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.     

铁路与沿线地区城乡经济关系的重构——以1888-1937年间的石家庄、郑州、天津为例

在1881-1937年间的华北地区,铁路运输兴起并形成网络后,其所具有的种种优势促进了新兴城市的崛起,推动了传统城市形态的演变,加快了沿海港口城市腹地的拓展.由此,这一区域内的城乡经济关系也发生了时代变动.由于以往的城乡二元结构或三元(城市、集镇、农村,或城市、城乡边缘区、乡村)结构理论关照下的笼统分析,并未反映出城乡经济关系的多样性和复杂化,因此本文将以石家庄、郑州和天津为例,试图通过考察城乡经济关系的变动与重构,揭示区域社会由传统向近代演变的特征与一般规律.     

The Effect of Public Infrastructure on the Private Productive Sector of Spanish Regions

In this paper we analyze the effect of infrastructure on the cost and productivity performance of the private productive sector of Spanish regions over the period 1980–1993. We use a dual approach based on cost functions that allows us to recover the usual parameters estimated with production functions. In addition, we obtain rates of return and cost elasticities of production factors at the regional level. Our framework explicitly considers that some factors are quasi-fixed and their volume can differ from their optimal endowment levels. Our results indicate that the public sector has contributed significantly to enhance productivity and reduce costs in the private sector of almost every Spanish region. Nevertheless, there is still scope for the government to continue its investment efforts, given that there remains an appreciable gap between observed and optimal public capital, and we find that in the long run, public capital promotes private investment.     

Infrastructure and Growth in a Spatial Framework: Evidence from the EU regions

This paper examines the return to infrastructure in the European Union regions in a spatial framework. It innovates on the earlier literature on infrastructure and growth by a combination of regional focus, disaggregation of infrastructure types and consideration of spatial dependence. Different types of infrastructure capital are considered as determinants of economic performance at the Nomenclature des Unités Territoriales Statistiques level. To account for growth spillovers among regions, a spatial Durbin model is estimated. The results confirm the important role of infrastructure and identify the highest rates of return as associated with telecommunication, quality and accessibility of transportation networks, with a positive impact of roads and railways.     

A nineteenth-century Mediterranean union: Michel Chevalier’s Système de la Méditerranée

This article examines one of the nineteenth-century’s most revolutionary schemes for establishing a union of Mediterranean states. In 1832, Michel Chevalier set out a startling scheme that would bring to an end armed conflict in Europe through a confederation of European states and a subsequent alliance between Europe and the Ottoman Empire. His plan envisaged a vast infrastructure network of railways, canals, roads and shipping lanes that would link the major ports of the Mediterranean with Europe’s capital cities and those of the Ottoman and Russian Empires. The infrastructure network at the heart of Chevalier’s Système de la Méditerranée was conceived by him as the basis for a system of economic integration that would foster political harmony throughout Europe – anticipating by over one hundred years Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman’s plans for a European Union – but also between Europe and the Ottoman world. Harboured within Chevalier’s infrastructure scheme for the Mediterranean was one of the earliest and most complex nineteenth-century theories of networks ever devised. This article examines the centrality of the Mediterranean to Chevalier’s theory of networks, and explores the multiple dimensions of this complex theory, including the intimate connection he identified between networks as expressions of human creativity and the kind of unalienated human relations that would result in the end of conflict both between and within nations.     

