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.     

Geography and public finance: planning for fiscal equity in a metropolitan region

The provision of public services is a major function of local governments. The capability of local jurisdictions to fulfil this role depends upon the relationship between fiscal capacity and expenditure needs. The extent of the capacity–needs gap varies between jurisdictions in response to a host of economic, social and political factors. Such differences can lead to major socio–spatial disparities in levels of public service provision and in the quality of life for residents of different jurisdictions. These variations are particularly acute within metropolitan regions of advanced capitalist societies in which there is a geographical mismatch between increasingly extensive functional urban regions and politically constrained urban administrative units. This research examines the geography of public finance at the metropolitan level with particular reference to the Glasgow metropolitan region of west central Scotland, identifies major spatial variations in fiscal health among metropolitan local authorities, and evaluates possible strategies to promote fiscal equity. It is concluded that achieving fiscal equity in metropolitan regions will require a new form of fiscal politics informed by the existing fiscal geography but propelled by the goals of territorial and social justice.     

Assessing the influence of rapid urban growth and regional policies on biological resources

Global human population transitioned from a rural to urban majority in 2008. The struggle to accommodate urban growth while simultaneously conserving natural resources will be felt around the globe. The capacity to project urban growth scenarios that reflect various public policies so that their relative impacts can be evaluated on natural resources is broadly needed. We developed a framework for such analyses by using a spatially explicit urban growth model to project seven different growth scenarios that represent a range of public policies. The outputs were analyzed in terms of their impacts on 14 types of conservation priority lands. The scenarios covered policies that ranged from “Business as Usual,” to “Farmland Soils Protection,” to “Compact Growth.” At state-government convened meetings, regional scientists identified and assembled the 14 key conservation priority data layers reflecting high value open space and conservation opportunities. We assessed the impact of each projected urban growth output with each conservation priority layer. The scenario with the least overall ecological impact was the Compact Growth Scenario; the Great Cities Scenario was also relatively low. Because of its efficiency and ease of use, the general availability of needed data, and its suitability for use by local governments, the method presented here could be incorporated for other regions of the world where working landscapes are negatively affected by urban growth.     

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     

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.     

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.     

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.