Regional science in the Netherlands: A contextual interpretation of the “power of smallness”

This paper provides an overview of regional science research in the Netherlands since the 1960s. It adopts a contextual thematic approach in identifying and interpreting regional science research topics, practices and methodologies, inspired by Toynbee's challenge and response concept. It argues that place-based, cultural and historical conditions in the Netherlands have prompted a pragmatic and evidence-based scientific approach, in which in particular an innovative quantitative orientation accompanied by a methodological heterogeneity has given Dutch regional science a high international profile. Over the past decades, numerous regional scientists in the country have contributed to this achievement, too many to be mentioned in this overview. This paper has its limitations and offers mainly thematic examples of original—often quantitative—research undertaken by various Dutch regional scientists, that make a difference compared to general approaches in Europe and world-wide. From our concise review we conclude that – despite the small size of the country – the challenge and creative response model of Dutch regional science has been rather successful.     

Capital city dynamics: Linking regional innovation systems,locational policies and policy regimes

We propose a tentative theory linking economic and innovation dynamics with the ways capital cities try to develop and position themselves through the formulation of locational policies. Global and world city theories challenge the traditional role and centrality of capital cities. Capital cities that are not the economic centers of their nations – so-called secondary capital cities – tend to be overlooked in the fields of economic geography and political science. Consequently, there is a lack of research and resulting theory analyzing their political economy. We put forward an interdisciplinary perspective that is informed by theories of economic geography and political science, as processes of economic development and political positioning are interrelated and need to be examined together. By linking three different theoretical strands – the regional innovation system approach, the concept of locational policies, and the policy regime perspective – this paper proposes a framework to study the economic and political dynamics in secondary capital cities. Examples of secondary capital cities such as Bern, Canberra, Ottawa, The Hague and Washington D.C. illustrate our theoretical arguments throughout the paper.     

Testing and explaining economic resilience with an application to Italian regions

This paper studies regional economic resilience by exploiting the properties of the non‐linear smooth‐transition autoregressive model. A testing procedure to distinguish between engineering and ecological resilience is presented, and a measurement of economic resilience is provided. Regional differences in economic resilience are explained by the presence of spatial interactions and by adopting a set of determinants like economic diversity, export performance, financial constraints, and human and social capital. An empirical investigation is conducted for analysing regional employment evolution in Italy from 1992 to 2012. Some concluding suggestions propose possible future areas of research.     

On Austrian regional economics

The aim of this research note is two-fold, firstly, to clarify the growing interaction between regional science and Austrian economics and their awareness of each other. We elucidate the Austrian methodology, called praxeology, which is especially misunderstood in regional science. Secondly, we tentatively sketch a possible contribution of Austrian economics to regional science. The core of the new economic geography is the idea of external economies of scale. Agglomeration of firms often leads to lower costs of existing products, and is a stimulating environment for the invention of new products and the development of new ideas. Austrian economics, which places discovery at the centre of its analysis of the market process, should be able to explain why (public) regional investments may be unsuccessful and why they can be successful.Received: 2 February 2002, Accepted: 25 June 2003, JEL Classification: B41, B53, R12     

Regional science: From crisis to opportunity

This essay reacts to the idea of crisis implied in earlier reviews of regional science and suggests that ongoing methodological debates in the fields of geography and economics provide many opportunities for regional scientists. The recent shift away from spatial analysis to social theory in geography has not found much support in regional science, but it is the implications of postmodernism that should be of most concern. Recent trends in economics have shown that lively debates can occur without embracing every new intellectual fashion. Regional science has much to gain from engagements in such debates as we approach the fin de millennium. Received: 16 October 1998 / Accepted: 26 October 1998     

Uncovering regional characteristics from mobile phone data: A network science approach

We introduce network science methods to uncover inherent characteristics of functional regions. An aggregate spatial interaction network is constructed based on a large mobile phone data set including 431 million mobile calls made by 10 million anonymous customers over one month and the geographic locations of the mobile base towers involved in each call. We use Thiessen polygons (termed ‘cells’) as the unit of analysis to approximate the service area of each mobile base tower. Major findings encompass the following three aspects. First, cells with high betweenness centrality are linearly distributed in space, which closely aligns with major transportation corridors. We find that this pattern can be explained by analysing the characteristics of calling activities on transportation networks. Second, we detect a two‐level hierarchy of communities that correspond well to county and prefecture‐level administrative unit boundaries. Lastly, almost every community identified at the two hierarchical levels contains a cell with high betweenness. These cells are located near the political and economic centres and play the role of hubs in the regional socio‐economic system. This research demonstrates that networks built from mobile phone data provide new understandings of spatial interactions and regional structures.     

