The pattern,pull, and potential of Baltic Sea trade

This paper describes the current conditions of trade in the Baltic Sea region and considers the strength of trade affinities between countries and country groups within that region. The evidence supports a strong affinity between Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to the Baltic Nordic countries. The paper also considers how sensitive Swedish exports are to per capita GDP of importing countries and how that varies across industries. Some of the evidence supports a positive relation between product differentiation and the per-capita GDP sensitivity. Among this evidence is the finding that for Swedish exports, distance sensitivity and per-capita GDP sensitivity are negatively related. Received: January 2001/Accepted: April 2002 The authors are thankful for funding from the EU's INTERREG IIC Programme through SEBTrans. They also appreciate the helpful comments provided by B?rje Johansson.?An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the Udevalla, Sweden Conference 2000 entitled “Entrepreneurship, Firm Growth and Regional Development in the New Economic Geography”.     

Where do foreign firms locate in transition countries? An empirical investigation

Firm-level data sets on foreign manufacturing plants in four Central and Eastern European Countries are used in this paper, to trace their location and estimate the determinants of their choice processes. A nested logit model as developed by McFadden (1974) is used in the analysis. A central focus of the analysis is foreign direct investment (FDI) which is a good indicator of where location of foreign investments is made. Several reasons explain the need for mapping the location of FDI. First of all, it facilitates understanding the real competitiveness of regions and countries in providing location advantages able to complement multi-national enterprises’ (MNE) specific advantages. Secondly, it directly shows the distribution of the benefits usually associated with FDI. Finally, an understanding of FDI location decisions is important for policy makers who believe that MNEs may offer a positive contribution to the economic development of disadvantaged areas and thus correct potential regional imbalances. The main results show that sector specific factors affect the choice of the final location. These unobserved characteristics influence both the determinants and the structure of MNEs location choice process. This paper has been written as a part of the Research Network on “The Impact of the European Integration and Enlargement on Regional Structural Change and Cohesion”, financed by the European Commission through the 5th Framework Programme. The authors are grateful to the other members of the Research Consortium and the participants at the international workshop “Modelling the Entrepreneurial and Innovative Space-Economy” organized by the Tinbergen Institute on 22–23 August 2005 for very helpful comments and suggestions provided on an earlier version of this work.     

The Locational Behaviour of Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Johannesburg, South Africa

This article represents a contribution to the limited scholarship on understanding the locational behaviour of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa. Against a background review of international research and debates on locational decision-making of foreign investors at both international (particularly within the developing world) and national scales of analysis, the profile and patterns of foreign investment in Johannesburg are documented and the key factors influencing investor location choice are analysed. Although investors from 34 countries are represented in Johannesburg, the leading ten investor countries, headed by USA, Germany and UK, account for 85% of all investments. An emerging trend is for the growth of FDI from India, China and the Middle East. Reasons given by foreign investors for selecting Johannesburg as an investment destination largely mirror the international experience of location decision-making by foreign investors. Johannesburg is shown to be the preferred choice for business operation both in South Africa and the broader southern African region because of several agglomeration factors which relate to the city's position as economic hub, financial centre and core market of southern Africa.     

Eastern reforms,trade, and spatial change in the EU

Economic reforms in Eastern Europe and Eastern Europe's integration into the world economy are supposed to induce fundamental changes into European trade patterns. This will affect regions in the EU differently, depending on location and specialization. The article quantifies the impact of changing trade flows on EU regional manufacturing. Estimates are based on comparative static simulations, using an empirically calibrated computable partial equilibrium model of interregional trade. The spatial EU output pattern under status-quo conditions is compared with an optimistic “successful reform scenario”. The article explains the model structure and its calibration, and presents results for 13 manufacturing industries.     

Measuring the effects of air quality regulations on “dirty” firm births: Evidence from the neo- and mature-regulatory periods

In this article, we use annual (1980–90) county-level manufacturing plant location data for New York State to examine the effects of the 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments on the location decisions of new pollution-intensive manufacturing plants in the “:neo-regulatory” (1980-84) and “mature-regulatory” (1985–90) phases of the Act's implementation. Our results suggest that the temporal effects of regulation vary. Whereas the location decisions of pollution intensive manufacturing firms were unaffected by the Act's regulatory restrictions in the “neo-regulatory” period, the restrictions appear to have had a significant negative impact on the location decisions of these types of firms in the Act's “mature-regulatory” phase. The diversion of new pollution intensive plants to counties with less stringent environmental regulations suggests that current US environmental regulations may be leading to a “browning process” whereby counties historically free of pollution become havens for polluters. Received: 2 April 1999 / Accepted: 18 October 1999     

On the role of distance for outward FDI

This paper focuses on the estimation of three distance-related effects on outward FDI. (1) Distance harms vertical multinationals, since they engage in trade. (2) It makes non-trading multinationals better off than exporters. (3) This positive effect on horizontal FDI is expected to rise with bilateral parent and host market size. The use of panel data and related econometric methods is highly recommended to avoid parameter bias from endogenous, unobserved, time-invariant effects. A unified estimation approach to assess all three hypotheses then has to rely on instrumental variable techniques for generalized least-squares methods. In the empirical analysis of 1989-1999 bilateral US outward FDI stocks at the industry level, it is shown that testing and accounting for autocorrelation is extremely important for parameter inference. In sum, the paper lends strong support to the theory of horizontally organized multinationals as outlined in Markusen and Venables (J Int Econ 52(2):209–234).     

