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Spatial interactions among regional units may influence the geographical distribution of economic activities. Many traditional measures of geographical concentration fail in capturing this aspect, being insensitive to permutations of the spatial position of regions. This paper proposes an approach to the measurement of geographical concentration of economic activities that accounts for spatial interactions among regions. The locational Gini is split into spatial and non‐spatial components, so that a new interpretation of the index is presented. The measure is applied to evaluate the geographical concentration of different economic sectors for 1,323 NUTS 3 regions in the European Union over the period 2001–2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessibility is one of the most important factors in a location choice decision of a firm. However, new and relocated establishments can value accessibility differently. Research papers differences of accessibility preferences between creations and relocations are scarce. In this paper, we examine these differences in an intraurban setting, the Lyon urban area. We rely on discrete choice models and data for more than 43,000 creations and 11,000 relocations during 2005–2011 from eight economic sectors. Results demonstrate that the effect of accessibility differs between creations and relocations of the same economic sector. This difference depends on the type of the economic activity of the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops a spatial agglomeration index (SPAG) of the economic activity for the point geo‐localizations of firms. It includes the effects of location, the distance between firms and the overlapping impact of the firms' size. The SPAG builds a new class of measures of the spatial density of the economic activity inside the region, based on the geometrical representation of firms with circles, without referring to the commonly used Ripley's K function. The SPAG measures the degree of divergence from the benchmark distribution, what detects different spatial distributions as clusters or borderline dispersion. We test SPAG with real point data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the impact of studies published in "Papers in Regional Science" on regional science. According to the author, the impact factor increased to 1.265 for 2008 which reflects that articles in the journal were being used in science. The author also talked about the special issue of the journal, which includes reports about economic systems, land use and economic geography.

The paper applies the modern portfolio theory and stochastic frontier analysis to gross value added growth rates in Europe and presents evidence of convex growth‐instability frontiers. Using their national accounts by economic activity, numerical simulations of gross value added shares show that in 2011, industry portfolios were below Markowitz's efficient frontier and that rearranging the share of economic activities lead to efficiency gains in terms of lower output instability and higher growth rates. Gross value added in EU countries in general, and core countries in particular, should be contributed by the "service provider" and "financial activities" sectors, while optimal industry portfolios of periphery countries are more diversified. Stochastic frontier analysis confirms the convex growth‐instability frontiers and finds that technical inefficiencies are explained by differences in the growth rate of labour and the degree of industrial diversification. Getting more efficient is a combination of country characteristics and sector specifics, where efficiency gains are inversely related to industrial diversification during economic development. Reported results are robust to model specifications and data restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Regional industrial policy emphasizes the notion of building on existing concentrations of competitive firms. A range of measures to identify such concentrations has been put forward in the literature. These measures, however, do not identify substantial concentrations which have the best potential for further development, tend to concentrate on scale measured by employment, and are applied using data for pre‐specified administrative boundaries. This paper presents a new concentration index that identifies substantial concentrations and utilizes information on both the number and size of plants. It also proposes a method for generating relevant industry‐specific spatial units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has altered the appeal of each region to host economic activities. As firms are pushed to be more competitive, they develop outsourcing and relocation strategies, displacing some production activities to new emplacements. These changes have important impacts in some regions and are modifying the economic geography of Europe. This paper aims to present the impact that outsourcing and relocation strategies have across European regions and industries as well as to determine some of the characteristics of the more affected regions most affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how market-access strategies, via exports and FDI, respond to changes in the level of integration. Empirical evidence shows that both firm exports and multinational activity are affected by trade liberalization episodes. We account for the strong positive correlation between exports and FDI by developing a general-equilibrium model featuring firm heterogeneity, trade and FDI with final and intermediate products. Different geographical spaces are considered to quantify the effect of a preferential trade agreement ( PTA) on supply-mode decisions, for both partner and excluded countries. The model sheds new light on the mechanisms through which geography reshapes the concentration of economic activities