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Using data on academic citations, career and educational histories of mathematicians, and disaggregated distance data for the world’s top 1000 math departments, we study how geography and ties aect knowledge ows among scholars. The ties we consider are coauthorship, past colocation, advisor-mediated relationships, and alma mater relationships (holding a Ph.D. from the institution where another scholar is aliated). Logit regressions using xed eects that control for subject similarity, article quality, and temporal lags, show linkages are strongly associated with citation. Controlling for ties generally halves the negative impact of geographic barriers on citations. Ties matter more for less prominent and more recent papers and show no decline in importance in recent years. The impact of distance (controlling for ties) has fallen and is statistically insignicant after 2004.

It is widely believed that regional labour markets in the USA are highly flexible, so that employment shocks have only transitory effects on joblessness since induced migration quickly offsets much of the initial impact. However time-series analysis of the response to shocks is very sensitive to errors of measurement in labour market data, and such errors are large in some widely used series which depend on household surveys of limited size. Adjusting for the likelihood magnitude of such errors with some novel statistical approaches, and using a range of data sources, we show that the responsiveness of employment rates to shocks has been rather weak in the USA over the past 30 years, though probably stronger in the 1950s and 1960s. This suggests that flexible regional adjustment is not a major factor behind the contemporary success of monetary union in the USA.

Given the recent increase observed in crime and violence related to sport activities and the subsequent need for governments to devote more resources to deter this pattern, this article presents empirical evidence that could justify the possibility of taxing the negative externalities associated with the staging of football matches. Focusing specifically on theft (mainly pick pocketing) and assault (interpersonal violence or hooliganism), we seek to determine the extent to which this private leisure activity is responsible for negative crime externalities on a urban context. Drawing on data for the matches played by Football Club Barcelona (FCB) and geocoded crime data for the city of Barcelona (Spain), we assess whether there is an increase in thefts and assaults across the city of Barcelona. Then, conducting an Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) and a spatial regression at the census tract level, we determine the effect of football matches on crime by comparing crime rates during home and away matches. We find an increase in the number of thefts across the whole city but, especially, in those census tracts within a 700-meter radius of the stadium, indicating that despite the increase in the number of police officers on duty in the vicinity of the stadium, potential offenders are attracted to crowds where rewards are likely to be higher and the probability of being apprehended lower. These results are confirmed by the relatively low number of crimes committed during away matches in the census tracts around the stadium. A similar spatial pattern is found for assaults, although the overall impact across the city is not significant. Our results, therefore, provide evidence of a displacement effect of violent supporters (hooligans) towards the census tracts closest to the FCB stadium on football days.

Becker (1968) and Stigler (1970) provide the germinal works for an economic analysis of crime, and their approach has been utilised to consider the response of crime rates to a range of economic, criminal and socioeconomic factors. Until recently however this did not extend to a consideration of the role of personal indebtedness in explaining the observed pattern of crime. This paper uses the Becker (1968) and Stigler (1970) framework, and extends to a fuller consideration of the relationship between economic hardship and theft crimes in an urban setting. The increase in personal debt in the past decade has been significant, which combined with the recent global recession, has led to a spike in personal insolvencies. In the context of the recent recession it is important to understand how increases in personal indebtedness may spillover into increases in social problems like crime. This paper uses data available at the neighbourhood level for London, UK on county court judgments (CCJ’s) granted against residents in that neighbourhood, this is our measure of personal indebtedness, and examines the relationship between a range of community characteristics (economic, socio-economic, etc), including the number of CCJ’s granted against residents, and the observed pattern of theft crimes for three successive years using spatial econometric methods. Our results confirm that theft crimes in London follow a spatial process, that personal indebtedness is positively associated with theft crimes in London, and that the covariates we have chosen are important in explaining the spatial variation in theft crimes. We identify a number of interesting results, for instance that there is variation in the impact of covariates across crime types, and that the covariates which are important in explaining the pattern of each crime type are largely stable across the three periods considered in this analysis.

This article examines the historical impact of railroads on the U.S. economy, with a focus on quantifying the aggregate impact on the agricultural sector in 1890. Expansion of the railroad network may have affected all counties directly or indirectly—an econometric challenge that arises in many empirical settings. However, the total impact on each county is captured by changes in that county’s “market access,” a reduced-form expression derived from general equilibrium trade theory. We measure counties’ market access by constructing a network database of railroads and waterways and calculating lowest-cost county-to-county freight routes. We estimate that county agricultural land values increased substantially with increases in county market access, as the railroad network expanded from 1870 to 1890. Removing all railroads in 1890 is estimated to decrease the total value of U.S. agricultural land by 60%, with limited potential for mitigating these losses through feasible extensions to the canal network or improvements to country roads.

