Labour market competitiveness and foreign direct investment: The case of Malaysia,Thailand and the Philippines

This article investigates whether labour market competitiveness affects the inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the ASEAN economies Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. The analysis is based on a regression model using time series data on FDI, wages, the labour force, skills, R&D expenditure, the interest rate and several variables critical for economic development. The study shows that the labour market determinants differ between countries in terms of their role in FDI inflows. Thus analysis results suggest that, with regard to labour market competitiveness, different countries may require different policy recommendations in order to attract FDI inflows into their countries.Received: 2 October 2002, Accepted: 24 May 2003, JEL Classification: J240, J310, R230     

From the Subprime to the Exotic: Excessive Mortgage Market Risk and Foreclosures

Problem: The recent rapid growth of high-risk mortgage lending raised the financial risk profile facing not only the American homeowner but entire neighborhoods. From the perspective of planners, the problem of increased and geographically concentrated foreclosures is the most critical outcome that has resulted from high-risk mortgage markets.

Purpose: This article analyzes recent trends in mortgage finance in order to recommend what local planners can do to reduce the negative consequences of high-risk home lending for their own communities.

Methods: I plot public and private data, much of it readily available for little or no cost, to discover where in the nation recent mortgage foreclosures are concentrated, and describe how similar analysis could be used prospectively and at a local scale to anticipate future problems.

Results and conclusions: Numbers of subprime, exotic, and zero-down-payment mortgages have all been growing. Where they are spatially concentrated they are linked to rising and geographically concentrated home mortgage foreclosures. I find evidence that subprime lenders achieve greater market penetration in metropolitan areas with less educated residents, and that higher-risk lending is more prevalent where housing prices are high and increasing. I also find that when local housing markets are hot, even high levels of subprime lending are associated with only slightly higher foreclosure filing rates, but foreclosure rates rise quickly when hot markets cool.

Takeaway for practice: Although foreclosures are less likely to be a severe problem in very strong real estate markets, when prices in previously hot markets stagnate or decline, foreclosures can quickly follow. This is a serious concern given recent trends in mortgage financing that have extended credit to more economically vulnerable populations and generally weakening housing markets in many metropolitan areas. These foreclosures tend also to be spatially concentrated within metropolitan areas, particularly stressing housing markets in neighborhoods where the higher-risk products are more prevalent. I recommend that planners: (1) track local lending and foreclosure patterns; (2) promote healthier mortgage markets in vulnerable areas; (3) fund targeted foreclosure prevention and counseling; (4) develop refinancing/restructuring programs; (5) redesign programs to promote sustainable homeownership; (6) get foreclosed properties reoccupied quickly; (7) recognize the effect of foreclosure surges on rental housing markets; and (8) be proactive in policy debates on lending regulation and foreclosure processes.

Research support: None.     

Economic Fundamentals,Subprime Lending and Housing Prices: Evidence from MSA-level Panel Data

This study finds that employment, real construction cost and the real user cost of housing have a significant impact on real housing price over the 1990:Q2–2009:Q1 period for a panel of 20 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the US. Over the 2003–2005 period when subprime lending soared, all 20 MSAs experienced a rapid appreciation in real price. Nine MSAs with higher subprime lending relative to the rest experienced a larger appreciation and four of these nine MSAs with high prevalence of second home purchases experienced the highest appreciation rates. The findings are important to policy makers because they point out the importance of underlying economic factors in determining home prices. In general, policy makers at the local level should caution against a sudden surge in the price of homes that is not sustained by economic fundamentals, especially since the magnitude and effect of such shocks can vary considerably across MSAs.     

单、双层玻璃幕墙对高层办公楼空调负荷及造价的影响分析一例

通过对深业中心的比较分析，指出在深圳等冬季不需供暖的地方，高层办公楼的玻璃幕墙采用单层比双层合算，而且采用镀膜热反射玻璃等手段亦可实现空调节能。     

Public mortgage guarantee: instrument to cope with impacts of the financial crisis on the owner-occupied housing market evidence from the Netherlands

The global credit crunch had a deep impact on the mortgage markets in Europe, including the Netherlands. When the credit crunch transformed into a debt crisis, this impact deepened. The impact of the credit crunch and the debt crisis (together: the global financial crisis) on the Dutch housing market is described here. The Dutch government started to react with a stimulating policy but since 2010 austerity measures have become dominant. The National Mortgage Guarantee (NHG) has been applied as an instrument to shelter home-owners against the hardship of the financial crisis. In this paper the role of National Mortgage Guarantee in the Netherlands is analysed. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of this guarantee as an instrument to cope with the impact of the financial crisis on the national owner-occupied housing market. The performance of NHG in 2010 is elaborated. The conclusion is that NHG has made the Dutch owner-occupied housing sector more resilient during the financial crisis.     

Simultaneous Territories: Unveiling the Geographies of Latin American Cities

The harmonious, utopian image that housing in Latin America exuded across the world in the postwar years is very much at odds with the current view of the region, in which unbridled shantytowns dominate. Patricio del Real sets out to understand how such a rupture might have been possible: What was the process of exclusion at play in these Modernist projects? How does Modernism represent simultaneous territories in which emerging challenges to the social and political status quo were merely muffled by the architectural seduction of the 1950s?. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling natural capital: The case of landscape restoration on the South Downs, England

Habitat suitability modelling has shown itself to be an important decision support tool for those concerned with the problem of where to target habitat and landscape restoration efforts. However, present approaches generally focus upon the biophysical characteristics of habitats and sites, and tend to ignore the social values associated with landscapes and habitat features. As a result current approaches only partially resolve the problems we face when dealing with a multifunctional landscape. In this paper, we examine how these limitations of current approaches may be overcome.The paper shows that present approaches to suitability modelling can be broadened by linking them to ideas about natural capital and landscape function. The approach is illustrated by means of a case study from the South Downs of England. It is suggested that by using the approach to model the spatial aspects of the natural capital associated with a given landscape, we may provide the user community with a framework that more fully addresses management issues that arise in the context of a sustainable, multifunctional landscape. In the case of the South Downs we show that restoration strategies that seek to take account of the multiple functions of downland differ from those which focus exclusively on enhancing or restoring the biodiversity of these areas.     

