Regional economic convergence: Do policy instruments make a difference?

The relationship between public capital, regional output and private sector productivity has been an issue of considerable interest in the regional development literature. There have however been few studies that develop linkages between these issues and the broader literature on economic convergence. This paper presents an innovative methodology to examine the process of regional economic convergence across U.S. states. We examine the effects of economic variables such as human and public capital in the convergence process, and control for business cycle and region specific effects in the analysis. Further, specification problems arising from spatial dependence are also addressed. Results from the empirical analysis show that the speed of convergence is influenced by region specific characteristics and the availability of trained labor in neighboring regions. Received: November 1998/Accepted: March 2000     

Use of information and communication technologies by small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in building construction

Scholars usually agree that small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) active in construction are not very innovative when compared with large‐size construction enterprises. This is particularly evident in the case of adoption and diffusion of innovation associated with information and communication technologies (ICTs). Although ICTs are powerful instruments for the rapid and broader diffusion of technical knowledge, few SMEs are fully able to exploit their benefits. There is little evidence of how SMEs perceive ICTs and of the extent to which these technologies are actually used in the construction industry. There is a relationship between organizational size and the use of ICTs within the SMEs in the building construction sector in Turkey. A set of ICT variables comprising the perception, investment, usage and the software preferences of SMEs were analysed by making use of the data collected in a survey of a randomly selected sample of 227 building construction firms in Turkey. In contrast to the common approaches that consider SMEs as part of a homogeneous set of firms with similar characteristics, this study seeks the differences in ICT‐related attitudes between SMEs of different sizes. Rather than using arbitrarily pre‐defined intervals to classify firms by size, cluster analysis was used in this study. Although what emerges as a whole is the common under‐utilization of ICTs by SMEs in building construction, ‘organizational size’ appears to explain some of the ICT‐related attitude differences within these SMEs. Policy makers can consider using the findings of this study as inputs in their activities, as these findings represent a generic overview of the diffusion of new technologies and can assist in identifying future research directions.     

Co-production and collaboration in planning – The difference

Processes of state-society engagement around urban development issues, termed co-production, have been documented in both the Public Administration and Development Studies fields, but until recently have not attracted much attention in planning. Yet, particularly more recent approaches and cases of co-production from global South contexts do offer the possibility of adding to planning debates in this area, by expanding the context which shapes planning ideas beyond the global North, and perhaps shifting planning theory in the direction of becoming truly international. The paper identifies the important differences which underlie various strands of thinking about co-production, and also between these and planning assumptions in the area of collaborative and communicative planning.     

Do birds of a feather flock together?: Economic linkage and geographic proximity

Spatial association patterns of manufacturing activities are examined in this paper with the corresponding economic linkage patterns. Four specifications are used to measure the spatial association pattern: intraindustry/intracounty (locational Gini), intraindustry/intercounty (Morans I), interindustry/ intracounty (correlation coefficient) and interindustry/intercounty (spatial correlation coefficient). Two sets of spatial specification were used for the different locational context: unconstrained (full dataset) and constrained (dataset without zeros). The result on the 3,110 US counties for 361 manufacturing sectors revealed that, in the intraindustry context, there is little proof that stronger economic linkage results in and/or from a more concentrated pattern of the industry. However, interindustry economic linkage reflected and/or was reflected from the spatial distribution pattern in a significantly positive way. There was a pattern in the intraindustry model that the industry that showed clustering at a county scale had relatively weaker spatial concentration at a multi-county scale and vice versa. Results of the unconstrained and constrained specification of the data revealed important differences, implying that special care should be taken in the spatial specification to be used and how the results are to be interpreted. However, the relationship between economic linkage and spatial proximity did not substantially change between two cases except Morans I that had conflicting signs.This is the revised version of a finalist paper om tje 16th Annual Competition of the Charles M. Tiebout Prize in Regional Science, 2002. The author is indebted to Luc Anselin for his comments on an earlier draft and to Geoffrey J.D. Hewings for his comprehensive comments and suggestions.     

Environmental information and technology: Is it all too much?

The quantity of environmental data will explode in the next century. New tools are being developed and new research areas emerging. An examination of research papers from the last 20 years indicates some specific trends for landscape managers. In a difficult future we will need not only better information but better ways in which to use it fruitfully.     