We model spatial clusters of similar firms. Our model highlights how agglomerative forces lead to localized, individual connections among firms, while interaction costs generate a defined distance over which attraction forces operate. Overlapping firm interactions yield agglomeration clusters that are much larger than the underlying agglomerative forces themselves. Empirically, we demonstrate that our model’s assumptions are present in the structure of technology and labor flows within Silicon Valley and its surrounding areas. Our model further identifies how the lengths over which agglomerative forces operate influence the shapes and sizes of industrial clusters; we confirm these predictions using variations across both technology clusters and industry agglomeration.

Clusters are geographic concentrations of industries related by knowledge, skills, inputs, demand, and/or other linkages. A growing body of empirical literature has shown the positive impact of clusters on regional and industry performance, including job creation, patenting, and new business formation. There is an increasing need for cluster-based data to support research, facilitate comparisons of clusters across regions, and support policymakers and practitioners in defining regional strategies. This paper develops a novel clustering algorithm that systematically generates and assesses sets of cluster definitions (i.e., groups of closely related industries). We implement the algorithm using 2009 data for U.S. industries (6-digit NAICS), and propose a new set of benchmark cluster definitions that incorporates measures of inter-industry linkages based on co-location patterns, input-output links, and similarities in labor occupations. We also illustrate the algorithm's ability to compare alternative sets of cluster definitions by evaluating our new set against existing sets in the literature. We find that our proposed set outperforms other methods in capturing a wide range of inter-industry linkages, including grouping industries within the same 3-digit NAICS.

Statistical research by spot checks is used with great results in almost all economic and social research on a random basis. The social field and especially the living standard and the life quality scope, due to their complexity, sometimes require as the sole alternative to study phenomena – research by sampling, as sometimes there may occur situations when exhaustive statistical research is impossible to be carried out or the costs for achieving the goal of such a thorough research would be too high. Also, for the sake of clarity, we find it necessary to resort to a methodological approach, as it is both didactic and practical.

Die ostdeutsche Wirtschaft hat fast 25 Jahre nach der Wiedervereinigung noch nicht zur westdeutschen Wirtschaft aufgeschlossen. Im Vergleich zu Westdeutschland erreichte die Wirtschaftsleistung der ostdeutschen Bundesländer pro Kopf im Jahr 2013 nur etwas mehr als 70 Prozent. Auch kurz- oder mittelfristig werden die neuen Bundesländer nicht auf das westdeutsche Niveau aufschließen, da ihre Wachstumsdynamik zu gering ist. Einer der Gründe dafür ist die Kleinteiligkeit der ostdeutschen Wirtschaft. Insbesondere fehlen in Ostdeutschland Großunternehmen und vor allem Unternehmens- und Konzernzentralen. Stattdessen wird die ostdeutsche Wirtschaft von kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen dominiert. Dieser Wochenbericht zeigt, dass neben abweichendem Innovations- und Exportverhalten ostdeutscher Unternehmen auch die Persönlichkeitsmerkmale der Unternehmer eine wichtige Rolle für diese Entwicklung spielen. In the 25 years since the reunification, the East German economy still has not caught up to the West German economy. In 2013, the per capita economic performance in the East German states was only 70 percent of that in the West German states - and, due to low growth momentum, the East German economy will not catch up to the West German economy in the short- or medium-term. One explanatory factor is the fragmented nature of the East German economy. Notably, East Germany lacks large companies and more importantly, it lacks corporate headquarters. Instead, the East German economy is dominated by small and medium-sized companies. This Wochenbericht shows that in addition the East German companies' differing innovation and export behavior, the personality traits of the businessmen themselves play an important role in this development.

This paper explores the real convergence process of 360 regional areas in Maghreb countries using a non-parametric approach based on classical and spatial Markov chains. This approach investigates the long-term spatial associations between regional units. The advantage of this method is that is does not require the use of control variables which are very often non available at a disaggregated geographical level. We show that there is a trend of regional convergence of GDP per capita in Mena regions. However, this process is very slow and there is an important spatial clustering movement. We also show that although almost 75% of the regional areas seem to converge towards a higher GDP per capita level in the stationary state, 25% are trapped in low development trends. These results suggest that the economic performance of a given region strongly depends of that of its neighbor regions. This in turn implies reconsidering regional development policies within these countries.

The explosion of multinational activities in recent decades is rapidly transforming the global landscape of industrial production. But are the emerging clusters of multinational production the rule or the exception? What drives the offshore agglomeration of multinational firms in comparison to the agglomeration of domestic firms? Using a unique worldwide plant-level dataset that reports detailed location, ownership, and operation information for plants in over 100 countries, we construct a spatially continuous index of pairwise-industry agglomeration and investigate the patterns and determinants underlying the global economic geography of multinational firms. Our analysis presents new stylized facts that suggest the emerging offshore clusters of multinationals are not a simple reflection of domestic industrial clusters. Agglomeration economies including capital-good market externality and technology diffusion play a more important role in the offshore agglomeration of multinationals than the agglomeration of domestic firms. These findings remain robust when we address potential reverse causality by exploring the regional pattern and process of agglomeration.

