EU regional development policy and territorial capital: A systemic approach

The territorial capital of regions is an important determinant of growth, but also of the impact of EU Cohesion Policy. First, because it can act as a filter, enhancing the impact of regional policies. Second, the latter can help building territorial capital which, in turn, will foster regional development. This work analyses the medium and long-run relationship between the territorial capital of EU NUTS 3 regions and Cohesion Policy using data from the programming period 2000–2006. Results point out complementarities between different territorial assets of regions and the impact of EU regional policy: Cohesion Policy effectiveness is higher when investments are focused on the assets complementary to those already abundant in the region.     

Spatial dynamics and agglomeration forces in the external EU periphery

The countries belonging to the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) of the EU are characterized by significant socioeconomic transformations and—more recently—by disconcerting instances of social and political turmoil. This comes to add to social and economic pressures applied to these countries under their process of market liberalization and economic integration, instigated at least in part by the very ENP process. In those conditions, questions of spatial cohesion and thus of regional convergence and divergence become increasingly salient, as the elimination of (social and) spatial imbalances is both a precondition for the legitimacy and successful implementation of the reforms aiming at market liberalization and economic integration and a core objective of such reforms. In this paper, we examine the spatial dynamics of population growth in the ENP countries prior to the recent destabilization in the region, using two complementary approaches—an analysis of the impact of agglomeration on growth and an analysis of club formation in population concentrations (convergence–divergence). We find that, on the whole, the ENPCs South space was characterized in recent years by evidence of regional convergence in the sense that population concentrations were becoming more diffused across regions; while the ENPCs East exhibited stronger and more consistent evidence of regional divergence (increased concentration of population). These findings suggest that agglomeration and cumulative causation forces are more strongly in operation in the more advanced, at least in terms of EU relations, countries of the ENP East, where also the “pull” factor of the EU economy is stronger.     

The development of strategic spatial planning in Central and Eastern Europe: between path dependence,European influence,and domestic politics

ABSTRACT

Focusing on three of the Central and Eastern European countries – Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary – the paper investigates the evolution of spatial planning systems and the introduction of strategic planning practices from the beginning of the post-communist transition in the early 1990s to the present. It sheds new light on this issue by applying the conceptual lens of historical institutionalism to explain this process and elucidate the role of the accession to the European Union (EU) as a catalyst for change. In particular, the paper identifies and analyses the critical junctures at which path dependencies emerged and later constrained the capacity of the regional and local actors to adjust to the EU Cohesion Policy framework and engage in strategic planning as part of it.     

The pattern of EU FDI in the manufacturing industry: What role do third country effects and trade policies play?

The Annals of Regional Science - The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of “third country effects” and trade policies on the outward stocks of FDI of the EU. We estimate a model...     

Leisure,amenity, and capital accumulation in a multi-region model

This paper proposes a multi-region growth model with endogenous labor supply, endogenous amenity, and capital accumulation. Although the production side is the same as in the neoclassical growth theory, in order to solve issues related to regional migration with capital accumulation we propose an alternative approach to consumer decisions about time distribution between work and leisure, housing consumption and saving. We show that the dynamics of the J-region national economy can be described by J-dimensional differential equations. We simulate the long-term economic structure of the national economy with three regions. It is demonstrated that with the Cobb–Douglas production functions and specified values of the parameters, the national dynamics has a unique equilibrium. We also carry out comparative statics analysis with regard to productivity levels, amenity parameters, propensity to save, and the population.     

Smart cities and attracting knowledge workers: Which cities attract highly‐educated workers in the 21st century?

Regional policy‐makers have long sought to attract highly‐educated workers with a view to stimulating economic growth and vibrancy. Previous studies over the decades leading up to the new millennium show human capital divergence across cities, where the share of college graduates grew faster in cities that had larger initial shares of college‐educated workers. However, labour markets have changed significantly post‐2000, likely affecting migration decisions of highly‐skilled workers. Additionally, past studies have not controlled for important changes in industry education levels and overall industry composition that may influence city‐level college graduate growth. We use detailed 4‐digit NAICS industry employment data combined with public micro‐data to construct measures of industry skill upgrading and changes in industry composition to control for their effects on human capital growth. We find agglomeration forces, rather than initial graduate share, explains college‐graduate share growth post‐2000. We also decompose graduates into bachelors and postgraduate degree holders to determine whether different forces are at play on growth of graduates at different education levels.     

Assessing the impacts of Cohesion Policy on EU regions: A non‐parametric analysis on interventions promoting research and innovation and transport accessibility

Traditionally, the effectiveness of European Cohesion Policy has been evaluated in terms of GDP growth rate. In this paper, we consider the effect of the regional policy in terms of its impacts on two specific fields of intervention, namely ‘research, technological development and innovation’, and ‘transport infrastructure’. Our econometric approach involves the use of a non‐parametric regression discontinuity design technique to a uniquely‐disaggregated Cohesion Policy dataset broken down according to the specific objectives of each stream of funding. The analysis considers different time intervals and sub‐samples. Our results demonstrate a positive impact of Cohesion Policy interventions in these two specific fields of intervention.     

