A SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF SECTORAL VARIATIONS IN RETURNS TO EXTERNAL SCALE

ABSTRACT.  This paper reports results of spatially explicit analyses of external scale effects across a variety of sectors, including manufacturing. Using data from New England counties, earnings are found to exhibit increasing returns to urbanization in every sector. Returns to sectoral localization are mixed, however, with increasing returns in one sector, constant returns in five sectors, and decreasing returns in two sectors. External scale effects are fairly confined in their spatial extent, with only retailing and services particularly marked by spillover effects from neighboring counties.     

Understanding local innovation systems in peripheral tourism destinations

Tourism destinations in peripheral areas are often large regions established by centralised government agencies to encourage collaboration between dispersed communities and foster innovation. Relatively little research attention has been paid to the impact that centrally defined destination boundaries have on whether and how small communities contribute to innovation at a regional level. This paper examines the case of Burra, a small town in rural South Australia. It analyses the networking, collaboration and knowledge exchange behaviour of tourism stakeholders in the context of the state-government-defined ‘Clare Valley’ tourism region. Data were drawn from a web-based social network analysis, in-depth interviews, historic document analysis and field observations. The study found that the local tourism system had limited aspirations and capabilities to collaborate with other towns in the region. Lack of regional engagement was only partially due to intra-regional competition and resistance to regional boundaries. More significant barriers included a local culture of operating in isolation, an embedded reliance on public sector leadership to manage systemic interactions, an aging system with limited ambition to change and an inability to harness in-migrants and externally based stakeholders to stimulate knowledge transfer. Changing the imposed destination boundaries would have limited impact on the operation of the local system. The paper concludes that effective regional destination development in peripheral areas needs to be better informed by more detailed understandings of local tourism systems and their capacities to engage.     

The Emergence of Early Pottery in East Asia: New Discoveries and Perspectives

Journal of World Prehistory - The appearance of the oldest pottery in the world is a major focus of Early Neolithic archaeology. So far, most discoveries of early pottery have occurred in South...     

Investigation on the Yinjiawopu Site,a Medieval Salt Production Workshop in Northeast China

In 2014 and 2015, the Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology at Jilin University and the Jilin Province Archaeological Research Institute jointly conducted two excavations at the Yinjiawopu Site, in Da’an City, Jilin Province, Northeast China. One burial, two canals, five leaching pits, two house-foundations, four hearths, 103 pits, two ditches, and over 800 pieces of artifacts dated from the 12th to the 13th centuries a.d. (the Liao-Jin period) were found. Analysis shows that these features belong to a salt production workshop. This study marks the first discovery of a salt production site in Northeast China. The archaeological, ethnographic, and historical materials from the site allow a reconstruction of the chaîne opératoire of salt-making by the inhabitants of the Northeast China Plain during this period. This study sheds light on the exchange and control of salt, on the activities and daily life of the inhabitants of the region, and on their relationship with the environment.