This paper uses a unique survey to examine the nature and extent of knowledge flows that result from the international mobility of researchers whose initial education was in small island countries. Current migrants produce substantially more research than similar-skilled return migrants and non-migrants. Return migrants have no greater research impact than individuals who never migrate but are the main source of research knowledge transfer between international and local researchers. Our results contrast with previous claims in the literature that too few migrant researchers ever return home to have much impact, and that there is no productivity gain to researchers from migration.

Does trade within a country affect welfare and productivity? What are the magnitude and consequences of costs to such trade? To answer these questions, we exploit unique Canadian data to measure internal trade costs in a variety of ways – they are large, and vary across sectors and provinces. To quantify their consequences for welfare and productivity, we use a recent multi-sector trade model featuring rich input-output relationships. We find internal trade raises aggregate welfare by 4.4% relative to a counterfactual of only international trade. As for internal trade costs, lowering them by 10% yields aggregate gains of 0.9%; eliminating our preferred estimates of costs, gains average between 3-7% – equivalent to real GDP gains between $50-$130 billion. Finally, as policy reforms to improve internal trade are often sector-specific, we liberalize sectors one at a time and find gains are largest in highly interconnected industries.

Financial transfers between regions of a country are ubiquitous. Richer regions contribute (often indirectly) to poorer regions, and this affects their welfare, productivity, and industry composition. Financial inflows raise welfare by funding current account deficits, and imports raise productivity by shutting down the lowest productivity firms. But there is little quantitative work examining these effects for fiscal transfers within countries. We fill this gap by augmenting and exploring a rich quantitative trade model with endogenous fiscal transfers, calibrated to detailed data for trade and financial flows within Canada. We find transfers significantly increase welfare, productivity, and specialization in downstream (final goods) sectors in recipient regions; the reverse is true in contributor regions. The effects are large. Alberta's welfare and productivity are 9% and 0.6% lower, respectively, while increase PEI's are 33% and 1.6% higher. Overall, real income differences are less than half what they would without fiscal integration. Finally, transfers affect gains from trade and spread those gains across all regions, even if policy (like the New West Partnership) liberalizes trade only among some.

From the perspective of an existing retailer, the optimal size of a cluster of retail activity represents a trade-off between the marginal increases in consumer attraction from another store against the depletion of the customer base caused by an additional competitor. We estimate opening and closing probabilities of multi-line department stores (“anchors”) as a function of preexisting anchors by type of anchor store (low-priced, mid-priced, or high-priced) using a bias-corrected probit model with county and year fixed effects. We find strong negative competitive effects of an additional same type but no effect on openings of anchors of another type. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

Transfers can do good; however, they can also result in massive failures. This paper presents a model that highlights the ambiguous nature of the impact of transfers on local endowments of social capital. It then describes an empirical investigation that illustrates that the receipt of EU structural funds causes a deterioration of the endowments of trust and cooperation in the subsidized regions.

This paper tried to examine the level of cointegration among various nations across the continents in regard to the globalisation. Also here attempt is made to analyse the nature of inter and intra continental variation in globalisation over time. The proximity and convergence over time in terms of the growth of globalisation is also examined by using a panel data set over a period of 1970 to 2007. The outcome reveals the presence of co-integration among the selected nations despite the fact that the European nations are more co-integrated than the other continents. It is followed by the countries in Africa and Asia. The proximity matrices of overall globalisation and political globalisation provided some important indications that geographical proximity, economic necessities, cultural and political understanding play crucial role in determining the clusters of countries in terms of globalisation or choice of the countries to open with other nations for trade, cultural exchange etc.

The regional development promotes the balanced development of the European Union and, similarly, in all member state is treated as an integral factor of the state economic and social policy. Also, it promotes the growth model proposed by the future Europe 2020 Strategy, including the necessity of meeting the societal challenges, and those related to employment in the regions and in the Member-States. The appraisal of the implementation of the regional policy, whose goals and priorities were defined in the national and European strategic documents, calls for a general and specific objectives and financial instruments of that policy. This article contains information's and elements about the next programming period and future regional policy of the European Union, in context of economic and social cohesion and convergence. From the perspective of the Europe 2020 Strategy, the regions shall continue to attract differentiated support depending on their economic development level (GDP/per capita), as a clear distinction is made between “less developed” and “most developed” regions.

The financial perspective 2014-2020 attaches a great importance to supporting SMEs as a factor in industrial competitiveness and economic growth. The importance of an enabling environment for business and entrepreneurship, particularly for SMEs is complemented by the need to improve the impact of the economic-financial crisis from Europe, since disparities of economic development and structural economic differences still persist. In this context, the implementing clusters support policies became a priority for the European industrial policy. In addition, the Europe 2020 Strategy specifically stipulates the importance of clusters for business, especially for SME. Our paper is focusing on the European framework and the efforts made by Romania for cluster promotion as a new organization of the industrial activity.