Matching estimation,casino gambling and the quality of life

Little consensus exists in the literature as to the impact of casino gambling on regional economic development. This paper uses a propensity score matching estimator to assess the bottom line impact of casino gambling on the welfare of local residents. It extends the literature in two important ways. First, the traditional matching estimation model is extended to consider a kernel weighting formula that corrects for correlation between the outcome error term and characteristics of the regressors used in generating the propensity scores. Second, by using the matching procedure to control for selection bias in the casino location decision, this paper generates improved estimates for the impact of casino gambling on key economic variables and on local quality of life. Casinos are found to have no statistically significant net impact on the quality of life in their host counties, though Native American casinos do generate some additional economic activity in the form of increased population, employment, and housing starts. This paper was awarded the Charles M. Tiebout Prize for outstanding graduate student paper at the 2007 Western Regional Science Association annual meetings. I am thankful for helpful comments from Dan McMillen, Barry Chiswick, Joe Persky, Gib Bassett, John Tauras, seminar participants at the 2007 Western Regional Science Association meetings and the referees. I gratefully acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant Program. Any errors are my own.     

Spatially blind policies? Analysing agglomeration economies and European Investment Bank funding in European neighbouring countries

Policies promoting development need to take into account the fact that globalisation has made space more rather than less important. To take full advantage of agglomeration economies that come with urban concentration, infrastructure plays a key role. For a long time development policies have focused on the provision of infrastructure. In this work, we analyse: first how urban concentration and infrastructure interact with each other for encouraging economic growth; and second whether policies promoting infrastructure have considered the spatial distribution of economic activity. As a case study, we focus on the European Investment Bank (EIB) projects financing infrastructures, for both the European Union and the EU neighbourhood. We perform panel data analysis considering different measures of infrastructure, and we also analyse the EIB projects. Our results suggest a relevant role of connectivity infrastructure (i.e. transport and communications) for agglomeration benefits to take place in European Neighbouring Policy countries. Our results also suggest that EIB funding in ENP countries is mostly country specific and displays no spatial dimension.     

An empirical Stock-Flow Consistent regional model of Campania

We develop an innovative Stock-Flow Consistent macroeconometric regional model with five sectors, exploiting economic and financial statistics for Campania, covering the period 1995–2018, and propose a methodology to close the financial account of the private sector when financial data are lacking. The model is then used to perform medium term Economic Policy Scenario Analysis. We find that a debt-funded fiscal expansion has permanent positive effects on growth, with an impact multiplier above one and a medium-run multiplier of 0.71. In the case of a balanced-budget rule the same increase in government spending has still positive effects on growth – with a medium-run multiplier of 0.6 – but adverse ones on the private corporate sector.     

Entrepreneurship capital and regional growth

This paper introduces the concept of entrepreneurship capital and links it to the economic performance of regions. We give a definition of entrepreneurship capital and suggest different measures of this variable. Economic performance of regions is measured by the stock and the growth rate of regions, labor productivity. We find that entrepreneurship capital is stronger in urban areas and spatially correlated. Using regressions of production functions and growth equations, we find evidence that entrepreneurship capital has a positive and large impact on region's labor productivity. However for growth, this result holds only for risk-oriented measures of entrepreneurship capital and for densely populated regions. We derive policy implications from these findings.     

European cities in the process of economic integration: towards structural convergence

The process of economic integration has triggered complex territorial dynamics in Europe. Basically, opposite dynamics appears to prevail for national and regional economies. The convergence process of the national economies of the EU coexists with a process of divergence between the regional European economies. The process of economic integration occurs in a context of increased importance of permanent innovation and of resulting increased territorialisation of activities where the metropolitan areas seem to embody the main issues at stake on European scene, particularly regarding its regional dimension. Different theoretical literatures have been developed, regarding both income convergence and regional specialisation in Europe. This paper is a first step towards a simultaneous resolution of the different dimensions of regional dynamics induced by the European integration: it focuses on the concept of structural convergence applied at the regional level and adopting the Wacziarg (2001) framework empirically establishes the existence of structural convergence of European metropolitan areas. An erratum to this article can be found at     

从观澜看深圳市特区外土地利用转型的必然性

深圳在改革开放之后利用毗邻香港的区位优势及大量的储备土地迅速成长为国内占有重要地位的特大城市,然而,也正是因为其超常发展导致了土地、资源、环境、人口“四个难以为继”局面的出现。以观澜为例,目前深圳特区外仍采取“工业房地产”式均衡发展、粗放外延式、经济与社会发展错位、以租赁市场为主的土地利用模式,这不利于深圳的进一步发展,应积极转变观念、及时转变土地利用模式,推动深圳的全面转型。     

Report on inaugural workshop RSA ReHi-Network ‘Interdisciplinary connections between history & regional studies’*

The RSA Research Network on Regional Economic and Policy History (ReHi) aims to investigate the role of the historic perspective on regional studies through a series of events. During the inaugural two-day workshop, held in London in April 2017, the participants highlighted historical methodologies and approaches that establish a common thread in the various regional disciplines. They defined interdisciplinary connections that need to be addressed to overcome the discontinuous dialogue among researchers of regional studies and history. The research papers that were presented at the conference focused on improving methodologies, analysing economic strategies, developing techniques, and understanding policy development. The workshop aimed at establishing the foundation for a common research framework to improve the scientific debate and provide impact on regional policy regulations.     

