patterns of their spatial agglomeration. It also addresses several intricate issues concerning the measurement of localization economies and estimation of their main determinants in manufacturing industries. The original empirical analysis employs annual industrial data from the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) during the period 1993–2006 in Greece at the prefecture level, i.e. for 51 prefectures. The data processing reveals three important findings. The first is the temporal persistence of localization economies in the Greek manufacturing. The second refers to the high level of agglomeration associated with the high-technology industries as well as the resource- and scale-intensive industries. Lastly, there are significant effects of industry characteristics related to knowledge externalities, labour skills and productivity, scale economies and own-transport expenditure on spatial agglomeration, as resulted from the use of alternative geographic concentration indices and panel data models. Results obtained have implications for policy-makers, who can enhance the regional manufacturing activity by affecting these industry-specific factors. Amongst others, planning measures and policies which aim at promoting the local development and regional convergence should focus on reducing transport costs for firms or sectors, by improving the infrastructure capacity, interconnectivity and quality of services.     

Mode‐Locking and Regional Business Cycle Synchronization*

Abstract. Business cycles in different regions of the United States tend to synchronize. This study investigates the reasons behind this synchronization of business cycles and the consequent formation of a national business cycle. Trade between regions may not be strong enough for one region to “drive” business cycle fluctuations in another region. This study suggests that regional business cycles synchronize due to a nonlinear “mode‐locking” process in which weakly coupled oscillating systems (regions) tend to synchronize. There is no definitive test for mode‐lock. However, simulations, correlations, Granger causality tests, tests for nonlinearities, vector autoregressions, and spectral analysis reveal modest econometric support for the regional mode‐locking hypothesis of business cycle synchronization.     

BUSINESS TAX INTERACTIONS AMONG LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE FRENCH CASE

ABSTRACT.  We study the business tax ("taxe professionnelle") behavior of the intermediate level (department) of local government in France and test in the same model the two hypotheses that department tax rates are explained by upper tier (region) tax rates and by tax rates chosen by other departments. We first reject the hypothesis of tax interactions between departments and regions, the two upper levels of local governments. Second, we provide evidence that business tax interactions among departments are significant. Including the vertical dimension in the estimated model does not lead to a decrease in the horizontal tax interactions parameter, nor to its nonsignificance.     

The Effect of Business Support on Employment in Manufacturing: Evidence from the European Union Structural Funds in Germany,Italy and Spain

This study investigates employment growth in the business activities supported by the European Cohesion Policy. We examine cross-industry, cross-regional variations in a sample of fourteen manufacturing industries and seventy European regions (in Germany, Italy and Spain) and take advantage of detailed European Union Structural Funds data at the regional level for the period 2000–2006. We show that business support is positively associated with higher employment growth in industries that are initially smaller and in those with higher growth opportunities. The results suggest that direct support to businesses by the European Cohesion Policy contributes to the growth process of employment in different industries. Because previous estimated effects at the aggregate level may in fact conceal large differences across industries, we conclude that our empirical analysis contributes to the understanding of how Structural Funds can affect industrial and regional development as well as adjustment paths.     

北魏军镇州郡化问题新探

军镇的成立、发展乃至转型皆深藏于北魏政治演进之中,并在政区地理以及地方行政制度维度,与州郡相互勾连。太武帝基于地方行政治理的需要,在部分军镇开启了州郡化进程,至孝文帝时,军镇州郡化全面席卷地方行政领域。而军镇在政区地理方面的差异,影响了州郡化的路径与结果。根据军镇的类型及其转型方式,军镇州郡化应细分为“改镇立州”“废镇立州”“废镇存州”三种方式,前两种直接改变了北魏政区体系,并使得军镇体制渐次退出地方行政领域,第三种的作用则仅限于制度变化方面。三者共同推动军镇政区及军镇体制的州郡化,进而在政权结构层面引发北魏地方行政制度的更张。     

Localization of Business Services in European Regions: Large Urban Areas Stand Out

The recent increase in business services in terms of both value added and employment has had a positive effect on regional economies, helping them to create a comparative advantage and contributing to the general development of regional productive systems. This heterogeneous set of activities is characterized, among others, by its uneven distribution in the territory. In this paper we aim to identify the key factors that influence the location of business services within the NUTS 2 regions of the European Union. Using a multivariate analytical approach (combining a principal components factor analysis and a multiple linear regression by means of ordinary least squares), four key factors have been identified. In terms of their influence on the location of business services, we can pinpoint the following factors: urban dimension, competitiveness, accessibility and economic dynamism. It was found that business services tend to locate in urban, densely populated and dynamic areas with high levels of competitiveness and easy access.     

