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As the densest single corpus of documents pertaining to everyday life in the medieval Middle East and Islamic world before the 1250s, the Cairo Geniza material has been mined to investigate not only the economic roles of Jews in the Islamicate world they inhabited but also the relationship between merchants and the state, the structure of business ties, the nature, market share, and circulation of specific commodities, monetization, and geographies of trade connecting the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. Building on more than half a century of Geniza scholarship on the medieval economy, recent work has highlighted the role of legal institutions in economic transactions, has elaborated on the question of the typicality of Jewish economic actors in the Islamicate marketplace, and has deepened the inquiry into regional and transregional economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to related theories of regional economics, eight indexes closely related to development level county economy of certain city in Sichuan province were chosen. Evaluation model of county economy competitiveness in Sichuan province based on multi-layer fuzzy neural network was proposed in the Thesis. Firstly, evaluation for in county economic competitiveness was analyzed, and evaluation index system for its competitiveness was given. Model index was provided with pre-treatment by adopting analysis method for normalization and factor; secondly, one four-layer fuzzy neural network model was used, and hierarchical fuzzy neural network model for economic competitiveness evaluation of county region was proposed. It included input layer, fuzzy layer, fuzzy reasoning layer and output layer, and composition and computing method for fuzzy function block and neural network module were analyzed; finally, through empirical analysis, effectiveness for algorithm was verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Transboundariness” refers to a new approach that identifies and prioritizes transboundary aquifers using socio-economic and political criteria, improving their characterization by using other variables in addition to their mere physical boundaries. This approach is applied to the hydrogeological units/aquifers shared by Mexico and Texas, with the following results. First, the rankings agree with the current level of attention to transboundary aquifers in the region by both countries, providing a quantifiable system that could be tested in other transboundary aquifers. Second, this approach provides a holistic and integrative perspective for transboundary aquifer assessment and prioritization. Third, this prioritization exercise expands the criteria currently used into a more integrative regime of groundwater links to the community as a whole. Finally, the results reflect not only how the transboundary aquifers are being used (or neglected) but also the socio-political context of the populations that depend on these resources for current and future development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

City networks have been a critical topic in the fields of urban geography and regional economics. Numerous studies have explored city networks, focusing mainly on infrastructure and industrial networks. Unlike traditional urban network of which the major measuring indexes are population sizes and entity industries, online commodity service networks could reflect well the influencing of emerging economies, especially the Internet economy, on city networks. This study analyzes and reveals structural features of China's city networks through online commodity services, providing the internet economic approach on city networks. Results indicate that the core cities of online commodity service networks are mainly concentrated in eastern coastal areas. In addition, spatial polarization and layer structure of network connections are obvious, descending from the centers in eastern China to peripheral cities in central and western China. Online commodity services of different cities show apparent differences and uncertainties in terms of specialization rates of international connection, which presents a tendency toward diversification. Online commodity service networks are not only associated with goods production, supply, and consumption in physical space but also reflect virtual information, capital, and technology flows, thus providing a new empirical approach for understanding city networks in information and internet economic age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voters’ ability to hold politicians accountable has been shown to be limited in systems of multilevel government. The existence of multiple tiers of government blurs the lines of responsibility, making it more difficult for voters to assign credit or blame for policy performance. However, much less is known about how the vertical division of responsibility affects citizens’ propensity to rationalize responsibility attributions on the basis of group attachment. While these two processes have similar observable implications, they imply markedly different micro-mechanisms. Using experimental and observational data, this paper examines how the partisan division of power moderates the impact of voters’ partisanship and feelings of territorial attachment on attributions of responsibility for the regional economy. Our analyses show that partisan-based attribution bias varies systematically with the partisan context, such that it only emerges in regions where a party other than the national incumbent controls the regional government. We also find that responsibility judgments are rationalized on the basis of territorial identities only when a regional nationalist party is in control of the regional government. Our results contribute to explaining the contextual variations in the strength of regional economic voting and more generally to understanding one of the mechanisms through which low clarity of responsibility reduces government accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Punjab, Pakistan is famous for rice production in all over the world, but economic indicators are low toward rice contribution in the regional economy. Climatic and physical factors are responsible for rice yield degradation. Suitable land for rice cultivation can be mapped keeping in view these climatic and physical factors. In this research, rice cultivation season was calculated using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) time series datasets for the complete year 2014. Landsat 8 thermal datasets were obtained for the