Search

The vector information of mountainous roads is great significance, including regional economics, emergency response, disaster management, among others. Nevertheless, there are irregular deformations in existing vector data, coupled with incomplete extraction results for mountainous roadways. These issues pose challenges in establishing a matching model between road extraction results and existing vector data, significantly reducing the efficiency of automated updates for the current vector data. Targeting roads as a distinct artificial feature and leveraging their topological connectivity, we propose a vector data updating method based on matching point pair grouping. Firstly, we employ the SDUNet model to extract mountainous road and utilize the Superglue model to match road binary images with vector binary images, resulting in sets of initial matching point pairs. Subsequently, we propose a road line extraction model that groups matching point pairs, eliminates misaligned pairs based on road topological connectivity, and establishes a mapping relationship between road lines and vector lines. Ultimately, through road line optimization and vector line optimization methods, we accomplish the automatic updating of vector data for mountainous roadways. Through a comprehensive analysis of over 2600 vector data, our method demonstrates substantial advantages in terms of both F1 and IoU compared to alternative methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the effect of a place-based policy in China, the Northeastern Revitalization Program. In 2003 the State Council of the People's Republic of China initiated the program in northeastern China by removing an agricultural tax, enhancing the urban social security system, facilitating foreign investment, and restructuring state-owned enterprises in the region. Using the synthetic control method, we find that the program had no significant effect on GDP per capita in all three regions. Liaoning had slightly worse GDP per capita post-treatment, as did Heilongjiang (albeit to a lesser extent). While the multiple synthetic control analysis shows that economic outcomes were worse post-treatment, the impact of this program was heterogeneous across the three regions. We argue the lackluster performance likely comes from the continuing dominance of inefficient state-owned enterprises in the provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though most studies find that sports stadiums are not strong drivers of economic activity in metropolitan areas, localized development effects may be sufficient to justify public subsidies for a host municipality if circumstances are favorable. This analysis examines the economic ramifications of an intra-metropolitan area relocation of Atlanta's professional baseball team from a traditional standalone downtown stadium to a new stadium-anchored mixed-use development in suburban Cobb County. Using the synthetic control method, the study employs metro-Atlanta counties to construct a counterfactual outcome for estimating changes in sales tax revenue after the ballpark opened. The findings indicate a net increase in taxable sales in the county; however, the magnitude of the effect is small and not statistically significant. Though net new spending is evident, approximately one-third of the project's sales appear to derive from crowding out other local economic activity. In total, added tax collections fall well short of covering the public subsidies provided by Cobb. The stadium's limited economic impact, despite its favorable location and ancillary mixed-use development, further supports past findings that sports venues are poor investments as economic development projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advocates adopted the term legacy city for older former industrial central cities to shift policy discussions from their social liabilities to their economic and physical assets. In examining this concept, we place U.S. central cities within a regional context, using cluster-discriminant analysis to distinguish between groups of metropolitan statistical areas, which proxy regional economies. Cluster analysis subsets metropolitan areas according to their position on several theory-driven dimensions. Discriminant analysis then identifies the variables most closely associated with each subset's statistical grouping. The results respond to three questions: (1) Are regions with legacy characteristics homogeneous in population size? (2) Do socioeconomically troubled regions share legacy characteristics? (3) Does the typology of metropolitan regions provide insights into the performance of regional clusters? The findings suggest that private investment and public policy must change regional economic development paths while intentionally including distressed jurisdictions and populations before the futures of central cities that experienced severe population losses can shift to a positive trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Iran-Saudi Arabia conflict is an ongoing struggle for influence in the region that has created uncertainty, affected oil prices and regional economics. This paper uses wavelet analysis to examine the frequency and time-varying co-movement and casual nexus between petroleum prices (OP) and financial liquidness (MS) with and without geopolitical risk (GPR). The aim is to test the validity of the monetary equilibrium model from 1988 to 2019. The model is supported by the findings, as both short and medium-term association is found between OP and MS at high frequencies in the presence of GPR. We find a medium-term association between OP and MS in the absence of GPR. The paper's overall conclusion suggests that GPR affects OP and OP, in turn, impact MS. Diversifying economic activities to minimize oil dependency, which is sensitive to external shocks, is suggested as a mitigation solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does industrial policy currently interact with Regional Economic Communities in Africa? This article examines the tension between Regional Economic Communities and state-level industrial policy in Africa through two main problems: (1) how state industrial policies undermine Regional Economic Communities through a crisis of implementation and (2) how Regional Economic Communities undermine industrial policies through crisis of coordination. In discussing these issues, using indicative examples from the regions, especially the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the East African Community (EAC), the article brings together industrial policy and regional economic integration in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the importance of interregional trade for building effective regional economic policies, there are very few hard data to illustrate such interdependencies. We propose here a novel research framework to predict interregional trade flows by utilizing freely available Web data and machine learning algorithms. Specifically, we extract hyperlinks between archived Websites in the United Kingdom and we aggregate these data to create an interregional network of hyperlinks between geolocated and commercial Web pages over time. We also use existing interregional trade data to train our models using