Industrial Location as a Bargain: Iceland and the Aluminium Multinationals 1962–1994

This paper conceptualizes industrial location, specifically in the form of foreign investment, as a bargaining process to provide a framework within which to examine Iceland's deals with aluminium multinationals between 1961 and 1994. These deals involve one actual and one planned investment in aluminium smelters. Conceptually, it is argued that the interpretation of industrial location as a bargaining process can be readily incorporated within the geography of enterprise tradition by explicitly recognizing that location factors are not given datum but are created by negotiations among parties whose interests may overlap but do not coincide. In this paper, the main parties are the Icelandic government and aluminium multinationals. While both parties were interested in investments in smelters which would ultilize Iceland's power resources, the initial agreement in the 1960s depended on Iceland's acceptance of foreign investment as an appropriate vehicle of development and the ability of the parties to agree on power supply, power rates and taxation, location, and some jurisdictional issues that had not been anticipated. This deal has since been revised although the impact of the obsolescing bargain is not noticeably evident. The Iceland government has brokered another deal with other multinationals although this project has been put on hold due primarily to unforeseen events in the global economy. Still controversial, the actual and potential structure of Iceland's aluminium industry results directly from these bargains.     

Increasing returns to scale in the towns of early Tudor England

Abstract

Urban agglomeration economies make cities central to theories of modern economic growth. There is historical evidence for the presence of Smithian growth and agglomeration effects in English towns c.1450-1670, but seminal assessments deny the presence of agglomeration effects and productivity gains to Early Modern English towns. This study evaluates the presence of increasing returns to scale (IRS) in aggregate urban economic outputs—the empirical signature of feedbacks between Smithian growth and agglomeration effects—among the towns of 16th century England. To do so, we test a model from settlement scaling theory against the 1524/5 Lay Subsidy returns. Analysis of these data indicates that Tudor towns exhibited IRS—a finding that is robust to alternative interpretations of the data. IRS holds even for the smallest towns in our sample, suggesting the absence of town size thresholds for the emergence of agglomeration effects. Spatial patterning of scaling residuals further suggests regional demand-side interactions with Smithian-agglomeration feedbacks. These findings suggest the presence of agglomeration effects and Smithian growth in pre-industrial English towns. This begs us to reconsider the economic performance of Early Modern English towns, and suggests that the qualitative economic dynamics of contemporary cities may be applicable to premodern settlements in general.     

Spatial Reach of Office Firms: Case Study in the Metropolitan CBD of Tel Aviv, Israel

This paper, using the CBD of metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israel, as a case study, discloses the spatial range of linkages of office firms, situated in newly built office towers. The linkages explored, from the results of a sample of 120 office firms, are those held by office firms with clients, suppliers of goods and services, and with other service firms as partners or as subcontractors. The magnitude of the linkages is revealed in the context of Israel's recent entry into the post-industrial age and its rapid affiliation with the global economy, accompanied by functional restructuring of the service economy. It is also visible in the built environment of Tel Aviv, with large-scale construction of over thirty Class A office tower buildings. Complex spatial interrelationships are found, extending from their immediate metropolitan environment toward the world's leading economic centres. Future avenues of research are explored.     

基于腾讯迁徙大数据的长三角城市群春运人口流动时空特征

开展城市群人口流动研究对促进区域人口有序流动和城市群协同发展具有重要的理论和实践指导意义。本文基于腾讯迁徙大数据，运用GIS空间统计和K-shell分解等方法，从人口流动总量、位序、时序和网络层级等方面，对我国长三角城市群2018年春运期间的人口流动特征进行系统研究。结果表明：①长三角城市群春运期间大规模的“返乡流”和“返城流”呈现明显的对称性，并分别于除夕和第一个工作日达到最高峰。②经济发展水平相对较高的上海、苏州、杭州等为劳动力输入型城市，而经济发展水平相对较低的盐城、安庆和滁州等为劳动力输出型城市。③长三角城市群内部人口流动网络具有明显的层级特征，其中上海和杭州是人口辐射核心城市，上海-合肥、上海-南京、上海-杭州等是人口流动的主体路径；空间上东部-西部横向人口流动最为频繁，大体呈现“Z”字形。