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•Survey of 97 MRT/LRT systems.•Statistical tests of 4 key variables.•Scale economies are present.•Affordability matters.•MRT/LRT networks work best in large and dense cities.•MRT/LRT systems with moderate coverage are less successful.

A sustainable city combines stable long-term economic growth with a resilient ecological system. It is also a region of social sustainability with low levels of spatial segregation of different socio-economic groups. Spatial inclusion primarily involves provision of equalized city-wide access to territorial public goods. High durability of physical networks and buildings facilitates economic, environmental and social sustainability. This study shows that durability varies considerably between Asian, European and North American cities, with mean life expectancies of buildings that range from below 20 years in Chinese cities to over 100 years in European cities such as Paris. Urban planning principles that focus on the slow and steady expansion of accessibility and density within a durable built environment are consistent with general economic equilibria, while avoiding the pitfalls of political planning of the markets for private goods.

The world experienced three major urbanization processes between the eleventh and the twentieth century. All three periods of city growth were associated with revolutionary improvements in the logistical systems. In large parts of the world the third logistical revolution (the Industrial Revolution) has not yet come to an end. In industrializing countries and regions urbanization is thus very rapid. Concurrently, a new and fourth logistical revolution is changing the economic, social and regional structure of the post-industrial parts of the world, leading to the creation of a new Creative Society. A key aspect of this development is the increasing role of creative and innovative city regions with global linkages. These regions now form a new supranational rank-size distribution, which is centred on a few conurbations in Europe, North America and East Asia. Most post-industrial economic development is taking place in a small number of highly ranked creative regions, while other regions are suffering from the “creative destruction” of their traditional industries. One consequence of this restructuring is increasing regional income inequalities in the post-industrial nations.

Unemployment rates differ dramatically across European regions. This article analyses these differences by integrating institutional and spatial perspectives into a unified dynamic framework distinguishing between slow and fast processes of change. The framework forms the basis for an econometric model that is used to analyse labour market differences among European Nomenclature des unites territoriales statistiques 2 regions. The results of random-effects models indicate that four key factors—all of which are of the slowly changing type—explain a large part of the variation in unemployment as well as employment rates. Flexible labour market regulations and above-average levels of interpersonal trust are institutional factors that reduce unemployment. Accessibility factors such as inter-regional transport connectivity and local access to skilled workers have similarly substantial effects. Whether a region belongs to the Eurozone or not seems to be less important.

Surveys of artists' location choices show that they disproportionately reside in large cities. This paper introduces a model that attempts to explain this urban preference. The model includes four factors: access to other artists; access to consumer demand; access to service jobs; and housing affordability. These four factors are combined in a spatial equilibrium model. An equilibrium spatial distribution of artists is derived from the model and is correlated with the actual distribution among Swedish municipalities. Subsequently, the model is used for an econometric estimation of factor effects. The results show that access to other artists and local access to service jobs are important localization factors. Educated labor used as a proxy for consumer demand has a significant effect on artists' location choices.

The three cities of Hong Kong, Taipei and Kaohsiung all feature state-of-the-art transit systems, but transit commuting rates are markedly different, ranging from less than 10 per cent in Kaohsiung to about 90 per cent in Hong Kong. This paper looks at the effect of transit station accessibility on housing prices in these three cities, which are all located on the south-eastern edge of the Greater China region. The key finding is that accessibility impacts stand in an inverse relationship to the size and popularity of the transit system. The results illustrate how intraregional variability in overall transit accessibility declines with increases in the spatial coverage of transit systems. The price premium for housing near transit stations is therefore greatest in Kaohsiung and smallest in Hong Kong, with Taipei exhibiting intermediate levels. Conversely, average land values are highest in Hong Kong and lowest in Kaohsiung.

Taiwan does not only have a high population density; its population exhibits a strong preference for high-density downtown living. Rich Taiwanese thus live downtown, not in the suburbs. In addition, the expected negative relationship between accessibility and the spaciousness of housing is weak or non-existent in Taiwan’s metropolitan areas. Taiwan should therefore be highly suited to rail transportation investments. In 2007, a new high-speed railroad was inaugurated, connecting seven metropolitan areas. Hedonic estimates show that high-speed rail accessibility has a substantial impact on house prices in at least four of the regions. Interregional downtown-to-downtown commuting time seems to be the most important determinant of success in generating a station-centered price-distance gradient. Neighborhoods around HSR stations in suburban locations are not likely to spawn residential communities for commuters, since most Taiwanese prefer downtown residential locations.

