A Gravity Model with Variable Coefficients: The EEC Trade with Third Countries

Gravity models with fixed coefficients have been used to explain the trade flows between countries different in income levels and separated by long distances. It is unrealistic to assume that these models can hold with the same parameters across very heterogeneous countries. This paper proposes and estimates an international trade model with variable coefficients constructed by combining Pöy-hönen's and Linnemann's gravity-based trade models via the expansion method.     

Geographical Differentiation and its Measures in a Discrete System

The preceding preliminary paper is expanded into a full-fledged theory of differentiation. Two types are considered: feature-based differentiation and areal differentiation, both in their geographical and nongeographical contexts. Each type is examined both in a broad sense, without weighting, and in a narrow sense, with the values of a selected feature or other weights attached to the parts of a whole. Measures of differentiation are then borrowed from information theory. Differentiation in the broad sense (without weights) can be measured by the simpler Hartley measure of information transmission, which applies when any one of distinct possible outcomes of an event is equally likely to occur. Differentiation in the narrow sense (weighted) can be measured by the more complicated Shannon measure of entropy, which takes into consideration the probability that a given event will have a particular outcome.     

The Max-Min-Min Principle of Product Differentiation

We analyze two and three-dimensional variants of Hotelling's model of differentiated products. In our setup, consumers can place different importances on each product attribute; these are measured by weights on the disutility of distance in each dimension. Two firms play a two-stage game; they choose locations in stage 1 and prices in stage 2. We seek subgame-perfect equilibria. We find that all such equilibria have maximal differentiation in one dimension only; in all other dimensions they have minimum differentiation. An equilibrium with maximal differentiation in a certain dimension occurs when consumers place sufficient importance (weight) on that attribute. Thus, depending on the importance consumers place on each attribute, in two dimensions there is a max-min equilibrium, a min-max equilibrium, or both. In three dimensions, depending on the weights, there can be a max-min-min equilibrium, a min-max-min equilibrium, a min-min-max equilibrium, any two of these, or all three.     

A Hierarchical Market Model of International Trade

The characteristics of hierarchical trade flows, when placed in the context of differentiated markets, can provide some insight into the underlying bases of contemporary international trade. A model that relies on differentiated market theory and hierarchical market theory is developed. Trade characteristics derived in the model, concerning the frequency and value of trade, are empirically tested. Empirical results indicate that the model provides a useful framework for the analysis of contemporary international trade.     

Results of the Third Congress of the Geographical Society of the USSR

A review of the IGU symposium on the history of geographical thought, held in July 1976 in Leningrad, discusses common themes in papers presented by Soviet geographers and foreign participants. In the view of the Soviet organizers, the foreign presentations were more concerned with the past than with the current impact of geography on socio-economic activities, which is said to distinguish the Soviet school of geography. The work of the symposium demonstrated that the ideas of geographical determinism had been largely abandoned. The presentations of foreign geographers suggested that they were still inadequately informed about the work of Soviet geographers despite ongoing translation programs.     

Land Markets in the Harris-Todaro Model: A New Factor Equilibrating Rural-Urban Migration

Recent research in the Harris-Todaro (HT) tradition has added an important new element to the model by incorporating an urban land market. Brueckner and Zenou (1999) (hereafter BZ) argue that a model where migration equalizes expected wages between city and countryside may overlook another important force that equilibrates the process of rural-urban migration. This force is the migration-induced rise in the urban cost of living, which occurs principally through escalation of urban land rents as the city population expands. Land-rent escalation, which tends to limit rural-urban migration, provides an important additional force that may help determine city sizes in developing countries. The present paper provides a simpler alternative to BZ's analysis by assuming that urban residents smooth their income as they cycle between formal and informal employment. This allows migration decisions to be based on the expected wage, as in the usual HT framework, in a model that includes a land market. The analysis shows that this modified framework generates results slightly different from those of BZ.     

