ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF PUBLIC CAPITAL STOCK USING THE NEG WAGE EQUATION: A SPATIAL PANEL DATA APPROACH

ABSTRACT This paper examines the relationship between the level of public infrastructure and the level of productivity using panel data for the Spanish provinces over the period 1985–2004, a period that is particularly relevant due to the substantial changes occurring in the Spanish economy at that time. The underlying model used for the data analysis is based on the wage equation, which is one of a handful of simultaneous equations which when satisfied correspond to the short‐run equilibrium of New Economic Geography (NEG) theory. This is estimated using various spatial panel models with either fixed or random effects to allow for individual heterogeneity. Using these models, we find consistent evidence that productivity depends directly on the public capital stock endowment of each province, but also there is evidence of negative spillover effects from changes in capital stock in neighboring provinces.     

AGGLOMERATION AND REGIONAL COSTS OF LIVING*

ABSTRACT Standard models of the new economic geography predict that costs of living are lower in the core than in the periphery. But in reality they tend to be higher in agglomeration areas, mainly because of regional differences in housing costs. In this paper, we add a home goods sector to the seminal NEG model of Krugman (1991) . We show that a core–periphery structure can endogenously emerge in which the core is the more expensive area. This result has an important normative implication. Since higher costs of living imply falling real wages if there is no nominal wage premium, it is not desirable for everybody to live in the core region.     

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY WITHIN AND BETWEEN EUROPEAN NATIONS: THE ROLE OF MARKET POTENTIAL AND DENSITY ACROSS SPACE AND TIME*

ABSTRACT In explaining the uneven spatial distribution of economic activity, urban economics, and new economic geography (NEG) dominate recent research in economics. A main difference between these two approaches is that NEG stresses the role of spatial linkages whereas urban economics does not do so. We estimate simple versions of these two views on economic geography and also establish if the relevance of spatial linkages varies across aggregation levels or time. For our sample of 14 European countries and 213 corresponding regions, we find that spatial linkages are more important at the country level and that its relevance varies across time.     

THE IMPACT OF MIGRATION ON REGIONAL WAGE INEQUALITY: A SEMIPARAMETRIC APPROACH

According to economic theory, regional migration is a primary mechanism through which regional wage convergence is predicted to occur. However, this does not necessarily imply that regional migration has an equalizing effect on regional inequality. Despite considerable literatures on regional migration and regional wage inequality, little attention has focused on the relationship between the two. This paper investigates one of the primary mechanisms through which migration affects individual region's wage distributions. It adopts a semiparametric procedure to examine how the regional wage distributions in Great Britain have changed as a result of migration using British Household Panel Survey data for 1991–2007.     

京津冀地区城市间行业工资差异及影响因素分析

基于2005-2012年京津冀各城市工资及其它社会经济数据,探讨了市场潜能、产业集聚、人力资本、制度改革等因素对城市间各行业工资差异的影响。结果表明：①市场潜能对各行业工资水平的增长均有一定的促进作用。②除消费性服务业外,各类产业集聚对地区平均工资水平的提高均有一定的促进作用,但制造业集聚带来的拥挤效应也已开始体现;生产性服务业集聚能够带动公共性服务业工资的提升,而公共性服务业缺乏对生产性服务业的反哺;产业集聚对消费性服务业工资缺乏带动作用。③在控制变量方面,交通基础设施对工资水平的带动作用逐渐弱化;科技投入、人力资本对服务业工资水平的带动作用较高,而对制造业影响较弱;市场经济体制改革对工资水平的带动作用仍未体现;政府市场干预能力的提高仅带动了公共性服务业工资的提升,而外向度的提升则仅对公共性服务业缺乏带动作用。     

产业区域集聚研究:新经济地理学的理论模型和实证命题

产业区域集聚是近年学术研究的一个重要问题。本文在总揽国内外现有研究文献的基础上,从理论和实证两个层面对这一论题进行了系统梳理。从理论层面来看,新近兴起的新经济地理学是迄今为止研究产业集聚的主流经济学理论。它在规模报酬递增与不完全竞争市场为特征的理论框架下,引入了外部经济、要素流动、以及路径依赖等因素,来研究产业在地理空间上的集聚与扩散问题。实证层面,本文将近年涌现出的产业区域集聚经验检验归纳概括为五个实证命题,并分别展开回顾。     

THE URBAN ENTERPRISE ZONE*

ABSTRACT This paper provides an analytical framework of urban enterprise zones in a context of regional development. The direct and indirect impacts of urban enterprise zones on regional economies such as job creation, urban unemployment, agricultural wage and changes in the regional economic structure are analyzed by incorporating the intermediate goods sector. The study suggests that the establishment of urban enterprise zones is a beneficial and effective policy instrument which can be used in promoting urban renewal and regional economic growth.     

