Can migration reduce civil conflicts as an antidote to rent-seeking?

In this paper, I investigate whether access to migration reduces the positive effect of natural resources on the onset of civil conflicts shown in the literature. There is a negative and significant correlation between the interaction variable “migration rate-natural resources” and the probability of outbreak of civil wars, showing that the effect of natural resources is conditional on the migration rate. Simulations to quantify the marginal effects of the interaction term show that a migration rate equal to 6% or higher dampens the effect of natural resources on civil wars. To address the potential endogeneity problem in estimating the relationship between civil conflicts and migration, although I distinguish economic migrants from refugees, I also use an IV approach. In this respect, the negative effect of the two interacting variables on the probability of outbreak of civil wars remains robust after having instrumented the migration rate by using the gravity-based predicted emigration rate. Given the endogenous nature of the ratio of primary exports to GDP, in addition, the study directly utilizes the emigration rates as an alternate robust method to estimate the primary issue on civil conflicts. The results show that only the civil conflicts caused by natural resources are negatively impacted by emigration rates.     

The implementation of the Wroclaw taxonomic method for the identification and evaluation of problem areas in the Warmia and Mazury Region in Poland – A case study

Problem areas are targeted by regional policy. The type and scope of spatial conflicts are analyzed to determine the most appropriate spatial planning measures. In this study, a problem area was defined as an integral spatial unit which is characterized by growth barriers, accumulation of negative phenomena, untapped resources and potential, and where support measures are required to promote growth and eliminate the existing obstacles to development. This study identifies and analyzes problem areas in the Region of Warmia and Mazury in Poland based on counties as the main taxonomic unit. For the needs of the analysis, it was assumed that problem areas are characterized by a high prevalence of adverse demographic and/or socioeconomic phenomena which constitute growth barriers and prevent these areas from harnessing their potential and the local resources. Spatio-functional parameters were taken into consideration to comprehensively describe spatial conditions in the analyzed region. Spatial variations were analyzed with the use of the Wrocław taxonomic method, where demographic, socioeconomic and spatio-functional criteria were evaluated separately. The Wrocław taxonomic method has never been described in English-language academic papers. According to research, areas with the greatest accumulation of socioeconomic and demographic problems in the Region of Warmia and Mazury are situated along the Polish border. The results can be used in the process of setting directions for development and implementing remedy measures at the regional level.     

西部自然资源对东西部经济增长的贡献——基于省际面板数据的实证研究

运用加入自然资源的CD生产函数和省际面板数据估计了西部各省自然资源的开发利用对本地区经济增长的贡献率,并以此为基础分析了西部自然资源对东部经济增长的贡献。得出结论,西部省份自然资源的开发利用对本地区经济增长的贡献率普遍偏低,而西部自然资源对东部经济增长的贡献接近或者超过8%。政策建议是需要建立东部对西部自然资源利用的补偿机制。     

Nature,Economy, and Equity: Sacred Water,Profane Markets

Numerous conflicts over natural resources can be overcome by restoring reciprocity between public and private sectors of the economy. Chapter 1 reviews two competing forms of environmentalism: one that accommodates business interests by giving public resources to them, and one that sacralizes the bond between society and nature by protecting both environmental quality and social equity. Chapter 2 discusses problems around the world that can be traced to mismanagement of natural resources, including land grabs and poverty. It also reveals a natural confluence between environmental, economic, and social concerns. Chapter 3 shows problems created by California's water tenure laws. California's 19^th century equitable solution (the Wright Act) is examined, along with inequities in legal regimes of India, Pakistan, South Africa, and the Philippines. Chapter 4 is a case study of how water laws have affected one river in California's Central Valley by preventing efficient water use. Chapter 5 shows why “water markets,” the standard panacea offered by most economists, have failed to improve either the efficiency or equity of water allocations in California and why such schemes are likely to fail for other natural resources. The missing element in such plans is a method of creating reciprocity by compensating the public, as the original owners of all natural resources. Chapter 6 concludes with four principles derived from the foregoing analysis.     

