Identification of strategic industries: A dynamic perspective

Reliable estimates of the economy-wide losses associated with industry closings are generally hard to obtain. In the input-output literature, numerous measures of the social value of industries have been proposed. These measures are mostly based on comparative statics results, whereas the recent upsurge of growth theories suggests a dynamic perspective. In this article hypothetical extraction methods are used in a new dynamic input-output growth model. The model also stresses the importance of technological linkages between industries and of international trade performance. The potential power of the dynamic extraction methodology is illustrated by simulation results for a hypothetical economy.Received: 5 March 2002, Accepted: 28 April 2004, JEL Classification: C67, O11, O21, O33, O41This article originates from the TEG research project jointly carried out by researchers at the universities of Eindhoven, Groningen and Maastricht. Earlier versions were presented at the 41st European Regional Science Association Congress (Zagreb, August 2001), the 14th International Conference on Input-Output Techniques (Montreal, October 2002) and at seminars at the Universities of Utrecht, Eindhoven and Oviedo. I would like to thank Erik Dietzenbacher, Koen Frenken, Kresimir Jurlin, Alessandro Nuvolari, Marcel Timmer, Frank van Oort, Bart Verspagen, and three anonymous referees for their useful comments and suggestions. The Dutch Organization for Scientific Research NWO is gratefully acknowledged for financial support.     

The evolution of the U.S. industrial landscape, 1969–1995

The industrial landscape of the U.S. has undergone major changes in the last three decades, which have affected the location of the work-force as much as sector location. This paper adopts a dynamic approach in order to analyse the principal characteristics of this process in the time-period 1969–1995 among the twenty two-digit SIC industries. Two main conclusions have emerged. First, we find that, in general, industries are tending to reduce their degree of concentration. Secondly, the classification of industries according to different economic criteria allows us to test the degree of compliance with various theoretical propositions and to detect relevant empirical regularities. Received: July 2001/Accepted: August 2002 The authors would like to express their thanks to two anonymous referees for their valuable comments and observations on an earlier version of this work. Similarly, they are grateful for the financial support provided by the University of Zaragoza under Project UZ2001-SOC-09.     

Assessment of corrective measures for alleviating slope instabilities in carbonatic Flysch formations: Alicante (SE of Spain) case study

As is well known, in order to select remediation measures to correct or prevent slope instabilities, it is essential to identify and characterize the instability mechanisms. This task is especially complex for heterogeneous rock masses such as Flysch formations. This paper addresses the assessment of corrective measures used in carbonate Flysch formations by classifying and grouping field data reported in an available database in order to associate this data with various instability mechanisms and stratigraphic column types as well as with the corrective measures taken to stabilise them. For this purpose, 194 slopes have been geomechanically characterized, mainly by considering the observed instability mechanisms. The corrective measures that were applied have been evaluated for their suitability and performance, and, if applicable, the causes of their malfunction have been also studied. As a result, some guidelines based on the observed behaviour and the suitability of the correction measure as a function of instability type are proposed for similar slopes.     

Public capital, regional productivity and spatial spillovers

This paper examines the impact of infrastructure on productivity in the various regions of Spain. Using the duality approach and panel data, we estimate regional cost functions for the three main sectors of the economy for the period 1964–1991. Public capital is included as an unpaid factor of production, and two separate variables are used to establish whether the different categories of public capital have varying effects on costs. Results show that public infrastructure noticeably reduces private costs and increases overall productivity. We also estimate a production function with regional and time fixed effects. Finally, we include a study of spillover effects in transport infrastructure. Estimations suggest that such effects are of some relevance, a fact which may have serious implications for public policy on infrastructure. Received: January 2002 / Accepted: November 2004 All authors are members of the Academic Robotics Group. In listing The Academic Robotics Group, the authors are endeavoring to place each of the participant institutions on an equal footing in terms of effort and authorship. M. A. Talamini is serving as presenter.     

Determinants of international tourist choices in Italian provinces: A joint demand–supply approach with spatial effects

Only recently is research merging demand and supply approaches in explaining tourist market equilibria. This paper innovates in three ways. One: we jointly consider demand and supply explanatory variables and spillover effects originating from contiguous areas by designing a unilateral gravity model augmented with spatial effects (spatial Durbin model). Two: we raise the economic profile by prioritizing an expenditure variable over flow variables (arrivals, overnight stays, length of stay) and taking into account travel costs (via the origin–destination distance). Three: we differentiate spatial contexts by focusing on international tourist origins and on local (NUTS3) destinations. Results confirm previous literature only in part.     