random forests and then make out-of-sample predictions of interregional trade flows using a rolling-forecasting framework. Our models illustrate great predictive capability with R2 greater than 0.9. We are also able to disaggregate our predictions in terms of industrial sectors, but also at a subregional level, for which trade data are not available. In total, our models provide a proof of concept that the digital traces left behind by physical trade can help us capture such economic activities at a more granular level and, consequently, inform regional policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil infrastructures have historically been developed as highly centralised, extensive, and complicated systems. Electricity, water, buildings, transport networks, and communication systems are each delivered separately. Recent advancements in the development of energy micro-grids have opened the possibility of localised, intensive, and complex, nature-based infrastructure ecosystems. Designed at the scale of a village, such systems would integrate different types of infrastructure. For example, an energy micro-grid can provide electricity to buildings, power electric vehicles and cycle water through a precinct. In turn, the water system can store energy and irrigate a diverse, regenerative food system. Providing housing close to food production reduces transport costs, supply chain losses and packaging. The significant land area required for each village would result in a dispersal of populations, creating networks of villages, each with integrated infrastructure ecosystems. This challenges the orthodoxy in town planning and regional economics that accepts ever-increasing urbanisation. To synthesise ideas developed in different disciplines we adopt the epistemology of consilience. That is, a conclusion can be confirmed when different disciplines arrive at that same position. We show that literature in town planning, regional economics, ecological economics, and public health all support the argument for dispersal reached through civil engineering systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development and application of technologies such as robots and artificial intelligence drive a shift toward non-routinized, creative work. A stylized narrative is that a few regions dominate the making of these technologies and enjoy a virtuous cycle of increasing employment, innovativeness, and in-migration of the creative class. Regions merely applying these technologies may get into a vicious cycle of increasing unemployment, out-migration, and decreasing innovativeness. Following the normative governance turn in regional political economics, this theoretical policy paper pitches a framework of three complementary institutions to direct the technology-driven structural change for regional catching-up. Firstly, a system for innovation and entrepreneurial activity creates jobs by supporting exploitation of complementarities of application, co-development activities, and product innovation within mature and emerging sectors. Secondly, education provides creative and entrepreneurial skills to exploit technological opportunities and upskills workers for emerging sectors. Thirdly, labour market and social security institutions are to allow rationalization in mature sectors, incentivize hiring and learning on the job, as well as encourage innovative ventures, notably in emerging sectors. Challenges of implementation of the framework due to path-dependence, co-evolution, and multi-scalarity as well as applicability in different varieties of capitalism are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are debates on whether the implementation of the Belt and Road (BR) initiative could significantly increase CO2 emissions in participating countries. Nevertheless, the policy effect of the BR initiative on both consumption- and production-based CO2 emissions has not been fully explored. In this study, we quantified the consumption- and production-based CO2 emissions in BR countries with a multiregional input–output model. Then, a difference-in-differences (DID) model was used to identify the CO2 emissions caused by the BR initiative. Results showed that the production-based CO2 emissions (20.77 Gt) were 11 percent higher than the consumption-based CO2 emissions (18.71 Gt) in BR countries. The BR initiative had a significant, positive effect on per-capita consumption-based CO2 emissions (p value < 0.1), with an average increase of 0.51 t/cap/year, but had no significant effect on per-capita production-based CO2 emissions (p value > 0.1). These results imply that the BR initiative promoted regional consumption to achieve common prosperity and boosted green transformation of regional economy. Moreover, non-BR countries that have consumed CO2-embedded products should take responsibility for the CO2 emitted in BR countries. Participants should give priority to strengthening the cooperation based on their country's infrastructure conditions rather than the proximity to China. These findings clarify the policy effect of the BR initiative and distinguish the CO2 emission responsibility from both consumption- and production-based perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By combining arguments from regional economics and family business research, the aim of this article is to test the relationships among local export spillovers, management characteristics, and export propensity on a large sample of Spanish manufacturing firms over the 2003–2015 period. We find that family-managed firms, compared to their non-family counterparts, benefit more from being located in regions with a high density of exporters. Because of their firm-specific social capital and strong embeddedness in local networks, family-managed firms are better positioned to leverage the spatially bounded flow of knowledge and information in these regions, resulting in a higher likelihood to export than non-family firms. Additionally, our results show that the knowledge spillover effect is stronger for small and low-tech family firms' export propensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comparison of major aspects of economic structure and access to resources (value added, consumption, diversity, sectoral shares, degree of urbanization, population with high-end skills and access to financial resources) for Indian regions (all states and union territories across the country with larger states divided into smaller and more comparable subregional units of NSS regions) between 2004–05 and 2011–12 identifies the factors that differentiate regions and shows that differences in these factors have increased over time. A step-wise discriminant analysis indicates that regional output and consumption were the key distinguishing factors, along with the sectoral composition of the regional economy. Clear evidence was found of a move towards greater diversity in the local economy, the emergence of construction and other service sectors with significant shares, and increased but more unequal access to finance and skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short paper speculates on what role MaaS may have post Covid-19 and especially to rethink public transport in its widest sense. I Scenario 1: i Travel will return to the pre-Covid-19 normal within a few months, with public transport, ride share and private car use showing very similar levels of use, crowding and congestion as before. Under scenario 1, we might expect MaaS in Australia, and more generally any Covid-19 affected economy, to reboot pretty much along the same lines as pre-Covid-19. [Extracted from the article]