In Socialism after Hayek, Theodore Burczak uses Hayekian insights to argue in favor of a socialist society with real markets, but also with wealth redistribution and prohibition of wage labor. In so doing, he offers not only a socialist vision but also asks questions that may challenge Hayekian liberals to reformulate their institutional analyses. A critical assessment that combines Austrian and institutional theories leads to the conclusion that some redistributive policies may enhance the knowledge-disseminating function of markets, but that a market order that is limited to worker-managed firms diminishes the knowledge dissemination properties of the market process.

A new high-speed railway line (HSR) connects seven metropolitan areas in Taiwan. From Tainan, it is possible to reach Kaohsiung, Chiayi and Taichung in less than one hour, implying an enlarged spatial range of feasible commuting opportunities. The implicit price of HSR accessibility is estimated using hedonic price functions for the residential property market. The results of pre-specified and Box-Cox hedonic price functions are compared. The estimated functions show that HSR accessibility has at most a minor effect on house prices. High ticket prices and entrenched residential location patterns prevent otherwise feasible daily commuting opportunities between Tainan and other cities.

A number of valued attributes determine the room rates that hotels charge. These attributes include not only room quality characteristics, but also access to various shared hotel facilities, service quality, and access to amenities beyond the hotel itself. Using a hedonic price function approach, this paper reports estimated implicit prices for hotel room attributes in Singapore. Real transaction prices are regressed against objective attributes and consumer perceptions, as reported by an on-line travel agency. Most objective characteristics are significant in all functional specifications, and consumer perceptions explains much of the variability within a given star-rating (3, 4 or 5) of the hotel.

Long-term economic development is determined by changes to the infrastructure, especially material and non-material infrastructural networks that link agents in different locations. The infrastructure consists of the slowly changing, collective arena that supports production, exchange, and consumption, such as the built environment, transport networks, and institutions. In the short run the infrastructure can be regarded as fixed. Changes to the infrastructure are under normal conditions small enough to be disregarded by producers and consumers. With the creation of a critical link of a network, there will however be a revolutionary restructuring of the arena. Critical links are here defined as additions to infrastructural networks that create opportunities for new information and transport flows between previously unconnected regions. Such a revolutionary restructuring of infrastructural networks has been called a logistical revolution. Certain institutional pre-conditions are necessary for a logistical revolution, while the creation of a critical link is both a necessary and a sufficient condition. This paper discusses the three logistical revolutions that occurred in the 13th century, around 1600, and in the 19th century, which each had crucial similarities with the current “information revolution.”

Kirzner’s theory of entrepreneurship has far-reaching consequences. It explains the coordination of markets and of knowledge. It explains how individual entrepreneurs generate the process of economic development. And it combines Mises’s view of the market as an entrepreneurial process with Hayek’s view of the market as a means of transmitting and coordinating knowledge (Kirzner 2000; Harper 2003). Like other theories concerned with entrepreneurship and economic development processes, Kirzner’s theory is non-spatial. While this may simplify and therefore illuminate the analysis of key mechanisms of the entrepreneurial process, it also obscures some of its inherently spatial outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to extend Kirzner’s theory by explicitly introducing the role of space in entrepreneurial alertness and the coordination of markets. A spatial extension of the theory of entrepreneurship helps explain several of the most common phenomena associated with economic development, such as urbanization, migration, and changes to the profit opportunities that entrepreneurs may or may not notice. To be more specific, I am concerned here with four related spatial implications of the theory. First, there is an unavoidable “spatial positioning” of entrepreneurs that may in itself be the result of entrepreneurial alertness to profit opportunities. As such, it could amount to a discovery of superior locations for “switching on” alertness and discoverable profit opportunities. Second, the entrepreneurial process is a necessary component for constructing a realistic urban and regional economics, which would incorporate (equilibrium) results such as von Thunen’s rentdistance gradient into a more dynamic setting where entrepreneurs create and exploit agglomeration economies. Third, a spatial approach which at the same time draws on Kirzner’s theory and Frank Fetter’s theory of rent should illuminate urbanization and migration processes by relating how profits, rents, and capital values change over time due to changing land use patterns. Fourth, a spatial theory can link location and profits with (spatially delimited) institutions, where missing or underdeveloped market institutions in some

Various approaches to hypothesis testing have been used in the past for the purpose of estimating hedonic price equations. The criteria for testing and rejecting explanatory variables have however rarely been made explicit. This paper argues that the results of earlier studies should be used according to structured and not overly arbitrary criteria for selecting which variables to test as well as for their subsequent acceptance or rejection. An explanatory analysis of Singapore's condominium market is used as an empirical illustration of the decision rule for variable selection proposed in the methodological part of the paper.