民国桐油贸易格局与市场整合——以四川为中心

作为民国时期四川重要的出口物资 ,桐油在贸易数量和贸易格局上一定程度地反映着四川区域经济的特点。本文在前人研究的基础上引入海关贸易统计和日本人调查报告 ,从贸易格局、市场整合等角度进一步探讨民国时期四川桐油贸易的历史全貌。     

20世纪90年代的中日纤维产品贸易

20世纪90年代中日两国贸易结构发生较大变化,即中国对日本出口的食品及矿产等初级产品在对日出口总额中降到不足一成,而纤维产品贸易以几乎每年占中日贸易额的20～30％的速度强劲发展,推动了两国贸易总额的迅速增长,但同时也引起贸易摩擦。尽管纤维产品贸易由垂直贸易分工向初级水平贸易分工发展,以及密切的依存关系两大特征,使中日两国避免了在该领域的贸易战,但是,如何在互补性贸易结构中寻求更多的合作领域以减少贸易摩擦甚至避免贸易战争,是20世纪90年代中日纤维产品贸易带来的重要启示。     

基于市场竞争态的上海国际旅游客源市场分析

通过运用市场竞争态指标对上海国际旅游客源市场1997-2004年统计数据进行分析,可以发现,21世纪以来上海国际旅游客源市场呈现出明星市场空白、金牛市场壮大、幼童市场回落、瘦狗市场积聚的变化趋势与特征,说明上海国际旅游客市场发展的后续动力不足;本文认为:加强日本、韩国、德国、美国四个金牛市场的宣传和促销,对英国、印度、瑞士三国进行市场细分,保持主要客源市场和潜力客源市场的持续增长,是今后上海国际旅游市场拓展的关键.     

Information Availability and Market Power in Export Competition: The Case of Regional Health Care Markets

In this paper I analyze the spatial-economic determinants of export competition. I develop a competing central place spatial interaction model to analyze the spatial availability of information, market power, distance, demand threshold, and interregional market variables. Model estimates are based on national data from The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, and I examine Medicare health exports from the Seattle hospital market to markets throughout the Pacific Northwest. Information availability and market power for the Seattle export hospitals have a significant effect on export sales of hospital Medicare services. Intra and interregional competition with other major hospital markets are significant determinants of export competition. Distance to the Seattle market has a strong, negative effect on export sales and on patient migration from other markets.     

汉成帝元延三年侯国地理分布研究

西汉时期,汉廷先后分封八百余个侯国,对于这些侯国的地理分布特征,向来不甚明了。通过《汉书·地理志》及《汉书》相关侯表,可以复原汉成帝元延三年的侯国地理分布情况。从中可以看出,西汉末年的侯国分布存在显著地域特征。三辅、边郡、王国地区均无侯国分布。侯国只分布在内郡范围内,且空间分布极不均衡。汉末侯国地理分布格局的形成与推恩令、广关、京畿拓展等地域控制策略的执行紧密相关,同时也反映出汉代政治地域观念的某些特点。     

Using SimBritain to Model the Geographical Impact of National Government Policies

In this article, we use a dynamic spatial microsimulation model of Britain for the analysis of the geographical impact of policies that have been implemented in Britain in the last 10 years. In particular, we show how spatial microsimulation can be used to estimate the geographical and socio-economic impact of the following policy developments: introduction of the minimum wage, winter fuel payments, working families tax credits, and new child and working credits. This analysis is carried out with the use of the SimBritain model , which is a product of a 3-year research project aimed at dynamically simulating urban and regional populations in Britain. SimBritain projections are based on a method that uses small area data from past Censuses of the British population in order to estimate small-area data for 2001, 2011, and 2021.     

近代国内钱业市场的运营与农副产品贸易

1933年以前的20年里,国内农副产品的年贸易额达数十亿元,这些款项主要依赖以上海为中心的钱业市场的调拨。由于全国各地农副产品上市时间不一,各地形成了在同一时期松紧不一的“金融季节”,上海作为当时金融业的总枢纽,常年处于高效的运营之中,通过汉口、天津、香港等分中心,形成一个覆盖全国的、金字塔形的金融网络,把资金从相对宽裕的地区调到比较紧张的地区,年复一年,循环往复。在钱业市场中居于主要地位的是传统的钱庄,它一方面连接着国内农副产品贸易商,向其发放大量的信用贷款,另一方面,它又连接着新式银行,当其资金短缺时,向银行大量拆借,与银行形成相互利用、共同发展的局面。     

Profit-Rate Maximization in Interdependent Markets: A Research Note

In the theory of the firm it is conventional to regard firms as (total)profit-maximizing institutions. In this paper it is shown that the interdependence among firms that is characteristic of monopolistic competition makes it plausible for them also to choose to maximize the rate of profit on capital advanced. For a homogeneous product with inelastic total demand, such as gasoline retailing, firms acting as rational agents, facing fixed costs in a homogeneous spatial market, and choosing to set prices under rate of profit-maximization can achieve higher total profits than firms operating under total profit-maximizing objectives.