A NEOCLASSICAL ANATOMY OF THE ECONOMIC BASE MULTIPLIER*

ABSTRACT Keynesian export base theory ignores the supply side of the economy, while trade models may overemphasize resource constraints. A general equilibrium model which stakes out a position between those extremes is developed and used to define rigorously the components of an economic base (EB) multiplier. Capital moves freely in and out of the regional economy, but the factor land is fixed. Interregional labor movements are caused by wage differentials. Factor and relative commodity prices are determined endogenously. Demand and supply sides of a small regional economy are included. The relationship between average and marginal EB multipliers, and between key parameters (regional size, several elasticities, etc.) and the marginal multiplier are discussed. The Keynesian constant EB multiplier can be derived from a special case of the model.     

The Spatial Distribution of Wages: Estimating the Helpman‐Hanson Model for Germany

Abstract.  Using German district data we estimate the structural parameters of a new economic geography model as developed by Helpman (1998) and Hanson (1998 , 2001a ). The advantage of the Helpman‐Hanson model is that it incorporates the fact that agglomeration of economic activity increases the prices of local (nontradable) services, like housing. This model thereby provides an intuitively appealing spreading force that allows for less extreme agglomeration patterns than predicted by the bulk of new economic geography models. Generalizing the Helpman‐Hanson model, we also analyze the implications for the spatial distribution of wages once the assumption of real wage equalization is dropped. If we no longer assume real wage equalization we find support for a spatial wage structure as well as for the relevance of the structural parameters of the theoretical model.     

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY OF FIRMS AND SKILLED LABOR*

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the relationship between firm location and skilled‐labor location. While existing new economic geography (NEG) models could not explicitly analyze the relationship due to their assumptions, I construct a new NEG‐type model allowing for different location dynamics of firms and skilled labor for this objective. The main results are as follows. First, a relatively large pool of skilled labor attracts firms when trade costs are small, while it might repel firms when trade costs are sufficiently large. Second, assuming that skilled workers are mobile between regions, the model shows that skilled workers agglomerate faster than firms with decreasing trade costs. Third, the model supports the hypothesis that firms follow skilled labor rather than the reverse. These results are consistent to Indian and Chinese experiences, and some “creative‐class” or “skilled‐city” stories.     

THE NATURE OF THE MANPOWER PROBLEM IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SIBERIA

The traditional picture of the economic development in Siberia presents a formidable obstacle in the form of a manpower deficit and high labor turnover. The official policy to combat this problem has been to give priority to the development of social and cultural amenities. Substantial changes in wage differentials and other economic and non-economic benefits seem to be a measure of the past. This article presents an overview of the situation and suggests that if any public policy is to be effective, it has to combine accelerated development in the social and cultural spheres and economic and noneconomic benefits as well. Furthermore, these measures have to be more differentiated regionally and among worker categories. Any such policy would require massive investment. The question is whether Soviet society can bear this huge burden in view of more immediate needs. Another question is whether the additional investment required would be compensated by a comparable increase in the productivity of labor. In view of substantial cost increases, capital productivity is likely to decline if not compensated by a change in the calculated prices on Siberian products, especially oil and gas, which seems doubtful in view of the present international situation.     

ALARMISM AND DENIALISM IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: THE CASE OF THE NUTRIENT POLLUTION IN THE BALTIC SEA IN THE 1960S AND 1970S

Between 1975 and 1983 the Swedish labour movement discussed a proposal to establish wage earner funds that would gradually shift the ownership in medium to large companies from employers to workers. This article starts by shedding light on the genesis of the proposal in the 1960s and 1970s and the reactions it provoked in Swedish society. Focus then switches to how the Meidner plan was understood in Italy in a time of pronounced social conflict marked, on one hand, by the redefinition of the relationship between trade unions and politics and, on the other hand, by soaring opposition among the various trade unions and the growing distance between the two major leftist parties. These divisions reverberated on the ways the wage earner funds – in their various versions – were understood by the organizations of the Italian labour movement; the assessment of the plan's feasibility and its applicability to the Italian case came to reflect conflicting views on industrial and economic democracy and on the relationship between Nordic social-democracies and Italian reformism.     

The spatial extent of agglomeration economies across the wage earnings distribution

We investigate the spatial extent of agglomeration economies across the wage earnings distribution using economic mass (total employment) in four distance bands around each individual’s establishment in a quantile regression framework. We control for observable and unobservable individual and establishment characteristics. Remaining endogeneity in the model is assessed with a set of instrumental variables. Results indicate a positive effect of economic mass on wage earnings up to 25 km away from the establishment. The spatial extent of agglomeration economies is similar across the wage earnings distribution. However, increases in economic mass shift the wage earnings distribution in a nonsymmetric way.     