both inside and outside the PTA area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical studies on the evolution of concentration, specialization or localization of economic activity have provided ambiguous results that strongly depend on the researcher's choice of the reference. This paper develops a decomposition method for Theil indices of localization that clarifies where this ambiguity originates from. The method allows expressing the difference between absolute and relative Theil indices of localization in terms of Theil indices that are subject to straightforward interpretation. Illustrations show that the divergence of absolute from relative localization in the EU-15 and in UK manufacturing is largely a statistical artifact inherited from the peculiarities of the industry classifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transportation costs are of central importance in the New Economic Geography literature, though assumptions about transportation costs continue to be simplistic. This paper begins to address these simplifications by assuming that transportation costs for manufactured goods are heterogeneous. Basic results are consistent with standard models showing dispersion of economic activity for high transport costs and eventual agglomeration as transport costs decline. However, several novel features arise too. Many unstable, dispersed equilibria exist for high average transport costs, but converge to a stable equilibrium path as transport costs decrease. Equilibrium paths smoothly transition from dispersion to agglomeration and do so at an increasing rate. Additionally, transport costs directly influence firms' location decisions and firms spatially sort by transport cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing micro-data of Dutch local business units, we show that firm characteristics such as size, economic activity, the traded product portfolio, the focus of trade involvement and the geographic pattern of trade are important determinants of recovery following the trade collapse of 2008-2009, both in terms of speed and depth. Our findings suggest that post-crisis growth is faster for trade in goods further downstream of the value chain and thus closer to the final consumer. Trade recovery at the firm-level does not crucially hinge on locational factors such as the province in which a firm is located or regional revealed comparative advantages in particular product groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including volatility of Chinese economic activities, globalization and industrial performance in China, and regional disparities and productivity in China.

We determine the properties of the core-periphery model with three regions and compare our results with those of the standard 2-region model. The conditions for the stability of dispersion and concentration are established. As in the 2-region model, dispersion and concentration can be simultaneously stable. We show that the 3-region (2-region) model favours the concentration (dispersion) of economic activity. Furthermore, we provide some results for the n-region model. We show that the stability of concentration of the 2-region model implies that of any model with an even number of regions. Determinamos las propiedades de un modelo núcleo-periferia de tres regiones y comparamos nuestros resultados con los del modelo estándar de dos regiones. Se establecen las condiciones para la estabilidad de la dispersión y la concentración. Al igual que en el modelo de dos regiones, la dispersión y la concentración pueden ser estables simultáneamente. Mostramos que el modelo de tres regiones (dos regiones) favorece la concentración (dispersión) de la actividad económica. Además, aportamos algunos resultados para un modelo n-regional. Mostramos que la estabilidad de la concentración del modelo bi-regional implica eso mismo de cualquier modelo con un número par de regiones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most models of regional agglomeration are based on the new economic geography (NEG) model in which returns to scale are pecuniary. We investigate the implications for regional agglomeration of a ‘Marshallian’ model in which returns to scale derive from technological externalities. Workers are assumed to have heterogeneous ‘home region’ preferences. The model is designed to explain how ‘second nature’ determines regional wage inequality and the regional distribution of economic activity. We show that agglomeration is not a necessary outcome of Marshallian externalities. However, if centrifugal or positive externalities are sufficiently strong relative to their centripetal or negative counterparts, the model generates multiple agglomerating equilibria. These equilibria multiply if, in addition, there are scale economies in amenities. A dynamic version of the model is developed in which external economies and inter-regional labour mobility grow over time. Regional wage inequality overshoots its long run equilibrium and, there is more agglomeration in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a model for developing countries that investigates the factors behind agglomeration of activities in urban giants. First we show that market access to external demand tends to attract entrepreneurs. Second we find that the attractive power of the urban giant can be linked to a lack of democracy, in the sense that by reversing the cost of living effect, democracy allows the reduction in spatial inequality and then the tendency of agglomeration. Finally we analyse how the funds embezzled by a corrupt government vary according to internal and external trade liberalisation. We show that a decrease in the disadvantage of the periphery to trade with the external market can limit the funds embezzled under bad governance. Resumen Este artículo presenta un modelo para países en desarrollo que investiga los factores que rigen la aglomeración de actividades en gigantes urbanos. Primero mostramos que el acceso del mercado a la demanda externa tiende a atraer a emprendedores. A continuación encontramos que el poder de atracción de un gigante urbano puede vincularse a una falta de democracia, en el sentido en que invirtiendo el efecto del costo de la vida, la democracia permite la reducción en la desigualdad espacial y con ello la tendencia a la aglomeración. Finalmente, analizamos como varía la malversación de fondos por gobiernos corruptos dependiendo de la liberalización interna y externa del comercio. Mostramos que una disminución en la desventaja de la periferia para comerciar con el mercado externo puede limitar la malversación de fondos durante un mal gobierno. