Local urban growth controls and regional economic growth

Local land use regulations have been adopted to restrict population growth and urban sprawl in an attempt to prevent future problems like congestion, pollution, and loss of open space. However, when regulations become widespread in a region, it can be difficult for young workers and newcomers to find appropriate housing in the region. Because local governments may neglect the effects of their policies on the rest of the region, the resulting population size can be inefficient. We show that local adoption of housing regulations tends to over-restrict population growth when there are strong agglomeration economies in the regional production. On the other hand, when there is congestion in production, coordination among jurisdictions is undesirable if business interests are neglected.     

Technological innovation and regional economic growth in Mexico: a spatial perspective

The aim of this investigation is to analyze the effect of technological innovation on Mexico’s regional economic growth during 1995–2007. It is argued that the inclusion of the spatial dimension in empirical analysis is still a rare practice in Mexico and even in international studies. Such inclusion allows studying the pattern of spatial interaction, the possible effects of spatial diffusion and the estimation of robust parameters. We apply the spatial data analysis methodology that has three components: (a) exploratory analysis, (b) visualization and (c) spatial econometric modeling. The main result suggests that technological innovation has a positive effect on Mexico’s regional economic growth. The empirical evidence also suggests that there is a positive effect coming from cross-border diffusion effects of technological knowledge. It also implies that states with stronger innovation activity benefited from spatial technological externalities and hence faster economic growth.     

The paradox of unequal regional investment and equal regional economic growth in China

China's policy on Special Economic Zones has attracted increasing flows of direct foreign investment to China. The investment has been very unequally distributed among China's 30 regions.  The article focuses on the regional economic growth as a result of the direct foreign investment in the region and its spillover effects on neighboring regions. The unequal distribution of direct foreign investment should in principle tend to enlarge the regional economic differences. The article, however, shows that this is not the result of the investment.  The empirical findings highlight the impact of direct foreign investment on the Chinese regional economies in transition. Received: November 2000/Accepted: August 2001     

Inequalities in income and education and regional economic growth in western Europe

Does inequality matter for regional growth? This paper addresses this question, using regionally aggregated microeconomic data for more than 100,000 individuals over a period of 6 years. The aim is to examine the relationship between income and educational distribution and regional economic growth in western Europe. Our results indicate that, given existing levels of inequality, an increase in a region’s income and educational inequality has a significant positive association with subsequent economic growth. Educational achievement is positively correlated with economic growth, but the impact of initial income levels is unclear. Finally, the results suggest that inequalities in educational attainment levels matter more for economic performance than average educational attainment. The above findings are not only robust to the definition of income distribution, but also across inequality measurements.     

Crime and regional economic growth in Mexico: A spatial perspective

The aim of this paper is to examine the effects of crime on regional economic growth in Mexico. We estimate a growth model using a spatial panel data model and test for the presence and type of spatial interaction, as proposed by Elhorst. Our results suggest that a two‐way spatial Durbin model best fits the data, crime exerts a negative total effect on economic growth across Mexican states, particularly homicides and robbery, and significant spillover effects seem to reinforce the negative impact on regional growth.     

Banking structure and regional economic growth: lessons from Italy

Following the literature on the comparative advantage of small versus large banks at lending to small businesses and in light of the worldwide decline in the number of intermediaries that specialise in this type of lending associated with deregulation in the banking industry, we examine the role that specific categories of banks have played in the context of Italy’s regional economic growth. Over the estimation period, 1970–1993, which ends in the year of full implementation of the banking reform that introduced statutory de-specialisation and branching liberalisation, Italy featured not only a substantial presence of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the real sector, as is still the case, but also a large and heterogeneous set of credit institutions with different ownership, size and lending styles. Exploiting these peculiarities we study the role of specific intermediaries and gather indirect evidence concerning the likely effects, ceteris paribus, of the current consolidation processes. The main findings, stemming from panel regressions with fixed effects, are as follows. The overall size of the financial sector has a weak impact on growth, but some intermediaries are better than others: cooperative banks and special credit institutions play a positive role, banks of national interest (basically large private banks) and public law banks (government-owned banks) either do not affect growth or have a negative influence depending on how growth is measured. Cooperative banks were mostly small banks and special credit institutions were all but large conglomerates with standardized credit policies, hence our results lend support to the current worldwide concerns of a reduction in the availability of credit to SMEs resulting from consolidation and regulatory reforms in the banking industry.

US state and local fiscal policies and non‐metropolitan area economic performance: A spatial equilibrium analysis*

Faced with declining economic bases, many non‐metropolitan areas find themselves balancing the need to be cost‐competitive in terms of lower taxes against the need for provision of valued government services. Using a spatial equilibrium framework, this study econometrically examines the nexus between US state and local fiscal policies and non‐metropolitan county growth in earnings and housing rents during the 1990s. The results suggest that state and local fiscal characteristics significantly influenced firm and household location. Some characteristics could be clearly identified as having dominant firm profit effects, while numerous others were identified as having household amenity effects.     