Policy makers in both developed and developing countries want to accelerate spatial development, make cities more competitive, attract new entrepreneurs, boost economic growth, and promote job creation. These are commendable goals given that city populations in developing countries are expected to double from 2 billion to 4 billion people between 2000 and 2030. So what makes some cities more competitive than others? This note examines city competitiveness in India through the lens of spatial location choices of new and young entrepreneurs using plant-level data from the manufacturing and services sectors, including formal and informal operations. Findings show that the two most consistent factors that predict overall entrepreneurship for a district are its population's level of education and the quality of local physical infrastructure; these patterns are true for manufacturing and services. Agglomeration economies are much stronger in India than in the United States, but there is much greater variation in spatial outcomes in India than in the United States. Micro evidence for India also suggests that while strict labor regulations discourage formal sector entry, better household banking environments encourage entry into the informal sectors. Informal sectors conform much more closely to the overall contours of India’s economic geography than formal sectors. Policy makers looking to promote competitiveness in their local areas have several policy levers to exploit.

Esta investigación descompone la brecha regional y la variación intertemporal de la productividad del trabajo de la industria manufacturera en las contribuciones de la eficiencia técnica y la intensidad de capital, así como en la contribución del cambio tecnológico en el caso intertemporal. Los resultados indican que las diferencias interregionales en la productividad del trabajo en México se deben, principalmente, a la eficiencia técnica con la que opera la industria en las distintas regiones del país y, en menor medida, a las diferencias regionales en el acervo de capital físico por trabajador. Por otro lado, el crecimiento de la productividad del trabajo distó de ser homogéneo en el nivel regional durante el periodo 1998-2008. En el norte y el sur, el incremento en la productividad laboral tuvo como motor principal a la eficiencia técnica; mientras que en las regiones centrales el cambio tecnológico fue el factor de mayor influencia.

2000’li yillarin basina kadar yuksek enflasyon oranlarini tecrube eden Turkiye’deki desenflasyon politikalarinin bir numarali hedefi tek haneli enflasyon ve ekonomik istikrarin saglanmasidir. Bu yapiya dayali olarak bu calisma 2004:1 2011:12 doneminde bolgesel duzeydeki enflasyon yakinsamasini Istatistiksel Bolge Siniflandirmasi 2 duzeyinde incelemektedir. Bolgesel enflasyon yakinsamasi icin ikili (pair-wise) yaklasim kullanilmistir. Sonuclar yapisal kirilmanin varligi durumunda Turkiye’deki bolgeler arasinda guclu bir yakinsamanin oldugunu gostermektedir.

A tribal economy is always characterized by the collection of their social, institutional, technological and finally economic arrangements through which the community seeks to enhance their material and social well-being. They have little knowledge and little power to influence the direction of change taking place due to broader changes in society due to impact of development of science and technology in every field. All economic and social development activities are planned for the welfare of its people and this is truly reflected in their levels of living which is the end product of all economic efforts. In recent times, the rich are very rich and poor are very poor. The middle class people are almost absent. There is rampant social corruption with no social audit. That is, income inequality is very rampant. Therefore, there is a vast scope for research to examine the economic inequality between these two groups in the level of their living in intra and inter region. So far the development consists of a series of poverty alleviation programmes, designed to widen the income earning opportunities for the poor to enhance their socio-economic status. Several rural development and poverty Alleviation Programmes have been implemented by Governments. But such programmes have not yielded the desired result. The objective of the study is to  search the income inequalities among the rural tribal people by taking the concept that (1) poverty and inequality do not change at the same pace and they may even change in the same directions and (2) there are differences in the levels of living of people between regions, villages and even within a village due to inequality of income earned by the household or unequal distribution of wealth.

This Economic Premise examines the intersection of four important development themes: urbanization, agglomeration, gender, and informality. Although urbanization has continued at a rapid pace, formalization appears to have stalled. Women comprise an increasing share of the informal sector in many countries, but are increasingly underrepresented in the formal sector relative to their presence in the informal sector. Firm-level evidence suggests informal enterprise creation, particularly by women, has important connections to urbanization. Female-specific market access, especially to inputs, is a key factor for women-owned enterprise creation in the informal sector. Given the persistence of the informal sector, and given the importance of women-owned enterprise creation for jobs and gender equity, more policy measures focused on enhancing access to inputs for female-owned enterprises are important to maximize women’s contributions to India’s economic growth.

This paper investigates the possible responses of housing returns to macroeconomic and global variables for four special municipalities in Taiwan (Taipei, New Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung) over the period 1991Q1 to 2010Q4. Two interesting results have been observed. First, the housing market shows distinct high-volatility and low-volatility cycles for each city due to idiosyncratic characteristics. The frequency of regime switches between high-volatility and low-volatility markets is strongest in Kaohsiung's housing market and is lowest in New Taipei and Taichung. Second, while the growth rate of GDP, aggregate stock return, the growth rate of CPI and aggregate housing return are able to affect regional housing returns, their effects are different in each city.