信息化对中国区域经济的影响

本文从信息化设施和信息产业两方面来认识区域信息化水平,对中国各省区的信息化水平进行了定量估算和综合评价。在区域信息化水平测度的基础上,本文从以下两方面分析了信息化的区域影响。作为区域经济的一个部门,研究结果显示中国大部分省区信息产业与区域经济增长呈现了不同程度的正的相关性。文章重点分析了信息化设施溢出对区域经济的影响。运用相应的经济增长核算模型,分单区域和两区域研究信息化设施溢出对经济增长的贡献。估算结果显示信息化设施溢出的增长作用存在区域差异。在作用机制上,单区域信息化设施的溢出与两区域的情况也有差异。     

影响农村养老模式选择的因素分析——以logistic回归为分析工具

本文立足＂百村观察＂的数据平台,通过对全国20个省68个村1942户农户的调查,探讨了个人因素、家庭因素对于农村养老模式选择的影响。认为年龄、健康状况、家庭居住地、家中子女数都影响了农民对养老方式的选择,并由此看到,传统家庭子女养老的方式正在被社会养老所改变。     

TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN MANUFACTURING FURTHER EVIDENCE FROM THE STATES*

In this paper, we first develop a measure of total factor productivity (TFP) growth and summarize a source-of-growth analysis for the manufacturing sector of 48 states. As have others, we find little association between TFP growth differentials and output growth differentials for census regions. At the staterather than the regional level, however, we find a positive association between TFP growth and output growth. We use cross-sectional data to estimate the determinants of the variation in TFP growth. Two results emerge that are important for regional policy and for understanding national productivity trends. First, state investments in education and in transportation infrastructure may affect TFP growth. Second, energy price increases in the early 1970s had no differential effects on productivity growth across states. We also explore the determinants of manufacturing output growth and find that TFP growth, demand growth, wage growth, wage levels, and state corporate income tax rates are significant.     

The Roads of Andalusia and Valencia. A Spanish Transport Legacy of the 18th and 19th Centuries

Roads designed by civil or military engineers for animal-drawn vehicles before the arrival of the railways constituted an essential factor for the movement of goods and people and for the economy and trade in different countries. The improvement in road construction techniques over the 18th and 19th centuries, following the creation of the first civil engineering colleges and institutions, allowed greater transportation at diminishing cost. Despite its significance, this heritage has received comparatively little attention from industrial archaeologists. As such, the object of the present article is to provide an overview of the development in road planning and construction in Spain over the 18th and 19th centuries, in order to demonstrate the historical and technological value of these roads. The article also presents two sections of Spanish roads corresponding to the start and end of the study period, and identifies some of the main archaeological elements dating to their time of construction that prove the evolution in road technology. This process has made it possible to create an inventory which incorporates the main elements that characterise this type of infrastructure.     

IMPACT OF RIGIONAL FACTORS ON PRODUCTIVITY IN CHINA*

ABSTRACT. The regional production environment in China is decomposed into five regional factors: education endowment, foreign direct investment, agglomeration, producer's market accessibility, and consumer's market accessibility. The impacts of these regional factors on the Chinese machinery building industry and food manufacture industry are estimated across 30 regions. The estimates are highly significant and show that these regional factors substantially affect regional productivity. Across regions and over time, the capital return rate is positively related to the ratio of the total regional factor impact to the wage rate.     

MIGRATION,SKILL FORMATION,AND THE WAGE STRUCTURE*

ABSTRACT We analyze the impacts of migration and of labor market integration on the distribution of skills and the wage structure in both the short and the long run. To do so, we develop a framework where workers have heterogeneous skills and where in‐migration expands the range of available skills in the economy. In the short run, this expansion leads to productivity gains, which may more than offset the negative endowment effects of a larger labor supply so that all workers may be better off. In the long run, in‐migration impacts wages further by altering the workers' incentives to acquire skills, thereby affecting the wage structure indirectly by changing the economy's skill composition. Since the short and the long‐run effects of in‐migration on wages may differ, compositional changes may be an important element to take into consideration. A numerical illustration calibrated on U.S. data suggests that the immigration of skilled workers negatively affects the incentives for domestic skill formation, thereby suggesting that endowment effects dominate externalities. We finally extend the model to cope with the simultaneous impacts that migration and skill formation have on the host and the source region, and we show that more migration increases wage disparities and the skill gap across regions.     