The impact of a challenging work environment: Do job stressors benefit citizenship behavior of project managers?

Construction project managers are subjected to high levels of job stressors, while extra-role behavior (e.g., citizenship behavior) is simultaneously required of them. We propose the intervening processes of work-related psychological well-being in the path from job stressors to project citizenship behavior and investigate the moderating effect of leader-member exchange on the link between job stressors and well-being (i.e., work engagement and psychological strain). Consistent and competing hypotheses are proposed by integrating the challenge-hindrance stressor framework and the job demands-resources theory. The conceptual model was examined with time-lagged data collected from 236 construction project managers of owners and contractors. Results confirm that hindrance stressors are “bad” stressors because they positively influence psychological strain, whereas challenge stressors are not “good” stressors as expected because they negatively influence work engagement. Further, both challenge and hindrance stressors have a negative indirect relationship with project citizenship behavior via work engagement and psychological strain, highlighting the value of considering project managers’ well-being. Contrary to expectations, the moderating effect of leader-member exchange is not supported. These findings contribute to the research on occupational stressors and project citizenship behavior, as well as the link between them.     

The Formal and Informal Worlds of State and Civil Society: What Do They Offer to the Urban Poor?

In recent years, a positive developmental role has been increasingly expected of civil society organizations. Focusing on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and grass-roots organizations (GROs), the extent to which these organizations exist, adopt pro-poor strategies and have a positive influence in governmental processes in nine cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America is analysed. The findings demonstrate that a number of issues identified from the wider literature about the internal governance arrangements of NGOs and GROs, their commitment and ability to represent and address the needs of the poor, and their relationships with wider political and administrative processes are also a matter for concern at city level. While there are some successful development NGOs, many only operate on a small scale and many do not empower poor people and their organizations. Formal interactions between government and civil society organizations are apparently becoming more common, but informal exchanges between GROs, politicians and officials continue, and may in some circumstances be more productive in terms of delivering practical benefits to poor areas. However, such clientelist relations reinforce undemocratic leadership at community level and perpetuate differential treatment of low-income settlements.     

The social profitability of rural roads in a small open economy: Do urban agglomeration economies matter?

The effects of a rural roads programme depend on labour mobility, how the programme is financed, and agglomeration economies. If financed by a rural poll tax and cross-price effects and agglomeration economies are sufficiently small, the wage will rise, with some return migration. Taxes on trade act as countervailing distortions, yielding urban households some relief. Rural-urban commuting promotes the exploitation of agglomeration economies; taxes on international trade are then inferior to a poll tax. The change in the value, at producer prices, of the rural sector's net supply vector can be a poor measure of the programme's social profitability.     

Sustainable green electricity,technological innovation,and ecological footprint: Does democratic accountability moderate the nexus?

Electricity generated through fossil fuels degrades the environment. Hence, the promotion of green electricity should be the foundation for sustainable development. In this context, the present work probes the impact of green electricity consumption (GEC), technological innovation (TEI), democracy (DEM), and economic growth (GR) on the ecological footprint (EF) and assesses the moderating effects of democracy on EF from 1995 to 2018 in six ASEAN nations. The empirical results show that renewable electricity, TEI, and DEM promote ecological quality. Interestingly, democracy not only alleviates the level of EF but also reinforces the favorable impacts of technological innovation on environmental quality.     

After China: The World? Three Perspectives on a Critical Question

Are China’s cities now poised for global influence? This challenging question initiates a tripartite response from three authors: Kyong Park , Laurence Liauw and Doreen Heng Liu . In order to fully speculate on the potential of Chinese urbanism and architecture beyond its own borders: Park looks at whether China is a fully replicable capitalist model; Liauw outlines recent indicators of urban Sinofication around the world, whether it is the exporting of high-end designer furniture to the West or the injection of Chinese capital into Africa; and Heng Liu examines the dissemination of the Pearl River Delta both as an idea - first proliferated by Rem Koolhaas in the mid-1990s - and in its physical manifestations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The difference of ‘being diverse’: City branding and multiculturalism in the ‘Leicester Model’

This city profile on Leicester focuses on the representation of ethnical diversity in city branding. Through a historical approach, the paper discusses how the local authorities have taken advantage of the arrival of different migration flows into the city, in order to redefine its post-industrial identity in terms of multiculturalism, tolerance and inclusivity. In so doing, the paper emphasises the combination of deliberate marketing communicative activities, the provision of services for attracting and retaining foreign businesses and the creation of an open urban milieu where various ethnic groups are free to express and celebrate their own cultures through festivals and events. The paper identifies the alignment between place communication and place ‘offerings’ development as the crucial element underpinning Leicester's model for multicultural cooperation and critically assesses the recent challenges that are being posed to the sustainment of a multicultural city image.     

