Trade costs,wage difference,and endogenous growth

In this paper, we develop an endogenous growth and international trade model with two countries in which equilibrium wages in the two countries are different between two countries. First, when trade costs are high, the share of manufacturing firms in the large country increases with a decline in trade costs because of market size. However, the share of firms then decreases with a decline in trade costs when trade costs are low because of wage differences. Finally, all firms agglomerate in the small country, since production costs in the small country are low. In this process, the innovation sector shifts its location from the large‐market and high‐wage country to the small‐market and low‐wage country.     

Growth of new firms and spatially bounded knowledge externalities

If localized knowledge spillovers are important, new firms will tend to locate in proximity of one another, as well as other knowledge sources, in order to capitalize on external knowledge stocks. Although theories that emphasize knowledge spillovers thus present the urban and regional character of a firm’s proximity to knowledge sources as a stylized fact, the microfoundations of economic growth in agglomerations are among the most anticipated issues in urban economic research. In this paper, we define knowledge-intensive environments along several dimensions, and analyze new firms’ survival and growth at the individual level. We apply multilevel regression to avoid potential estimation biases, and use firm-level data for newly established manufacturing and business services firms over the period of 2001–2006 in the Netherlands. We find that the urban knowledge context significantly relates to firm-level employment growth, but that this is conditioned by heterogeneous features of the firm population and knowledge externalities, including (a) industries—more in services than in manufacturing; (b) types of knowledge context—more positively related to (non-technical) innovation than to (technologically) R&D related variables; and (c) types of post entry process—different for survival and growth. We also find significant interaction effects between the growth of R&D-specialized firms with university presence.     

Firm location,interaction, and local characteristics: A case study for Madrid's electronics sector

We use geo‐referenced establishment data to estimate parameters of a Gibbs model. The statistical model is used to decompose the conditional intensity of the spatial point process into trend and interaction components. The trend captures covariates related to firms' costs, accessibility to public transport infrastructures, to technical universities and to cultural and recreational facilities. The ability to specify a Geyer interaction component captures the existence of additional spillovers providing a deeper insight into inter‐establishment spatial dynamics. The results challenge some of the outcomes of the inter‐urban industrial location literature, confirming that spatial aggregation compromises results in studies of business location. Firms' location decisions are dominated by site costs, with transportation costs being much less of a consideration; universities geographical knowledge spillovers are confirmed for large establishments; and amenities are unlikely to be important location factors.     

Regional characteristics and the decision to innovate in a developing country: A multilevel analysis of Ecuadorian firms

This is the first study that uses multilevel modelling to analyse regional influence on the decision to invest in innovation activities of firms in a single developing country, Ecuador. Our results indicate that the decision to invest in R&D and in other innovation activities are conditioned by the region in which the firm is located. Regional loan volume, orientation towards knowledge exploitation and intra-regional-sectorial R&D spillovers are positively associated with both types of innovation activities, while regional levels of co-operation and inter-regional R&D spillovers are only positively associated with the probability of investing in other innovation activities.     

Geographic localisation of knowledge spillovers: evidence from high-tech patent citations in Europe

The focus in this paper is on knowledge spillovers between high-technology firms in Europe, as captured by patent citations. The European coverage is given by patent applications at the European Patent Office (EPO) that are assigned to high-technology firms located in Europe. By following the paper trail left by citations between high-technology patents we adopt a case–control matching approach to test the extent of localisation of knowledge spillovers at two geographic levels, the region and the country level. This approach views a finding of disproportionate co-location of patent citations relative to co-located control patents as evidence of localised knowledge spillovers. To disentangle border from geographic distance effects the paper adopts a Poisson spatial interaction modelling perspective. The findings of the study not only indicate that localisation of knowledge spillovers exists, but also that national border effects are more important than geographical distance effects. Thus, knowledge flows within European countries more easily than across. Not only geography matters, but also technological proximity. Interregional knowledge flows are industry specific and occur most often between regions located close to each other in technological space.     

Transboundary pollution,R&;D spillovers and international trade

We consider a non-cooperative and symmetric three-stage game played by two regulator-firm hierarchies. We show that R&D spillovers and the competition of firms on the common market help non-cooperating countries to better internalize transboundary pollution. Surprisingly, international competition increases the per-unit emission-tax and decreases the per-unit R&D subsidy. It also leads to a higher investment in R&D and production, and to a lower emission ratio. In most cases, pollution in common market is lower than in autarky, implying a greater social welfare, and the contrary occurs in some other cases.     