THE VARIATION OF REGIONAL POPULATION IN JAPAN*

In this paper, firstly a model of the variation of regional population was constructed, based on the work of Klaassen and the wage and job opportunity theories. Secondly, the reduced form of the model was made and fitted to the data of Japan for 1965 and the time period 1960–1965. The model was successfully fitted to the data. It was therefore concluded that in Japan, the mechanism of determination of a regional population could be shown by the model proposed in this paper, and the population in a region was determined by the natural increase of population and the economic activity of the region. Moreover, the fact that the densely populated region in Japan has higher population growth as the region has higher economic activity and higher natural increase ratio of population was found.     

THE IMPACT OF LOCAL WAGE REGULATION ON EMPLOYMENT: A BORDER ANALYSIS FROM ITALY IN THE 1950s*

This paper measures the impact of wage zones—compulsory wage differentials at the province level—on Italy's local labor markets during the 1950s. Using spatial regression techniques, it finds that for the industrial sectors covered under wage zones there was an increase in employment when one crossed the border from a high‐wage province into a low‐wage one; the effect diminished, however, as the distance from the boundary increased. The paper also illustrates that the impact on the overall (nonfarm) private sector, which includes both covered and uncovered sectors, was negligible.     

基于对应分析法的遗产旅游影响感知差异研究

旅游发展给世界遗产地带来的影响日益受到众多学者关注。本文通过对全国13个遗产地进行分组调研与考察,利用SPSS13.0对数据进行统计描述分析、多组数据单项方差分析,对遗产地经济、社会、环境、文化影响的总体影响进行定量归纳,并重点利用对应分析法分析了不同性别、年龄及学历的受访者对旅游影响的感知差异。     

Spatial Moving Behavior of Two-Earner Households

Economic theory suggests that job choice, residential choice and commuting behavior are simultaneously determined. The case of two-earner households deserves special attention because the two wage earners share a dwelling but have different workplaces. We base our analysis of spatial moving behavior on search theory. We demonstrate that job mobility depends positively on the distance between the workplaces of the two wage earners. Residential mobility seems to be negatively influenced by the distance between the workplaces of the two wage earners. The search model also indicates that two-earner households will, on average, move less often than single wage earners.     

中国制造业重心的空间分布变化特征与趋势研究——基于2001年和2009年数据的实证分析

中国东部地区向中国内陆及周边国家的产业转移方兴未艾,很有可能发展成为全球第四次产业转移浪潮,而制造业的区域转移是该过程的主体。本文对中国制造业不同尺度的份额变化及其影响因素进行讨论并对二者关系进行计量分析,得出以下结论:第一,制造业重心基本空间格局未发生变化,但已发生明显的份额变化;第二,制造业份额变化涉及多个空间层面,并遵循随经济发展水平增长而降低的梯度原则;第三,根据2001年和2009年中国地市级尺度制造业份额变化及其影响要素间关系的理论分析和计量研究结果,中国区域制造业份额与经济发展水平呈现倒U型关系,且仍对低成本劳动力具有一定的依赖性,而交通设施改善对于制造业份额的增长具有显著的正向效应。     

AGING NATIONS AND THE FUTURE OF CITIES*

ABSTRACT We investigate whether an aging population may challenge the supremacy of large working cities. To this end, we develop an economic geography model with two types of individuals (workers and retirees) and two sectors (local services and manufacturing). Workers produce and consume; the elderly consume only. As a result, the mobility decision of workers is driven by both the wage gap and the cost‐of‐living gap, unlike the elderly who react to the differences in the cost of living only. We show that the return of pre‐industrial urban system dominated by rentier cities does not seem to be on the agenda. Quite the opposite, the future of large working cities is still bright, the reason being that today's urban costs act as a strong force that prevents a large share of local services and manufacturing firms from following the rentiers in the elderly cities, while the supply of differentiated b2c services impede their complete separation.     

The Rural Labour Market in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT Wage labour in Zimbabwe is most often associated with large commercial farms. The use of wage labour within ‘peasant’ agriculture has been rarely investigated and remains largely undocumented. In 1986/7, the author conducted research in Zimbabwe which was explicitly concerned with issues of rural economic differentiation and the wage labour supplied and hired by ‘peasant’ households. The data suggest that a dynamic labour market exists in rural Zimbabwe. Further, it was found that in addition to the many part-time rural wage workers, there is a group of people who depend upon wages for all or the bulk of their income. These people, who have been largely ignored by policymakers, cannot be defined as farmers at all.