Location choice for Japanese frozen food industry in East Asia using domestic market access with the penetration rate of refrigerators

In the 2000s, after the Asian financial crisis, East Asian countries achieved rapid economic growth. Many Japanese frozen food companies focused on East Asian markets, but faced problems with the cold chain and refrigerators. In this study, we use the penetration rate of household refrigerators in the host country to calculate market access, which we then use to estimate the location choice model. The results of the conditional logistic model show that the location choice for Japanese frozen food companies is affected not only by the penetration rate of refrigerators, but also by traditional cost-reduction factors, such as wages and investment promotion policies in the host country. In addition, domestic market access encourages Japanese FDI in East Asia.     

International comparison of social housing management in Western Europe

This article provides an overview of social housing management in seven West-European countries. In order to place the concept of housing management in context and allow comparison, housing management is classified according to technical, social and financial aspects of management. Housing management has become increasingly independent and the financial ties are becoming looser in nearly all of the seven investigated countries. Even though governments still play a major role in Europe with respect to the granting of subsidies, the non-profit institutions have to entirely rely on the capital market in order to obtain the required funds. However, in many cases intermediary organisations are still responsible for attracting loans. Peter Boelhouwer is a senior research at the OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies, Delft University of Technology. His research focus has been on general housing policy, housing finance and comparative housing research. This paper is based on two recent OTB-studies about the social rented sector in Western Europe. The first study was written by Birgitta van de Ven and was published in 1995 in the Dutch series “Volkshuisvestingsbeleid en Bouwmarkt” (26). The title of this report is “Housing systems in Europe: A comparative study of housing management”. The second study (Boelhouwer, 1996) is titled “Financing the social rented sector in Western Europe”, and is published in the series Housing and Urban Policy Studies. This project was carried out by the OTB in cooperation with the School of the Built Environment of the De Montfort University in Leicester (UK). This cooperation forms part of the Centre for Comparative Housing Research.     

Capital deepening and regional inequality: an empirical analysis

We present a simple reproducible methodology for constructing regional capital stock data, which we apply to Israel. We find that capital deepening has been sigma-convergent since 1985. This process is “inverted” since capital stocks and capital–labor ratios in the richer center have been catching-up with their counterparts in the poorer periphery. We explain this phenomenon in terms of fundamental changes in regional policy. Despite this, regional wages have not been sigma-convergent because other wage determinants have been sigma-divergent.     

"Composition" and regularisation of architectural production in contemporary China

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the “Beaux-Arts” “composition” sustained the constitution of design principles for architectural production in China in the last two decades of the twentieth century. “Composition”, a key technique of the “Beaux-Arts” system, is not a simple act of “putting elements together” into a unified whole, but also relates to an array of different “constructions” of architectural knowledge which regulate and sustain the act of design. Through analysing the structure of three “textbooks” published in the early 1980s, this paper examines three aspects of the “constructions”: the setting up of the principles for governing architectural forms, regularisation of design methods and approaches for architectural practice, and the construction of a “tradition” for the expression of “Chineseness”.     

North–South transfers vs biodiversity conservation: a trade differential game

Trade relationships connect developed and developing countries. The former produces a consumption good, using labor, capital, and an intermediate “natural” good which is produced in the developing countries using labor and natural species. A finite horizon differential game is settled out. The North decides about either the saving rate or the portion of its disposable income to transfer to the South or both variables jointly. The South selects the range of species used in the production of the intermediate “natural” good required in the North’s productive process. This is a measure of biodiversity loss. The aim of the paper is to study how transfers from North to South affect capital growth and biodiversity conservation.

Mechanisms of large-scale landslides in China

Large-scale landslides in western China are famous for their size, complex formation mechanism and serious destruction. Data were collected from some typical large-scale landslides in mainland China in the 20th century. A number of geo-mechanical models have been identified: the “three sections” model (sliding; tension cracking; shearing), “retaining wall collapse”, “horizontal-pushing” in horizontal strata; large-scale toppling in counter-inclined strata; the creep-bending–shearing model etc. Large-scale rock landslides are generally accompanied by sudden brittle failure of the “locking section” along the potential sliding surface. The paper discusses the importance of this “locking section” which is key to assessing slope geohazard and to the development of control/mitigation measures.     