Tariffs, factor prices, and welfare in a spatial oligopoly

In this paper we derive endogenous tariff rates for a tariff revenue maximizing policy and a welfare maximizing policy (optimal tariff) in a spatial framework. The underlying model is that of a spatial oligopolistic market with domestic and foreign firms. We assess the outcomes of the model for different tariff rates and the free trade situation, the stress being on welfare considerations. Compared to the traditional theory of international trade and tariffs, this approach affords useful insights into the role of firms‘ locations and transportation costs for profits and consumers‘ surplus in the case of alternative trade policies. Received: February 1996 / Accepted in revised form: April 1997     

Spatial knowledge spillovers and university research: Evidence from Austria

This paper provides some evidence on the importance of geographically mediated knowledge spillovers from university research activities to regional knowledge production in high-technology industries in Austria. Spillovers occur because knowledge created by universities has some of the characteristics of public goods, and creates value for firms and other organisations. The paper lies in the research tradition that finds thinking in terms of a production function of knowledge useful and looks for patents as a proxy of the `output' of this process, while university research and corporate R&D investment represent the `input' side. We refine the classical regional knowledge production function by introducing a more explicit measure to capture the pool of relevant spatial academic knowledge spillovers. A spatial econometric approach is used to test for the presence of spatial effects and – when needed – to implement models that include them explicitly. The empirical results confirm the presence of geographically mediated university spillovers that transcend the spatial scale of political districts. They, moreover, demonstrate that such spillovers follow a clear distance decay pattern. Received: June 2001/Accepted: August 2002 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 17^th Pacific Conference of the Regional Science Association International, Portland, Oregon, USA, June 30–July 4, 2001. The research has been supported by grants from the Jubil?umsfonds of the Austrian National Bank (no. 7994) and the Department of Economic Geography & Geoinformatics. The authors are also grateful to Harry Kelejian and three anonymous referees for valuable comments.     

The determinants of agglomeration for the manufacturing sector in the Istanbul metropolitan area

This paper examines the determinants of agglomeration by seeking the patterns of urbanization economies and localization economies in the Istanbul metropolitan area (IMA). The research is developed in two steps. The first step is the measurement of concentration levels for the IMA; the Ellison–Glaeser localization index (EGI) is applied to the 22 manufacturing sector (2-digit level) at three different geographical levels. The second step is to determine the structural pattern of agglomeration. By regressing the Ellison–Glaeser localization index values on proxies for urbanization and localization economies, the determinants of agglomeration are demonstrated. The determinants of agglomeration are estimated by 12 different two-stage OLS regressions. While three of these regressions represent the agglomeration factors at each geographical level, the other nine equations represent the agglomeration factors at the industry-specific level. The results suggest that urbanization economies have a strong effect on agglomeration both at the geographical level and industry-specific level. It is noticed that density, market area potential, and labor market potential are the most effective proxies for urbanization economies on agglomeration. The effects of localization economies are consistent with Marshall for labor pooling and manufactured input. However, the results do not provide any evidence that knowledge spillovers have an influence on agglomeration in this case.     

Collusion in two models of spatial competition with quantity-setting firms

We use the linear city model and the circular city model to investigate the relationship between collusion sustainability and firms’ distance, and between collusion sustainability and transportation costs when firms can sell different quantities at each location. We find that when transportation costs are low, collusion sustainability monotonically increases with firms’ distance, while when transportation costs are high, the relationship is non-monotonic. Higher transportation costs increase collusion sustainability. Finally, in the circular city model, welfare is higher under collusion than under competition when transportation costs are high and firms are distant enough.     

Agglomeration and spillovers in a simultaneous framework

Previous studies have emphasized reduced transaction costs, knowledge spillovers, diverse intermediate goods suppliers, and deep labor pools as possible drivers of firm agglomeration. Among these candidates, knowledge spillovers lie at the heart of discussions in the literature. If knowledge spillovers are so important, it follows that firms tend to locate in proximity to capitalize on the knowledge stock in neighboring firms. Therefore, agglomeration and spillovers reinforce each other. However, most existing empirical studies ignore the potential endogenous relationship between the two. Moreover, few studies have even attempted to measure knowledge spillovers. In this paper, I address both issues by developing and estimating a simultaneous equation model of agglomeration and knowledge spillovers. The results suggest that traditional single equation models do indeed suffer endogeneity and that the accuracy of the estimation can be substantially improved by employing a simultaneous system.Received: June 2003/Accepted: March 2004The author gratefully acknowledges valuable comments and constant encouragement from Edward Feser.     

