Do rent‐seeking and interregional transfers contribute to urban primacy in Sub‐Saharan Africa?*

We develop an economic geography model where mobile skilled workers choose to either work in a production sector or to become part of an unproductive elite. The elite sets income tax rates to maximize its own welfare by extracting rents, thereby influencing the spatial structure of the economy and changing the available range of consumption goods. We show that either unskilled labour mobility, or rent‐seeking behaviour, or both, are likely to favour the occurence of agglomeration and of urban primacy. In equilibrium, the elite may tax the unskilled workers but does not tax the skilled workers, and there are rural‐urban transfers towards the agglomeration. The size of the elite and the magnitude of the tax burden that falls on the unskilled decrease with product differentiation and with the expenditure share for manufacturing goods. All these results are broadly in line with observed patterns of urban primacy and economic development in Sub‐Saharan African countries.     

City planning exhibitions in Germany, 1910–2010

This paper promotes the extraordinary events scheduled to be held in 2010 under the auspices of ‘RUHR 2010 Kulturhauptstadt Europas’ (‘The Ruhr: cultural capital of Europe’). The award of the accolade, ‘capital of culture’, to the Ruhr is unique, as a whole region has never before been honoured in this way. The Ruhr region contains 53 cities and towns, and 2500 events will take place in conjunction with this celebration, collectively named: ‘Wandel durch Kultur – Kultur durch Wandel’ (‘Change through Culture, Culture through Change’). These represent the climax of a series of cultural events held across the region from 2000 in support of efforts to regenerate the Ruhr, and they amount to a celebration of how planning, people and place have been addressed together in a new way. Full information about these events can be found at www.ruhr2010.de/veranstaltungen     

Finite‐Elemente‐Methode für geotechnische Nachweise nach neuer Normung?

Geotechnical design according to new standards by using the finite element method. Geotechnical design is done increasingly by incorporating the finite element method (FEM), supported by growing PC‐power. It is discussed and explained by an example to what extent this method can be used as to verifications according to European and German standards. Safety margins given in the standards are based on certain models and the according experience that cannot be transferred to other approaches. It shows that actions and effects determined by FEM are applicable in verifications according to DIN 1054 and EN1997‐1, approach 2*. Also resistances can be calculated using FEM, but there is not enough experience to date to judge the reliability of such approaches. Therefore resistances should be determined the traditional way. Consequently there is no justification for an alteration of the factors of safety as set in the standards at the present time.     

Institutions vs. ‘first‐nature’ geography: What drives economic growth in Europe's regions?

The debate on whether institutions or geography prevail in driving economic growth has been rife (e.g., Sachs 2003 vs. Rodrik et al. 2004). Most of the empirical analyses delving into this debate have focused on world countries, whose geographical and institutional conditions differ widely. Subnational analyses considering groups of countries with, in principle, more similar institutional and geographical conditions have been limited and tended to highlight that geography is more important than institutions at subnational level. This paper aims to address whether this is the case by investigating how differences in institutional and ‘first‐nature’ geographical conditions have affected economic growth in Europe's regions in the period 1995–2009. In the analysis we use a newly developed dataset including regional quality of government indicators and geographical characteristics and employ two‐stage least squares (2SLS) and instrumental variables‐generalized method of moments (IV‐GMM) estimation techniques with a number of regional historical variables as instruments. Our results indicate that at a regional level in Europe institutions rule. Regional institutional conditions – and, particularly, government effectiveness and the fight against corruption – play an important role in shaping regional economic growth prospects. This does not imply, however, that geography is irrelevant. There is evidence of geographical factors affecting regional growth, although their impact is dwarfed by the overriding influence of institutions.     

Social and housing tenure mix in Paris intra-muros, 1990–2010

This paper sheds light on the relationship between the social and tenure mix in Paris between 1990 and 2010. Using two quantitative methods (cluster analysis and entropy indices) it explores the relationship between the social and tenure mix at the microscale. Although no statistical correlation was found, other relationships were discovered. First, the social mix is a function of the general characteristics of the neighbourhood or district. Second, social upgrading and homogenization began in the 1990s, and the ‘ideal’ social mix was a temporary phase before upper socio-professional groups became overrepresented. The growing availability and diversification of social housing has neither created a greater social mix nor slowed down social upgrading, either in general or for social housing in particular. Finally, the fact that there are different categories of social housing landlords nuances the outcomes of policies.     

2010年上海世博会西班牙馆,上海,2007～2010

继2008年北京举办奥运会之后,中国凭借成功举办史上第一次世博会又一次展现了其崛起大国的风采。世博会向来是各个国家竞相表现和推广自己的舞台。     

University‐industry linkages: What are the determinants of distance in collaborations?*

In the last twenty years, universities' efforts to collaborate with industry and foster knowledge transfer have increased progressively. Many of these efforts have been directed at firms located at a distance from the university, and sometimes in a different country. Based on an original database of interviews with 197 Italian university departments, this paper determines the effects of geographical location, research performance and researcher mobility on the frequency of university‐industry collaborations and on the probability of departments engaging in distant collaborations.     

Agglomeration, (un)‐related variety and new firm survival in China: Do local subsidies matter?

We study empirically the effects of five different dimensions of agglomeration – specialization, diversity, related variety, unrelated variety, and city size – on the survival chances of new entrepreneurial firms in China. Consideration is further given to studying the mediating effects of local subsidies on new firm survival given different existing local industrial structures in those regions. In support of the ‘regional branching’ hypothesis, we find that increasing local related variety has a stronger positive effect on new firm survival than other types of agglomeration. We also find that receiving comparatively fewer subsidies motivates firms to seek out and benefit from local existing economies, which in turn, positively influence their chances of survival. By contrast, agglomerated firms that receive relatively more subsidies tend to be more likely to face financial distress leading to eventual market exit. The findings thus reveal that both the intensity and the location of state support matters in terms of optimizing positive agglomeration effects on firms' post‐entry performance and survival.