rice cultivation season and temperature based growth variability maps were generated. The total area under investigation was 13,657 km² out of which 931.61 km² (6.8%) was found to be least suitable, 3316.69 km² (24.2%) was moderately suitable, 6019.63 km² (44%) was highly suitable and 3395.28 km² (24.85%) was not suitable for rice crop cultivation. Results showed that highly suitable area was characterized by a temperature range between 21 and 32 °C, soil pH level between 5.5 and 7.2, soil type was < 78% clay and the soil was imperfectly drained. We compared land suitability map covering the complete land use with rice cultivated area only and found the results as follows: 592 km² (5.9%) rice cultivation was in least suitable, 4385 km² (44%) cultivation was in highly suitable, 2210 km² (23.2%) cultivation was in moderately suitable and 1674 km² (16.8%) cultivation was in not suitable regions. The techniques applied in this research may be used by local farmers to select cropping patterns and land suitability for rice crop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a method to measure competitiveness performance at the subnational level, with an application to Peruvian regions. For this, we propose a benefit-of-the-doubt composite index that summarizes the information of several indicators that characterize competitiveness. It is based on an optimization approach, using data enveloping analysis (DEA) techniques, so that each indicator is weighted in an endogenous way, and each unit is evaluated in the most favourable light. Our proposed index is a non-radial variant of the typical DEA scores, which avoids the traditional pitfalls of DEA-based composite indices, such as unreasonable weights. Additionally, we propose a meta-frontier approach in order to compare the competitiveness performances across different periods of evaluation. Our assessments of the Peruvian regions' competitiveness performance improve on the results of traditional DEA methods, which award high marks to regions with very heterogeneous performance (i.e., regions with very high scores in some indicators, and very poor in others). Additionally, the comparison of the performance across time shows a general decrease in the average competitiveness between 2008 and 2014 of the Peruvian regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forecast combination has been studied in econometrics for a long time, and the literature has shown the superior performance of forecast combination over individual predictions. However, there is still controversy on which is the best procedure to specify the forecast weights. This paper explores the possibility of using a procedure based on Entropy Econometrics, which allows setting the weights for the individual forecasts as a mixture of different alternatives. In particular, we examine the ability of the Data-Weighted Prior Estimator proposed by Golan (J Econom 101(1):165-193, 2001) to combine forecasting models in a context of small sample sizes, a relative common scenario when dealing with time series for regional economies. We test the validity of the proposed approach using a simulation exercise and a real-world example that aims at predicting gross regional product growth rates for a regional economy. The forecasting performance of the Data-Weighted Prior Estimator proposed is compared with other combining methods. The simulation results indicate that in scenarios of heavily ill-conditioned datasets the approach suggested dominates other forecast combination strategies. The empirical results are consistent with the conclusions found in the numerical experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lake Tanganyika is the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume and is of prime importance for the regional economy in East Africa. Although the lake is recognized as a key component of the regional climate system, little is known about atmospheric dynamics in its surroundings. To understand this role, we analyze winds around Lake Tanganyika as modeled by a high resolution (7 km) regional climate model (Consortium for Small-scale Modeling in Climate Mode) over the period 1999-2008. Modeled surface wind speed and direction are in very good agreement with high resolution (12.5 km) Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) satellite wind observations during the dry season. Comparison of a control run with a model simulation where all lake pixels are replaced by representative land pixels indicates that mean surface wind speed over Lake Tanganyika almost doubles due to lake presence. Furthermore, a region of higher surface wind speed in the central part of the lake is identified and confirmed by QuikSCAT observations. A combination of wind channeling along valley mountains and wind confluence on the upwind side of the lake is responsible for this speed-up. The lower wind speeds in the rest of the lake result from blocked conditions due to more pronounced orography. Finally, the model captures a zone of higher wind speed at around 2 km height, associated with the low-level Somali jet. These results demonstrate that high resolution climate modeling allows a detailed understanding of wind dynamics in the vicinity of Lake Tanganyika. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrial composition of places has received considerable attention because of the widespread belief that industrial diversity buffers regional economies from economic shocks. Subsequently, a variety of toolkits and indices have been developed with the goal of better capturing the compositional dynamics of regions. Although useful, a key drawback of these indices is their static nature, which limits the utility of these indices in a space-time context. This paper provides an overview of and applications of an interface called interactive visualization tool for indices of industrial diversity, which is a visual analytics tool developed specifically for the analysis and visualization of local measures of industrial composition for areal data. This overview will include a discussion of its key features, as well as a demonstration of the utility of the interface in exploring questions surrounding diversity and the dynamic nature of composition through space and time. A focus of this demonstration is to highlight how the interactivity and query functionality of this interface overcome several of the obstacles to understanding composition through space and time that prior toolkits and comparative static approaches have been unable to address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses the Analytic Network Process(ANP) to carefully study