Zipf’s and Gibrat’s laws for migrations

This paper analyses the evolution of the size distribution of the stock of immigrants in the period 1960–2000. In particular, we are interested in testing the validity of two empirical regularities: Zipf’s law, which postulates that the product between the rank and size of a population is constant; and Gibrat’s law, according to which the growth rate of a variable is independent of its initial size. We use parametric and nonparametric methods and apply them to absolute (stock of immigrants) and relative (migration density, defined as the quotient between the stock of immigrants of a country and its total population) measurements. We find that both the stock of immigrants and migration density follow similar size distributions to those of cities and of countries. Contrary to what traditional migrations models predict, growth in the stock of immigrants is independent of the initial stock. Moreover, the growth of migration density shows a divergent behaviour, which could be explained by the lower birth rates of host countries and the reduction in the cost of emigration produced by the presence of a previous stock of immigrants in the country.     

Spillovers and growth in a local interaction model

This theoretical model investigates the extent of the effects of local technological spillovers on growth. We add to a growth model with vertical quality ladder innovations the assumption that firms are exogenously located around a circle and technological spillovers affecting R&D efficacy occur between neighbors. As a result, the presence of local spillovers makes it optimal for a firm to innovate intensively only if the neighbors do so. However, they do not produce clear effects on either growth or welfare. On one hand positive spillovers improve the quality of local goods—hence growth—but, on the other, a high level of positive spillovers generate discrepancies across intermediate sectors which reduce the level of household welfare. We are grateful to J. Caballé, D. Fridman, K. Kletzer, the participants to EUNIP Conference in Porto as well as XXVIII Simposio de Análisis Económico, and the editor R. Stough for useful suggestions. R. Nicolini research is supported by a Ramón y Cajalcontract and research grants 2005SGR00470 and SEJ2005-01427/ECON.     

An intra-industry trade model in a vertical differentiation framework

We developed a partial equilibrium model in which intra-industry trade arises as a result of utility maximization of consumers and profit maximization of firms. The driving force for intra-industry trade is non-homothetic preferences of consumers. We utilized a vertical differentiation framework, in which consumers have the same tastes for quality but different income levels determining their non-homogeneous choices. All firms in all countries have access to the same production technology, and there are no differences in factor endowments. Intra-industry trade arises as a result of each firm specializing on a certain segment of the market in all countries. We solved the model numerically for a two-country two-firm setup. In this setup, firms choose their product quality level and their price by maximizing their profits in a two-stage optimization problem. They also decide whether to export to the foreign market or to concentrate only on the domestic market in a standard two-by-two game. With introduction of non-zero transportation costs, trade volumes in both directions decrease. Transportation costs are shared between consumers and firms according to the marginal demand in the domestic versus in the foreign country. This model supports Krugman’s home market effect: In case of non-zero transportation costs, firms want to locate their production site in the country where there is higher marginal demand for their product.     

The evolution of regional multi-pole growth

Regional multi-pole growth is an important spatial form of regional economic organization pattern. We construct a model of regional multi-pole growth evolution to study its mechanism based on the assumption of heterogeneous space and inseparability of the economic subject. The study concludes that the evolution of regional multi-pole growth is affected by factors such as transportation costs, economies of scale, the crowding-out effect, and the factor endowments of superior location and inferior location. Based on the condition that the factor endowment of a location remains the same, with an increased economy of scale effect and a decline in the marginal production cost advantage, location will strengthen the agglomeration layout, which does not help form regional multi-pole growth patterns. With an increase of the crowding-out effect and a decline in the marginal production cost disadvantage, location will strengthen the dispersed layout, which fosters the formation of the regional multi-pole growth pattern. When transportation costs are high, a decline in such costs strengthens the links among locations, fostering the evolution of the regional spatial organization form to shift from dispersion to agglomeration. However, when transportation costs are somewhat reduced, their further reduction leads the regional spatial organization pattern into dispersion. Therefore, under certain conditions and with a decline in transportation costs, regional multi-pole growth weakens first and then strengthens.     