World City Network Integration in the Eurasian Realm

A team of authors from the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network explores the main empirical features of the global economic integration of Eurasia through an analysis of the (shifting) position of that macroregion's key cities. More specifically, they examine the gateway roles played by key cities in four major subregions—China, the former Eastern Bloc (FEB, i.e., Central and Eastern Europe), former Soviet Union (FSU), and India—in the channeling of transnational flows of capital, goods, knowledge, and people in 2000-2008, focusing on the globalization of firms in the financial and business service sectors. Although cities in the four subregions share a common recent history of transition from closed and state-centered to open and market-based economies, the study reveals the persistence of distinctive geographical idiosyncrasies in their connections across the globe. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F020, F200, O180, P300. 4 figures, 3 tables, 1 appendix, 39 references.     

Doing business in Macedonia: Greek problems in British perspective (1912–1921)

British financial concerns in Greek Macedonia in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars were four: the status of the port and the city of Salonica after the partition of its hinterland and under Greek law; the regular conduct of trade; the sufficient provisioning of the allied expeditionary forces (from the fall of 1915 onwards) under the auspices of the Greek Provisional Government of Eleftherios Venizelos; and business, not necessarily related directly to the war effort. None of these cares was an isolated target nor were they the consequent stages of a single plan. They were simply aspects of a global financial interest which aimed to restore British influence in the region as well as to safeguard the spoils of victory against Bulgaria. After considerable difficulties in the region, foreign interest failed to take the shape of British investments. Moreover, the inability of the Greek state to provide sufficiently for the development of the Macedonian economy and the integration of its society led to diplomatic confrontations with its neighbours.     

Regional Specialization and Industrial Concentration Patterns in the Turkish Manufacturing Industry: An Assessment for the 1980–2000 Period1

Previous studies on geographical distribution of economic activity in Turkey demonstrate that firms are localized in major metropolitan areas as well as a set of emerging regions. The aim of the paper is to complement the findings of the studies on regional and industrial concentration in Turkey's manufacturing industry by exploring whether regional specialization and industrial concentration patterns changed during the 1980–2000 period. The paper further aims to explore the driving forces of industrial concentration in Turkey's manufacturing industry, particularly during Turkey's economic integration process that started with trade liberalization after 1980 and further developed with the Customs Union in 1996. Regional specialization and industrial concentration are measured by GINI indices Turkey's NUTS-2 regions at the four-digit level for the years between 1980 and 2000. To investigate which variables determine industry concentration, systematic relation between the characteristics of the industry and industrial concentration is tested. Following the method proposed by Paluzie, Pons and Tirado, a panel regression equation is estimated, where the dependent variable is the Gini concentration index and the independent variables are the variables that represent the characteristics of the sectors that follow the predictions of classical trade theory, new trade theory and new economic geography. The major finding of the study is that during 1980–2000, Turkey's regions became more specialized and industry became more concentrated. Increases in the average values of regional specialization and industrial concentration support the prediction developed by Krugman hypothesis that regions become more specialized and industries become more concentrated with economic integration. In exploring the driving forces of industrial concentration, the findings demonstrate that firms tend to cluster in regions where there are economies of scale.     

Multinational Knowledge Strategies,Policy and the Upgrading Process of Regions: Revisiting the Automotive Industry in Ostrava and Shanghai

This paper revisits how and why new multinational knowledge-based strategies and multi-level governmental policies influence the upgrading process of regions in developing economies. Automotive multinationals traditionally exploited local asset conditions, but it is shown that they have also been contributing to knowledge-generation systems via investments in R&D centres and cooperation with regional knowledge producers. We discern three elements of the upgrading process of regions—upgrading of domestic firms, subsidiary evolution and establishment of strategic relations with local knowledge institutes—to analyse two case studies: Ostrava (Czech Republic) and Shanghai (China). The cases show that all types of upgrading—product, process, chain and functional—have taken place in the last years, and that follow sourcing may have a positive impact on regional upgrading. These observations provide lessons for governments in developing economies which aim to strengthen innovation-based regional development.     

Nested or exclusive? The role of identities on blame attribution during the Great Recession

Despite an increasing number of studies assessing the importance of institutions as regards to accountability, it still remains to be known whether and how an individual's national and regional identity shapes the attribution of responsibilities in multi‐level settings. By focusing on the economic crisis that affected Europe since 2008, we argue that identity‐based assessments of responsibility for the crisis will occur solely among individuals who hold exclusively national or regional identities and who live in regions that have nationalist aspirations. This will be in contrast to individuals that have exclusively identities who live in regions that lack nationalist aspirations, as well as dual‐identity individuals, irrespective of where they live. We test our arguments by using data from Catalonia and Madrid (Spain) and Bavaria and Lower Saxony (Germany). In line with our expectations, our results show that, in minority nationalist regions such as Catalonia, an individual's identity will crucially determine which level of government is blamed for the economic crisis, while this will not occur in regions with no nationalist aspirations. The article reveals the existence of an additional determinant of blame attribution in some specific multi‐level arrangements and contributes to the understanding of the tensions between identity politics and blame avoidance.     