Recurrent economic and financial crises, globalization, digitalization, and climate change are posing major challenges for regional economies to constantly renew their industrial structures. Over the past few years much progress has been made in understanding how new path development unfolds in a regional context. Earlier contributions to the path development literature have acknowledged that multiple industrial paths developing within a region are interdependent and coevolving. However, most conceptualizations and empirical analyses to date have mainly been focused on one new path or path development activities in one nascent industry only. Potential relationships between emerging paths have received little attention, and, as a consequence, little is known about how new paths shape each other's evolution. This article draws on recent contributions that broaden conventional perspectives on regional structural change and develops a framework to analyze the dynamic interdependencies between multiple new regional growth paths. We explore the nature of interpath linkages and discuss the role of agency in creating or shaping the relationship between linked paths to be either supportive, competitive, or neutral toward each other. By means of illustrative empirical examples, we show that interpath relationships in a regional context are a significant phenomenon to be considered in regional structural change and conclude by discussing policy implications and identifying avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to address how universities contribute through a helix model of partnership to regional development in a peripheral but functionally connected area which finds itself outside major conurbations. In doing so, it shows how local universities may collaborate with each other and with other institutional actors, including the private sector, to gather data on how their graduates contribute to the regional economy. A case study of the North Wales Mersey Dee area (the 'NWMD'), a cross-border region within the UK, provides the evidence base. There are gaps in international studies into how universities contribute to the development of their cities and regions, because these studies typically assume that the university is part of an urban concentration with the impact of their development and engagement radiating out into the hinterland. This study explores a scenario with a more dispersed picture, requiring even more effort from key stakeholders, along with the universities, to effect positive change through a policy agenda of 'place-based' strategies. Recommendations are made for longitudinal studies in similarly peripheral and under-performing regions to gauge how universities can work within local partnerships, leveraging government-backed investment to drive improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International courts (ICs) have not only been specifying States' duties, but have also contributed to the definition of States themselves. The article focuses on the case-law of three ICs: the International Court of Justice qua generalist international law court, and its making of the 'internationalised State'; the European Court of Human Rights qua regional human rights court, and its moulding of the 'democratic State'; and the Court of Justice of the European Union qua court of a regional economic organisation, and its making of the 'managerial State'. The first part assesses the role of ICs in the development of the international law of statehood. The second part identifies the making of the State in the three ICs' case-law and compares the ways in which statehood is actually performed through international jurisprudence. A third part presents three critiques of the contemporary international jurisprudence of statehood and explores ways to reform it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism development has often been identified as a tool for balancing negative effects of economic restructuring, especially in peripheral regions. Tourism-based activities often utilize the availability of abundant nature, but although most English language studies of destination development are presented from western contexts, examples from post-Soviet Russia are rare. Western Siberia is a periphery with access to natural resources and heavy industrialization but remotely located from domestic (Russian) and international markets, where tourism is often considered a saviour, especially for the regional economies. Stakeholders in this Russian resource periphery face challenges in managing governance and cooperation in destinations development due to frequent institutional, economic and social changes. Using evolutionary economic geography and based on primary sources and interview data, tourism development and stakeholder relations are assessed in three Western Siberia regions: Tomsk, Kemerovo and Altai Krai. Findings show that for tourism to make a significant contribution, it must be more central to the economic development agenda in all three regions. However, it is currently only achieving a permanent high-profile in one of them, being crowded out by other (mostly primary) industries in the other two. Although the specific tourism governance set-up varies between the three regions, it is clear that public tourism governance still sits somewhat uneasily between state control and the market economy. Tourism receives substantial public subsidies, especially in large-scale investment projects, which depend on federal support within a governance system where decentralization seems to be somewhat limited and unstable. As a result, the tourism path development in the Siberian periphery is highly dependent on state intervention and success in other sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-Speed Rail (HSR) has experienced a rapid development in many countries in the world, but how can planners and decision makers better understand the regional economic impact of the gigantic system remains a challenge. This paper introduces a comprehensive framework to assess the regional economic impacts of HSR using China as an example. The regional economic impacts of HSR are evaluated under a dynamic and spatial computable general equilibrium-modelling framework. Such a framework provides a comprehensive assessment of the impacts in terms of both temporal and spatial variations. The assessment provides an ex post evaluation of the impacts based on the actual data reflecting the infrastructure development and operation in the period 2002-2013. The research findings confirm that HSR infrastructure development in China has generated a positive regional economic impact. The growth rate of the real GDP stimulated by rail infrastructure investment were found particularly substantial in the southwest, but relatively small in the developed eastern regions. Conversely, the real GDP level change was found to be relatively