Sustainable development and research and development intensity in U.S. manufacturing firms

Across manufacturing sectors, mounting regulatory pressures motivate the adoption of innovative sustainable practices to help address and improve environmental performance. Sustainable practices, however, face many challenges to minimize negative environmental impacts while conserving energy and natural resources. This study seeks to understand the effect of research and development intensity on dimensions of environmental performance in manufacturing firms. Using data from U.S. corporations over the period from 1991 through 2015, we find that sustainable practices are associated with a higher level of negative environmental ratings. In addition, the level of environmental concerns tends to decrease with firm investments in research and development intensity over time. These findings suggest that bigger firms are likely to report a higher level of environmental concerns due to their experimentation with sustainable practices. These firms are also likely to reduce negative environmental ratings over time and realize economies of scale with sustainable manufacturing.     

富士康人力资源管理反思及其启示

文章对富士康发展模式、管理理念、工作压力、跨文化冲突、劳资关系等方面存在的人力资源管理问题进行了深入分析,认为富士康要实现可持续发展,就必须改变目前单纯的出口导向型代工模式,提倡以人为本,采取文化融合和管理人员本土化策略有效管理文化冲突,从人力资源管理和压力管理相结合的角度有效管理员工压力问题,采取切实措施改善劳资关系。     

On the spatial economic impact of global warming

We propose a dynamic spatial theory to analyze the geographic impact of climate change. Agricultural and manufacturing firms locate on a hemisphere. Trade is costly, firms innovate, and technology diffuses over space. Emissions from energy used in production contribute to the atmospheric stock of carbon, which increases temperature. Warming differs across latitudes and its effect on productivity varies across sectors. We calibrate the model to analyze how climate change affects the spatial distribution of economic activity, trade, migration, growth, and welfare. We assess quantitatively the impact of migration and trade restrictions, energy taxes, and innovation subsidies.     

城市边缘区开放空间保护模式与策略研究

城市空间发展的无序和连续蔓延直接改变和影响到边缘区土地利用模式,造成远近郊开放空间和自然风景资源的占有和破坏。亟需从城市规划管理的各个层面对城市边缘区开放空间资源给予积极保护。论文从保护开放空间中自然风景这种重要公共资源的角度,立足于边缘区开放空间与城市发展的良性互动,从城市与郊区共同发展的需求和功能目标,探讨城市边缘区开放空间的保护方法———绿道、非建设用地规划和郊野公园等三种模式,并提出开放空间资源保护和发展的策略———规划控制管理、发展政策引导和社区民众参与等一系列措施。     

南贵昆经济区城市空间结构研究

南贵昆经济区是西部大开发中点轴开发的典型模式,是以城市为节点加强区际联系的典型表现.对南贵昆经济区城市化水平和城市等级规模结构的分析表明,南贵昆经济区城市化水平较低,城市等级规模结构不完善.整个经济区城市空间分布受资源禀赋影响显著,城市主要沿交通干线分布,在地域空间上呈离散的点状分布,没有形成较大规模的城市带和城市群.     

中国城市化的时空演变及因素分析

本文研究了我国城市化发展的时空演变及其影响因素。研究发现,目前我国的城市化进程仍存在着东中西部递减的空间格局,并且东中西部及各省区间的城市化水平差距正在不断减小;城市化水平受到诸多因素的影响,但其中的主要因素包括自然环境和自然资源条件、经济发展状况和国家政策与区划体制等。     

Book review of Economic Geography of Higher Education: Knowledge Infrastructure and Learning Regions. Edited by ROEL RUTTEN,FRANS BOEKEMA and ELSA KUIJPERS (London: Routledge, 2003). [Pp. 258]