中国旅游业资本流动与生产率演化——基于DSSA方法的结构效应分析

在中国旅游业转型升级的重要时期,开展全国及31个省份旅游产业结构变动与生产率演化的研究具有显著的理论与现实意义。鉴于结构变动是影响生产率增长的一个重要因素,本文运用DSSA方法对全国及31个省份2000年—2016年旅游业资本生产率增长率进行分解,测度产业结构变动的生产率增长效应。结果发现,不同地区或省份之间表现出较大差异。在年度静态结构效应上,东部地区开放型旅游经济较为发达,各省份总体发展态势较为稳定,伴有阶段性波动;中部地区旅游经济相对闭塞,各省份总体发展的平稳性最差,波动性介于东部地区与西部地区之间;西部地区在大开发背景下旅游经济增长较快,各省份总体发展的平稳性介于东部地区与中部地区之间,波动性最大。在年度动态结构效应上,全国大部分省份在大部分年份都出现“结构负利”,动态结构能力亟须改善。尽管各省份表现出差异化的静态结构能力和动态结构能力,但是我国整体旅游产业结构升级与旅游经济增长的发展态势相耦合。本文的结构效应分析结果可为东部、中部和西部地区及不同省份旅游业转型升级提供理论依据和决策参考。     

TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH AND AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES IN MANUFACTURING, 1959-73*

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the determinants of productivity growth in the manufacturing sector of states over the period 1959-1973. Special emphasis is placed on isolating the effects of a state's urbanization characteristics on productivity growth. Urbanization characteristics considered include the spatial arrangement of cities along with the standard measures of urbanization. The results indicate that while both scale economies and technical change are related to urbanization characteristics the effects tend to be offsetting; no relationship is found between urbanization and overall productivity growth as measured by total factor productivity growth.     

Mapping the potential impact of synthetic biology on Australian foreign policy

Synthetic biology is an emerging technology that will impact on the future security and prosperity of Australia. As a discrete policy area synthetic biology has not been explored in relation to Australian foreign policy. To begin this process an understanding of Australia’s genetic endowment, Australia’s agricultural endowment and those security concerns novel to synthetic biology need to be developed. The convergence of the biological sciences and the information sciences is creating novel security concerns that impact on Australian sovereignty, both mainland and the Antarctic Territories, plant and animal health, and defence medical infrastructure. These concerns cross many traditional disciplinary and policy boundaries, an awareness of this is required and a nascent national practitioner community can develop this further. Drawing from work conducted by the US and UK synthetic biology practitioner communities, this article lays out the unique touch points synthetic biology has on Australian foreign policy.     

REGIONAL LABOR PRODUCTIVITY IN THE NETHERLANDS: EVIDENCE OF AGGLOMERATION AND CONGESTION EFFECTS*

ABSTRACT This paper studies the impact of localization, urbanization, and diversification on regional labor productivity levels and growth. We find substantial effects, accounting for roughly half of the explained variation in the labor productivity differences within the Netherlands in the 1990s. Diversification, urbanization, and localization effects are significant and positive for productivity levels. These levels appear cointegrated. The error correction specification of productivity growth surprisingly reflects negative agglomeration effects. From the theoretical model it follows that congestion effects must have taken precedence over agglomeration effects during this period. Both agglomeration and congestion effects are dampened by job density in neighboring regions. Finally, policy simulations with the estimated model show that spatial concentration is more harmful to national productivity growth than spatial dispersion.     

