Social capital,social economy and economic resilience of Italian provinces

This paper investigates the relationship between the social capital and economic resilience of Italian provinces during the Great Recession. It focuses on social economy organizations' internal and external relational dimensions to proxy forms of bonding and bridging social capital. Through an econometric analysis, I find that indicators depicting the diffusion of volunteering and cooperative employment are positively related to a measure of resilience, confirming the hypothesis that social capital can shape local reactions to crises. I also find a negative relationship between the local resilience and social cooperatives' density, highlighting how the latter indicator does not seize virtuous forms of social capital.     

The impact of training on labour productivity in the European utilities sector: An empirical analysis

This paper investigates the effects of firm training on productivity growth among sustainable utility companies in Europe during the Great Recession (2008–2010). The empirical analysis uses an ad-hoc dataset based on the merge between financial and sustainability reporting. Evidence indicates the existence of positive effects of both training flow and training stock on average labour productivity, showing the crucial role of firm-sponsored human capital development in the utilities sector. Results and implications offer useful insights for a faster recovery of the utilities sector after severe recessions and in presence of major techno-organizational changes through countercyclical training investments.     

BEFORE AND AFTER THE CREATIVE CITY: THE POLITICS OF URBAN CULTURAL POLICY IN AUSTIN,TEXAS

ABSTRACT: This article examines the politics and practice of urban cultural policy in Austin, Texas. I demonstrate how aspects of the local context frame how local government and cultural sector interests strive to initiate the direction of policy. While larger trends—such as Richard Florida's creative city thesis—influence cultural policy and planning, specific contextual factors including prior economic development and growth management policy, departmental organization, the forum for interaction between municipal actors and non‐governmental coalitions, and the character of the city's cultural economy mediate such trends to produce policy outcomes. As this case shows, contemporary urban cultural policy is not simply due to the rise of the creative city discourse, but is an evolving product of past policy structures and shaped by local institutions and actors.     

The Impact of State Regulatory Activity on the Use of Local Government Debt

ABSTRACT: This article examines the effect of various state government regulatory, oversight, and assistance programs on the level of local government borrowing for a national sample of 2,087 communities with over 10,000 persons. Both traditional debt limits and referenda requirements and other state programs regulating or assisting local government borrowing are analyzed in a model of local debt choice. State-imposed local debt limits do appear to have a depressing effect on communities' debt levels. Of the other programs reviewed it appears that active rather than legislative state oversight and assistance activities have the greatest influence on the use of local debt. It is also concluded that future research should concentrate on the relationship between the borrowing activities of local governments and the variety of special districts that exist in metropolitan areas.     

Local demand shocks and firms' survival: An application to the Italian economy during the Great Recession

The Italian economy is characterised by a large number of micro-firms and small firms and by a long-lasting gap between North and South Italy. Therefore, global shocks – such as the Great Recession – have had a heterogeneous impact at the local level: the collapse in private demand was unequally distributed across different products, services and regions. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to evaluate the impact of the Great Recession on firm's survival for the universe of Italian firms in the light of two relevant indicators: local exposure to crisis and local demand shocks. The results suggest a strong negative impact of local demand shocks on the survival of firms, whereas the degree of exposure to the crisis generally has a weak effect.     

Regional effects or none? Firms' profitability during the Great Recession in Finland

We analyse the effects of the Great Recession (GR) on the profitability of firms located in the main cities versus in the rest of Finland. Based on earlier literature, various regional factors could affect firms' profitability in urban areas in comparison to periphery during a major export demand shock, such as what the GR was in Finland. Yet, there are both negative and positive location specific factors in play. We use micro‐data from 2005 to 2010, and employ different profitability indicators and fixed effects panel regressions. Our results indicate that firm and sector level factors affected the profitability changes the most. Regional differences seem to stem mainly from a composition of firm and sector level factors.     