The national and regional effects of fiscal decentralisation in China

Fiscal decentralisation has been an important part of the restructuring of China’s economy over the past three decades. Yet, there has been only limited analysis of the way in which decentralisation in China might affect variables such as welfare, output and income at the aggregate level and none at the regional level. This paper makes a start at filling this gap by analysing the aggregate and regional effects of various policies which aim to change the balance between fiscal activities of the national and regional governments. For this, we use a small theoretical model designed to capture some of the features of the Chinese economy, and we solve it numerically using a parameterisation based on Chinese data. We analyse the effects of four different shocks; all of them involve a transfer of resources to the regional governments financed by a cut in central government expenditure, but they differ in the way in which regional governments use the additional funds: (1) they adjust expenditure on the consumption good, (2) they adjust infrastructure expenditure, (3) they maximise the size of their own budget, and (4) they maximise the welfare of the representative citizen. We find that the aggregate economic effects of decentralisation depend on the precise nature of the policy and that aggregate benefits may often mask a deterioration in the inter-regional distribution of those benefits.     

促进东北县域经济发展的政策措施研究

东北地区县域面积辽阔,人口众多,承载着发展现代农业和农村经济、建设社会主义新农村的艰巨任务的同时承载着联结城乡、集聚产业、增强活力、促进老工业基地振兴的特殊重要功能。在县域经济发展过程中,不少县(市)走出了各具特色、较为成功的     

Evaluating alternative economic growth rates and land use policies for Flathead County, Montana

Nine alternative futures are simulated for Flathead County, Montana for 2000–2014 and 2000–2024. Alternative futures incorporate high, moderate, and low growth rates, and baseline (current), moderately restrictive, and highly restrictive land use policies. Increases in employment are estimated using the IMPLAN regional economic model and translated into acreage requirements for commercial–institutional–industrial (CI&I) units and six types of housing units. Conversion of developable parcels to CI&I and housing units is based on a multiple-criteria score that measures the suitability of developable parcels for various developed uses. Additional jobs and housing units needed to support those jobs increase substantially, particularly for the moderate and high growth rates. Total acreage required for CI&I and housing units exceeds the acreage available for development for the baseline policy with the moderate and high growth rates, and for the moderately restrictive policy with high growth rates. There are no land shortages with any of the growth rates for the highly restrictive land use policy. Moderate and high growth can be sustained through 2024 in Flathead County by implementing a moderately restrictive land use policy if growth rates are moderate, and a highly restrictive land use policy if the growth rates are high.     

Long-run regional population disparities in Europe during modern economic growth: a case study of Spain

The objective of the present study is to analyze the disparities in long-run regional population growth in continental Europe. To this end, we propose a convergence equation for regional population distribution for eight Western European countries in the period 1850–2000. Our results show that divergence in economic growth at regional level has been a common pattern in Europe. We choose the case of Spain in order to depict the characteristics of this process of regional demographic divergence, studying the spatial dynamic of the Spanish population, focusing firstly on the processes of concentration–dispersion on a general scale. Finally, we establish a regional typology of long-term Spanish population growth, based on cluster analysis.     

The effects of fiscal equalisation in a model with endogenous regional governments: an analysis in a two-region numerical model

This paper is concerned primarily with the economic and welfare consequences of federal redistributive grants. We use a model which has two regions, each with households, firms and regional governments as well as a federal government. Private agents are (utility and profit) maximisers and we assume that regional governments are empire-builders in that they choose their expenditure and tax levels so as to maximise total expenditure—the size of their empire. Labour is free to move between regions in response to utility differences and does so until such differences have been eliminated. Inter-regional migration, inter-regional trade flows and federal government redistribution are the main sources of interconnectedness between the two regions. The model is linearised in log-differences and simulated using a calibration based on Australian state-level data. We find that the welfare effect of intergovernmental transfers is trivial but that all other variables of interest change substantially—consumption, employment, prices, taxes, wages, output and government expenditure. Finally, the signs of the effects of a federal transfer are not affected by the empire-building behaviour of regional governments although the magnitude of the effects is generally dampened.     

Spatial aggregation and regional economic forecasting

This research examines the effect of spatial aggregation on the accuracy of regional economic forecasts. Literature in econometrics, business forecasting, regional economic forecasting, spatial econometrics, and spatial time series analysis suggests that the issue is far from settled at either the theoretical or empirical levels. Univariate time series analysis is used to generate both state-level and sub-state regional forecasts of monthly total employment in the State of Idaho and its economic sub-regions. All spatial aggregation methods provide accurate forecasts, but direct state-level forecasts, and disaggregation of state-level forecasts to the sub-state level are slightly more accurate than more directly disaggregated approaches. As state-level data are often subject to less measurement error, and are also more complete and timely, this result should be encouraging to regional forecasting practitioners. Received: March 6, 1995/Accepted in revised form: June 11, 1997     

发展低碳经济 搞好保障性住房厨卫研究

<正>在我国,住宅配套设备的研究很早就被提出并得到重视。80年代中期我们提出了小康不小康、关键看住房,住房之小康、关键看两房,两房者,厨房与茅房也,并且当时已提出两房指的就是厨房和卫生间。因为当时我国的厨卫技     

房地产价格、税收与公共政策

房地产价值来源于土地、人的个体劳动与社会协作劳动,表现为工资租金、社会租金和地租三个部分。工资租金用于个人或组织发展,社会租金用于促进社会发展,地租用于环境保护。房地产价格泡沫的本质就是投机者牺牲社会的整体、长期利益来获取个人或集团的短期利益的过程。政府通过税收收取社会租金和地租并通过累进制的住房补贴、环境保护基金与税率,使房地产价格、税收和公共政策相互约束,可以形成一个公平、效率与环境保护相协调的房地产业的自动调节系统。