Devolving Housing Policy and Practice in Northern Ireland 1998-2002

This paper reviews the effect of devolution on housing policy and practice in Northern Ireland. It outlines the history and context of devolution and housing policy in Northern Ireland, including the legacy and persistence of intense social conflict. Current devolution arrangements are reviewed, including the implications of enforced coalition for policy governance. The paper focuses on three dimensions of housing and housing-related policy development and implementation: social housing, especially the distinctive history and changing organisation of social housing provision; policies affecting the housing market, including the changing regime for spatial planning; and, regeneration and tenant participation. The paper argues that housing policy has tended to converge with policies in England, rather than moving towards a distinctively local agenda. Local political agendas remain dominated by disagreements over constitutional status thus policy formulation is determined more by officials than by elected politicians.     

Do high levels of home-ownership create unemployment? Introducing the missing link between housing tenure and unemployment

A large number of studies have demonstrated that the proportion of home-owners in a region tend to be positively associated with the unemployment levels in that region. In this paper, we introduce a missing piece of explaining this commonly found pattern. By analysing individual-level population register data on Sweden, we jointly examine the effects of micro- and macro-level home-ownership on individuals’ unemployment. The findings indicate that even though home-owners have a lower probability of being unemployed, there is a penalty for both renters and home-owners on unemployment in regions with high home-ownership rates. Differences in mobility patterns cannot explain this pattern. However, when labour market size is considered, the higher probability of unemployment in high home-owning regions is drastically reduced. This suggests that high home-ownership regions tend to coincide with small labour markets, affecting the job matching process negatively.     

防止和减轻超长混凝土结构温度收缩裂缝的设计建议

根据具体工程设计实践和体会 ,注重结构概念设计。简要分析了温度收缩裂缝的基本特点 ,重点介绍了对超长混凝土结构如何有效设置后浇带及其它一些控制和抵抗温度收缩应力的具体设计措施。可供设计人员借鉴参考     

公益性公共建筑节能激励契约设计

公益性公共建筑节能一般由政府和建筑业主共同出资,而业主在节能过程中存在着特殊的行为特征,尤其是因隐藏信息和隐藏行为而导致的逆向选择和道德风险行为。在深入分析公益性公共建筑节能激励机理基础上,运用激励理论,建立了政府和公益性公共建筑业主之间的委托—代理模型,并分别在完全信息和不对称信息下求解了相应的激励契约。研究得出了两种情况下激励契约的一些特征,同时,也为政府建议了一些可能的措施和机制,以达到激励公益性公共建筑节能的目的。     

Selecting independent measures to quantify Melbourne's urban–rural gradient

As cities and towns increase in population and size around the world, there is a growing interest in the impact of urbanisation on humans and the environment. The use of urban–rural gradients has proven to be a useful tool for studying changes in ecological patterns and processes across urbanising landscapes. Currently, there are a wide range of measures being used to represent changes in human demographic patterns, physical structures and landscape composition and structure along urban–rural gradients. The aim of this paper was to identify a suite of measures that can be used to define an urban–rural gradient in Melbourne, Australia. Using principal components analysis, we assessed 17 commonly used measures of urbanisation that included demographic variables, physical variables and landscape metrics. Four measures captured most of the variability in the patterns of urbanisation: (1) Index_combined; (2) the ratio of people per unit urban land cover; (3) landscape shape index; (4) dominant land-cover. We used these four measures to quantify Melbourne's urban–rural gradient and then explored their use in representing urbanisation as an environmental space rather than a geographic space. This study provides an example of how to objectively select a subset of measures to quantify urbanisation, and illustrates a novel way of combining the measures to obtain a richer understanding of ecological responses to urbanisation.     

