The effect of basic employment and regional factors on net migration: A study for Washington state

Relationships between net migration and basic employment, income, and regional urbanization are examined using 1960–70 census data for the state of Washington. Regression analysis indicates that changes in employment in agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining and in manufacturing have a direct effect on the rate of net migration. Change in median family income is also directly related to net migration but the effect is not as strong as that of employment. Location by region has a substantial impact on net population shifts with net inflows attributable to the urbanization which occurred in western Washington from 1960 to 1970. The employment, income, and regional effects are clarified by explicitly recognizing rapid growth in educational, governmental and retirement activity and recent large increases in basic employment which occurred in two small groups of counties. Overall, the results indicate that while the rate of net migration is responsive to changes in basic employment and family income, it is also important to recognize regional factors such as urbanization.A special note of appreciation is expressed to Mr. Sharif Masud who developed background data used in the analysis. Work was conducted under Regional Project W-118 of the Agricultural Research Center, Washington State University.     

The adjustment of interregional input-output coefficients under heterogeneous price sensitivity

In this paper, an interregional general equilibrium model is presented which combines a linear structure with factor substitution under heterogeneous price sensitivity among industries. The model is an extension of the MRVIO model proposed by Liew and Liew (1984a, b) and is compared with others in the field of interregional computable general equilibrium models. A simple numerical exercise is carried out to assess the impact of alternative hypotheses (about elasticities of substitution) on the model's performance.This paper was developed during a period of research and study spent at the Centre for Regional Science (CERUM) at Umeå University. Financial support from Svenska Institutet (Stockholm) and Ente L. Einaudi (Rome) is gratefully acknowledged.David Batten, Terry Friesz, Geoffrey Hewings, Börje Johansson, Dino Martellato, Komei Sasaki, Lars Westin and an anonymous referee made useful comments on earlier drafts of this work.     

Differentiation of air samples with and without microbial volatile organic compounds by aspiration ion mobility spectrometry and semiconductor sensors

A chemical detector ChemPro100i containing aspiration type ion mobility spectrometry (aspiration IMS), five semiconductor sensors (MOS) and field effect transistor sensor (FET) was used for the detection and monitoring of microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOC). MVOCs were detected from the headspace of glass chambers which contained a specimen of building material in humid conditions. Results regarding particle board as a substrate for mould growth are represented. A specimen kept under sterile conditions was used as a reference. Samples were incubated for 22 days and detector responses as well as air samples introduced into Tenax adsorbent were collected for seven days during the incubation. Air samples were analyzed by thermal desorption gas chromatography mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) for identifying the possible MVOCs. MVOC detection was done by comparing the chromatogram peak intensities between the contaminated and the sterile samples. Detector responses were monitored before and after air sampling and data was analyzed by means of multivariate data analysis (MVDA) using SIMCA-P 10.0 software (Umetrics, Umeå, Sweden). Results showed that when incubation proceeded the different samples could be separated by both aspiration IMS combined with sensors and TD-GC-MS and that the results obtained by both methods also had a visible time trend.     

The effect of income taxes on interstate migration: an analysis by age and race

The topic of interstate migration and the effects of taxes on migration have been extensively studied. Prior research has examined not only many possible determinants of migration but also the migrations of various populations, including the elderly, African-Americans, and the college educated. The present study will attempt to differentiate itself from this prior research by looking at the effect of income taxes on the interstate migration of both whites and African-Americans at various ages. Another distinguishing feature of the present study is that it will use data from the NLSY-Geocode, a data set not used previously for this type of study. Results of the present study are similar to the results of prior works; income taxes have an effect on migration for most races and age groups. Individuals move from states with high income taxes to states with low income taxes; these results corroborate the results obtained from the use of aggregate, state-level data. In addition, results of the present study suggest that non-economic factors, such as ties to a particular state and changes in employment status, are also important factors in an individual’s migration decision.     