the feasibility that the private participation proposal can achieve the expected objective. The evaluation focuses on the selection of private enterprises to participate in infrastructure projects. It provides a reference for final selection of the best proposal based on a multiple-criteria decision making model to reduce the financial burden of the government and improve the public service quality. The government is hoping to guide the funds from the private sector to infrastructure projects, thus relieving the difficult financial status of the government. The experienced management strategies of the private sector are also hoped to improve the overall service quality,and drive the development of the regional economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between air pollution, climate and reported subjective well-being (or happiness) in Spanish regions. The results show that, after controlling for most of the socio-economic variables affecting happiness, there are still significant regional differences in subjective well-being. Evidence also suggests that climate and air pollution variables play a significant role in explaining these regional differences in happiness. The analysis also allows us to calculate the monetary value of air quality and climate, deriving the average marginal rate of substitution between income and air quality and climate for the Spanish regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For elaboration of strategy and spatial planning of sustainable coastal regions development it's very important to know a real potential of development of the region. As parameter, which is comprehensively characterized marine economic, political and military power of the coastal region, it is possible to use the marine economy potential with comprehensive estimations of socio-economic, political, environment and military profits (damages) from coastal planning decisions. Some results, including the European and Russian coastal regions are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the data of gross domestic product (GDP), industrial added value and the proportion of industrial employees from 2000 to 2008, this paper studies the effect of industrial structure change on the regional economic growth of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region in China using the shift-share method. The results show that: 1) In the 21st century, the industrial output of three industries, namely, primary, secondary, and tertiary, and the GDP grew rapidly in the study period. The tertiary industry grew the fastest; it had the largest contribution to the GDP and meanwhile had become the most competitive industry in the metropolitan region. 2) The development of cities within the region was not balanced. Firstly, compared with Tianjin, Beijing, as one of the two core cities, was more rational in the industrial structure. Secondly, the surrounding eight cities, which are Shijiazhuang, Qinhuangdao, Tangshan, Langfang, Baoding, Cangzhou, Zhangjiakou, and Chengde, were all uncompetitive than the two core cities. 3) There was a great industrial gradient in the region (especially between the two core cities and the cities of Tangshan, Baoding, Zhangjiakou, Chengde, Cangzhou, and Langfang). As a result, it is foreseeable that the industry transfer in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region will be one of the trends in regional development, and the industry transfer is inevitably to promote the regional integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current theories on economic growth are stressing the important role of creativity and innovation as a main driver of regional development. Some perspectives, like Richard Florida's 'creative class theory', have elected tolerance and diversity as a core concept in explaining differential development between different places, but his assumptions are challenged by other empirical and theoretical studies. In this article, we raise the possibility that tolerance is a necessary yet not a sufficient ingredient to trigger economic development in regions, and explore the role of subjective well-being (life-satisfaction, happiness, and optimism) as a moderator. Using a nationwide survey of 3,757 respondents from 21 different municipalities, the results show that optimism played the role of moderator, thus evidencing that psychological variables should be taken into account when trying to understand regional economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to determine the factors underpinning changes in regional specialisation patterns in the European Union between 1991 and 2002. First, we consider a set of determinants previously identified in the regional literature, including agglomeration effects and other specific regional factors (business cycle, amount of investment, etc.). However, we then also take into account the fact that the evolution in a region’s specialisation pattern may be affected by the specialisation behaviour of other regions. Thus, not only do we consider the pattern of evolution in a region’s most proximate neighbours but we also examine that of their regional peers, i.e., regions with a similar specialisation pattern independent of their location. Notwithstanding, our empirical evidence indicates that physical distance still plays a very significant, and even more influential, role than similarity in specialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a review of the effects of organized crime on regional economic development, with particular reference to the case of Italy. After reviewing the empirical studies that analyse the relationship between crime and economic development, the paper examines the regional distribution and the social costs of some crimes (in particular extortion) that can be linked to mafia type criminality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional interactions and spillover effects should be considered as important factors in growth analysis of regional economies. Using modified versions of the Dendrinos–Sonis model, this paper analyses the spatial hierarchical system of Italy. The interaction among Italian regions is considered at three different levels of spatial aggregation, the NUTS-1, NUTS-2 and NUTS-3 levels. Compared to more popular spatial econometric approaches, the Dendrinos–Sonis model and its extensions provide greater flexibility in the way interaction between regions is handled but the results strongly depend on the choice of a reference region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU project BALANCE (Global Change Vulnerabilities in the Barents region: Linking