This paper focuses on the growing aspect of entrepreneurship associated with lifestyle-induced migration from wealthy countries, through investigating self-employment among expatriates from northern Europe in rural areas of southern France and Spain. Most expatriates had no prior experience of entrepreneurship and typically established their business opportunistically and some time after arrival. Based upon interviews with 41 expatriate households (operating 70 business ventures), the study explores the characteristics of the individuals involved, the nature of their businesses, factors influencing start-up, and processes and patterns of business development. Self-employment is shown to be the most effective available mechanism for supporting lifestyle objectives of expatriates who vary greatly in their skills, experience and resources. The study identifies significant differences between the respective groups from the two countries, reflecting the spatially differentiated character of migration in terms of age, education, qualifications and capital resources. These appear to have given rise to a more sophisticated profile of businesses in the French areas. Sharp differences in language skills as between the different countries are seen as influencing the ability of entrepreneurs to network with, and market to, the indigenous population, with implications for the future development of the businesses, and their local impact. The study seeks to augment standard conceptual approaches to entrepreneurship, through taking account of the primacy of the migration decision and specific related processes, and proposes a model that advances our understanding of the phenomenon.     

浅析火灾损毁林地的森林资源恢复

对于森林自然资源来说,干旱等自然环境因素对其影响十分重大,一旦面临着火灾的袭击,就会导致森林资源大面积损毁,破坏力十分强大。而在火灾袭击过后,森林资源的恢复修整工作也十分艰巨,因火灾而造成的森林大面积损毁等现象,不仅不利于森林资源恢复工作的顺利开展,同时在恢复过程中也不能对恢复质量给予良好的保障。鉴于此,论文就火灾损毁林地的森林资源恢复进行分析探讨,希望能为相关地区的森林资源恢复工作给予一定帮助。     

企业竞争中战争策略借鉴

企业要想在市场中生存发展必须取得较好的市场地位,只有处于市场领先地位的企业,其利润率才能维持发展的需要。在有限的资源争夺中,企业的各种冲突在所难免,就如同战争的冲突一样,因此古老的进攻与防守战略在商业竞争中同样适用。     

空间规划策略与城市竞争力提升——以南京市为例

基于城市竞争力视角对城市空间组织进行了重新解读和深入分析,从竞争资源、竞争载体、竞争实践三个方面论证了卓越的城市空间架构是提升城市竞争力的关键.从都市圈、市域、都市发展区、主城四个层面对南京城市空间影响其城市竞争力的发展格局进行了总体评析,并在此基础上以城市竞争力为导向,建构了未来南京城市空间发展的策略框架.     

Migration and the wage and unemployment gaps between urban and non-urban sectors: A dynamic general equilibrium reinterpretation of the Harris–Todaro equilibrium

This paper offers a dynamic general equilibrium reinterpretation of the static partial migration equilibrium by Harris and Todaro [Harris, J., Todaro, M., 1970. Migration, unemployment and development; a two-sector analysis. American Economic Review 60, 126–142], under (i) flexible urban and rural wages and (ii) free mobility of workers and free entry of firms. The proposed model accounts for the set of stylized facts in developing countries: rural to urban migration and higher urban wages and unemployment.The model allows us to view the wage gap as a compensating differential for the negative amenities associated with job destruction and subsequent costly search on the consumption side, which can also be seen as a match-specific premium based on a sectoral productivity differential on the production side. Our model predicts the comovements among urban and non-urban wages and migration flows to the urban sector, an empirical regularity observed over the urbanization process of developing economies. Finally, we also conduct a welfare analysis.     

