Multi-dimensional analysis of regional inequality: The case of higher educational facilities in Spain

Several major changes in educational policies have occurred in Spain over the last four decades. One of these is the re-organization of the educational system beginning in 1970. A policy to encourage the regional spread of universities was pursued over the seventies and eighties. There has also been devolution of power to some regions with respect to the management of the educational system. These policy changes are hypothesized to have resulted in an impact on inter-regional and intra-re gional inequality with respect to educational facilities. We investigate the change in inequality that occurred between the 60s and the70s, and also between the 80s and early 90s. Received: 21 February 2000 / Accepted: 12 February 2001     

Cultural diversity and entrepreneurship: a regional analysis for Germany

In this paper, we investigate the determinants of entrepreneurial activity in a cross section of German regions for the period 1998–2005. Departing from the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship, the focus of our analysis is on the role of the regional environment and, in particular, knowledge and cultural diversity. Our main hypothesis is that both, knowledge and diversity, have a positive impact on new firm formation. As the determinants of regional firm birth rates might differ considerably with respect to the necessary technology and knowledge input, we consider start-ups at different technology levels. The regression results indicate that regions with a high level of knowledge provide more opportunities for entrepreneurship than other regions. Moreover, while sectoral diversity tends to dampen new firm foundation, cultural diversity has a positive impact on technology oriented start-ups. This suggests that the diversity of people is more conducive to entrepreneurship than the diversity of firms. Thus, regions characterized by a high level of knowledge and cultural diversity form an ideal breeding ground for technology oriented start-ups.     

FDI and immigration: a regional analysis

Does immigration affect foreign direct investment? Existing studies on immigration and FDI have all looked at aggregate flows at the national level, arguing that immigrant networks lower the risk of foreign investment through increased information flows and a built in market. However, these national-level studies suffer from identification problems since many of the factors that attract immigrants also attract FDI. This study improves upon identification by looking at the regional distribution of both FDI and immigration from 10 source countries to the 50 US states. Using a unique measure of immigrant network size in each state, I find that immigration is not only positively correlated with FDI, it tends to lead it as well. Comparing a state with an average sized immigrant network to one with a network twice as large, I estimate that the stronger network state will get on average 20 more foreign-owned affiliates opening per year, an effect that is quite persistent over time. On average, more skilled immigrant communities attract more FDI, while the pull effect of immigration on FDI also increases with immigrant ties to native countries and with immigrant influence in local communities. These results suggest that immigration creates a positive externality in foreign investment that must be considered when assessing the costs and benefits of labor mobility.     

Dynamic multipliers for a regional input-output model

Regional multiplier is a very useful and popular tool in economic study of a region. However, conventional regional multiplier derived from a static input-output model fails to provide time path of the impact over period. In many cases, it restricts the impact within a year period. To alleviate the problem, this paper introduces a regional dynamic multiplier which makes the impact to spread out over period. In the absence of the technical change, each period multiplier added up to the static multiplier. Utilizing Oklahoma data, the paper estimates the capital coefficients and the dynamic multipliers of Oklahoma regional economy. Finally, it provides a comparative study of dynamic multipliers for various industries.The author is grateful to Professor Wassily Leontief who generously sent him the U.S. Capital Coefficient data and to the referees for their valuable suggestions. This research was supported in part by the Center for Economic and Management Research, the University of Oklahoma. Mr. Chun K. Chang and Mr. Ui Nam Choi provided computer assistance and data gathering works. The final revision was done at Harvard University.     

Defining coherence for landscape planning and management: a regional landscape strategy for North West England

The range of environmental activity in the North West of England is as diverse as its landscapes. These embrace some of the finest, but also some of the most degraded, landscapes in the UK; to date however, there has been no overall co-ordination of initiatives aimed at their protection and rehabilitation. The emergence of regional planning guidance, a regional economic strategy and the agenda of sustainable development demands a more integrative, strategic approach to environmental action. This paper details the development of a regional landscape strategy which seeks to provide the connection between action at the regional and the neighbourhood levels through the co-ordination, reinforcement and innovation of environmental activity. The regional landscape strategy provides a focus around which the interests of public, private and voluntary bodies can coalesce and a medium for the articulation of policy aspirations relating to the sustainable planning and management of landscapes.     

Defining coherence for landscape planning and management: a regional landscape strategy for North West England

The range of environmental activity in the North West of England is as diverse as its landscapes. These embrace some of the finest, but also some of the most degraded, landscapes in the UK; to date however, there has been no overall co‐ordination of initiatives aimed at their protection and rehabilitation. The emergence of regional planning guidance, a regional economic strategy and the agenda of sustainable development demands a more integrative, strategic approach to environmental action. This paper details the development of a regional landscape strategy which seeks to provide the connection between action at the regional and the neighbourhood levels through the co‐ordination, reinforcement and innovation of environmental activity. The regional landscape strategy provides a focus around which the interests of public, private and voluntary bodies can coalesce and a medium for the articulation of policy aspirations relating to the sustainable planning and management of landscapes.     