Selecting independent measures to quantify Melbourne's urban–rural gradient

As cities and towns increase in population and size around the world, there is a growing interest in the impact of urbanisation on humans and the environment. The use of urban–rural gradients has proven to be a useful tool for studying changes in ecological patterns and processes across urbanising landscapes. Currently, there are a wide range of measures being used to represent changes in human demographic patterns, physical structures and landscape composition and structure along urban–rural gradients. The aim of this paper was to identify a suite of measures that can be used to define an urban–rural gradient in Melbourne, Australia. Using principal components analysis, we assessed 17 commonly used measures of urbanisation that included demographic variables, physical variables and landscape metrics. Four measures captured most of the variability in the patterns of urbanisation: (1) Index_combined; (2) the ratio of people per unit urban land cover; (3) landscape shape index; (4) dominant land-cover. We used these four measures to quantify Melbourne's urban–rural gradient and then explored their use in representing urbanisation as an environmental space rather than a geographic space. This study provides an example of how to objectively select a subset of measures to quantify urbanisation, and illustrates a novel way of combining the measures to obtain a richer understanding of ecological responses to urbanisation.     

浅议建成环境的资本流向与上海城市发展

1978年以来中国逐渐摆脱了计划经济的束缚,趋向于更加开放、更加市场化的经济模式,并且以积极的姿态融入世界经济中.中国的转轨经济有着其特殊性:政府的体制内外的财政资本、民间资本和外来资本共同打造了城市的建成环境(the built en-vironmem),在这样的背景下,中国东部沿海城市的形象发生了巨大的变化.文章以上海为例,通过对资本流动、体制内外的财政安排和城市发展之间关系的研究,揭示正是由于中央和上海积极的"促进增长"的制度性安排,使得资本大量流向了上海及其建成环境.     

A note on export openness and regional wage disparity in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper extends the empirical literature on the effects of trade liberalization on regional disparities within a country. Studying the case of the Central and Eastern European countries, we find significant convergence of real wages in Poland and Bulgaria, only. Furthermore, countries with a faster growing export openness in the period 1991–1998 experienced larger increases in their regional disparities. Especially, intermediate goods trade seems to have been a main driving force. Our estimates suggest that the long run impact of rising intermediate goods export openness in the last decade was a 23% increase in the average economys variance of real wages.Received: December 2002/Accepted: January 2004The authors are grateful to two anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions.     

Development of a home energy audit methodology for determining energy and cost efficient measures using an easy-to-use simulation: Test results from single-family houses in Texas,USA

This study developed and tested a home energy audit methodology that can be operated easily and quickly by novices in the field of building physics, mechanical systems, and building energy simulations such as homeowners. The home energy audit methodology was composed of three procedures as follows: an initial simulation procedure that can run the simulation easily, a calibration procedure that calibrates the initial simulation using a year of monthly utility bills, and a procedure to determine energy and cost efficient measures. In the previous study, the procedure for calibrating a residential simulation was developed, and in another study, the procedure was applied to an existing single-family house and energy and cost efficient measures were determined. In the previous studies, the procedures were validated in one case-study, single-family house in Texas, USA. In this paper, the overall procedure for the home energy audit methodology is presented and verified by two additional single-family houses in two different locations in Texas. In a similar fashion as the application to the first house, the most suitable retrofit measures for both of the new houses were determined according to their building and systems conditions, and corresponding cost savings.     

A RESIDENTIAL LAND USE MODEL WITH A GENERAL LANDOWNERSHIP: EXISTENCE AND UNIQUENESS OF EQUILIBRIUM

ABSTRACT This paper is focused on equilibrium in a spatial model with two income groups. In Fujita and Tokunaga (1993), we have proposed a basic model of residential land use, called an α-landownership model, in which a group of city residents was assumed to own the circular area from the CBD to a radius α-However, the assumption of a circular land area was very restrictive Therefore in this paper a general model of residential land use called the S-landownership model is presented. This model assumes that a group of city residents jointly owns a part of the city's land, and it includes both the absentee landownership model and the public landownership model as special eases. The existence and uniqueness of the land use equilibrium for this S-landownership model are demonstrated.     

Optimal time for implementing cordon toll pricing scheme in a monocentric city

This paper proposes an analytical model to address the timing issue of cordon toll pricing in a monocentric city. The proposed model allows an explicit consideration of the interactions among three types of agents in the urban system: (i) the local authority who aims to jointly determine the optimal time for introducing cordon toll pricing scheme, cordon toll location and toll level to maximize social welfare of the urban system; (ii) property developers who seek to determine the intensity of their capital investment in the land market to maximize their own net profit generated from the housing supply; and (iii) households who choose residential locations that maximize their own utility within a budget constraint. The effects of the cordon toll pricing scheme on household's residential location choice and housing market structure in terms of housing price and space are explicitly considered. A comparison of the toll pricing schemes with a fixed and a mobile cordon location over time and the no toll case is carried out. The proposed model is also illustrated in several Chinese cities. Insightful findings are reported on the interactions among cordon toll pricing scheme, urban population size, household income level, toll collection cost, and urban development.     