large in the developed regions, such as the south and the east. The disaggregated analysis shows that the contributions to regional economic growth are primarily derived from the productivity increase in rail transport sector and the stimulus effect of rail infrastructure capital investment. The research findings provide implications for future HSR development in both Europe and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reflects more than 25 years of experience in regional governance. The argumentation centres on North Rhine-Westphalia and the Ruhr area. The Ruhr area worked as a "laboratory" in experimenting with new modes of regional governance in the 1990s and 2000s. In a nutshell, four streams of regionalization have been implemented: Integrated regional development strategies, the International Building Exhibition IBA Emscher Park, Cluster policy, and Innovation City Bottrop and Rebuilding 21 - Digitalization in the Emscher Region as an example for real laboratories. The paper concludes with a hypothesis about different modes of regional governance, their strengths and weaknesses and asks for possibilities to improve the governance of smart specialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of the autonomous vehicle (AV) will affect not only the transportation system, but also future patterns of land development. Integrated land use and transportation models will be critical tools in assessing the path forward with this technology. Key questions with respect to land use impacts of AVs arise from potential changes in sensitivity to travel and reduced demand for parking. It is an open question whether AVs will induce urban sprawl, or whether spatial economies of agglomeration will mitigate any reductions in travel time sensitivity. The deployment of shared fleets of AVs would likely reduce parking demand, producing yet to be explored impacts on property development within existing urban footprints. We perform a critical assessment of currently operational models and their ability to represent the adoption of AVs. We identify the representation of time in such models as a vital component requiring additional development to model this new technology. Existing model applications have focused on the discrete addition of new infrastructure or policy at a fixed point in time, whereas AV adoption will occur incrementally through time. Stated adaptation surveys are recommended as tools to quantify preferences and develop relevant model inputs. It is argued that existing models that assume comparatively static equilibrium have been convenient in the past, but are insufficient to model technology adoption. In contrast, dynamic model frameworks lack sufficient structure to maintain reasonability under large perturbations from base conditions. The ongoing advancement of computing has allowed models to move away from being mechanistic aggregate tools, towards behaviourally rich depictions of individual persons and firms. However, much work remains to move from projections of existing conditions into the future, to the evolution of the spatial economy as it evolves through time in response to new technologies and exogenous stresses. Principles from complex and evolutionary systems theory will be important in the development of models with the capacity to consider such dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AV technologies have the potential to transform urban landscapes and existing transport systems and networks. Yet, the utopian imaginary of reduced automobile ownership and a new shared economic future sits in tension with suggestions that car dependency, urban sprawl and transport inaccessibility will be exacerbated. The issues are situated in a complex governance landscape involving an influential private sector who are increasingly setting the agenda. The public sector may be forced into reacting to the new innovations by information technology and automobile companies as they are introduced into existing built environments. Drawing on an extensive literature base and interviews with public sector planners, this paper reveals the conceptual gaps in the framing of AV technology - the prospects and limits - and how these are conceived. The paper raises questions about the role urban planning can play in the rollout of AVs in order to anticipate and mediate unwanted built environment and socio-spatial impacts, as well as reconciling the ambition of transport innovation with the public purpose of planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author chiefly makes reference to G. William Skinner's theory of "central-place hierarchy," as well as the special circumstances of markets in the region of eastern Sichuan prior to the opening of Chongqing as a treaty port, to divide marketing in this region and time period into four levels, ranked from bottom to top as fairs, commercial market towns, small- to mid-sized commercial cities, and large commercial metropolises, and summarizes the extrinsic properties and standards of stratification for each level. The author shows that, prior to the opening of Chongqing, a marketing system with distinct levels, well-spaced distribution, and broad coverage had already taken shape in the region of eastern Sichuan. However, within this system, the majority of the marketing levels unilaterally undertook the function of "collection and distribution of commodities," and close links with specialized, large-scale commodity production were not formed. This caused the ties between each marketing level to be relatively loose, with uneven development, which impacted the vertical integration of the regional economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the concept of the entrepreneurial university by examining roles of academic entrepreneurship departments in driving regional economic development outcomes. While a wealth of research investigates the role, activities and function of the entrepreneurial university, very little which focuses specifically on academic entrepreneurship departments, where much of the research, teaching and knowledge exchange concerning entrepreneurship takes place. Two case studies of large and active entrepreneurship departments are presented to illustrate the different roles and activities they undertake in the sphere of economic development in their regions or locales. A dual model of engagement is proposed, whereby the entrepreneurship department operates within the framework of the entrepreneurial university, but also as a regional actor in its own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the publication of Fagan and Webber’s Global Restructuring in 1994, Australia has experienced one of the most significant commodities-led economic booms in its history. Increasing global demand for iron ore, natural gas, coal and a host of other resources from the early 2000s contributed to a period of sustained economic growth, low unemployment and rising per capita incomes. While popular and political discourses have tended to focus on the national benefits of the boom, in reality the processes at play were complex, spatially uneven and highly contested. In this paper, we offer a multi-scalar interpretation of how the global commodities boom has reshaped Australia’s space economy. It reflects