Network central: regional positioning for innovative advantage

This paper investigates the characteristics of regions that contribute to their positioning within the emerging innovative networks supported by the European Union’s Framework Program using a spatial-network approach. Although the importance of research collaborations in network formation has been generally recognized, relatively little research has investigated why some regions are able to attain prominent network positions, while others do not. We analyze a spatially detailed data base of EU Framework Program-supported research ventures in Austria to understand how specific geographical nodes come to occupy important positions within key research networks. The paper deploys what is termed here a network positioning function to investigate the question of network centrality and at the same time to illustrate the possibilities of combining network and spatial analysis to examine this or other research questions where similar approaches might be applicable. Findings reveal the factors important for understanding advantageous positions enjoyed by regional districts as measured by alternative centrality concepts. Concepts that distinguish innovation exploitation from exploration were used to interpret network positions, which further clarify positioning in highly localized versus distant member networks.     

Migration and regional science: opportunities and challenges in a changing environment

Migration studies have a long history within regional science. This paper reviews the current status of migration research within regional science and asks whether migration continues to maintain the presence and import in regional science that appeared in earlier, similar analyses such as Anselin and Rey (Int Reg Sci Rev 23(4):323–344, 2000) and Plane and Bitter (Pap Reg Sci J RSAI 76:133–153, 1997). The paper looks at the relative strength of migration studies within regional science and the challenges (and concomitant) opportunities that are available. It begins by replicating a portion of a 1997 study by Plane and Bitter which evaluated the prevalence of migration research within the regional science literature. Based on findings that the proportion of both migration and population-themed papers have decreased, the paper then considers the challenges facing researchers, including data and training challenges, along with the need to ensure that migration research remains relevant, before offering concluding remarks.     

SUSLE: a slope and seasonal rainfall-based RUSLE model for regional quantitative prediction of soil erosion

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) models are most widely used for quantitative prediction of soil erosion. However, these models...     

The Granger-causality between income and educational inequality: a spatial cross-regressive VAR framework

This paper tests the causal processes between income and educational inequality within regions of the European Union, using a spatial cross-regressive VAR framework. The results show that there is a heterogeneous causality from income inequality to educational inequality and vice versa, and interregional income and educational externalities are relevant to this causality. This finding raises potentially interesting economic policy implications.     

Industrial design as a producer service: A framework for analysis in regional science

Industrial design can be used to explore some ideas in producer services research. Its geographical location and position in a corporate structure can indicate much about the character of regions and corporations because it represents a way that knowledge is incorporated into production. Hence the size, location and organisation of industrial design can be an important indicator of the vitality of regions. This paper illustrates how these perspectives can be derived, and provides two frameworks that could be used to structure detailed empirical research on firms, industries and regions.     

Two frontiers for regional science: Regional policy and interdisciplinary reach

In this note, I address two frontiers where we, as regional scientists, can raise the visibility and impact of regional science and enlarge the community of scholars in our fold. The first is the resurgence of regionalism as a phenomenon and policy arena. My argument here is that many politicians, practitioners and citizens are actively debating the health and future of metropolitan regions, but we are not playing the intellectual role that we could be. The second frontier involves expanding the interdisciplinary reach of regional science towards the 'softer' social and policy sciences, especially in the direction of sociology, political science, and city and regional planning. My argument here is that our tools of analysis, especially our understanding of agents and institutions, would be more powerful if amplified by selected contributions from neighboring fields. Received: 6 January 2001 / Accepted: 21 January 2002     

Political tournament and regional cooperation in China: a game theory approach

This paper aims to study the political incentives of government officials to cooperate with one another to achieve a common goal through game theory. Game theory is often used to analyze and explain regional cooperation by regarding it as a type of institutional collective action in which the actions of its participants (local governments or nations) greatly depend on those of the other participants. However, considering China’s political structure, the political relationship among local government key officials may also influence regional cooperation. This study used the Pan-Pearl River Delta (Pan-PRD) Cooperation, the largest regional cooperation bloc in China formed in 2004. The Pan-PRD covered nine provinces in Mainland China and two special administrative regions as a case study for this research; three models were constructed using game theory to analyze the political incentives of the provincial officials in cooperating with one another under the assumption of relative gains. Results showed that the cooperation incentives are sensitive to the variations of political rankings among the leading provincial officials. Driven by promotion incentives, cooperation is more feasible between jurisdictions with different political rankings and less feasible between jurisdictions with the same political rankings.     

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.     

Multicriteria evaluation for regional planning: Some practical experiences

The paper discusses the experience the authors have obtained in the application of multicriteria techniques to a location analysis of a politically sensitive subject, i.e., the future gravel production in the Dutch province of Limburg. In the study explicit attention had to be given to all dimensions of the problem due to the use of qualitative and quantitative criteria and alternative weighting schemes. It appears that a multicriteria approach can be a helpful method to stimulate and structure discussions. Therefore the study has been instructive for all participants. The study also illustrates that the success or failure of an approach is strongly related to the people who are directly involved in the project and the organizational and social circumstances in which a project functions. The paper focusses mainly on the methodological experience and findings.