We perform convergence tests on the U.S. states for per capita income from 1930 to 2009. Cross-sectional tests support overall σ-convergence and β-convergence but may not hold true for the last three decades. Time series tests suggest that about half of the states exhibit stochastic convergence and of these all are also β-converging. Probit regressions reveal that the likelihood a state is converging is a function of changing capital to labour ratios, the size of the agricultural sector, and levels of taxation and tax revenue. Regional disparities in convergence remain among the southern and midwestern states. Convergence des niveaux de revenus entre les etats americains : resultats a partir de donnes transversales et de series chronologiques. On presente des tests de convergence des revenus per capita des etats americains entre 1930 et 2009. Les tests transversaux supportent l'hypothese de convergence de type σ et de type β, mais pourraient ne pas tenir pour les trois dernieres decennies. Les tests utilisant les series chronologiques suggerent que la moitie des etats montrent une convergence stochastique, et que de ceux-ci tous supportent l'hypothese de convergence de type β. Des regressions par la methode probit revelent que la vraisemblance qu'un etat converge depend des rapports capital/travail changeants, de la taille du secteur agricole, et des niveaux de taxation et de rentrees fiscales. Des disparites regionales dans la convergence demeurent entre les etats du sud et du midwest.

Using a rich database of non-prime mortgages from New York City, we find that census tract level neighborhood characteristics are important predictors of default behavior, even after controlling for an extensive set of controls for loan and borrower characteristics. First, default rates increase with the rate of foreclosure notices and the number of lender-owned properties (REOs) in the tract. Second, default rates on home purchase mortgages are higher in census tracts with larger shares of black residents, regardless of the borrower’s own race. We explore possible explanations for this second finding and conclude that it likely reflects differential treatment of black neighborhoods by the mortgage industry in ways that are unobserved in our data.

This article introduces our project on the relationship between railways and real income levels across European regions between 1870 and 1910. While similar relationships have been analysed for the USA, India and individual European countries, our project is the first to take a pan-European regional perspective. We discuss the reasons for the neglect to date, highlighting the need to drill deeper into the changing directional effects of railways on income, the importance or necessity of using regional-level data and the amount of research that still needs to be done. To this end, we present preliminary insights from our novel database on European regional per capita income and railway mileage, after discussing our data sources in depth. We also outline our research agenda, showing our intended conceptual and analytical approach for future work. The Spanish Ministry of Education (CS02010-16389), the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ES/I011161/1) and the EU Social Fund and Maltese Ministry of Education (STEPS) provided funding for this research.

We estimate quality-of-life and productivity differences across Canada's metropolitan areas in a hedonic general-equilibrium framework. These are based on the estimated willingness-to-pay of heterogeneous households and firms to locate in various cities, which differ in their wage levels, housing costs, and land values. Using 2006 Canadian Census data, our metropolitan quality-of-life estimates are somewhat consistent with popular rankings, yet find Canadians care more about climate and culture. Quality of life is highest in Victoria for anglophones, Montreal for francophones, and Vancouver for allophones, and lowest in more remote cities. Toronto is Canada's most productive city; Vancouver is the overall most valuable city. Qualite de vie, productivite des entreprises, et la valeur des avantages dans les diverses villes canadiennes. On evalue les differences entre la qualite de vie et la productivite des entreprises entre les zones metropolitaines au Canada a l'aide d'un cadre d'analyse d'equilibre general hedonique. Ces metriques sont basees sur l'estimation de la volonte de payer de menages et d'entreprises heterogenes pour se localiser dans diverses villes, qui different tant pour ce qui est des niveaux de salaires, des couts de l'habitation, et des prix des terrains. A l'aide des donnees du recensement canadien de 2006, on construit des evaluations de la qualite de vie des diverses zones metropolitaines qui s'arriment convenablement aux ordonnancements en vogue, mais on decouvre que les Canadiens portent une attention particuliere au climat et a la culture. La qualite de vie est la plus elevee a Victoria pour les anglophones, a Montreal pour les francophones, et a Vancouver pour les allophones, et la plus faible pour les villes eloignees des grands centres. Toronto est la ville la plus productive; Vancouver est generalement la plus appreciee.

Urban innovation is a key problem on the way to the development of local communities and their prosperity. The principle of triple helix is used to implement local reforms. The proper functioning of cities requires the cooperation of all beneficiaries. Hence, proper coordination and the awareness of the roles performed in the process, is of vital importance. Local governments have the greatest opportunity to coordinate activities and policies which take into account the needs and resources of all three groups: business, administration and science. The use of power allows for long-term policies that contribute to the increase in innovation and the improvement of the region's economic situation. This paper presents the practical use of the triple helix principle. It is the case study of Bialystok - the metropolis, whose development is based on the achievements of science and which supports entrepreneurship, for the benefit of all stakeholders.

