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This work proposes a new technique for measuring knowledge capital that applies the concept of Euclidian distance to factors often considered pillars of knowledge. Importantly, this methodological proposal can suitably treat variables assessed using different measurement units and scales. The empirical exercise considers the 32 Mexican states between 2000 and 2016, with results classifying the economies into high and low knowledge levels and estimates of the link between knowledge and economic growth, confirming the hypothesis of decreasing returns and demonstrating a positive relationship with knowledge capital. The conclusions recommend strengthening knowledge capital in all regions to boost economic growth and transition to a knowledge economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much new work in urban and regional economics has emphasized the importance of place prosperity. This study focuses on the determinants of adult poverty and the contribution of place prosperity in damping the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Childhood poverty is a major predictor of adult poverty. We consider how such intergenerational transmission is affected by metropolitan and neighborhood (census tract) prosperity. To capture the temporal dynamics of this process, the model explored here is recursive in nature. We use longitudinal microdata from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Location variables at the census tract and metropolitan levels, family variables, and poverty status are observed for our subjects over multiple years both in childhood and adulthood. Neighborhood and metropolitan prosperity are measured in terms of average incomes adjusted for purchasing power parity differences. The standardized neighborhood prosperity direct effect on adult poverty is strongly significant and its total effect is twice as large. On the other hand, the standardized direct effect of metropolitan prosperity and its total effect are small and insignificant. But even neighborhood effects are modest compared to standardized effects of childhood poverty, race, mother's education and own education. At least with respect to these data, the recent emphasis on place variables would seem to be overstated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been suggested that provincial and national multipliers may provide incorrect estimates of the economic impacts when examining distinct communities. Using data collected from a comprehensive survey of household spending on two First Nations in Saskatchewan, Canada, we use Input-Output models to refine regional multipliers for these distinct populations. We also estimate the rate of economic leakage and the economic impacts of First Nation spending. Results indicate that economic leakage rates for First Nation economies is roughly 90 percent; meaning that 90 cents of every dollar spent by First Nations for goods and services occurs off-reserve. Using our new multipliers, we find that First Nation spending contributes over $741 million to Saskatchewan's GDP, creates approximately 11,244 full-time jobs, and leads to an estimated increase of over $462 million in labor force income for the province. If policy makers intend to build on-reserve economies, strategies must be found to recapture off-reserve spending by providing comparable on-reserve goods and services. In the absence of on-reserve economic development, First Nation economic growth will likely remain stagnant with few wealth generating opportunities and lower standards of living for First Nation members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success or failure of economic actors depends on a variety of factors, which I sort into three groups: attitudes and values, endowments, and rules. Of these three, we only fully control for factors in the first group. Factors in the other two groups are determined by luck, though through individual effort we may enhance them, particularly endowments such as talent or inherited resources. As individuals, most of us have no or very little influence on rules. Rules depend on power, and most people exercise power only indirectly as members of a group or groups. In this address, I focus on the rules, which also means that I focus on power, a neglected topic in economic development, and in modern economics in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates relationships among casino revenue, crime rates, and the number of visitors in Las Vegas, Nevada. Numerous studies have attempted to assess the impact of casino activities on crime rates but have provided inconclusive results. Some studies have found that casino activities increase crime rates, while others find no significant relationship between casino gambling and crime rates. But all studies that have found casinos increase crime rates do not adjust the crime rate for the number of visitors to the area. The impact of casino activities on crime rates disappears, however, when crime rates are adjusted for visitors. This study revisits the question with consideration for the potential endogeneity among variables. This paper addresses endogeneity concerns by estimating the impact of casino activities on crime using a system of equations to represent casino activities, adjusted crime rates, and visitors. Three stage least squares is used to estimate the system. Results show that the impact of casino activities on crime rates persists even after crime rates are adjusted for the visitors. Efforts to reduce crime can be effective in boosting the Las Vegas regional economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interregional economic-base models are typically presented in the abstract as a prelude to more complex interregional input-output models. The interregional economic-base model presented here reverses the process, deriving its data from a larger interregional input-output model of Canada. It is sufficiently compact to be a useful classroom tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper expands upon the classical Granger causality test with spatial dimensions to investigate the causal linkages between regional economic output and surface transportation infrastructure