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a simple model of economic geography by which to derive analytical results when jointly considering two centrifugal forces – congestion costs together with the pull demand effect – within the Dixit-Stiglitz-Iceberg framework. In this vein, we develop a unified model with labour mobility that combines some of the features of Tabuchi (1998 ) with those of Forslid and Ottaviano (2003 ). We analytically show that when considering the effects of congestion costs, the dispersion of economic activity is possible not only at high, but also at low transport costs. This result corroborates previous numerical simulations conducted by Tabuchi (1998 ). Resumen. Este artículo propone un modelo sencillo de geografía económica con el que obtener resultados analíticos cuando se consideraran conjuntamente dos fuerzas centrífugas –los costos de congestión y el efecto demanda– dentro del marco Dixit-Stiglitz-Iceberg. Asimismo, desarrollamos un modelo unificado, con movilidad laboral, que combina algunas de las características de Tabuchi (1998) con las de Forslid y Ottaviano (2003). Analíticamente mostramos que cuando se consideraran los efectos de los costos de congestión, la dispersión de la actividad económica es posible no solamente si los costos de transporte son elevados sino también si éstos son bajos. Este resultado corrobora simulaciones numéricas previas realizadas por Tabuchi (1998). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that using either the SIC or NAICS one-digit classifications as a method of aggregating two- and three-digit time series data can ignore important regional characteristics. We present a pairwise cointegration approach of aggregation where the aggregated sectors can vary widely across regions. By systematically constructing region-specific sectors from more detailed industries, we find that the level of agglomeration across rural and urban areas can affect the composition and number of local sectors in a region. We use the results pointing to rural/urban geographic distinctiveness to further consider the Carlino and Defina (1998, 1999 ) finding that monetary policy has disparate effects across regions in the U.S. Este artículo postula que el uso de las clasificaciones de una cifra SIC o SCIAN-NAICS como método de agregación de datos de series temporales de dos y tres cifras puede llevar a ignorar características regionales importantes. Presentamos un método de cointegración por pares en el que los sectores agregados pueden variar ampliamente entre regiones. Mediante la construcción sistemática de sectores específicos por región de industrias más detalladas, encontramos que el nivel de aglomeración entre áreas rurales y urbanas puede afectar la composición y número de sectores locales en una región. Usamos los resultados que indican la diferenciación geográfica rural/urbana para considerar la propuesta de Carlino y Defina (1998, 1999) de que la política monetaria tiene efectos marcadamente distintos entre regiones de los EE.UU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of endogenous growth and the geography and growth synthesis both consider that local growth and spatial concentration of economic activities emanate from localised knowledge spillovers ( Lucas 1988 ; Martin and Ottaviano 1999 ). Since the end of the 1980's, the spatial dimension of knowledge diffusion has been investigated from an empirical point of view, and the existence and role of local spillovers has been generally confirmed (see among others Jaffe 1989 ; Audretsch and Feldman 1996 ). The concern that now arises is to unravel the mechanisms underlying and explaining the geographical knowledge spillovers. The aim of this special issue is to present the latest new findings on such questions and to identify some new lines of research for future work. Before presenting the content of this special issue, we very briefly review the main results of the empirical literature on the geography of innovation. We also explain the context of this special issue by pointing out some of the limitations faced by this literature and, by stressing the complex dynamic and network dimensions of the observed processes of production and diffusion of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We establish classical business cycles, for New Zealand's 14 regions and aggregate national activity. Regional cycles rarely die of old age but are terminated by particular events. Concordance statistic measures show significant contemporaneous associations between the New Zealand cycle and 11 of the regional cycles. Over half the bi-regional co-movements are not significant. Geographical proximity influences co-movement between regions, as do unusually dry climatic conditions. Neither real national house price movements, nor net migration movements co-move significantly with regional cycle phases. For key regions, movements in New Zealand's terms of trade, milksolids’ prices, dairy land prices and total rural land prices are significant. Rural business cycle activity has therefore remained a remarkably dominant factor. Establecemos ciclos clásicos de empresas, para 14 regiones de Nueva Zelanda y actividad nacional