江西省县域城镇化水平测度及其分异研究

根据人口、经济、社会、土地等城镇化的四个主要方面,构建了城镇化水平测度的综合指标体系,采用熵权法对江西省2001年和2010年各县(市)城镇化水平进行了综合评价,并对其时空分异特征及成因进行了分析。研究发现:①江西各县(市)城镇化综合水平自2001年以来均获得了不同程度的提升,县域城镇化水平变异程度减小,但绝对差距和相对差距拉大,极化趋势显著;②江西省城镇化水平存在显著的区域差异,从北向南呈现由高向低的梯度变化规律;县域城镇化水平高和较高的县(市)主要分布在全省的西北、东北、中部和西南部地区;空间形态上形成以中心城市为核心,向外围梯度变化的圈层式结构;③江西省县域城镇化水平差异是自然条件和资源禀赋、中心城市辐射带动能力、地理区位和交通条件及区域发展战略和政策等方面的差异综合作用的结果。     

基础设施投资与中国经济增长的地区差异研究

本文应用生产函数法和我国19962000年度混合数据,从全国各地区的层次进行分析,估计基础设施对经济增长的产出弹性,以及不同地域的显著性差异。得到的估计结果是基础设施投资的人均GDP产出弹性为0187;不同地域基础设施对经济增长的影响存在明显差异。本文分三部分。第一部分是引言,介绍了有关的研究文献;第二部分应用生产函数建立模型进行估计;第三部分是结论和政策建议。     

Regionalism and Nationalism in the Railway Cartography of Mid-Nineteenth Century Germany

This article concerns German railway cartography in the mid-nineteenth century and its effects on spatio-political perceptions. The evolution of a railway system in Germany, from isolated single routes into national and ultimately international networks, has been customarily linked to the political issue of unification in 1871. The infrastructural changes triggered the introduction of new maps and map signs, which overshadowed other national and political signs and should not be seen as a simple means to a nationalist end. By examining the developing iconography of railways and railway networks, I argue that railways were a cause of deterritorialization for regions and states and for the vision of a unified Germany.     

Light railways and the rural–urban continuum: technology, space and society in late nineteenth-century Belgium

Combining the literature on ‘city systems’ and its intermediary spatial categories with the discourse on ‘socio-technical’ hybrids, this article examines whether the early rural–urban condition in Belgium was the planned spatial outcome of infrastructure policy. More specifically, it analyzes the dialectic between the conception of light railways and the geographies of power, tracing its impact on the spatial organization of the territory. In 1911 the British sociologist Seebohm Rowntree stated that Belgium had gone further than any country in supplying its working class with gardens. The dense Belgian railway network encouraged workers to commute between land and labour, travelling from their homes in the healthy countryside to work in urban factories and mines. Despite the agricultural crisis and accelerating industrialization in nineteenth-century Belgium, infrastructure policy had resulted in a peculiar territorial balance between city and countryside by transforming agricultural labourers and farmers into industrial workers without forcing them to leave their ancestral villages. Rather than nostalgically clinging to a disappearing countryside, the government harnessed the modern technology par excellence, combining rails, steam and state management, to safeguard the country as well as to facilitate modern dynamic. Countryside preservation and accelerating industrialization were reconciled in a reshaped configuration that rendered the countryside and its inhabitants simultaneously rural and urban, traditional and modern. As most literature situates the genesis of rural–urban landscapes after the First and Second World War, this article on late-nineteenth-century Belgium adds a further facet to the recently growing international research on hybrid territories within the fields of urbanism and geography.     

西部地区旅游经济空间变化趋势及影响因素研究

文章建立了一个旅游经济空间差异影响因素的分析框架,包含旅游要素投入、旅游基础设施、旅游服务设施、经济发展水平和旅游资源禀赋5个方面,并基于收敛理论的σ-收敛、β-收敛和俱乐部收敛等方法定量分析了2000～2009年西部地区旅游经济的空间变化特征及影响因素,得到如下结论:①12省(区、市)间旅游经济呈现出比较明显的σ-收敛和β-收敛趋势,表明均衡化发展的主流变化特征,但西南和西北两地区不存在俱乐部收敛;②影响因素分析显示,旅游业从业人员数量、城镇居民可支配收入和旅游资源禀赋水平对西部地区旅游经济的均衡化发展发挥了主导的推动作用,而星级酒店水平更支持旅游经济的空间集聚。在此基础上,提出了旅游经济较落后省份加快发展旅游经济、缩小区域差异的建议措施。