with a focus on the Northeast Corridor in the United States. To improve the validity of estimation, a panel data set of surface transportation infrastructure including highways, public intercity railways, and public transit, which are measured in real monetary value for the period 1991-2009, is adopted. Granger causality tests with integrations of various forms of spatial spillover interactions are analyzed in different spatial vector autoregressive models. The empirical results reveal that the spatial Granger causality test is able to capture a broader geographic scale of causality than the classical approach, but the causality between regional economic output and surface transportation infrastructure is sensitive to the model specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the potential of a human capital model augmented with controls for industry and occupation in explaining Canadian regional wage differentials. We place our approach in a broader theoretical context by first reviewing the literature on potential explanations for regional wage differences and also on the related issues of migration, population growth, industrial location, and agglomeration economies. We then estimate an econometric model using subprovincial wage data from the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey. A striking finding is that subprovincial wage differences, including the urban-rural divide, can be explained by our model, but that the differences between broad regions defined by provincial boundaries cannot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of regional economic impacts can be accomplished using either an input-output analysis or a social accounting matrix (SAM) analysis. While these approaches can generate important insights, they have significant limitations for some cases, e.g., the event of the need to reallocate limited resources such as land, labor, etc., because they do not include a complete set of decision makers' activities and managerial options. This study develops a flexible approach to link the firm level linear programming model to regional economic models to overcome these limitations, a LP-SAM. To demonstrate the LP-SAM a ranch-level economic model is linked to the regional SAM to investigate the impact of wildfire on the southeastern Oregon. The LP-SAM successfully traces out the decision makers' responses to wildfire and also regional economic impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study seeks to extend the depth and scope of an earlier study by Isserman (2004). In particular, using Isserman (2004) as a starting point and using more recent data [for the years 2005 through 2009], this study seeks to provide a broader and more in-depth perspective on the role and relative contribution of Regional Economics research to pertinent related scholarly literature as a whole. Interestingly, by taking into consideration the size of a subfield or field in terms of the number of its SSCI-journals, Regional Science journals may well manifest a higher impact than the journals of Economics and Geography. Hence, RSAI journals appear to be contributing quite productively, given the relative size of their field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of the concepts of regional competitiveness, including definitions, conceptual models, measurements, and the benefits and shortcomings of following a strategy to enhance competitiveness. Next, city-region rankings and indices of competitiveness are reviewed and the usefulness of these studies is summarized. Potential roles for regional scientists for improving (1) evaluations of regional competiveness and (2) applications of evaluations to regional development policy are suggested. Recommendations are made regarding the need for additional case study research by regional scientists in order to improve the quality and relevance of information used by public policy makers. Quality case studies also will enhance the roles of regional scientists in the policy process concerned with improving a region's prospects for economic growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ a multi-method approach to more fully explore determinants of greater than expected rural county-level increases and decreases in the proportion of working poor in four states. An econometric model by Anderson, Goe, and Weng (2007) using 1990 and 2000 Census data in the North Central region of the U.S. supplies the error terms to identify our outlier counties. We show that counties performing better than expected may be more self-reliant than counties performing worse than expected (Michigan), that regional attributes contribute greatly to overall performance (Ohio), that the structure of local employment patterns also influences outcomes (Missouri), while devolution of federal government and long-term commuting patterns may also affect outcomes (South Dakota). Future efforts should attempt to replicate these research strategies and may serve to inform the direction of best practice in federal data collection efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the variations in regional economic growth within 26 countries relative to the OECD norm between 1998 and 2003. This analysis sheds light on the role of regions in determining national growth patterns, while also providing a method similar to shift-share that can assess the relative importance of a range of demographic and economic factors in driving such growth. In particular, this taxonomy isolates those growth factors involving region-specific assets that are potentially most influenced by policy. In this sense, the findings help highlight policy niches that can most effectively shape regional growth prospects while also challenging traditional views of regional growth drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many argue that tourism development is beneficial for local economies, partly because of spillover effects. Others hold that tourism jobs are lower paying, often seasonal, and can generate a host of social ills with earned income concentrated in low-income households. A Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of a Pennsylvania region is used to test the impacts of tourism businesses supported