The role of emigration and migration in Swedish industrialization

It is possible, within a general equilibrium framework, to reveal some of the important mechansims in the rather complicated interplay among the variables causing demoeconomic development. The model for this study is a computable general equilibrium model within the tradition of multisectoral growth models and is designed to fit Swedish prewar development and to enable counterfactual analysis. The model is reviewed briefly followed by comments on the database, estimation procedure and validation; displays of some comparative static experiments; and an evaluation of the capability of the model in replicating Swedish demoeconomic development between 1871-90 before examining the counterfactual simulations which address the role of external and internal migration in Swedish industrialization. There are at least 2 reasons for carrying out comparative static experiments: by undertaking parameter changes and exploring the equilibrium effect on the model, further insights will be realized concerning the behavior of the model and its validity; and some of the comparative static experiments are interesting from the point of view of policy analysis because they reveal the static, total effect on the economy of changes in some variables discussed by 19th century Swedish politicians. The experiments are organized into 2 groups: rural and population experiments. The base run simulation from 1871-90 indicates that the model captures the essential factors of the demoeconomic development of Sweden. The model's ability to replicate historical trends in some of the crucial variables permits use of the base simulation as a reference point when undertaking counterfactual simulations. The 1st simulation evaluates the effects of emigration on the Swedish economy; the remaining 2 simulations assess the importance of rural to urban migration. The model indicates that without emigration real rural wages would have been 1.8% lower in 1880 and 10.0% lower in 1890. Urban wages would have been unaffected in 1880 but 1.5% higher in 1890. Emigration apparently had a positive effect on the standard of living in the rural areas, but possibly even larger rural to urban migration than occurred in the simulation would have happened in the absence of emigration. Rural to urban migration apparently had a significant growth creating effect. The reallocation of labor force to the more dynamic and high wage urban sector with its modern technology and higher rate of productivity change was of great importance to the economic performance of the national economy. More rural to urban migration has a temporary growth creating effect, but in the long run this effect disappears, because it also decreases the wage gap between rural and urban areas and consequently has a boomerang effect on itself.     

Nuisance zoning,the labor market and capital gain

Setting a two-generation model of current and new residents in a simple linear city, this paper analyzed the effects of nuisance zoning on urban system. In the model, decisive agents of zoning regulation (current residents) behave not only as consumers of land service affected by nuisance externality, but as investors of land for capital gain. We emphasize that this paper analyzed the zoning effect on labor market and thus on the wage level as well as on land market. It is shown that under the optimal zoning to maximize the welfare of current residents, the sum of the value of marginal disutility due to expanded industry-operation district for both current and new residents is just equal to the increased total wage income for new residents.The original version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of Applied Regional Science Conference and at the Urban Economies Workshop of Kyoto University. We thank the participants of both meetings, and the editor and two anonymous referees of this journal for their useful comments. This research was supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), which is gratefully acknowledged.Received: January 2003/Accepted: September 2003     

Evaluating housing policies from an income‐distribution perspective—The case of Sweden

One purpose of this article is to examine under what conditions the impact of housing policies on the distribution of income becomes a major focus of interest. First we review various arguments in favour of tying transfers to specific types of consumption, and outline the historical development of Swedish housing policies in this light. We find that the interest in the impact of housing subsidies on the distribution of income stems from the 1970s when the housing supply became more adequate. We argue that the Swedish housing allowance system is of special interest in connection with income distribution considerations. The system's impact on the income distribution is evaluated here with the help of a microsimulation model. It is shown to be quite efficient in the sense that it consistently benefits households with a low “equivalent” income, i.e. a low income in relation to needs. We also find that the new housing allowance system has a crucial impact on the distributional outcome of the 1991 tax‐benefit reform, a major reform package in Sweden which includes large cuts in housing subsidies.     