Is there a future for regional science in economics?

The role of a region as an appropriate entity for theoretical analysis is reviewed in the last several decades of English language economics literature. Concluding that regional analysis currently has a marginal role within theoretical economics, several suggestions are presented for research directions that would reinvigorate regional theory as a distinct part of economic inquiry. Suggestions include the use of concepts of industrial organization theory, such as fixed factor proportions for explaining regional resource utilization, the use of market size as a variable for explaining firm behavior at the regional level, and viewing a region as a set of inter-related institutions which can influence a region's growth path.Research assistance for this paper was provided by Joshua E. Lane.Presidential Address to the Thirty-First Annual Meetings of the Western Regional Science Association, February 1992.     

Regional science: Directions for the future

Academic disciplines evolve and regional science is no exception. Physics, French or economics changes over time but at the end of the day (or decade), they remain physics, French or economics. But regional science is different; it can take on the perspectives of geography, economics, planning, or other social sciences. At its best, perhaps regional science is a composite of these; many therefore think that the inevitable tension between these content areas and scientific and non-scientific orientations is not only healthy but is also essential. Balancing perspectives and managing tensions in a discipline where both basic and applied research is appropriate is challenging. Combine this with the fact of rapid change and increased competition for limited resources in academic institutions with regional science programmes. From this starting point it seems worthwhile to revisit how we manage regional science and position it within our universities and within our graduates job markets. We propose a model sensitive to both the supply side and the demand side, which indicates that we proactively cultivate markets within and outside educational institutions. We discuss the need for introductory regional science courses at the undergraduate level and for programmes at the masters and Ph.D. levels that transfer existing knowledge and prepare the next generation for intellectual and technical leadership in the field of regional science.JEL Classification: A12, A20, B30, R10We would like to thank the colleagues who offered comments on various drafts of this article. We are especially grateful to Professor William M. Bowen, Dr. Lorraine Craig, Gérard Widmer, and the anonymous reviewers and guest-editors for detailed and thoughtful suggestions.     

The antecedents of co‐operative behaviour among project team members: an alternative perspective on an old issue

Poor project performance is generally attributed to a lack of co‐operation between project participants. Much work is directed towards understanding the structural and organizational antecedents of co‐operation, but little in understanding how socio‐psychological factors affect individual co‐operative behaviour. Using social identity theory, this study attempts to fill this research gap by arguing that individuals define their self‐concepts through the organizations with which they identify and that these identity‐based forces are the basis for the development of co‐operative behaviour. Empirical findings using responses from 398 senior executives of construction firms substantiate this argument, as individuals with strong organizational identity are indeed more psychologically predisposed to behave co‐operatively. There are grounds to propose that organizational identity should be used in conjunction with other tangible economic incentives as effective mechanisms for improving individual co‐operation. Therefore, rigorous attempts by construction firms to foster such identity may prove fruitful to overall project performance. Further research is needed to explore how it may impact on other important aspects of co‐operation such as decision making and problem solving processes within the construction industry.     

Institutions vs. ‘first‐nature’ geography: What drives economic growth in Europe's regions?

The debate on whether institutions or geography prevail in driving economic growth has been rife (e.g., Sachs 2003 vs. Rodrik et al. 2004). Most of the empirical analyses delving into this debate have focused on world countries, whose geographical and institutional conditions differ widely. Subnational analyses considering groups of countries with, in principle, more similar institutional and geographical conditions have been limited and tended to highlight that geography is more important than institutions at subnational level. This paper aims to address whether this is the case by investigating how differences in institutional and ‘first‐nature’ geographical conditions have affected economic growth in Europe's regions in the period 1995–2009. In the analysis we use a newly developed dataset including regional quality of government indicators and geographical characteristics and employ two‐stage least squares (2SLS) and instrumental variables‐generalized method of moments (IV‐GMM) estimation techniques with a number of regional historical variables as instruments. Our results indicate that at a regional level in Europe institutions rule. Regional institutional conditions – and, particularly, government effectiveness and the fight against corruption – play an important role in shaping regional economic growth prospects. This does not imply, however, that geography is irrelevant. There is evidence of geographical factors affecting regional growth, although their impact is dwarfed by the overriding influence of institutions.     