A lattice covering model for evaluating existing service facilities

This article presents the following location problem: align a regularly spaced grid of new facilities as well as possible with a set of existing centres. The problem has some similarity to a problem in classical central place theory, namely the spatial arrangement of services with a particular range of coverage. The article poses the problem, gives a non-linear formulation, and details solution approaches. A robust heuristic, based on geometric insights, is also devised: if the basis for the new grid is centred on at least one fixed centre, an enumeration of various rotation angles will be effective for finding local minima (and maxima). As a practical application of this problem, a region may wish to supplement an existing system of fixed siren locations with additional facilities in such a way as to fill in, or complete, the partial coverage pattern. An evaluation of the siren system in Dublin, OH, USA, is utilised to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique.Received: 12 August 2002, Accepted: 21 May 2003, JEL Classification: R53A preliminary version of this article was presented at the RSAI Meetings in Charleston, SC, November 2001.We are grateful to John Hodgson and Harvey Miller for their comments.     

'You can use my tights' or: The phenomenon of temporary solutions

A provisional solution is a makeshift designed to fit temporary circumstances. It is the result of the motivation to act in an unforeseen or imperative situation or an emergency and the subsequent decision: this is how we are going to tackle this problem for the time being. Provisional solutions are integral to our professional and private lives and have their use in our homes, at building sites, in urban planning and in space travel. In the following text we will quote a popular film scene and an old fashioned example of vehicle technology to illustrate the main characteristics of provisional solutions. We will then explore these characteristics in depth with the help of three examples from the context of art and urban planning and refer to the current discussions in space-oriented planning. Pointing out the differences between the provisional solution and other interim measures in use, we will also highlight the potential of temporary measures in the planning context: they provide a course of action in uncertain conditions.     

Reconciling and translating migration data collected over time intervals of differing widths

In this paper we describe and contrast the age and spatial structures of migration identified by data collected over one-year and five-year time intervals, by focusing, in particular, on the generation and distribution components of age- and origin-destination-specific migration flows. We explore the contributions of primary, return, and onward migration defined by fixed interval migration data, and we outline a crude translation procedure for transforming the one-year migration flow data into an estimated five-year counterpart. The data used in this study represent several migration periods drawn from recent U.S. and Canadian censuses and surveys. Differences between the structures exhibited by U.S. and Canadian migration patterns, collected over one-year and five-year migration time intervals, are carefully examined and contrasted. Versions of this paper were presented in February, 2002 at the annual meetings of the Western Regional Science Association in Monterey, California and in May, 2002 at the annual meetings of the Population Association of America in Atlanta, Georgia. The authors would like to thank Professor Frans Willekens at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands for his collaboration on earlier work that focused on migration spatial structure, of which this paper is a continuation. Also, our appreciation goes to the three anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. This research is being supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (BCS-9986203).     

Towards a global historical emission inventory for selected PCB congeners--a mass balance approach 3. An update

Previously published estimates of the global production, consumption and atmospheric emissions of 22 individual PCB congeners [Breivik K, Sweetman A, Pacyna JM, Jones KC. Towards a global historical emission inventory for selected PCB congeners - a mass balance approach. 1. Global production and consumption. Sci Total Environ 2002a; 290: 181-198.; Breivik K, Sweetman A, Pacyna JM, Jones KC. Towards a global historical emission inventory for selected PCB congeners--a mass balance approach. 2. Emissions. Sci Total Environ 2002b; 290: 181-198.] have provided useful information for later studies attempting to interpret contaminant levels in remote areas as well as in the global environment. As a result of the need for more contemporary emission data (following the year 2000), an update of this emission database is presented. This exercise takes into account new information on PCB production in Poland, as well as new data on the chemical composition of various technical mixtures for which less information had been available. The methodology to estimate temporal trends of PCB emissions associated with various types of PCB usage is improved. Projected emissions up to year 2100 are presented to facilitate predictions of future environmental exposure. The national emission data for each of the 114 countries considered is spatially resolved on a 1 degrees x1 degrees grid for each congener and year, using population density as a surrogate.