Region‐specific determinants of the foreign direct investment in China

This study revisits region‐specific determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Eastern, Central, and Western China using econometric and spatial analyses. It uses a data set covering 31 Chinese provinces and autonomous regions spanning the period 2005–15, together with panel data regression. Our statistical results show that in Eastern China, FDI is significantly associated with bilateral trade, orientation towards the service industry, industrialisation level, and availability of strategic assets in the region. In Central China, FDI is mainly pulled by availability of the domestic market and strategic assets in the region. In Western China, FDI inflows are mainly determined by natural resource endowment, industrialisation level, and regional innovation and production effectiveness in information and communication technology industries. Our analysis also reveals the impact of FDI in China's regional development and its capacity to hollow out the three Chinese macro‐regions. Our findings for China lead us to suggest that those governments seeking to attract FDI should not solely rely on it to facilitate local economic development and should make use of local circumstances in combination with FDI to boost their economies.     

Services in Russia: past,present, and future

In spite of ambitious modernization plans of the government, structural change in Russia is not proceeding in the direction of highly developed economies. Part of the lag in the tertiarization process can be explained by the fact that, as during the Soviet period, the role of services in the economy is still ignored, particularly regarding innovation. This paper aims to contribute to the analysis of the evolution of services in Russia since the mid-1990s and its future prospects by compiling data from the World Bank, the International Labor Organization, Rosstat, and the World Input–Output Database. Two complementary and novel perspectives are adopted: a production system perspective and a spatial perspective. Regarding services in the Russian production system, comparison of interindustry linkages reveals that, in addition to traditional relevant activities like wholesale/retail trade and transport and communications, business services are acquiring great importance as production process inputs. Concerning the spatial perspective, we observe a greater presence of non-market services in less densely populated federal districts, while strategic service activities are highly concentrated in the most dynamic ones. Analysis of major Russian cities confirmed the trend of business services concentrating in densely populated and highly innovative cities. In brief, services, and in particular business services, can be a means to boost innovation and growth in Russia, but more attention from political leaders is necessary for these activities. The modernization process should abandon its current “high-technology industry myopia” and take into consideration the innovative, and especially, the knowledge-diffuser role, that services can exert.     

Regional Innovation Systems and Economic Performance: Between Regions and Nations

This article aims at assessing the diversity of regional innovation systems and their economic performance in Europe. We propose to adapt the social systems of innovation and production (SSIP) framework at the regional level by identifying the specific arrangements of each part of the innovation and production system. Three key features of European regions are investigated using this framework: the diversity of regional SSIP, the interplay of regional and national determinants of such systems, and the impact of SSIP on regional performance. We identify a typology of regional configurations resulting from the combination of scientific, technological, educational and industrial indicators, using multivariate data analysis. A variance analysis approach is then developed in order to test the existence of specific regional growth regimes. The results highlight a persistently high level of diversity of regional configurations, notably among knowledge intensive regions, but also show that national institutional settings remain of fundamental importance in shaping a number of regional configurations. A final conclusion relates to the weak correlation observed between the structural characteristics of regions and their performance over the 2003–2007 period: regional performance remains primarily shaped by national trends. Overall, the paper questions the regional dimension of these “systems”.     

The dynamics of the community support framework for Greece and its contribution to regional convergence

The objective of this paper is to shed light on the dynamic aspects of the Community Support Framework for Greece and to further explore its contributions to regional convergence. Given that, the majority of the Greek regions have been classified among the poorest regions of the European Union (EU) with a major inter and intra regional divergence gap, the issue of catching up the convergence factors acquires paramount importance in view of the new trends of European Community (EC) Regional Policies. Unquestionably, the convergence of the Greek regions requires a series of macroeconomic management devices and the encouragement of a series of soft and hard infrastructure projects which will restructure, upgrade and adjust their regional economy. The analysis of this paper will focus on the assistance stemming from the Regional and Structural Funds of the EU, plus the Cohesion Fund with the aim to uncover the factors which determine the extension and intensity of the convergence and divergence procedure. Using the data from the Community Support Framework (CSF I) (1989–1993), which has already been completed, attention will be paid to some of the basic problems which decisively impedes the real convergence of the Greek regions. The author will also examine in depth the criteria used by the competent authorities in allocating the funds to the regional bodies in relation with the existing regional imbalances and then he will propose a new synthetic method considering more factors which influence the final allocation approach. The conclusions of the paper might systematically unravel a series of problems facing the regions both socio‐economic and administrative which if they are not effectively confronted may possibly enlarge the existing divergence gap of the Greek regions.     