Quality of government and regional resilience in the European Union. Evidence from the Great Recession

This paper examines the relationship between quality of government and regional resilience in the European Union during the Great Recession. The results show that the quality of government is an important factor when shaping the regional reaction to the crisis. Our estimates reveal that higher quality of government is associated with greater regional resilience over the Great Recession. This is partly due to the role played in this context by spatial spillovers induced by the quality of government in neighbouring regions. The observed link between governance and regional resilience is robust to the inclusion in the analysis of different explanatory variables that may affect both government quality and regional resilience. Likewise, our findings do not depend on the specific dimension of governance considered, the estimation method or the econometric specification employed to capture the nature of spatial spillovers.     

Okun’s law,asymmetries and regional spillovers: evidence from Virginia metropolitan statistical areas and the District of Columbia

The purpose of this paper was to examine the strength of the relationship between unemployment and GDP, to determine the extent to which this relationship has been stable in Virginia metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) during the Great Recession and to examine the importance of regional spillovers in Okun’s law. Our results suggest that regional spillovers are very important in local labor markets and in defining the relationship observed at the national level. The MSA level data further supports asymmetries in Okun’s law. The weaker direct relationship between GDP and unemployment at the local level suggests that while federal fiscal and monetary policies to stimulate aggregate demand during periods of economic recovery may be effective, over time, in reducing the unemployment rate, local economic development policies are not effective in achieving the substantial short-term reduction in unemployment needed during recovery. The strong business cycle effects observed in the state MSA, relative to the U.S., suggests that countercyclical policies are fundamentally important and should be targeted more generally to exploit regional spillovers.     

GENTRIFICATION AND THE GRASSROOTS: POPULAR SUPPORT IN THE REVANCHIST SUBURB

Abstract: Most existing research on neighborhoods facing gentrification has portrayed residents as resistant or politically quiescent. Drawing from a year of fieldwork in Dundalk, MD, I argue that developers and the neoliberal state will probably find popular support for gentrification as they reinvest in the politically divided industrial suburbs of the United States. Local homeowners and community associations have emerged as gentrification supporters for three interrelated reasons. First, many of them have drawn from a resurgent national conservatism to explain decline as an effect of government subsidies and “people from the city;” their desire to reclaim suburban space—a “suburban revanchism”—although avoiding accusations of racism makes gentrification‐induced displacement appealing. Second, the rebirth of urban neighborhoods and other industrial suburbs provides visual evidence of gentrification's success. Third, the neoliberal state's retreat from social programs and its emphasis on private‐sector redevelopment allay suspicion of government and enable collaboration between the local state, developers, and homeowners. The redevelopment efforts of two local organizations illustrate how residents have become indispensable partners in Dundalk's emergent pro‐gentrification coalition.     

A closer look at revealed comparative advantage: Gross‐versus value‐added trade flows

The improved availability of value‐added trade data allows us to identify more clearly what fragment in the production chain is internationally competitive in a particular country. Rather than focusing on particular sectors or examples, we determine the distributions of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) in terms of both gross exports and value‐added for 40 countries. Systematically comparing these distributions reveals significant differences for RCA based on gross exports versus value‐added data. Using data on the Great Recession as an example, we argue that value‐added RCA is more informative regarding the workings of the real economy than gross sector RCA.     

NEW CITIES,LOCAL OFFICIALS,AND MUNICIPAL INCORPORATION LAWS: A SUPPLY‐SIDE MODEL OF CITY FORMATION

ABSTRACT: This article develops a framework for analyzing when and why municipal incorporation laws impede or facilitate boundary changes that benefit special interests. This goal is achieved by shifting the attention from demand‐side factors—such as wealth, race, and heterogeneity of tastes—behind the formation of municipalities to actors who supply them: city, county, and state officials. I develop a theoretical model that shows that there is an inverse relation between the number of jurisdictions and the size of the constituency of those public officials who review incorporation petitions. I also find that: (1) ceteris paribus, more new municipalities are formed in counties with a large volume of retail trade, and (2) neither state nor local officials can block fiscally motivated incorporations.     