Sustainability and migration: experiments from the Senegalese peanut basin

Many experts have concluded that migration and regional diversification are necessary steps to combat soil degradation and income erosion in the Sahel. Through observation and experiments conducted with two Senegalese village Social Accounting Matrices, the socioeconomic and environmental impact of migration and diversification out of agriculture is examined. Economically, it is found that migration can result in substantial increases in village income. These increases are accompanied by a shift in inter-compound income distribution and a shift in intra-compound access to agricultural income. Socially, the cost to the family of increased migration could be high due to the emergence of single parent households. Environmentally, the impact of migration and diversification out of agriculture need not be positive. Stress on the environment might be reduced through curtailing peanut production, but reductions in the agricultural labor force could actually reduce the possibility for labor intensive soil conservation, increase the possibility for millet mono-cropping, and increase the incidence of extensive but sparsely cultivated land because of land-tenure insecurity due to current usufruct laws.The data used for this study was collected as part of a project on land tenure and agricultural productivity in Africa which was funded by USAID and the Land Tenure Center at the University of Wisconsin. I would like to thank these institutions for their support. I would also like to thank Mordechai Shechter, Irma Adelman, Amos Golan, and an anonymous referee for comments and helpful suggestions.     

The cost of living,labor market opportunities,and the migration decision: A case of misspecification?

A large literature has emerged dealing with the economic and non-economic determinants of migration. Among the economic determinants of migration are income levels and rates of change in income in different areas. These variables are designed to measure labor market opportunities both currently and in the future. Invariably, studies which attempt to explain migration utilizenominal measures of income and change in income, notreal measures. Yet assuming that individuals are not subject to money illusion, they would be interested in cost of living information as well as in information regarding nominal income and change in income. This paper examines this issue empirically. We demonstrate that some cost of living variables, when included in a migration equation, enter with the expected sign and are statistically significant. We also demonstrate the failure to include such variables in a regression results in misspecification and bias involving some of the variables in the regression.They wish to thank Professor Mark Fabrycy for helpful suggestions. They also thank their graduate research assistants, Bobbie Sheperd, Alison Zatik and John Breivogel, for data collection and computational assistance. They authors alone are responsible for any remaining shortcomings.     

The environmental Kuznets curve for US counties: A spatial econometric analysis with extensions

We examine the relationship between county per capita income and toxic pollutants using a comprehensive model of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. The model incorporates ethnic diversity, spatial effects and most independent variables used in previous studies. Initial results suggest that the relationship follows an inverted-U-shape. However, incorporation of a cubic term for income reveals that toxic pollution eventually increases again as income continues to rise. Ethnic diversity and spatial effects are found to be important in understanding toxic pollution in US counties. We also detect an EKC-type relationship with respect to income inequality.Received: 25 January 2002, Accepted: 8 March 2003, JEL Classification: R11, Q20The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the US Department of Agriculture under NRI Grant No. 00-5401-9320, as well as the comments of three anonymous reviewers. An earlier version of this article was presented at the North American Regional Science Association meetings in Charleston, SC in November 2001.     

Distribution of regional income and regional funds in Europe 1989–1999: An exploratory spatial data analysis

The efforts of the European Commission to reduce regional inequalities over its territory continue to attract the attention of researchers. The purpose of this paper is to perform an exploratory investigation of the relationship between the spatial distribution of regional income and of regional development funds among 145 European regions over 1989–1999. Using a set of tools of spatial statistics, we first detect the presence of global and local spatial autocorrelation in the distribution of regional per capita incomes, traducing that rich (poor) regions tend to be clustered close to other rich (poor) regions, and in the distribution of regional growth rate and regional funds. Second, the results of LISA statistics conclude to the presence of spatial heterogeneity in the form of two spatial clusters of rich and poor regions over the decade, highlighting the persistence of a significant core-periphery pattern among European regions. Finally, an exploratory analysis reveals a negative correlation between growth and initial income, that tends to indicate -convergence. A positive relationship between regional growth and structural funds is identified among the significant results as well. Only Andalucia, Galicia and Sterea Ellada show atypical linkages. These results suggest that further research should include spatial effects and the distribution of regional funds in the spatial econometric estimation of regional convergence in Europe.Received: March 2003/Accepted: November 2003This paper has been written while I was a Fulbright Visiting-Researcher at the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA). I have benefited from useful comments of the participants of the 49^th Annual North American Meeting of the RSAI and the participants of the 42^nd Annual Meeting of the WRSA. I would like to thank most especially Julie Le Gallo, Phil Rees and two anonymous referees for their valuable suggestions. Financial support from the Région Aquitaine (France) is gratefully acknowledged.     