The European Seas and Territorial Development, Opportunities and Risks (ESaTDOR) project, financed by ESPON, was intended to analyze the current state of maritime regions, opportunities and risks for territorial development, as well as their effects on maritime regions under different scenarios until 2050. The paper aims to present the results of the project highlighting the most probable scenarios for future development of European coastal areas

Using official census data for the province of Istanbul, we identify the determinants of the support for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) which has been in power in Turkey since 2002. District-level socio-demographic indicators such as the gender gap in education and the mean age - which are expected to proxy for social conservatism and the fertility rate, respectively - perform remarkably well as predictors of the party's vote share. The econometric findings are in line with the hypothesis that the AKP has benefited from the existing living conditions of the urban population, especially in peripheral metropolitan areas, and has been particularly successful in identifying the worldviews and addressing the needs of conservative voters many of whom are first or second generation migrants.

Promoting shared prosperity is at the center of the new World Bank Group Strategy. To this effect, a shared prosperity index will help monitor the income growth of the bottom 40 percent of the population in every developing country. However, many developing countries exhibit substantial economic and demographic heterogeneities across subnational regions. Does the national target of the bottom 40 percent translate to a target of the bottom 40 percent in each subnational region? This note discusses how regional disparities can lead to contradictory results in the interpretation of a shared prosperity index with a national and subnational focus. Accordingly, policy lessons that are derived from nationwide analyses may be misleading for subnational regions, and vice versa.

The U.S. economic recession in 2007 coincided with rising oil prices and an overall decline in traffic volume nationwide. This paper examines how the economic downturn, diesel prices, and other factors affected truck traffic on the Long Beach Freeway, which connects the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest container port complex in the United States, to railyards and other freeways. Findings show that a one percentage point increase in the manufacturing sector industrial production index is associated with a one percent increase in truck traffic, but truck traffic is relatively inelastic with respect to diesel prices, at least in the short run. Truck flow also decreased when the Clean Trucks Program, which banned high emission trucks, was implemented at the ports.

In assessing the impact of pooling structural funds, macroeconomic models have great advantages in testing versions of financial resources allocation and in the opportunity of analyzing the trends that the economy follows and domains of interest. The models offer perspective of estimation on long time horizons to justify political, economic or social decisions allowing the quantification of pertinent macro-economic impacts, from the analysis of a functional economic model, is simulated through projections the functioning of national economies

In this paper we test Okun's Law for individuals states from 1990 through 2012. We find the relationship between output and unemployment becomes stronger following the 2007 Great Recession. For most states the impact of a change in output on unemployment has increased and in many cases the two-to-one relationship has shifted to a three-to-two relationship. Further, we also find for most states the natural rate of unemployment has increased. We use average employment ratios by major industries to explain differences in Okun's Law across states. We find a stronger Okun effect for states with relatively large employment in professional and business services, construction, and manufacturing. Finally, we find a significant correlation between states that lean more Democrat with a stronger Okun effect.

Following successful accession to the European Union by many countries labeled “transition economies”, the definition of Europe’s transition zone (or, its modern “frontier”) continues to shift. Some of Yugoslavia’s successor states continue to struggle as independent entities in the wake of the country’s dissolution. Leaders in the Republic of Croatia and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) mapped out their return to Europe and have achieved varying levels of success, offering excellent laboratories for comparative assessment of ongoing transformation. As we approach the end of the second decade since the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, and as Croatia prepares for its own 2013 EU accession, we attempt to better understand interrelated contemporary issues ranging from socio-economic wellbeing to contentment with government. Of particular interest is the prospect of EU accession given the ongoing global recession and widespread uncertainty surrounding the Euro. Our approach entails primary data collection through brief interviews with residents in localities of Croatia as well as Sarajevo, BiH, followed by an analysis of qualitative and quantitative responses. With Croatia’s imminent entry to the European Union, problems of economic diversification continue. In BiH, stagnation persists two decades after independence, and the failure of leaders to embrace transparency and generate a shared national consciousness continues to stymy public confidence and domestic growth while dissuading foreign investors.

State and local debt and the debt of quasi-public agencies have grown in importance as a result of fiscal decentralization, rapid urbanization, and the increasing role played by private capital. However, with debt comes the risk of insolvency. This note outlines a set of aligned fiscal incentives that should be in place, as well as the design issues to be considered in debt restructuring frameworks. Drawing on Canuto and Liu (2013), this note also suggests some broad lessons extracted from several country experiences with subnational debt restructuring, insolvency frameworks, and debt market development.