on the experience of the Pilbara region of Western Australia, arguing that the boom contributed to fundamental shifts in the nature of territorial development, socio-spatial relations, and economic governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although economic geography has made considerable progress in explaining the emergence of new industrial development paths, a number of issues have yet to be sufficiently explored. The purpose of this article is to contribute to economic geography research on path creation by developing a conceptual framework that specifies key conditions and reinforcing mechanisms for path creation, on the one hand, and barriers to the materialization of such conditions and mechanisms, on the other hand. As such, the framework moves beyond firm-centric perspectives and argues that path creation needs to be understood as a collective endeavor incorporating both firm and nonfirm actors. By implication, this necessitates an understanding of the broader contexts that shape path creation processes, including how the dynamics of an emerging path are affected by the dynamics of established paths. The authors employ this framework to analyze Norway's offshore wind power (OWP) industry. Their analysis reveals that an initial enabling context for OWP path creation turned into more constrained conditions. Similar to findings from a number of other studies, they identify branching between related sectors as a primary path creation mechanism. However, they find that this mechanism is vulnerable to shifting contextual conditions, which for various reasons resulted in the studied emerging path losing resources and legitimacy, thus implying potential negative path interdependence. The authors also identify barriers to path creation in the institutional environment, particularly in terms of lack of policy coherence in support for key resource formation processes that are pivotal for path creation processes to generate sustained momentum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-15thcentury, the space economy in Africa has assumed an imperial outlook under the influence of European mercantilism. It was the era that unfettered capitalism prevailed as economic orthodoxy for control of regional economies. At the inception of fettered capitalism in the mid-20thcentury, an imperial structure that served western interests under colonial rule was further entrenched in many African countries. At the turn of the 21stcentury, neoliberalism emerged as global economic orthodoxy, and free-trade relations implemented to manage Euro-American and Chinese mercantilism worldwide. This unleashed epistemological ideologies that ushered in urban productivity decline in the African space economy. As an entry point to address this urban development challenge in new regionalism, this article makes a case for neo-mercantilism as an alternative development ideology for Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who introduces structural change in regional economies: Entrepreneurs or existing firms? And do local or nonlocal establishment founders create most novelty in a region? We develop a theoretical framework that focuses on the roles different agents play in regional transformation. We then apply this framework, using Swedish matched employer–employee data, to determine how novel the activities of new establishments are to a region. Incumbents mainly reinforce a region’s current specialization: incumbent’s growth, decline, and industry switching further align them with the rest of the local economy. The unrelated diversification required for structural change mostly originates via new establishments, especially via those with nonlocal roots. Interestingly, although entrepreneurs often introduce novel activities to a local economy, when they do so, their ventures have higher failure rates compared to new subsidiaries of existing firms. Consequently, new subsidiaries manage to create longer-lasting change in regions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Few studies of agrarian transition examine what farmers themselves feel about farming. Are they cultivating out of choice or a lack of options? What distinguishes farmers who like farming from those who do not: their personal/household characteristics and endowments? The local ecology and regional economy? Or a mix of these and other factors? Understanding farmer satisfaction is important not only for assessing citizen wellbeing but also for agricultural productivity, since occupational satisfaction can affect a farmer’s incentive to invest and reveal production constraints. Using a unique all-India data-set which asked farmers, ‘Do you like farming?’ this paper provides answers and policy pointers, contributing a little-studied dimension to debates on the smallholder’s future and subjective wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In discussions about the use of public money for popular sports such as clubs in Germany’s 1. Bundesliga, it is often argued that the funds are well invested due to the cash flows generated by these organizations for their home regions. However, others claim the opposite. They argue that actually no positive impact is generated and, even worse, that money is leaving the region due to the clubs. The study presented here analyses the financial flows generated by the 1. FC Kaiserslautern for its home city (Kaiserslautern) and home state (Rhineland-Palatinate) during the 2010/11 season when the club participated in the 1. Bundesliga. Based on a 3-step model, the economic impact is calculated by considering spectator spending and cash flows generated by the business activities of the club. It turns out that additional cash flows of approximately €16.5 million and €25.8 million were generated for the state and the city, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions industry has developed greatly in recent decades, and has become an important driver of the regional economy. Many big cities are eager to develop the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions industry as a means of stimulating their economies. As is well known, convention site selection is one of most important research topics related to the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions industry, and this article presents an optimization-based method for convention site selection. This proposed method takes the non-quantifiable factors of site selection into account, and it adopts the use of second-hand data to quantitatively evaluate the performance of candidate sites with respect to several quantifiable factors. The proposed method is applied instead of using questionnaire surveys, and it is applicable for selecting convention sites even when the candidate sites are in the same cities. The method presented in this article takes various site-level factors into account (such as the meeting and accommodation facilities), along with city-level factors (such as the site environments). The main focus of this article is to provide a concrete method, along with a series of suggestions to help convention planners in making appropriate site-selection decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years, economic resilience has become a popular term in both theory and policy