CFRP加固损伤钢筋混凝土梁的性能试验

为研究碳维纤复合材料(CFRP)加固初始损伤钢筋混凝土梁的性能,进行了17片试验梁的加载试验。结果表明:腐蚀损伤、预加载损伤对CFRP加固试验梁的性能影响不大;同时黏贴纵、横向CFRP加固对试验梁的极限承载力提高效果显著;CFRP的加固作用主要体现在梁开裂以后的工作阶段;有腐蚀和预加载损伤的CFRP加固试验梁的荷载-挠度曲线接近双直线的折线形状;梁的承载试验结果略高于按照中国《碳纤维片材加固修复混凝土结构技术规程》(CECS 146:2003)中抗剪承载力公式计算的结果;出于安全考虑,CFRP加固损伤钢筋混凝土梁抗剪承载力公式可参照该规程,并引入合适的折减系数。     

矿物掺合料抗氯离子扩散性能的试验研究

按照德国Aachen工业大学建筑材料研究所（ibac）采用的氯离子电迁移快速试验方法（RCM）测定混凝土中氯离子非稳定态快速迁移的扩散系数.试验结果表明：氯离子的扩散系数随粉煤灰、硅灰和高炉矿渣的掺量增加而降低,同时氯离子的扩散系数还与掺合料的种类有关,抗氯离子渗透能力依次为SF＞SG＞FA.分析并研究了粉煤灰、硅灰和高炉矿渣对混凝土抗氯离子渗透性能的影响.     

The efficiency of Norwegian road toll companies

This paper analyses the level of efficiency at which road toll companies are operated in Norway. Two alternative methods are applied for this purpose: data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). The data comprise a total of 20 toll companies that have been in operation in the period 2003–2008. The findings of the paper are as follows: 1) There is a great potential for efficiency improvement in the sector, irrespective of the method used, but the variation in the efficiency scores is dependent on the method used; 2) there is no evidence of economies of scale, as has been found by other authors, such as Odeck 2008, How efficient and productive are road toll companies? Evidence from Norway, Transport Policy. 15, 232–241 and, Amdal, E., Bårdsen, G., Johansen K. and Welde M., 2007. Operating costs in Norwegian toll companies: a panel data analysis. Transportation. 34, 681–695. These results suggest that toll companies could generate significant savings by employing industry best practices. Further, decision makers are warned not to be indifferent to the approach used i.e., DEA and SFA, as these may give very different results.     

A vulnerability study of the low-income elderly in the context of high temperature and mortality in Seoul, Korea

INTRODUCTION: We investigated the impact of environmental high temperature on mortality in Seoul, Korea, and the consequences of high temperature-induced mortality with a focus on the low-income elderly. METHODS: Changes in the risk of death by age and income were estimated by a 1 degrees C increase in temperature using a generalized additive model adjusting for non-temperature related factors: time trends, seasonality, and air pollution. The study covered the years of 2000, 2001, and 2002. RESULTS: We found that income and age were potential factors in high-temperature-induced excess mortality. Evidences to support these results are as follows: first, regarding the effect of an economic factor in the association between mortality and high temperature, the study shows that the mortality rate of the low-income group is higher, by as much as 1.3- to 1.7-fold, than that of the general population. Second, taking age into consideration, the mortality of low-income elderly people is 1.5-fold higher than that of the whole low-income group. The combined effect of income and age on mortality is estimated as 2.3-fold higher than that of the general population. But the results of the low-income and elderly group were not statistically significant due to wide standard deviation. CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between high-temperature-induced excess mortality, income, and age suggests the need for a public health message, yet many results were not statistically significant: preventive and health care interventions need to be administered to the elderly and low-income group during periods of high temperature.     

State taxes and economic growth revisited: have distortions changed?