REGIONAL VARIATIONS IN TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND IN POTENTIAL GAINS FROM CONSOLIDATION AMONG U.S. COMMERCIAL BANKS

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates the regional variations in the impact of technological change and in gains from consolidation among U.S. commercial banks. We estimate a multiproduct translog cost function with the appropriate regional dummy variables. Technological change, ray scale economies and scale biases in technological change are estimated for each region. Furthermore, pairwise expansion path economies between all the regions are calculated to evaluate the potential gains from interregional consolidation. In general Southwest banks had the worst and Southeast the best technological change. There is substantial disparity across regions. It also appears that technological change increased the efficient size in the Midwest and Southwest regions and reduced it in the West, Northeast and Southeast. Banks in all regions show ray economies of scale, affirming the need for larger banks if output mix remains constant. Finally, the results support takeover of regional banks by the Money Center banks but not vice-versa, and favor consolidation among regional banks. The biggest potential gains accrue from mergers of Southeast banks with either Midwest or Southwest banks and the least gains are derived from mergers between Midwest and Southwest banks.     

European Corridors as Carriers of Dynamic Agglomeration Externalities?

Transport corridors are viewed as a promising way forward in European Union (EU) transport policy, assumed to contribute positively to regional economic development. However, the validity of this assumption is not evident. The aim of this paper is to empirically test whether agglomeration economies in European transport corridor regions are positively related to indicators of regional economic development compared to regions outside the scope of corridors. The results build on the notion that the type of agglomeration economy in combination with the structure of the economy matters for prospects of structural economic growth in different regions. In this way, the analysis not only contributes to enhancing the empirical scrutiny of the corridor concept in EU transport policy, but also provides new insights into how corridors contribute to regional economic growth. We find only limited evidence for a corridor effect across European regions on productivity and employment growth externalities. Instead, we find a large degree of spatial heterogeneity interacting with corridors—a heterogeneity that has been little recognized in EU policies. We suggest that recent attention to place-based development strategies may accord well with the kinds of agglomeration effects related to corridor development observed in this study.     

Archaeological Sites as Self-Sustained Resources for Economic Regeneration: Towards the Creation of Living Archaeological Parks on the Islands of Kythera and Antikythera

Abstract

This paper argues that less known archaeological sites on marginalized or non-touristic areas can contribute to the formation of local economies that can benefit from alternative heritage tourism and public participation in the archaeological excavation process. The discussion of a proposal for turning two archaeological sites on the Greek islands of Kythera and Anitkythera respectively (Paleokastro and Kastro) into living archaeological parks serves as an example that highlights the possibilities for the creation of self-sustainable heritage projects that need not rely on direct state funding.     

五代防御、团练州考述

在唐末旧置的基础上,五代继续增置防御、团练州,至后周末,境域内共计19个防御州、10个团练州,且分布重心逐渐由唐末的关中、中原西部地区东迁至以汴州、洛阳为中心的中原腹地,中原、淮南、河北南部等地区防御、团练州呈现出纚联成片的趋势。此外,防御、团练州还成为中央削弱方镇力量的重要举措,从内部结构来看,设置防御、团练州使得辖3州以上的方镇逐渐向辖2州的方镇趋近,从而使得中央对地方军政的控制力大为强化。     

Ex-Ante Analysis of the Regional Impacts of the Common Agricultural Policy: A Rural–Urban Recursive Dynamic CGE Model Approach

A recursive dynamic regional Computable General Equilibrium model is developed to assess the economic impacts of two Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) scenarios in six NUTS-3 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) (NUTS-1: major socio-economic regions, NUTS-2: basic regions for the application of regional policies, NUTS-3: small regions for specific diagnoses) regions of the European Union (EU). The main goal of the analysis is to assess the scenario effects (change in production, prices, income, employment) in the rural and urban parts of these regions as well as on the different sectors. The two scenarios analysed are related to a 30% reduction in Pillar 1 (market measures and direct support to farmers) support and the introduction of an EU-wide flat rate level of Pillar 1 support complemented by a 45% increase in Pillar 2 (Rural Development Policy) funds. Results show that the overall gross domestic product effects are not significant, due to the relatively low importance of both the agricultural sector and CAP spending in the regional economies. However, impacts on the agricultural sector are quite important and differ according to the nature of the policy shock. Also, the structural characteristics of each case study influence the rural–urban and sectoral spillovers, including impacts on region-specific agricultural activity.