Embedding financialization: a policy review of the English Affordable Homes Programme

Decent, affordable housing continues to be a major concern for policy-makers, providers and society at large. This paper contributes to the debate over the future of social housing in England by reviewing the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP). The AHP (2011–2015) saw the level of grant funding reduced dramatically; with the shortfall to be filled from housing associations own resources, increased rents and borrowing. To understand the implications of the AHP, this paper utilizes the concept of financialization. Financialization is a multifaceted process that seeks to explain the increased role and power of the financial markets in society. Specifically, the paper shows that the AHP leads to increased debt levels in the social housing sector, is predicated on short-termism and accumulation by dispossession. Finally, by employing financialization the paper also addresses debates about the nature of housing policy and how it can best be conceptualized.     

CONTESTING THE FINANCIALIZATION OF URBAN SPACE: COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS AND THE STRUGGLE TO PRESERVE AFFORDABLE RENTAL HOUSING IN NEW YORK CITY

As cities have become both site and object of capital accumulation in a neoliberal political economy, the challenges to community practice aimed at creating, preserving, and improving affordable housing and neighborhoods have grown. Financial markets and actors are increasingly central to the workings of capitalism, transforming the meaning and significance of mortgage capital in local communities and redrawing the relationship between housing and urban inequality. This article addresses the integration of housing and financial markets through the case of “predatory equity,” a wave of aggressive private equity investment in New York City's affordable rental sector during the mid‐2000s real estate boom. I consider the potential for community organizations to develop innovative, effective, and progressive practices to contest the impact of predatory equity on affordable housing. Highlighting how organizations employed discursive and empirical tactics as well as tactics that reworked the sites, spaces, and structures of finance, this research speaks to the political possibility of contemporary community practice.     

Development of a system dynamics model for financially sustainable management of municipal watermain networks

This paper develops causal loop diagrams and a system dynamics model for financially sustainable management of urban water distribution networks. The developed causal loop diagrams are a novel contribution in that it illustrates the unique characteristics and feedback loops for financially self-sustaining water distribution networks. The system dynamics model is a mathematical realization of the developed interactions among system variables over time and is comprised of three sectors namely watermains network, consumer, and finance. This is the first known development of a water distribution network system dynamics model. The watermains network sector accounts for the unique characteristics of watermain pipes such as service life, deterioration progression, pipe breaks, and water leakage. The finance sector allows for cash reserving by the utility in addition to the pay-as-you-go and borrowing strategies. The consumer sector includes controls to model water fee growth as a function of service performance and a household's financial burden due to water fees. A series of policy levers are provided that allow the impact of various financing strategies to be evaluated in terms of financial sustainability and household affordability. The model also allows for examination of the impact of different management strategies on the water fee in terms of consistency and stability over time.     

Channels from Housing Wealth to Consumption

This paper uses micro-data from two national panel surveys to analyze the flow of wealth from residential property onto households' balance sheets, where it is available for discretionary spending. The examples are Australia and the UK—two of the world's most entrenched nations of owner occupation, both with relatively complete mortgage markets. We focus on the early 2000s, which set the scene for an unprecedented wave of housing equity withdrawal. We consider equity released through sales and through additional borrowing. The findings show that equity extraction overall is not only (or even) a function of higher incomes, greater wealth, and older age; rather it occurs across the life course and is linked to pressing spending needs. We draw attention in particular to the growing social and economic significance of in situ equity borrowing—a practice whose financial buffering effects may form a short-lived prelude, rather than a sustainable alternative, to trading on or selling up.     

RENEWING PEOPLE AND PLACES: INSTITUTIONAL INVESTMENT POLICIES THAT ENHANCE SOCIAL CAPITAL AND IMPROVE THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT OF DISTRESSED COMMUNITIES

ABSTRACT: The challenges confronting distressed communities in the United States are complex and multifaceted. Communities large and small have been significantly affected by a myriad of social, environmental, and economic forces, including a continuing decline in manufacturing employment, uncontrolled sprawl, and the transition to a global economy. The traditional choice between a “place‐based” theory of redevelopment strategy versus a “people‐focused” theory no longer seems feasible or appropriate. This article outlines sustainable development as an alternative strategy that combines a place‐based development strategy, a human development focus, and an environmentally mindful approach. It posits that there exists a direct positive relationship between the creation of social capital, the redevelopment of the built environment utilizing sustainable development practices, and community‐based organizations in distressed communities. Furthermore, the authors suggest that through community investment—a socially responsible investment strategy—institutions of higher education can facilitate the rebuilding of communities by providing financial capital while gaining a moderate yet secure financial return as well as a substantial social return.     