Our focus is on the changing degree to which individuals and firms respond to state tax policy in the United States. If the economic environment of the past two decades has changed such that firms and individuals have greater mobility, the degree to which they act to avoid higher tax jurisdictions may be enhanced. Alternatively, if tax policies across states have converged, the responsiveness of economic activity to tax policy may have diminished. These potential dynamics may be manifest in, among other ways, a change in the degree to which variation in overall state tax burdens affect state economic growth. Results from a series of regressions using a panel of state-level data for the years 1985 through 2003 indicate that the degree to which higher tax burdens reduce economic growth has substantially diminished. For instance, results indicate that the negative effect of a $1,000 increase in state own-source revenues per capita had on the growth rate of private sector gross state product diminished from approximately negative 1.1 percentage-points in 1985 to virtually zero by 2003. This effect holds whether economic growth is measured as the growth rate of private sector gross state product or private sector employment in a state, whether tax collections are measured in inflation-adjusted per capita terms or as a share of state personal income, and whether we examine state taxes exclusively or combined state and local taxes.     

Job search with an external opportunity: an experimental exploration of the Todaro Paradox

In this paper we present an experiment designed to test whether results consistent with the predictions of the Harris–Todaro model of migration can be reproduced in an experimental setting. Data issues in the developing world and with migration data in general limit empirical testing of the model. In such a data environment, laboratory experiments can add insight to the theory. We introduce an external opportunity to a traditional labor market search experiment to see whether it extends search and unemployment in a primary market. Our results generally support the predictions of the model: an external opportunity increases search unemployment in a primary labor market. This research has been supported by the University of Alaska. An earlier draft of this paper was delivered at the experimental economics workshop, Resources, Institutions, and the Owner State, held at the University of Alaska Anchorage, August 2006. The authors are grateful for the comments received at this workshop.     

Selective migration in Swedish distressed neighbourhoods: can area‐based urban policies counteract segregation processes?

Like many other Western European governments, the Swedish government has launched an area‐based urban policy in order to solve the problems of the distressed neighbourhoods in the largest cities. However, in the current policy it is not clear whether the primary aim is to address the problems of individuals, or if the aim is to change the market position of the distressed areas. The intervention might be successful in terms of assisting residents in finding jobs and better education, but that might not improve the general position of the areas targeted, since people who make a socio‐economic career very often move out of the areas, to be replaced by poorer and less well‐established residents. By drawing upon a comprehensive and unique set of data the paper analyses the issues of residential mobility and selective migration, with special focus on distressed neighbourhoods in the Stockholm region. The results clearly indicate that the migration flows of these neighbourhoods are indeed selective. The people who move in are more likely to be unemployed and dependent on social benefits and have on average lower incomes than those who move out and those who remain in the neighbourhoods. This simultaneous outflow of relatively well‐off residents and inflow of weaker and more marginalised groups has the effect of reproducing the distressed character of the neighbourhoods.     

Migration in the urban-rural hierarchy of China: insights from the microdata of the 1987 National Survey

Microdata from the 1987 National Population Survey are used to analyze internal migration in China in the 1980s. The focus is on the impact of migration policies on rural-urban migration. "There are two main findings. First, although the migration policy resulted in a very low migration level and systematic distortions in migration schedules, its encouragement of downward migrations was very ineffective, whereas its control on rural-to-urban migrations was partially weakened by the strong upward aspirations of rural families awakened by recent economic reform. Consequently, net in-migration contributed substantially to the growth both of city and of town populations. Second, although the level of education had a strong positive effect on the migration propensities both of males and of females in general, it had a strong negative effect on the migration propensities of females at the time of marriage, a finding which suggests that the families at subsistence income level tended to marry their daughters to grooms in other communities in order to reduce the risk of familial income shortfalls."     

Regional clustering of human capital: school grades and migration of university graduates

The spatial distribution of human capital plays a fundamental role for regional differences in economic growth and welfare. This paper examines how individual ability indicated by the grade point average (GPA) from comprehensive school affects the probability of migration among young university graduates in Sweden. Using detailed microdata available from the Swedish population register, the study examines two cohorts of individuals who enrol in tertiary education. The results indicate that individual abilities reflected by the GPA are strongly influential when it comes to completing a university degree and for the migration decision after graduation. Moreover, there is a positive relationship between the GPA and the choice of migrating from regions with a relatively low tax base and a relatively small share of highly educated people in the population, while individuals with higher GPA tend to stay at a higher rate in more flourishing regions.