by the Progress Fund, a regional Community Development Financial Institution, on household income distribution by incorporating secondary and primary employment based income. Analysis indicates that tourism-oriented activity has relatively large contributions to lower and upper as opposed to middle income households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we use the hedonic price model to estimate the effect of a change in water quality on the value of real estate in the lake community of Delavan, Wisconsin. Hedonic techniques show that a $7 million rehabilitation program significantly increased Delavan Lake shoreline property values. Existing research demonstrates that the use of objective water quality measures (as opposed to subjective measures) is important for estimating the implicit value of water quality in hedonic analyses. This article provides new evidence on the economic benefits of clean water by measuring the change in property values attributed to an observable rehabilitation event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Alabama county data from 1980 and 1990 censuses and store opening dates, this paper presents an econometric study of the impact of the presence of Wal-Mart on black-white income and unemployment differentials. It is posited that Wal-Mart changes the competitive nature of the labor market in a way that is beneficial to blacks. After establishing a list of demographic and economic variables that affect unemployment and income, the impact of a Wal-Mart is tested by using a dummy variable and a cumulative-years variable. Wal-Mart is found to have substantially lowered the relative unemployment rates of blacks in those counties where it is present, but to have had only a limited impact on relative incomes after the influences of other social-economic variables are taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent enlargement of the European Union (EU) will lead to unprecedented reforms of regional policies. We examine the regional distribution of gross value added, employment, and productivity for the Polish, Hungarian, and Czech regions, and compare them to the EU-15 average for the 1990-2000 period. We study their per capita incomes relative to the EU average and how these gaps are related to differences in productivity per worker. Finally, we use Esteban's (2000) shift-share analysis to explore the extent to which regional productivity gaps are due to differences in industrial mix as opposed to region-specific factors. The results are compared to figures for the Spanish and Portuguese regions a decade before their entrance to the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned primarily with the economic and welfare consequences of federal redistributive grants to regional governments. We use a model that has two regions, each with households, firms, and a regional government as well as a federal government. The households, firms, and regional governments are all optimizers — households maximize utility, firms maximize profits, and we assume that regional governments are empire-builders in that they choose their expenditure and tax levels so as to maximize total expenditure — the size of their empire. Labor is free to move between regions in response to utility differences and does so until such differences have been eliminated. Interregional migration and federal government redistribution are the main sources of interconnectedness between the two regions. The model is linearized in log-differences and simulated using Australian state-level data. We find that the welfare effects of intergovernmental transfers are trivial but that all other variables of interest change substantially — consumption, employment, taxes, wages, output, and government expenditure. The welfare effects of a federal transfer are little influenced by the choice of empire-building rather than beneficent regional governments, but the influence on other variables is substantial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of industry instability on the entry decisions of a large sample of Maine establishments. Instability is represented by the persistence of industry employment in Maine, measured over 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month intervals. Poisson regression results suggest that the employment persistence measures have a positive effect on the number of establishments that began operations per industry. This suggests that, other things being equal, entrants are attracted to sectors with high regional employment stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the empirical relationship between public investment and per capita income growth in the Spanish regions over 1965-1997. Using a neoclassical growth model with public and human capital, a convergence equation is derived and estimated using panel data techniques. Besides providing evidence of conditional convergence, the results show a non-positive effect of productive-public investment on the rate of regional economic growth. The impact of public investment in education and health is not clear. Robustness checks addressing potential endogeneity and specification problems reaffirm our results. It is concluded that there are no simple recipes for effective regional investment policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the traditional economic base model remains a useful tool for regional analysis, in a multi-region context it fails to account for feedback effects. In addition, since the model is typically applied to individual regions, formal assessment of variation in the magnitude of regional multipliers is rarely considered. These shortcomings may be addressed by using spatial econometric techniques to model the economic base relationship stochastically. In this study, I incorporate spatial effects into the traditional economic base model and find empirical evidence that economic activity in Yucat´n, Mexico generates indirect impacts not only locally, but among other locations that are linked economically. These spatial multipliers may be employed to estimate the potential spillover effects of economic activity and analyze the implications of regional economic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]