Productivity is high in cities partly because the urban environment acts as a self-selection mechanism. If workers have imperfect information about the quality of workers with whom they match and matches take place within cities, then high-ability workers will choose to live and work in expensive cities. This self-selection improves the quality of matches in such cities. The mechanism may be reinforced by the development of informational networks in cities with a large proportion of high ability workers. As a consequence productivity in these cities is high for workers of all ability types.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

We empirically test the positive relationship between market access and wages stated by New Economic Geography. Contrary to most estimations in other countries, we find evidence of significant spatial heterogeneity of this elasticity across Chilean communities.

We consider the impact of MERCOSUR on trade among Brazilian states and on trade by Brazilian states with MERCOSUR and the rest of the world. We use a theoretically founded gravity model to shed light on MERCOSUR’s possible creation and diversion effects as well as its “preference erosion” effect on trade among Brazilian states. Using data on interstate trade over a four-year period, including one year prior to the MERCOSUR period (1991), we deliver empirical evidence at state level with a focus on the impact of MERCOSUR which can vary across Brazilian regions. We show that MERCOSUR increased Brazilian states’ trade with member countries, but had no effect on either interstate trade or Brazilian states’ trade with third countries. The paper finds that MERCOSUR’s impact varies across Brazilian regions and that the Northern region is relatively less well integrated into international trade. We use an estimation method dealing better with the traditional issue of zero trade values and heteroskedasticity than OLS does. _________________________________ Le document décompose l'impact du MERCOSUR sur le commerce brésilien en distinguant les effets de l’accord sur les échanges entre les États brésiliens et de chaque État brésilien avec le MERCOSUR et le reste du monde. Nous utilisons un modèle de gravité théoriquement fondé pour mettre en évidence non seulement les éventuels effets de création et de détournement de commerce mais également un effet d’"érosion des préférences" quand on considère le Brésil comme un bloc commercial qui regrouperait les États. En utilisant les données sur le commerce interétatique sur une période de quatre ans, dont un an avant la période du MERCOSUR (1991), nous aboutissons à des résultats empiriques au niveau des 27 États brésiliens sur les impacts du MERCOSUR sur le commerce qui peuvent varier selon les régions du Brésil. Nous montrons que le MERCOSUR a permis d’augmenter le commerce des États avec les pays membres, sans effets importants sur le commerce interétatique ou avec les pays tiers. Nous confirmons que l'impact du MERCOSUR varie selon les régions du Brésil et que la région du Nord est relativement moins bien intégrée dans le commerce international. Nous utilisons une méthode d'estimation qui résout certains des problèmes des modèles de gravité comme les valeurs de commerce nulles et l’hétéroscédasticité trouvée en MCO.

This study aimed at using NTFPs businesses in Ikenne Local Government Area (LGA) to develop a poverty reduction policy framework for the region. Among many other NTFPs in the LGA, wrap leaf, fire wood and charcoal were adopted for this study. The design was the survey methodology, in which five communities were surveyed. Twenty questionnaires were administered in each of the communities, out of which eighty- eight were returned, consisting of Ilisan (25%), Ikenne (21.59%), Iperu (19.32%), Ogere (11.36%) and Irolu (22.73%). The main outcome measurement was to evaluate how investment in NTFPs impacted the local economy of Ikenne LGA, in the light of creation of employment and generation of income, consequent to reduction of poverty. At both the 5% and 1% (1-tail) significance levels, the selected correlated variables were significant and linearly correlated. Consequently, and based also on the

La provincia de Santa Fe presenta un creciente problema de acidificación de los suelos ocasionado, en parte, por la exportación de nutrientes básicos a través de las cosechas agropecuarias. El objetivo fue evaluar el impacto de la evolución de la agricultura en la pérdida de nutrientes básicos de los suelos de los distintos departamentos y el potencial costo de su remediación. Se consideró la producción de soja, maíz, trigo y girasol (período 1971/2010). Se calculó la exportación total de bases a través de estos granos y se cuantificó el valor de la producción total de soja para el período (promedio precios corrientes FOB, mayo-junio 2007/10). Se calculó el costo de reposición de las bases extraídas mediante la aplicación de dolomita/KCl. El incremento en la producción de 2001/2010 respecto 1971/80 fue de 1. 178 % para la soja, 13 % para maíz, 40 % para trigo y 75% para girasol. La exportación total de bases fue de 619, 1. 190 y 4. 197 miles de t para Ca, Mg y K, respectivamente, siendo los departamentos más afectados Gral. López, Caseros, Iriondo y Constitución. Se necesitaría el 9,7% de la producción de soja del período considerado para remediar este impacto que afecta la sostenibilidad del sistema agrícola santafesino y atenta contra la seguridad alimentaria en términos de medianolargo plazo., The Santa Fe province presents an increasing problem of soil acidification caused in part by the export of basic nutrients through agriculture harvests. The aims was to assess the impact of the development of agriculture in the loss of these nutrients and the potential cost of remediation. The production of soybeans, corn, wheat and sunflower (period 1971/2010) was considered. The total export base were calculated through these grains productions by different province department and quantified total production value of soybeans for the period (average FOB current prices, may-june 2007/10). The replacement cost of the bases extracted was estimated through dolomite / KCl. An increase in the production was shown between 2001-2010 and 1971/80 of 1. 178 % for soy, 13 % for maize, 40% for wheat and 75% for sunflower. The total bases export was 619; 1. 190; 4. 197 thousand t for Ca, Mg and K, respectively. The most affected departments were General Lopez, Caseros, Iriondo and Constitucion. 9. 7 % of the production of soy for the period 1971-2010 would be needed to remedy this impact that affects the sustainability of the farming system of Santa Fe and threatens food security in terms of medium-long term.