Migration and regional labor market adjustment: Chile 1977–1982 and 1987–1992

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the migration processes that have been occurring in Chile between 1977–1982 and 1987–1992, as a market mechanism to re-allocate labor among regions. Using traditional consumer theory, a model is developed for a migrant who is evaluating migration. Secondly, this model is estimated, with cross section aggregate data, for both periods using a logit formulation. The results indicate that there is a strong force in the Chilean regional labor market, which serves to concentrate the workforce around the largest populated region of the country. Finally, regional labor markets are simulated to show that migration forces are very weak to arbitrage regional wages and unemployment rate and specific policy is required to promote balanced development across Chilean regions. Received: January 1999/Accepted: August 2001     

智慧交通基础设施交叉方向研究生培养模式探索与实践

“交通强国”国家战略背景下，交通基础设施建设迫切需要以“两新一重”为指导，以适应新时代智慧交通发展要求。高校作为专业人才培养的主体，应紧密贴合国家战略和行业需求，鼓励交通运输工程各二级学科与其他学科交叉，推进交通运输工程专业向智能化、信息化方向发展，推进研究生培养模式系统性改革。以现行培养体系存在的问题为切入点，从行业和高校两个角度出发，围绕理论知识、实践能力、创新思维和国际视野四个方面，归纳总结了交通基础设施方向研究生应具备的四项核心能力：知识迭代能力、工程实践能力、技术创新能力和国际适应能力。针对智慧交通基础设施交叉方向研究生特点，紧扣研究生培养质量这一核心目标，以课程体系、培养模式、学科交叉为主要措施；以支撑培养体系的可行性和科学性；以管理办法、导师团队、实践平台为坚实后盾，保障改革措施能够切实落地。“三支撑”与“三保障”互相有机联系，共同致力于提升专业研究生培养质量，构建了智慧交通基础设施交叉方向研究生培养模式。以哈尔滨工业大学交通科学与工程学院的实际探索案例为依托，介绍了该案例在国际教育、学科交叉和校企合作方面取得的系列成效，指出了培养模式探索中可能存在的问题，为智慧交通基础...     

Geographically and technologically mediated knowledge spillovers between European regions

This paper aims at investigating inter-regional knowledge spillovers across European sub-national regions. The basic questions that we wish to answer may be formulated in the following way: do regional geographical and technological proximities matter for the creation of new knowledge within the European regional landscape? After a review of the related literature, we consider a regional knowledge production function that allows for extra regional innovation-generating inputs. Accounting for regional specific social capability, this knowledge production function is applied to an extended sample of 153 European sub-national regions over the period 1989–1996. Interregional knowledge spillovers are shown to exist between geographically close regions and between regions displaying similar technological profiles. However, technological proximity and geographical proximity coincides to a certain extent. Knowledge spillovers are mainly driven by the private business sector. If knowledge spillovers occur within a given country, the national border turns out to seriously hamper interregional spillovers on the European scale. The author wishes to thank Eckhardt Bode, Henri Capron, Raymond J.G.M. Florax, Charlie Karlsson, Roger Stough and Roger Vickerman for their useful comments and suggestions. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Western Regional Science Association in February 2002, Monterey, California.     

Theoretical perspectives on localized knowledge spillovers and agglomeration

Empirical evidence shows that innovation is geographically concentrated, but whether localized knowledge spillovers provide a logically valid explanation for this phenomenon is unclear. I show that in the context of cost‐reducing R&D spillovers between Cournot oligopolists the explanation is plausible: localized knowledge spillovers encourage agglomeration, but whether this leads to higher levels of effective R&D depends on the extent of the spillovers, the number of firms, and the industry's R&D efficiency. Contrary to the earlier theoretical work, this illustrates a context, in which the localized knowledge spillover explanation is actualized, and provides necessary conditions, which can be empirically tested.     

Industrial location,spatial discrete choice models and the need to account for neighbourhood effects

This research, following the original contributions of Vichiensan et al. (J East Asia Soc Trans Stud 6:3789–3802, 2005) and Autant-Bernard (Eur Plan Stud 14:1187–1208, 2006), employs a spatial conditional logit framework in order to explore the role that inter-territorial spillovers play in driving the location choices of industrial firms. After introducing neighbourhood effects into the theoretical model, we test the methodology using data on 8,429 firms established in the municipalities making up the Spanish region of Murcia. Our results show that human capital, agglomeration economies and industrial land availability are the main factors driving entrepreneurs’ decisions. Estimates of the spatial component of the model indicate that spillovers or externalities taking place between municipalities (inter-territorial spatial effects) have a remarkable influence on the location decisions of the firms, thus confirming the need to account for such spatial dependence pattern when studying location decisions of industrial companies at a local level.