Impact of economic,financial, and institutional factors on CO2 emissions: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa economies

Given the acceleration of economic changes in Sub-Saharan Africa economies (SSA), a better understanding of the relationship between economic growth and pollution is essential for policy makers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of economic, financial and institutional developments on CO₂ emissions for 25 SSA countries over the period 1996–2010. We use the reduced form modeling to control unobserved heterogeneity specific to countries and the GMM dynamic panel method to control endogeneity. We found no -evidence in our investigation for the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Indeed, a monotonically increasing relationship with GDP is found more appropriate for CO₂ emissions. The results confirm that political stability, government effectiveness, democracy, and control of corruption influence negatively CO₂ emissions. On the contrary, regulatory quality and rule of law have a positive effect on CO₂ emissions. The results confirm the importance of institutional frameworks in reducing carbon dioxide emissions since institutional quality not only affects carbon dioxide emissions directly, but also indirectly via economic growth and trade openness.     

Social and institutional factors as determinants of economic growth: Evidence from the United States counties

In the search for explanations of persistent differences in economic growth rates, the conditional convergence growth model has introduced the possibility of incorporating a wide set of factors as determinants of growth. Controlling for spatial dependence, we assess the contribution of differences in social and institutional variables on growth rates of per capita income for counties in the United States. The empirical results indicate that, ceteris paribus, social and institutio variables explain some of the differences in convergence rates among counties. In particular, (i) ethnic diversity is associated with faster rates of economic growth; (ii) higher levels of income inequality are associated with lower rates; and (iii) higher levels of social capital have a positive effect on economic growth rates. Received: 14 August 2000 / Accepted: 16 April 2001     

Specialization and diversity as drivers of economic growth: Evidence from High‐Tech industries

This paper contributes to the literature of regional economics by concerning the linkages between regional industrial structure and economic growth. In order to shed light on this debatable issue, we study the role of the high technology sector, especially its industrial structure in regional economic growth. Using data from the Finnish regions during 1994 to 2008, we find diminishing marginal returns to high technology diversity with respect to regional growth, once we control for other determinants of growth. Through this paper we hope to give our contribution to one of the central themes of current EU regional policy discussion, namely smart specialization.     

Integration in the Regions: Cross-sectoral Housing Policy Co-ordination at Regional Level

This paper considers policy integration between housing and other sectors at regional level, focusing on Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and regional planning. Regional housing structures and policies have had only a marginal impact on other sectors and this seems to be due in part to the fragmented nature of the housing sector, in particular to limited private sector involvement in regional housing structures. RDA emphasis on economic growth over social and regeneration issues also acts as a barrier to RDA engagement with housing. Housing involvement in planning is hindered by lengthy and cumbersome planning processes. Fragmentation and lack of co-ordination, in fact, seem to be characteristic of the regional level in England and this acts as a general barrier to integration, along with the lack of a mechanism for dealing with conflicting priorities, pointing to a pressing need for the government's proposed directly elected Regional Assemblies.     

Trade openness and regional income spillovers in Brazil: A spatial econometric approach*

This paper employs a spatial Durbin growth model to estimate the impact of trade openness on regional per capita income in Brazil using a data set of 469 Brazilian micro‐regions over the period 2004–2007. We calculate the direct, indirect and cumulative impact on per capita income of trade openness and human capital in these micro‐regions. Results indicate that greater trade openness in a region promotes economic development locally, while exerting negative influence on per capita income of the neighbouring regions. Our findings also show that human capital has a positive – direct and indirect – impact on the economic development of Brazilian micro‐regions.     

Impacts of regional development strategies on growth and equity of Korea: A multiregional CGE model

This paper is concerned with the assessment of major regional development strategies such as the three Coastal area development strategies (East Coast Development, South Coast Development, and West Coast Development) and the Seoul-Pusan development corridor strategy in terms of efficiency and equity. Multiregional Computable General Equilibrium for Korea is developed to capture the economic impact of regional investment expenditures, estimating the time-series influences of regional development alternatives on economic growth, inflation, welfare, income distribution, and interregional economic inequality for ten periods. In a sense that the main point of concern in the national development planning of Korea is with the question of improvement of national competitiveness with more equitable interregional income distribution, it is necessary to promote the West Coast region rather than the Seoul-Pusan development corridor. The West Coast regional development can lead to substantial gain in GDP and reduction in regional income disparity. In a multinational economic perspective, this regional development is expected to contribute to the economic cooperation of Northeast Asia and to enhancing the joint comparative advantages between China and Korea. However, it might worsen the income inequality in the long run. Received: September 1999/Accepted: September 2001