Arctic Natural Resources, Climate Change and Economies) aims to assess vulnerability to climate change in the Barents Sea Region. As a prerequisite the potential impact of climate change on selected ecosystems of the study area has to be quantified, which is the subject of the present paper. A set of ecosystem models was run to generate baseline and future scenarios for 1990, 2020, 2050 and 2080. The models are based on data from the Regional Climate Model (REMO), driven by a GCM which in turn is forced by the IPCC-B2 scenario. The climate change is documented by means of the Köppen climate classification. Since the multitude of models requires the effect of climate change on individual terrestrial and marine systems to be integrated, the paper concentrates on a standardised visualisation of potential impacts by use of a Geographical Information System for the timeslices 2050 and 2080. The resulting maps show that both terrestrial and marine ecosystems of the Barents region will undergo significant changes until both 2050 and 2080. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an innovative approach to the study of regional economic dynamics within a nonlinear continuous-time econometric framework—a generalized specification of the Lotka–Volterra system of equations. This specification, which accounts for interdependent behavior of three industrial sectors and spillover effects of activities in neighboring regions, is employed in an analysis of five Italian regions between 1980 and 2003. For these regions, we report estimation results, characterize the varying systems dynamics, analyze the models’ local and global stability properties, and determine via sensitivity analyses which structural features appear to exert the greatest influence on these properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry represents about 31% of the upper Normandy region total value-added against 19.5% at national level. The same holds for the employment, since industry accounts for 21% of total local jobs, against 18% at national level. This article attempts to answer the following question: can we explain this specific concentration of economic activity by the natural advantages (water availability, easy access by water) provided by the Seine Estuary? We first characterize “strongly Seine Estuary-dependent” industrial sectors, using simple indicators such as water withdrawals and pollution emissions. Then, we evaluate the influence of these sectors on the forces (labor market pooling, input sharing and knowledge spillovers) that lead to concentration of the economic activity in the Seine estuary. We find strong evidence that this economic activity is still natural resource based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research excavations at Movanagher, the chief Londonderry Plantation settlement of the Mercers' Company of London, focused upon the role of the River Bann in the local and regional economy. Sited in 1611 near an ancient ford on the second longest river in Ireland and adjacent to established salmon fisheries, eel fisheries, extensive timber tracts and abundant clay resources, Movanagher was designed for profit, not defense, and ultimately succumbed to the Irish Rebellion of 1641. The archaeology of this green-field site with its mill, fisheries, brickworks, bawn, and scattered dwellings provides valuable insight into the central role of the river, both in daily life and in the process of the plantation itself. It highlights the mindset, motivations, and ultimate miscalculations of the English who planned the settlement, while underscoring the complexity of relations between natives and newcomers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines change within farming systems in the Brong Ahafo Region in Ghana, and the impact of agricultural modernization and mechanization on the regional economy and local farming systems. It combines anthropological, historical, and remote sensing techniques to document changes in farming practice and land use and land cover. It argues that change is not the product of simple evolutionary sequences of responses to population pressures or adoption of modern technologies, but arises out of a complex set of factors interacting within wider regional economies, which are increasingly commodified and commercialized and subject to global market pressures. These include technical, institutional, market, movements of labor, and transport infrastructure development dimensions, which often create new opportunities for local farmers other than those envisaged in agricultural development policies. Tracing the opening up of the transition zone over the last 40–50 years through the development of state farms and mechanized synthetic agriculture, the paper examines the changing fortunes of farming systems within a radius of 30–40 km from agricultural technology hubs and the implications for models of agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the recent dramatic advances of the significant regional cooperations in economy around Lancang-Mekong River Subregion, the changes, regularity and influences of the water resource in this area have received remarkable international attentions and become a focus in the research community of water resource. Based on the daily water level from 1986 through 2004 observed at Yunjinghong station and Chiang Saen gauging station, a quantitative examination has been made for the multi-timescale characteristics and correlations of the water level variations between the upper and lower reaches of Lancang-Mekong River through binomial coefficient weighted average method, five-year moving average method, and other statistical methods. Besides, the major influences of cascade hydropower dams in the main upstream on the transboundary water level during key years are also reviewed. The results demonstrate that the annual variations of water level in Lancang River exhibit multi-timescale characteristics. And positive correlations are observed between the multi-timescale variations of the Lancang River water level in lower reaches and the Lower-Mekong River water level in upper reaches. Annual variations of the water level in upper-lower reaches exhibit prominent interannual and interdecadal features, during the recent 18 years, while differences mainly happen to the smaller time- scales. That shows the water level annual variations at both stations are influenced by the climatic factors (e.g. precipitation) and solar activity. The normal operation of cascade hydropower dams in the main upstream of Lancnag River have some interim effects on downstream monthly or yearly water