LAC的运用与博弈论的比较

指出LAC理论的运用与博弈论的存在有不少相似之处,通过对两者的分析和比较,可寻求借鉴已较完善的经济学的研究方法来对LAC进行更深入地研究,使LAC理论得到进一步的发展。     

Modelling the urban water chain: Incentives and cost recovery in wastewater treatment in developing countries

To improve surface water quality in developing countries new approaches to design wastewater treatment schemes have been developed. We identify a compliance problem in these schemes which threatens their success. To analyze this problem, we integrate a compliance game into a model of the urban water chain. We illustrate the model with a numerical example on small scale leather processing. We find that the compliance problem indeed threatens the overall success of the treatment scheme and show under which conditions this is so. With an empirical calibration our model is a ready to use tool to provide quantitative results that can inform planners of urban wastewater treatment schemes.     

What We Argue About When We Argue About Regionalism

A new debate emerged in the 1990s about regional solutions to urban problems. The debate has been carried out overwhelmingly within a welfare economics framework that stresses the economic costs and benefits of regional governance structures. Unlike earlier debates about regional reforms, the new regionalists emphasize not just that more collaborative regional governance structures will improve local services but that they will enhance the competitiveness of regions in the global economy as well. The article surveys the evidence on two propositions put forth by the new regionalists: 1) whether fragmented regional governance harms economic growth; and 2) whether suburbs are dependent on cities for their economic well‐being. Neither proposition is well supported by research and even if they were, the author concludes, this would not necessarily persuade citizens to support regional reforms. Research on the economic effects of regional governance needs to be supplemented with research on its political effects. The article concludes by examining the effects of regional governance structures on three core American political values.     

Regional science: economy and geography in France and French-speaking countries

The objective of this paper is to assess the French-speaking countries contributions to regional science since its creation in the 1950s. France, and other French-speaking countries, very quickly adhered to the approach of the founding fathers of regional science. French-language research developed for several years without maintaining major relations with the main streams that flow through regional science. However, the years 2000 and 2010 saw the emergence of streams of thought that strongly irrigate at the international level. The authors of this paper are part of this movement. Here we trace the origins and development of the French-speaking contribution to regional sciences, while highlighting the originality of the French-language approach. First, the question of academic and institutional contexts is discussed, with the role of the founders and the peculiar place of Journals and public institutions. Further sections analyse the main contributions coming from economics (local systems of production and innovation, innovative milieus and proximity analysis) and geography (regional development at a global scale, and urban systems and complexity). We conclude with cross-disciplinary contributions including intra-urban organization and mobility, territorial governance and territorial development, as well as other approaches to the social sciences, in the contemporary issues of city and territorial governance.     

The Struggle to Compete: From comparative to competitive advantage in Northern British Columbia

The social, economic, and political landscape of northern British Columbia (BC), Canada, has undergone considerable transformation since a recession in the early 1980s. From this, there is an emerging recognition of the need to move from an economy based upon comparative advantage to one embracing competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper, drawn from ongoing regional research, is twofold. First, we apply a rural lens to the regional planning and development literature, which highlights the significance of competitive advantage as a tool for regional rejuvenation. Second, we add to this dialogue by exploring the relevance and meaning of competitive advantage in the non-metropolitan setting of northern BC.     

从古代丝绸之路到当代“一带一路”：交通建设带动区域发展的不同认知（英文）

As an important connection between the West and the East,the Silk Road has greatly promoted the cooperation between countries and regions.Transportation infrastructure plays a key role in the economic development and cultural exchanges,which has promoted the development of regions and cities along the Silk Road.Based on previous literature,combining the comparative advantage theory in economics with the transportation corridor and regional development theory,this paper divides the evolution of the Silk Road into three historical periods,and explores the economic motives for the development from the ancient Silk Road to the contemporary Belt and Road,as well as the impacts of transportation construction on the regional and urban development along the Belt and Road.The paper concludes that transportation infrastructure has a positive impact on the development of regions along the Belt and Road,which also influences the rise and fall of cities along the road.The paper comprehensively applies the theory of the comparative advantage and the theory of transportation and regional development,and proposes that economical mutual benefit and integration of transportation construction and regional development will play a key role in the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative.     

Landscape Economics: Connotations,Basic Problems and Research Methods

This paper analyzed necessity and laws of natural and cultural resource consumption and creation activities as a branch of economics or research direction, proposed such basic frameworks of landscape economics such as connotations, basic problems and research methods on the basis of sorting out literature. Landscape economics is a social science focusing on the public preferences for natural and humanistic landscapes, and the preference evolution laws, economic laws of landscape resource consumption and creation activities. The basic problems include evaluation of landscape resource value, optimal utilization of landscape resources, landscape resource development and protection policies, formation and creation of diversified landscape structure. The research methods include investigation of consumers' willingness, experiment and behavioral economics, logical reasoning, and case study.