practice. This interest was triggered by the fact that some regional economies were extremely vulnerable, while others have managed to overcome, more or less effectively, the worse consequences of the current economic crisis. Within this context, questions arise regarding the role that policies at both the national and subnational levels can play in shaping regional economic resilience. Although high in the academic and political agenda, understanding the policy and governance aspects of resilience still remains a relatively underdeveloped area. The paper contributes to this debate focusing on an area which has been most severely hit by crises, the Region of West Macedonia, in Greece. The case study builds on the historical trajectory of the region in order to explain how different types of policies have influenced the ability of West Macedonia to respond to economic slumps and crises of the last 30 years. Evidence suggests that national protectionist policies largely explain not only resilience of the region against previous crises, but also its vulnerability towards the still ongoing economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the spring of 2017, the Research Network on Regional Economic and Policy History organized its inaugural workshop in London. The network aims to stimulate research in relation to regional economic development and planning challenges, by exploring the importance of historical approaches and methodologies whilst uncovering linkages between historical science and regional studies. The added value of an historical perspective is that it assists in revealing path dependencies in a region’s economy. Moreover, it can provide learnings in terms of the successes and failures of policy instruments, strategies, and institutions that are responsible for the implementation of regional policy. Furthermore, history can provide much-needed ‘thick’ descriptions which highlight contingencies. This contribution first explores the perspectives for interdisciplinary exchange between the study of history and the fields of regional and planning studies. Subsequently, it provides an outline of the aims and objectives, key activities, and participants of the network. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On 22 May 2012, the federal government announced that it was discontinuing the funding for all regional economic development (RED) organizations in Atlantic Canada, including the regional economic development boards (REDBs) in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). Shortly after the federal announcement the provincial government in NL also withdrew its financial support, which led to the demise of the REDBs across the province. In this paper, we critically explore the governance of RED in NL and examine the REDB approach and its subsequent demise using Stoker’s five propositions of governance. While the REDBs were conceived as a fundamentally ‘new regional economic development approach’, they were never granted the level of autonomy, support, and resources that was envisioned in this new approach. However, we argue that the demise of the REDBs has shifted the governance of RED from dysfunctional to destitute. These changes are also situated within a ‘retreat from rural’ policy agenda and devolved responsibilities to local levels of government across Canada and in NL. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The role of firms in the process of regional renewal and path development is a somewhat neglected area in the existing literature. With few exceptions, the literature is mainly concerned with aggregated development paths. To cover this gap, the current study turns its attention to cross-industry innovation capability (CIIC) building in firms and discusses how conditions for innovation and learning in a region drive this process. We introduce a new concept of CIIC – that is, the firm’s ability to transform knowledge and ideas from different industries into new products, processes and systems and/or its ability to adapt existing products, processes and systems to new industries – and identify its drivers and indicators. The discussion is supported by empirical studies of firms in three Norwegian case regions that undergo the restructuring process due to the recent severe decrease in oil prices. Our empirical data demonstrate that organizationally thick and diversified regions are more favourable for firms’ abilities to develop CIIC and cross-industry innovation activity. As a result, we emphasize that future regional policies should have a stronger focus on the linkages between internal firm characteristics and regional innovation systems to contribute to the firms’ absorptive capacity for developing cross-industry innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The literature on regional innovation systems (RISs) has grown impressively in the last two decades. The objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive assessment of all RIS articles published in scholarly journals between 1998 and 2015. It aims to inform researchers of the empirical results obtained so far and highlight areas that need further work. This review describes how the RIS field has developed, charts the current body of RIS research and discusses recommendations for moving the RIS field forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarly work has enhanced our understanding of how new path development activities are enabled or constrained by ‘regional environments’, made up of pre-existing industrial structures, knowledge organizations, support structures and institutional configurations. This paper moves beyond overly static views on regional environments. We develop a dynamic perspective by analysing conceptually and empirically how a constraining environment can be transformed into one that enables the development of new growth paths. The paper offers a typology of various modes of change, including layering, adaptation and novel application that are used by key actors to ‘manipulate’ the regional support structures to facilitate new regional industrial path development. The conceptual framework is applied to a case study of the digital games industry in the region of Scania, southern Sweden. Our findings suggest that the creation of a more enabling environment for the growth of the digital games industry has been the outcome of multi-scalar processes and combinations of various modes of change employed by a few key individuals operating in the newly emerging path. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers information on the changes in the regional economic and political situations in Russia since 2008 under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. Topics discussed include the regional budget deficits, change in the regional policy priorities of the federal government, and change in the government hierarchy.