level. It may have more impacts on short-term daily water level, such as of few day's varitations. It also can be found that the individual monthly-high water level between two stations show prominent positive correlation, as well as the dates of that. But as far as the multi- timescale correlations of water level in Lancang and Lower Mekong River is concerned, the major causes of considerable differences in water level variations are attributable to both runoff flowing from the upstream (the Lancang River) and the high local inflow between two stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present there is a strong tendency to use new methods for the description of the regional and spatial economy. In increasing frequency we consider that any economic activity is spatially dependent. The problem of the evolution of internal urban formation can be described with the exact supposition. So that is why we use partial derivative equations set with the appropriate boundary and initial conditions for the solving the problem of the urban evolution. Here we describe the model of urban population's density modification taking into account a modification of the housing quality. A program has been created which realizes difference method of mixed problem solution for population's density. For the wide class of coefficients it has been shown that the problem's solution “quickly forgets” the parts of the initial conditions and comes out to the intermediate asymptotic form, which nature depends only on the problem's operator. Actually it means that the urban structure does not depend on external circumstances and is formed by the internal structure of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Times have arguably never been better for minority nationalism. The hollowing out of the nation-state has provided spaces for minority nations to assert their identities and seek wider forms of self-rule. Their position is strengthened by the increased salience of development strategies at the regional scale that draw on the cooperation and coordination of economic actors. In this context, minority nationalism can help foster regional economic success by providing increased cohesion and cross-class collaboration. In return, regional economic success promises to strengthen the nation by providing resources to smooth over class divisions. This article lays out this argument, but raises a number of political and economic contradictions that threaten to interfere both with the construction of regional strategies, and with their ability to paper over class divisions within the nation. It concludes with a brief discussion of the Québec case to show how the promise of a mutually reinforcing relationship between minority nationalism and regional strategies runs up against a series of contradictions in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the political economy of regionalisation in Greater China which includes China, Macao, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Characteristics of regionalisation; Comparison between regionalisation and regionalism; Trade patterns among the countries; Link between microregion and globalisation; Advantages of regional integration.

Discusses the regionalism and regionalisation in China. Definition of regionalism; Patterns of microregional integration in the country; Overview of multilateralism in East Asia and its relation to China.

Focuses on the potential role of South Korea as regional economic power. Examination on the opportunities and difficulties in the expanding regional economic agenda in Northeast Asia; Regional economic activities of the country; Discussion on the roles suitable for the country and its Implications for the future relations with the United States.

Examines the role of South Korea in East Asian economic cooperation. Discussion on the trajectory of East Asia regionalism; Information on the initiatives by South Korea in East Asian regional cooperation as demonstrated in Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus 3 process; Bid of South Korea for regional hub manifested in the Northeast Asian Economic Hub Strategy; Implication of South Korea's regional economic hub strategy for the country's relationship with the United States.

Self-Organised Criticality (SOC) is a concept developed over the last decade from dynamic systems analysis that aims to investigate the transition trajectories of evolutionary systems. The main emphasis in SOC is on the analysis of the impact of slow exogenous forces in combination with strong localised interactions between single elements or components of the systems concerned, with particular regard to the attainment of a critical state at the macro-level. Against this background, SOC serves to identify the critical conditions from the internal dynamics of the systems that lead to major and significant transformations of their behaviour. The present paper aims to offer insights and reflections originating from the SOC concept, as well as to explore its potential contribution to understanding the evolution of regional economic patterns, in particular the functioning of regional labour markets. In our study, the evolutionary dynamics of employment at a district level in West Germany as well as in the combined West and East German setting will be investigated, in order to detect the possible existence of a power law distribution of growth rates, which may be seen as an indication for SOC at the macro-economic level. In this context, SOC may help to explain the presence of large socio-economic regional fluctuations in a country, and, in general, the dynamics inherent to regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on the creation of an integrated European political entity arising from the achievements of the European nation state beyond its national boundaries. The most powerful driving force behind integration right up to Helmut Kohl's generation was the desire to put an end to the history of bloody wars in Europe. Another reason was to bind Germany firmly to Europe in order to mitigate the great historic distrust towards the politically insecure nation at the heart of Europe which was soon restored to economic health. The third consideration was an interest in the economic unification of Europe.

Discusses the political economy of economic regionalism in Northeast Asia. Definition of regionalism; Process of economic integration; Evidences of regionalism; Qualitative nature of the economic relationships among newly industrializing economies in the region; Significance of foreign direct investments in the process; Factors that promote regionalism.