agregada. Los ciclos regionales raramente mueren con el tiempo sino que terminan con eventos específicos. Las medidas estadísticas de concordancia muestran asociaciones contemporáneas significativas entre el ciclo de Nueva Zelanda y 11 de los ciclos regionales. Más de la mitad de los co-movimientos bi-regionales no son significativos. La proximidad geográfica influye en el co-movimiento entre regiones, al igual que las condiciones climáticas inusualmente secas. Ni los movimientos de precios de vivienda nacionales reales, ni los movimientos netos migratorios, muestran un co-movimiento significativo con las fases de ciclos regionales. Para regiones clave, los movimientos en términos neozelandeses de comercio, precios de sólidos lácteos, precios de tierras para explotaciones lecheras, y total de precios de tierras de labor son significativos. La actividad del ciclo de empresas rurales ha permanecido por tanto como un factor dominante. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate how alternative ways of modelling trade costs affect the main results of “new” economic geography. In order to do so, we compare the impacts of falling transport costs and decreasing tariffs on the spatial distribution of economic activities. Our analysis reveals that tariffs and transport costs largely play symmetric roles, in the sense that a decrease in either of them favours agglomeration. Yet, tariffs generate rents which, once redistributed or used to finance local public goods, make dispersion sustainable over a larger range of parameter values. Therefore, decreasing transport costs are more likely to trigger agglomeration than decreasing tariffs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to analyse the effect of the externalities of industrial pollution on trade patterns and economic geography. Many researchers have studied the effects of agglomeration on regional systems. Krugman (1991 ) applied the monopolistic competition model to international trade and has thereby contributed to this category of inquiry. However, that study did not treat the agricultural sector as important. Similarly, environmental factors are ignored in most studies of that literature. Industrial agglomeration affects the productivities of other sectors via air pollution, water pollution, and so on. We introduce the environmental factor into the new economic geography model and analyse the effects of the environmental damage on the distribution between regions, and the effect of the environmental tax. After analysing the case without migration in the short run, we discuss the long run case in which households can move freely among regions. We derive the same equilibrium pattern of population distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines whether the growth of information technology (IT) is associated with a dispersion or concentration of economic activities. The locational Gini coefficient and Moran’s I are first applied to ascertain the relationship between the growth of information technology and the distribution pattern of economic activities at the metropolitan scale. Next, using the Gi* statistic as the dependent variable and the level of information infrastructure as the independent variable, the above relationship is analysed at an intra-metropolitan scale. The results suggest that trends at a metropolitan scale do not necessarily reflect the trends at an intra-metropolitan scale in association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theoretical framework of urban and regional economics is built on transportation costs for manufactured goods. But over the twentieth century, the costs of moving these goods have declined by over 90%in real terms, and there is little reason to doubt that this decline will continue. Moreover, technological change has eliminated the importance of fixed infrastructure transport (rail and water) that played a critical role in creating natural urban centres. In this article, we document this decline and explore several simple implications of a world where it is essentially free to move goods, but expensive to move people. We find empirical support for these implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate the spatial location patterns of Spanish manufacturing firms in each industry. We use a distance-based method, Ripley's K function, which allows us to treat space as continuous. With 'complete spatial randomness' as benchmark, every sector presents significant concentration whatever the distance considered. If we use the locations of all manufacturing firms as a benchmark, we find dispersion in some sectors and concentration in others, finding also differences in the spatial scale at which clustering occurs. Finally, the use of cities as a benchmark reveals that not only is 'first nature' among the location determinants of manufacturing firms but they also include the self-reinforcing advantages of 'second nature'. Resumen. En este artículo evaluamos los patrones de localización espacial de empresas de manufacturas en cada industria. Utilizamos un método basado en la distancia, la función K de Ripley, que nos permite tratar el espacio como un continuo. Tomando la 'aleatoriedad espacial completa' como cota de referencia, todos los sectores presentan una concentración significativa, independientemente de la distancia considerada. Si empleamos las localizaciones de todas las empresas manufactureras como cota de referencia, encontramos dispersión en algunos sectores y concentración en otros, así como diferencias en la escala espacial a la que ocurre la formación de conglomerados ( clusters). Finalmente, el emplear ciudades como cota de referencia revela que entre los determinantes de localización de empresas manufactureras no solo está la 'primera naturaleza' sino que también se incluyen las ventajas de retroalimentación positiva de la 'segunda naturaleza'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]