The internationalization of production activities is having a profound impact on regional economies. In this regard, it is generating externalities not only in the countries where production is offshored, but also in the domestic networks in which the internationalizing firms are located. Therefore, this paper investigates the effects of outward foreign direct investment and offshore outsourcing activities on domestic supplier populations in industrial districts (IDs). The aim is to evaluate the ability of these systems to react to the structural shocks associated with internationalization strategies. The results show that local network resilience is generally higher in advanced forms of IDs, where the role of large firms or service activities is more relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to isolate the structural characteristics that affect the resilience of a regional economy. It focuses on the role played by related/unrelated variety and differentiated knowledge bases as drivers for regional resilience and originally explores their interdependences. Italy is the empirical setting, and Italian local labour systems the unit of analysis. Regional resilience is measured as growth of the employment rate after the Great Recession that began in 2008. Results confirm the importance of related variety and of differentiated knowledge bases as drivers for regional resilience. We found support of the creative capacity of culture argument, providing evidence that a moderate concentration in symbolic knowledge-based economic activities contributes to resilience. Synthetic and analytical knowledge-based activities provide positive and no support to regional resilience, respectively. Finally, the relatedness of the symbolic knowledge-based activities increases regional economic resilience. Some policy implications are then derived from these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have not estimated the abatement costs of pollutants related to energy use for China. Hence, this paper attempts to fill this gap by using a slacks-based measure based on Data Envelopment Analysis framework for regional economies of China. We develop the dual model of slack-based measure to estimate the abatement costs of three pollutants, specifically carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and Chemical Oxygen Demand. The results show that the marginal abatement cost of pollutants decreased from 2001 to 2005 but then, starting in 2006, it began to increase. Finally, some policy suggestions for an emissions trading scheme are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the introduction of the related variety concept in 2007, a number of studies have been undertaken to analyse its effect on economic development. Our review of 21 studies makes clear that most studies find support for the initial hypothesis that related variety supports employment growth, though some studies suggest that the growth effects of related variety may be specific to knowledge-intensive sectors only. From the review, we list a number of further research questions regarding methodology, the role of unrelated variety, different forms of relatedness and the effect of related variety on knowledge production and entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of recent advancements regarding regional innovation policy rationales and evidence, there are few analyses about the actual features of existing regional innovation policies. Nevertheless, a policy analysis perspective is important in order to recognize their distinctive patterns across regions, and to understand how rationales and evidence can be translated into policy-making. To this purpose, this paper develops a framework to study the extent to which regional innovation policies have changed during the past few years. Since the mid-2000s, there has been an important development of innovation policy rationales, advocating for more specialization; likewise, greater data availability at the regional level has allowed more sophisticated assessment of innovation performance. Finally, the crisis since 2008 has had ravaging effects in some regions, with job losses and severe economic sluggishness. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect transforming dynamics in regional innovation policies. Against this backdrop, the paper compares the institutional frameworks and budgetary priorities of four Spanish regions during the period 2001–2014: Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia and Andalusia. In so doing, it aims at studying the extent to which regional governments have readily addressed past and new challenges related to their regional innovation system, and if so, how. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the past, studies on inclusive development involve mainly the perspective of equitable distribution of economic and societal outputs. This study, however, takes a different approach and analyses the potential roles of regional coordination mechanisms (RCMs), specifically universities and research council's networks within Southeast Asia, in disseminating the innovation-related activities for inclusive development or Innovation for Inclusive Development (IID). The literature on innovation intermediaries within the realm of innovation systems studies was used to establish the framework of the study. The findings indicate that RCMs have a huge potential role to play. However, due to a number of reasons, including lack of funding support, lack of attention and commitment to IID, weak engagement with industry and non-governmental organisations, the implementation of the IID activities was rather poor. As a whole, the study argues that current approaches are not well positioned and it is fragmented preventing the effective use of RCMs despite their potentials for IID efforts. The study attributes this to the systemic failures in the regional coordinating systems. In enhancing the role of RCMs in IID, this study recommends the promotion of IID platform, the leveraging of non-government organisations and industry as well as energising the Southeast Asia engagement in promoting IID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies arts industries in all 366 US metropolitan statistical areas between 1980 and 2010. Our analysis provides evidence that the arts are an important component of many regional economies, but also highlights their volatility. After radical growth and diffusion between 1980 and 2000, in the last decade, the arts industries are defined more by shrinkage and reconcentration in fewer metropolitan areas. Further, we find that the vast majority of metros have strengths in particular sets of arts industries. As we discuss in the conclusion, these conditions present challenges and opportunities for urban cultural policy that goes beyond the current focus on the arts as consumption amenities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the burgeoning comparative literature on electoral authoritarian regimes, fewer studies have accounted for the emergence of hegemonic and competitive authoritarian regimes at the subnational level. This article examines the variation in subnational electoral authoritarianism with data from the Russian Federation. First, the article shows that by using a comparative regime classification most Russian subnational cases can be classified as electoral authoritarian between 1991 and 2005. Yet, there are considerable differences in competitiveness between the electoral authoritarian regimes. The article accounts for this variation by drawing on both comparative electoral authoritarianism literature as well as more context-specific explanations. Statistical