Immigration and urban housing market dynamics: the case of Haifa

This paper addresses the interplay between demographics and housing market dynamics in Haifa, Israel. In the 1990s the city of Haifa, with a population of approximately 220,000, absorbed about 45,000 immigrants. The case of Haifa offers a typical non-controlled experiment on how demographic shocks and associated changes in housing demand affect the housing market. The dynamic adjustment of house prices is estimated using an autoregressive, distributed lag ADL model, taking into account spatial spillover effects. The data analyzed cover housing transactions in Haifa between January 1989 and June 1999. The data come from a mortgage database. We used a house price index by tract and by year to investigate the impact of immigration on house price dynamics for a balanced panel of 34 tracts and 11 years. Tests showed that for some of the tracts house price series are not unit root. Most individual series though indicated that a unit root could not be rejected so that we considered house price series as being non-stationary. Also, the hypothesis of no co-integration could not be rejected by the data. Due to inertia we considered lagged spatial spillover effects for the dependent variable. We applied the corrected least squares dummy variable estimator to estimate the parameters of interest. The estimates of the coefficient of the lagged dependent variable suggest stability of the ADL structure. Furthermore, the results indicate a house price correction of almost 70% of the gap between house prices and its fundamental determinants each year. Our results suggest a substantially faster response after the demand shock in Haifa than obtained by others for other cities and regions in the literature. Yet our estimates seem not unreasonable given the large-scale land conversion and urban construction programs in Israel and underline the importance of a responsive supply to dampen house price rises after an unanticipated demographic shock.     

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.     

Residential land attractiveness in an emerging property market: The case of Krasnoyarsk,Russia

The paper discusses the indicators and techniques which can be used in residential land assessment during the transition from a planned to a market economy when a land market is being formed. An analysis of housing market transactions, sociological polls, and an expert study were independently used to grade spatial differences in the residential land attractiveness in the city of Krasnoyarsk in Russia. The research shows that expert evaluations do not truthfully represent the attractiveness of urban environmental qualities in the eyes of potential investors. It is also argued that under certain conditions, sociological polls of the urban population give a better approximation of the prospective residential land market value than administrative and expert assessments. Boris A. Portnov is a researcher at the Center for Desert Architecture and Urban Planning at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede-Boker Campus, 84990, Israel. He has his Ph.D. in the field of Urban and Regional Planning. In 1982–87 he was working in Ukraine as a town-planner and as the Head of Town-Building Department of the Ukraine State Project and Design Institute. From 1987 to 1995 he occupied different teaching positions at Krasnoyarsk Civil Engineering Institute of Russia (1987–1990-senior teacher; 1990–1995-professor of the Town-Building Department at the School of Architecture). he is a member of Russia's Architect Professional Union, and an author of two books and more than 70 articles. The field of his activity is urban-planning and rational use of urban lands. Vladimir P. Maslovskiy is an economist, and an Associate Professor of the Department of Economics at the Krasnoyarsk Civil Engineering Institute of Russia. He has a Ph.D. in Applied Economics. He is an author of 30 articles. In 1994 he received a grant from the World Bank for three months studying in Washington D.C. in the framework of the Project-Manager Program.     

Measuring a dominant firm's market power in a restructured electricity market, a case study of Colorado

There is no guarantee that electric restructuring will bring the expected price benefits in a state with a dominant firm and significant transmission consraints. Reducing the dominant firm's market share is done most easily if the company voluntarily agrees to divest a portion of its generation in return for favorable regulatory treatment. If a voluntary agreement between the state and the firm cannot be reached, reducing the dominant firm's market share is much more difficult.     

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

The author comments on an article by Renas and Kumar in which they argue that including money income variables in a regression used to explain migration behavior represents a misspecification when separate cost of living variables are not included as well. A reply by Renas and Kumar in which they present additional evidence based on U.S. data is also included.     

新化县发展改革新形势下对规划新要求的研究

阐述了新形势下对县城改革规划的具体要求,分析了新化县改革规划工作中存在的问题,从旅游、矿产资源、经济发展等方面入手,提出了详细的改革策略,并着重探讨了新化县改革规划的主要思路,以促进县城的经济发展。     

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

The author presents an additional contribution to the ongoing debate surrounding an article originally published by Stephen M. Renas and Rishi Kumar. In the original article it was argued that including money income variables in a regression used to explain migration behavior represents a misspecification when separate cost of living variables are not included as well. In the present comment, particular attention is given to an earlier comment by Richard J. Cebula. Replies by Cebula and by Renas and Kumar are also included (pp. 97-100).     

我国城建投融资体制变革与城市规划的应对思考

我国正处在广泛而深刻的社会经济转型过程中。土地使用权市场化及城建投融资体制变革,从源头上释放了城市用地和城建资金两大要素的能量,激发了城市建设热潮,加速了城市发展进程;然而也引发了许多新问题。城市规划既要抓住机遇、改革创新,促进城市健康快速发展;又要理性应对、科学决策,保证公共资源的合理配置。     

马恩拉瓦莱新城城市设计案例分析

通过对马恩拉瓦莱新城的前期城市规划手段和现状城市设计状态的介绍,展现出现代城市设计中一种应对超大城市发展的基于区域整体的郊区发展策略,表现出了注重区域空间发展的整体性的强大优势.