Cultural activities as a location factor in European competition between regions: Concepts and some evidence

The main aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical background and empirical evidence on the importance of the cultural sector for competitiveness and development of the regional economy. It is argued that the fall of barriers to trade and the movement of capital and labor in the European Single Market will result in a transformation of the forces shaping its spatial structure. Consequently, the theory of international trade looses its capacity to explain the volume and structure of exchange between regions, which are or belong to different states within the European Union. On the other hand, the theory of spatial distribution of economic activities becomes increasingly relevant for explaining movements of the factors of production and patterns of interregional specialisation.  Based on a case study, the paper analyses the influence of “soft” location factors, in particular cultural activities, on the competitive position of producers located in different urban regions. The “cultural multiplier” approach is used to measure direct income flows resulting from such activities while the concept of externalities is employed to analyse the indirect effects. Received: March 1997/Accepted: July 1998     

National oligopolies and economic geography

We replace monopolistic competition with national oligopolies in a model of “new economic geography”. There are many possible bifurcation diagrams, but unlike in monopolistic competition, the symmetric equilibrium is always stable for low trade costs. The antitrust policy, though identical in both countries, affects the geographical distribution of firms. In turn, migration attenuates the effectiveness of the antitrust policy in eliminating collusive behavior. For high trade costs, a toughening of the antitrust policy is likely to result in more agglomeration and may reduce world welfare. The antitrust policy is more likely to be welfare improving when market integration progresses.     

Firm heterogeneity and the localization of economic activities

This paper examines how market‐access strategies, via exports and FDI, respond to changes in the level of integration. Empirical evidence shows that both firm exports and multinational activity are affected by trade liberalization episodes. We account for the strong positive correlation between exports and FDI by developing a general‐equilibrium model featuring firm heterogeneity, trade and FDI with final and intermediate products. Different geographical spaces are considered to quantify the effect of a preferential trade agreement (PTA) on supply‐mode decisions, for both partner and excluded countries. The model sheds new light on the mechanisms through which geography reshapes the concentration of economic activities both inside and outside the PTA area.     

How can western China attract FDI? A case of Japanese investment

This paper adopts a conditional logit model to empirically examine the changes of Japanese investors’ location choices in response to China’s recent reorientation of its development strategy from the eastern coast to interior areas. This strategy adjustment is intended to attract FDI into China’s western region in hopes of promoting its economic growth and reducing economic inequality. Future policy suggestions on FDI attraction to western China are proposed based on the empirical details. This paper was the winning entry of the 19th Charles M. Tiebout Prize in Regional Science, and was presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Western Regional Science Association in San Diego, CA, February 2005.     

The impact of immigration on interregional migrations: an input–output analysis with an application for Spain

Developed countries in general, Spain in particular, have experienced a dramatic rise in the reception of foreign workers in the last decade. Among all the economic and social effects originated by the arrivals of immigrants, the literature has paid some attention to the potential effect that this immigration can produce on the internal migration patterns (the so-called “displacement effect”). This paper proposes the use of a multi-region input–output model of migrations for measuring how the reception of immigrants in one region displaces population among all the regions included in the model. From some basic assumptions, the input–output methodology proposed describes how the arrival of one immigrant in one region i, by the dissemination of internal population from i, generates indirect effects on other region j. To illustrate the methodology proposed in the paper, an empirical application for Spain is also included.     

Use of gestalt in wayfinding design and analysis of wayfinding process

The authors brought forward the definition of “Gestalt space” and indicated this kind of space can be easily cognized. Three experiments showed that “classification” and “grouping” are the human strategies to solve wayfinding problems. “Similarity” and “Legibility” of the space are advantageous to help people to complete wayfinding tasks. The designer should provide the essential “Legibility” in Gestalt space, by using some techniques such as “break” and “accession” to settle the wayfinding problem. __________ Translated from Architectural Journal, 2007, (5): 89–91 [译自: 建筑学报]     

Economic impacts of subsidized housing relocation

In recent years increased emphasis has been placed on use of “tenant-based” housing subsidies for acquisition of market-rate housing that is more economically and racially integrated than traditional “project-based” public housing. In this article, we model the short-term economic effects upon various groups of a hypothetical program in which low-income families move from inner-city public housing to spatially dispersed Section 8 rental housing. Using cross-section data from the Chicago region, impacts are computed for two of these groups. Preliminary results indicate that the short-term net economic impact of this hypothetical housing relocation is negative, that these impacts have a spatial character, and that there is a potential tradeoff between tenant benefits, housing subsidies from society and housing integration. Received: 20 January 1998 / Accepted: 30 November 1998     

Housing management matters: Citizenship and managerialism in the new welfare market

This paper addresses three neglected issues in the restructuring of housing policy and provision in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s: first, the relationship between welfare restructuring and management regimes; second, the nature of local variations in the impact of welfare restructuring; and third, the significance of human agency interpretations of change. The paper starts by summarizing the main features of welfare state restructuring and then considers recent manifestations of citizenship and managerialism in housing. Three competing conceptions of citizenship rights are used to examine changing notions of welfare: “market efficiency”, “institutionalized rights” and the “radical challenge” provided by social movements. A four-part typology of the main concepts and themes in the “new public management”—“efficiency”, “downsizing and decentralization”, “excellence” and “public service”—is used to present the main components of change in management regimes. The paper draws on literatures on housing management, citizenship and “the new public management” and on recent research into tenant participation, housing rights and housing advice services. Conclusions are drawn about how tensions between different conceptions of citizenship and public management are implicated with national and global influences at the local level to create particular welfare outcomes.