analysis on 192 subnational electoral authoritarian cases shows that the determinants of Russian subnational authoritarian stability are rather similar to those found in cross-national studies. Subnational (non)competitiveness in Russia appears to be related to the structure of the regional economy and natural resource rents, and to a lesser degree to the specific Russian federal context. Authoritarian “know how” also plays a role in authoritarian regime building. The findings of the article contribute to the literature on electoral authoritarianism, subnational democratization and Russian subnational politics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although industrial zones have been attracting attention around the world due to their huge regional economic contributions, ecological risk assessment for industrial zones has gained little attention. In high ecological risk locations, landslides, earthquakes, and floods often occur, often causing extensive damage, including loss of human lives and property. However, during planning, development, and management of industrial zones, only the socioeconomic risks are usually taken into account and the risks of ecological factors affecting industries are often ignored. In this article, we put forward a procedure to link different risk factors and their GIS-determined spatial variation to estimate the ecological risk to key industrial zones in the 98,200 km2area surrounding the Bo Sea. The ecological risk factors in this region are mainly rainstorms, geological risks, storm surges, seawater intrusion, soil erosion, and earthquakes. The key industrial development zones located in this area were classified into three industry types according to the sensitivity of the industry to different ecological risk factors. Using historical data and hierarchical analytic process as well as weighted ecological risk values, industry susceptibility was determined. We integrated the risk values of each ecological factor with the susceptibility of each industry type to each ecological factor in order to quantify the total risk associated with each key industry zone in the region. The results showed that high ecological risk existed in Liaodong and Laizhou Bay and Tianjin and Dalian seashore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of regional parliamentary assemblies (RPAs) in Africa has been on the ascendancy since the mid-twentieth century. The essence of these parliaments is to contribute to regional economic and political integration through oversight, legislation and representation. However, the ability of Africa's RPAs to perform these functions has been challenged by institutional and legal factors. Using five regional parliaments (the East African Legislative Assembly, the Economic Community of West African States Parliament, the Inter-Parliamentary Union of Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the Pan-African Parliament and the South African Development Community Parliamentary Forum) as case studies, this paper examines the impact of these challenges on the functionality and viability of Africa's RPAs. It finds that given that these parliaments lack legitimacy of authority and enabling status of operation, they exist merely as deliberative, consultative and advisory bodies rather than independent organs of regional economic communities with full legislative and oversight powers. Consequently, the paper recommends, among other things, the amendment of their constitutive acts to grant them full legislative and oversight functions, and the election of their members by universal adult suffrage in order to give them legitimacy of authority. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When I first met Don, I was already an established research fellow in regional economics. Don’s subsequent influence directly helped me follow my dreams, passions and interests. Thus, my academic career grew, developed and transformed from regional economics, to information economics, and eventually to evolutionary economics. This reflection traces that evolving process, illustrating Don’s influence throughout. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although the role of organized business in regional economic integration is well documented, extant scholarship portrays them as mere legitimizers and partners of regional policy. This neat categorization fails to capture the complicated, ‘multiscalarity’ of business and overall civil society's role in regional governance. Drawing insights from social constructivism and empirical evidence from fieldwork conducted in 2012 and 2013 on the interactions between the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and region-wide business associations and advocacy networks since the early 1990s, this article shows that although African business groups are relatively new actors at the regional stage, their impact on regional governance is substantial. This is not only in terms of getting governments to adopt particular policies or the ability to hold the state accountable, as functional institutionalists might argue, but also in terms of the regional socialization effects, namely the willingness and ability to frame issues that influence the choices of political decision-makers. Business regional governance roles also straddle competing conventional roles, and sometimes counter the neoliberal vision of regional integration, even among those that owe their emergence to regional organizations. The study also challenges the pervasive view of business actors (especially in Africa) as simply profit-seekers by highlighting the ways business actors have deployed and acted on principled beliefs about regional identity collectively or individually to forge denser and relatively effective policy coalitions that signal unfolding changes in the direction of regional policy in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite international pressure to condemn North Korea (DPRK), China’s successive leaderships have dealt carefully with Pyongyang, especially vis-à-vis its nuclear weapons program. This moderate stance reflects the two countries’ decades-long relationship, summarised in the Chinese idiom that Pyongyang and Beijing are “as close as lips and teeth”. Nevertheless, the DPRK’s third nuclear test in February 2013 raised enormous challenges for the new Xi Jinping leadership to maintain the previous DPRK policy focused on the status quo and stability on the Korean Peninsula. China’s attitudes and policies towards the DPRK after the provocative third test signified a possible reorientation of Beijing’s DPRK policy. This generated repercussions in the countries concerned and prompted debates among experts. This article asks how these events should be understood and what their implications are for the Xi leadership’s policy on the DPRK, the stability of the Korean Peninsula, and Northeast Asia. Given China’s competitive relations with other major powers, we conclude that the Xi leadership will not abandon the DPRK; indeed it will reinforce the policy of strengthening China’s influence over it. Nonetheless one aspect of doing so will involve China opening up to other – cooperative, multilateral – approaches to reinforcing stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]