This issue of the Journal is devoted to physical integration in Latin America. The Editorial Committee set about designing the contents with a call for papers, which suggested topics and questions that focused on the subject while covering a broad spectrum. Regional physical integration is supported by a wide range of instruments, such as infrastructure works to reduce transportation costs and enhance connectivity, and financial structuring of technically, highly complex large scale capital investments. But no less relevant are government cooperation mechanisms that provide the necessary coordination for trade facilitation policies and measures, or the local impacts associated with enterprises, especially those located in border areas. Accordingly the first section of the Journal brings together the selection of works made by the Editorial Committee.

This text presents a re-elaboration of the strategic planning of the mexican economy dynamic multisectorial model. The new version of the model involves a redefinition of three aspects. At the empirical level, the new national input output matrix forms the basis of information (INEGI, 2008). At the conceptual level, we incorporate a refinement of the behavior of the external sector, external debt and production. And, at the programming level, the computer simulation program is STELLA/IThink (9.0.1). As the model application we use the proposal of the federal government called “Program of Commercial Facilitation: A Structural Reform” (SE y SHCP, 2008), which aims to maintain the competitiveness of the industrial sector within a stage of total openness to all countries.

We studied how links are formed according to the distance in transaction network of 800,000 firms. We investigated the inter-firm transaction network of $800,000$ firms in Japan. They are almost all firms in Japan. As far as we know, scale-freeness, hierarchy, and degree-degree correlation were discovered as fundamental characteristics in the network before the present paper. We discovered another fundamental characteristic as to distance. Distance plays an important role in the network. The number of transaction links between two regions is proportional to the product of the sales (degrees) of the two regions divided by the distance between the two regions. This is of a form of the gravity equation. It implies that the further the firms are, the less likely it is that they are linked in the network.

We examine the welfare effects of provision of local public goods in an empirically relevant setting using a multi-community model with mobile and heterogeneous households and with flexible housing supplies. We characterize the first-best allocation and show efficiency can be implemented with decentralization using head taxes. We calibrate the model and compare welfare in property-tax equilibria, both decentralized and centralized, to the efficient allocation. Inefficiencies with decentralization and property taxation are large, dissipating most if not all the potential welfare gains that efficient decentralization could achieve. In property-tax equilibrium, centralization is frequently more efficient! An externality in community choice underlies the failure to achieve efficiency with decentralization and property taxes: poorer households crowd richer communities and free ride by consuming relatively little housing thereby avoiding taxes. Copyright , Oxford University Press.

In recent years, China has faced tremendous pressure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. At the COP 15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009, China committed itself to achieve a 40%¨C45% per GDP carbon dioxide emission reduction in the near future. To reach this goal, China is willing to adopt a series of new policies, including attempts to introduce a carbon tax, and to start an energy-resource-tax pilot program in the western provinces. For this research, we constructed a Multi-Regional Computable General Equilibrium model. Then we used six scenarios to evaluate the economic effects and effectiveness of energy-resource tax policy for control of carbon dioxide emissions for different regions of China. The main result of this research is the finding that an ad valorem energy resource tax can reduce carbon dioxide emissions in China. At the same time, fiscal policy might engender different effects in different regions of China. Additionally, this policy is more efficient for controlling petroleum and natural gas resources than it is for coal resources.

This article aims to use the appropriate models based on dispersion method, variance, to identify the dynamics and amplitude differences in the level of regional development in European Union and Romania, expressed by the GDP, per capita and total. In the present paper, we limit the approach area to two important aspects: identifying the main convergence trends at regional level within EU-27 with the help of GDP/capita, and the analysis of the trends registered at the level of regional disparities in Romania.

The level of R&D internationalization and innovation has been increasing in Europe since 1990. Growth in both external and internal activities indicate that the two of them complete each other and satisfy different needs, more than reciprocal substitution. The initiative of Innovation Union recently approached by the Commission, part of the European Strategy 2020 has consequently as a purpose increasing the attraction in the EU as an R&D location of the innovation investments and it has also as a purpose the promotion of international cooperation for research and innovation. On the EU level, there may be programmes relating partners in the EU with non-EU industrial partners in common R&D innovation projects. These would indirectly stimulate both the internal R&D investment of non-EU companies and the R&D internationalization of the EU companies