中西方中古时期城乡关系比较研究初探

中古时期的城乡关系中西有别,本文通过分析已有的研究成果,从影响城乡关系的土地制度、社会阶层、经济关系三个层面研究这一时期的城乡关系,认为中世纪的西欧土地制度变迁促进得了城乡关系的变革,城市的发展经历了"衰退—复兴"的过程;而中国封建社会的城乡关系没有发生根本性变化,城市对乡村具有绝对的统治权,但是自中唐以后这种对立关系被"交相生养"的城乡经济网络所弱化。     

Swedish welfare state and housing markets: under economic and political pressure

Economic and financial crises are often connected to crises in the housing market. Some housing systems are, however, more sensitive than others. Traditionally, Sweden’s system aimed to protect households from such volatility, but changes in the welfare state model and increased mortgage indebtedness suggest that Sweden’s housing market might have become more exposed to macro pressures. The starting point for this article is an understanding of the Swedish welfare state model in which housing was traditionally a core value and where the link between income and housing outcome has been weakened. Deregulation and liberalization have fundamentally changed the special features on the Swedish housing market. In particular, the rental sector is decreasing in favor of increased ownership and greater speculation. In this article, we aim to give a picture of the grand restructuring of the Swedish housing sector including its implications for the link between income poverty and housing poverty and an understanding of the contradictory reaction of the welfare state to the global financial crisis (GFC). Our results show that affordability is a problem and that the proportion of households at risk of poverty has been increasing when taking housing costs into consideration. However, a combination of the lessons learned in the 1990s crisis and resultant increases in regulation together with a stronger and more immediate recovery than might have been expected meant that Sweden and its housing system came out of the GFC fundamentally intact. However, there must be concerns that future crises will not be so readily addressed.     

RESILIENCE AND MIMETIC BEHAVIOR: ECONOMIC VISIONS IN THE GREAT RECESSION

The Great Recession was a moment of challenge for many regions and required that leaders reflect on their economic development strategies. Given the propensity of regions to adopt ideas and strategy “fads” that then inform policy debate, we seek to understand how two very different regions with different histories framed their responses to the recession. How did they conceptualize the economic challenge in their region? What did they envision as appropriate responses to this challenge? How did these visions relate to mimetic behavior of the past, in which largely uniform visions are adopted across diverse locations? Our findings show that economic development leaders in the Buffalo and Orlando regions advocated similar high‐tech/biomedical strategies as a way to diversify their economies and make them more resilient or less vulnerable to future shocks. By conceptualizing economic diversification in such similar ways, despite substantial regional differences, this pursuit of resilience or decreased vulnerabilities through economic diversification appears highly similar to prior mimetic behaviors. We consider the implications of this finding for theories of adaptive resilience in which the focus is on economic diversification as part of resilient processes and behaviors, rather than as a fixed characteristic or end state of regions. As practiced in our case studies, diversification for the purpose of resilient outcomes differs substantially from theoretical arguments explaining adaptive resilience as both behavior and process. We caution that policy and planning visions of resilience may therefore represent yet another fad to be mimicked ad infinitum. Nevertheless, adaptive resilience as defined in the literature may still offer promise as a practical strategy—just not one that we yet observe in practice.     

Industrial relatedness and regional resilience in the European Union

The 2008 Great Recession prompted interest in the concept of regional resilience. This paper discusses and empirically investigates the relationship between industrial relatedness and economic resilience across European Union regions over the 2008–2012 crisis period. The analysis focuses on two types of industrial relatedness: technological and vertical (i.e., market-based). The empirical analysis is performed on a sample of 209 NUTS 2 regions in 16 countries. Our results highlight a positive effect of technological relatedness on the probability of resilience in the very short run (i.e., the 2008–2009 period), while the negative effect of vertical relatedness seems to persist for longer.