The low TN:TP ratio,a cause or a result of Microcystis blooms?

An enclosure experiment in the shallow, subtropical Lake Donghu, China, was performed in the summer of 2001 to examine the effect of TN:TP (total phosphorus) ratios and P-reduction on the occurrence of Microcysitis blooms. The treatments were performed with enough amounts of N but with different amounts of P in the water column and sediment. Microcystis blooms occurred in the enclosures either with an initial TN:TP <29 or TN:TP>29 where the nutrients (N, P) were high enough. Microcysitis blooms never occurred in the treatments with low P concentration in spite of the presence of sufficient N. The P-rich sediments served as an important source for the P supply in the water column, and such a process was activated greatly by the outburst of Microcystis blooms which pumped up selectively P from the sediments and thus decreased the TN:TP ratios. Therefore, the low TN:TP ratio is not a cause but rather a result of Microcystis blooms.     

Do states optimize? Public capital and economic growth

This paper develops a non-linear theoretical relationship between public capital and economic growth in order to obtain estimates of the growth-maximizing ratio of public capital to private capital. The model is empirically implemented using data on the 48 contiguous U.S. states over the period 1970 to 1990. The empirical results provide evidence that (i) the relationship between public capital and economic growth is non-linear, (ii) the growth-maximizing public capital stock is approximately 60% to 80% as large as the private (tangible) capital stock, and (iii) permanent changes in public capital are associated with permanent changes in economic growth. Received: October 1998 / Accepted: June 1999     

Collaboration networks within a French cluster: Do partners really interact with each other?

We discuss the common hypothesis of complete graph representation according to which, in collaborative projects, all partners interact with each other in homogeneous ways. More precisely, this research aims to determine the heterogeneity in terms of existence and frequency of interactions between dyads of organizations that jointly participated in collaborative projects. From a survey of participants involved in innovation projects approved by a French cluster, we collect information about 754 collaboration ties. Using an ordered probit with selection equation, we then test the impact of several determinants, including geographical proximity, on the existence and frequency of the observed interactions.     

Ownership structure and innovation: is there a real link?

This study examines the relationship between the ownership and control structures of a company and its innovative activity. It seeks to analyse the effect of the internal features of a company’s ownership structure on decisions to initiate research and development activities and on the actual output of this innovative process. Specifically, we examine company ownership, the distribution of decision-making powers, the nature of these powers and the extent to which ownership is concentrated, among others. The analysis is performed on a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing industries for the year 2001. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that internal factors are significant for the undertaking of R&D activities. In particular, we report that a high degree of ownership concentration and the use of debt financing serve to dissuade a firm from incurring R&D expenditure and do not favour R&D output.

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The politics of resilient cities: whose resilience and whose city?

It is vital to acknowledge the socio-political complexity of the deployment of the term ‘resilience’ and to develop a more unified set of expectations for the professions and disciplines that use it. Applied to cities, resilience is particularly problematic, yet also retains promise. Like resilience, the term ‘city’ is also subject to multiple contending definitions, depending on the scale and on whether the focus is on physical spaces or social communities. Due to cities and city-regions being organized in ways that both produce and reflect underlying socio-economic disparities, some parts are much more resilient than others and therefore vulnerability is often linked to both topography and income. Uneven resilience threatens the ability of cities as a whole to function economically, socially and politically. Resilience can only remain useful as a concept and as progressive practice if it is explicitly associated with the need to improve the life prospects of disadvantaged groups. This dimension is often lost in definitions of resilience drawn from engineering and ecology, but remains central to conceptualizations linked to social psychology. To improve the prospects of cities proactively (and reactively), there is a need to unify the insights from the multiple professions and disciplines that use ‘resilience’.