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The rapid economic ascent of China and the increasing integration of the world economy in the past two decades have made metropolises in China such as Shanghai and Beijing emerging global cities. Foreign investment is a central force underlying the emergence and transformation of the Chinese metropolises into global cities. This is especially true in Shanghai, which has experienced massive infusion of foreign investment. Varied forms of foreign investment or development zones have been created to promote foreign investment inflows, yet remain under-studied. This paper analyzes structure, performance, and underlying factors of development zones in Shanghai, and discusses the implications for global city-formation; it unfolds the variations among development zones, and illustrates the significant role of the state and local conditions. As the literature on global cities dwells primarily on the experiences of advanced economies, this paper further contributes to a better understanding of the dynamics of emerging global cities in the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to explore the impacts of extra-local economic and political forces on the business community participants of the governing regime coalition in Akron, Ohio, and in turn, how other regime partners responded to and engaged with the changing constitution of Akron's business community. Unlike the UK where municipalities receive substantial fiscal support from regional and national governments, American cities are more readily forced into regime partnerships with other public and private actors for fiscal solvency, including, primarily, the local business community. In the case of Akron, the local business community experienced a prolonged and ongoing period of comprehensive deindustrialization and economic restructuring, forcing the city into partnerships with less traditional non-private sector actors as Akron's business community structure continues to transform. A secondary objective is to forward the utility of social network analysis in regime theory applications. Social network analysis offers a way to situate arguably the most influential actors in a regime coalition. Utilizing the directories of Standard and Poor's Index of Corporations and Directors from 1975 through 2006, social network analysis is performed on the interlocking network of corporations and civic organizations based in Akron for each decade, allowing a longitudinal view of the changing business community partners of Akron's governing coalition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following an outline of the different types of agglomeration economy, consideration is given to transaction costs. Transaction costs may have a definite spatial dimension because institutional, commercial, cultural, and language characteristics are differentiated across the geographic space separating market agents. The concept of transaction space is introduced to represent the spatial differentiation of these characteristics, and this concept is used to cast light on how space can contribute to coordination and agency problems that raise transaction costs. Contractual agreements that are rearranged, so as to span a less heterogeneous transaction space, permit the reduction of transaction costs. Agglomeration can then be interpreted as an alternative to hierarchical structures within firms in economizing on transaction costs. The paper concludes with illustrations of how this framework may help to understand the spatial implications of corporate restructuring and new information technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The use of the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) as a distributive medium is seen by many businesses as a legitimate way to cut costs of operation. Confidence is growing in the use of this medium to transact business because of the increasing sophistication of firewalls, encryption software, and digital key technology. This paper presents empirical evidence from one offshore financial center where the process of legislative and regulatory reform put in place to establish confidence in the traditional provision of offshore financial services is now being used to regulate and legitimize the online distribution of such services. The results show that all firms surveyed for this study use the Internet for routine brochure-ware purposes and the larger firms (particularly in the offshore life insurance sector) are developing more sophisticated customized transactional functions via extranet platforms. Tensions exist though with respect to “regulatory grasp” via the Internet, as offshore places are being put under increased pressure by supranational organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to require greater transparency in offshore financial transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reilly's law of markets delimits a breakpoint between the trade areas of a pair of centers based on their size and spatial separation. The construction of trade boundaries between more than two centers is inadequately dealt with in the literature. This paper generalizes Reilly's market model using probability contour mapping and numerical integration. Since the allocation phase of the model can be based on any suitable interaction model, a wide variety of retail analysis techniques is synthesized. Using computer graphics, both descriptive and predictive uses of the model are illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]