Residential mobility and the local context: Comparing long-term and short-term spatial trends of population movements in Greece

Residential mobility is a key dimension of population dynamics shaping urban growth and rural development at different spatio-temporal scales. Assuming spatial mobility as increasingly dependent on the intrinsic characteristics of local contexts, the present study investigates long-term and short-term population movements in a European country (Greece), in light of regional urbanization processes and socioeconomic development. A multidimensional analysis of indicators of residential stability and background variables was carried out with the aim at evaluating the influence of local contexts on more general processes of population mobility. Different typologies of spatial mobility associated to factors (directly or indirectly) dependent on demographic dynamics, economic performances and urban cycles were identified. The empirical findings of this study evidence (more or less traditional) paths of internal migration and a latent process of population relocation across metropolitan regions, together with more recent international migrations at both working and retirement age. While short-range population movements were the ultimate result of late suburbanization in Greece, medium- and broad-range mobility consolidated the country's divide in urban and rural areas, evidencing the attractive role of Athens. Spatial direction and intensity of population movements reflect complex socioeconomic transformations, whose knowledge provides innovative visions for a better understanding of future demographic dynamics in Mediterranean Europe.     

Industrial structure distortion and urban ecological efficiency from the perspective of green entrepreneurial ecosystems

Improving the entrepreneurial ecosystem plays an important role in the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and achieving the coordinated development of economy and environment among cities is important for improving the quality and efficiency of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Using the panel data of 286 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2016, this study adopts the global reference super efficiency slack-based measure model considering undesirable output to measure China's urban ecological efficiency. In addition, the spatial lag model is used to investigate the impacts of industrial structure advancement and rationalization on ecological efficiency, and the impacts of the heterogeneity of industrial structure and economic development under the distortion of resource dependence on ecological efficiency. The results show that: every one-unit increase in the advancement of industrial structure will lead to a 0.0741 unit increase in ecological efficiency, but the high dependence on natural resources will inhibit the promoting effect of industrial structure advancement on ecological efficiency, and such an inhibiting effect will weaken with the improvement of economic development level; moreover, the influence coefficient of industrial structure rationalization on ecological efficiency is not significant, nor is it affected by the natural resource dependence and the level of economic development. This paper hereby proposes that in the process of promoting green entrepreneurial activity at present, the Chinese government should give full play to the role of industrial structure advancement on improving ecological efficiency, actively break through the constraints restricting the impact of industrial structure rationalization, reduce excessive dependence on resource industries, improve the level of regional economic development, and strive to transform resource-intensive industries to technology-intensive industries to support the sustainable development of a green entrepreneurship ecosystem.     

资源型省份发展森林旅游的必要性探讨——以山西省为例

"十五"期间,随着国家振兴老工业基地战略和支持资源型区域发展持续产业政策的实施,资源型省份的转型成为探讨的重点问题。资源型省份在发展过程中对某一资源的依存度过高,是一种资源优势的集中体现,但是,随着自然资源逐渐的减少,甚至不可逆转的枯竭,以往的资源优势逐渐变成一种威胁,面对种种压力,发展森林旅游的必要性日益凸显。     

Explaining the democracy deficit in the Arab world

This paper strongly corroborates the widely held claim about the democracy and freedom “deficit” in the Arab world and asks the natural question as to why has the Arab world experienced such a deficit. The estimation results of an extended “modernity” model of democracy (measured by the Polity IV global index) suggest that after controlling for a host of economic, social and historical variables a negative and highly significant Arab dummy effect remains. This suggests, therefore, that the modernization theory does not fully account for the democracy deficit of the Arab world. Controlling for the modernity and other determinants, oil is negatively associated with democracy while the net effect of regional conflicts in the Arab world was negative, suggesting that conflicts in the Arab world promote authoritarianism in contrast with other regions where regional wars have been associated with democratic transitions. Moreover, and very significantly the Arab dummy was no longer significant as a stand alone effect though it remains significant when interacted with regional wars.     

资源型城市转型中禀赋条件约束与突破机制探析

在传统经济增长方式下,资源禀赋在很大程度上决定了一个城市经济发展的水平,富集的资源条件往往使政府在产业博弈中更倾向于发展资源类产业,但当资源趋于枯竭时,城市发展便会出现诸多问题。基于资源型城市转型中禀赋条件约束的困境,从可开采储量约束和存量约束两个角度,探究影响资源型城市转型禀赋约束机理,并阐释对这种禀赋约束的突破机制。