Tax Effects in a Model of Product Differentiation: A Note

We investigate how unit (or specific) tax and ad valorem tax affect equilibrium location choice in a model of product differentiation, which includes Hotelling (linear-city) and Vickrey-Salop (circular-city) spatial models as special cases. We find that neither tax affects equilibrium location patterns as long as each firm has the same production cost. Two taxes can yield different location patterns under cost heterogeneity among firms.     

Location determinant and MNE’s performance: A modeling test in the China’s automobile industry

This paper argues that the location strategy is an important successful condition for multinational enterprise’s investment in China. We conduct a location–performance model for multinationals in China, which is tested using a structural equation modeling approach on a sample of 216 joint ventures of automobile multinational enterprises in China. We find that the relationship between the location determinant and multinational performance is significant and positive, and which is supported by the local partner’s performance.     

Variations of optimum firm and company town location

In the literatures of location and firm behaviour, most of the papers deal with location and theory of firms in conjunction with a heterogeneous space where markets are given at discrete points. Also, most of writers of the papers considered the optimum location problem only for an unregulated firm and industry. On the other hand, there are many regulated firms and industries in real economies. Also, we can consider a location problem of an industrial city (industry complex) which means a big company town. Many comparisons after combining some effects such as agglomeration (scale economies/diseconomies), etc. were implemented. We analysed the optimum location of industrial city (big company town) and input usage under regulatory constraint and agglomeration. We introduced an active constraint of a fair rate of return from the pioneering work of Averch and Johnson to the location problem of the big firm with multi inputs. With multi-inputs, simple one dimension locational problems are solved.     

Anticipating the location of a waste collection point: an application based on Portugal

Portuguese Economic Journal - We study the optimal location of a waste facility in a horizontally differentiated duopoly where firms choose their location and price. The policymaker decides the...     

The relationship among enterprise clustering,prices, and productivity in Ethiopia’s manufacturing sector

We use census panel data on Ethiopian manufacturing firms to analyze how enterprise clustering in local markets covaries with firm‐level output prices and physical productivity. We find a negative and statistically significant relationship between the density of firms that produce a given product in a given location and the local price of that product. We also find a positive and statistically significant relationship between the density of firms that produce a given product in a location and the physical productivity of same‐product firms in the location. These results are consistent with the notion that increased clustering of firms generates higher competitive pressure and positive externalities. Across firms that produce different products, we find no statistically significant relationship between enterprise clustering and firm‐level output prices and productivity. We also find no clustering effects across towns. Our results suggest that while clustering can impact firm performance, the advantages are narrow in scope.     

Bilateral retrovesical testes: An unusual location for impalpable undescended testes

Although the majority of impalpable undescended testes lie in an intracanalicular location, a significant number are also found to be intraabdominal. The expected location of intraabdominal testes is a line joining the renal hilum and the internal inguinal ring. We describe a case of an adult patient in whom impalpable undescended testes were located in a retrovesical location. This case highlights the importance of performing a thorough inspection of the entire abdomen and pelvis if the impalpable testis is not found in an expected location.     

对外贸易、地方保护和中国的产业布局

本文研究发现,20世纪80年代由于新旧工业基地的轮替,地区专业化和分布的不平衡性稍有退化;而90年代地区专业化则显著加深,分布的不平衡性和集中程度明显加速。对外贸易中的地理优势显著地影响中国的产业布局,但地方保护的影响在90年代仅限于内地。传统比较优势理论在中国产业分布中的解释力是显然的,而新经济地理学的部分预测也在本文的实证中得到支持。     

Costly location in Hotelling duopoly

We introduce a cost of location into Hotelling׳s (1929) [9] spatial duopoly model. We derive the general conditions on the cost-of-location function under which a pure strategy price-location Nash equilibrium exists. With linear transportation cost and a suitably specified cost of location that rises toward the center of the Hotelling line, symmetric equilibrium locations are in the outer quartiles of the line, ensuring the existence of pure strategy equilibrium prices. With quadratic transportation cost and a suitably specified cost of location that falls toward the center of the line, symmetric equilibrium locations range from the center to the end of the line.     

Corporate tax and location choice for multinational firms

This article examines the effects of corporate tax on these location decisions of newly established multinational subsidiaries across 26 European countries over an 8-year period. We contribute to the existing literature by examining the effects of a non-linear response of firm location decisions to changes in the tax rate. We also show that there are large variations in the sensitivity to tax rates across sectors and firm size groups. In particular, financial sector firms are more than twice as sensitive to changes in corporation tax rates relative to other sectors. Our baseline result is a finding that a 1% increase in the statutory or policy rate of corporation tax would lead to a reduction in the conditional location probability of 0.68%. Using the effective average tax rate, the marginal effect implies a reduction in the location probability of 1.15% following a 1% increase in the tax rate. Although overall tax has the expected negative effect on location probability, the marginal effect of an increase is lower at higher rates of tax.     

从图论角度对布点问题求解

在日常生产和生活中,往往有一类问题是关于有限的资源在一定条件下的合理利用问题,且要达到最大的利益或者价值。其中包含站点的位置选址问题,通常我们把这类问题归纳为整数规划中的最优问题,利用MATLAB软件我们可以轻松的得到问题的数值解。但对站点的位置选址问题,我们发现利用图论的理论,从图论角度进行分析和求解,可以更轻松。     

外商投资动机对区位选择的影响——基于昆山台资企业问卷调查的研究

本文在考察外商投资动机与区位选择关系的基础上,根据对昆山台资企业问卷调查的第一手资料,实证分析了昆山台资企业投资的基本动机和选择在昆山投资主要看重的区位因素。结果表明,市场导向型、成本导向性、垄断优势导向型与竞争合作导向型的台资企业分别偏重市场、成本、政策服务与投入供应配套的区位因子。不同规模、不同产品类型的企业也有着截然不同的区位偏好。在上述发现的基础上,本文对利用和管理外资提出了相应的启示。     

Product differentiation and location decisions under demand uncertainty

We investigate Hotelling's duopoly game of location-then-price choices with quadratic transportation costs and uniformly distributed consumers under the assumption that firms are uncertain about the exact location of demand. We characterize the unique equilibrium and the socially optimal locations. Contrary to the individual-level random utility models, location uncertainty is a differentiation force. In equilibrium, increases in the variance of the uncertainty lead to greater differentiation, higher expected equilibrium prices and profits, and a greater welfare loss.     

Centralized versus decentralized taxation of mobile polluting firms

We consider a world in which a mobile polluting firm must locate in one of two regions. The regions differ in two dimensions: their marginal cost of pollution and the production cost of the firm. It is shown that under incomplete information on regional marginal costs of pollution, fiscal competition may lead to the sub-optimal location of the firm. We also show that under incomplete information, a sub-optimal location is less likely under centralized than under decentralized taxation.     

SEARCH BEHAVIOR OF ASYMMETRICALLY INFORMED VOTERS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY*

This paper experimentally investigates individual level search within a spatial election model. In our model the voter is required to cast a ballot for one of two candidates. However, the voter's task is made non-trivial since, even though the location of one candidate is known, the location of a second candidate is unknown. To reduce uncertainty regarding the unknown candidate's location, the voter may undertake an information search. We find that search in this environment is a function of the cost of search, the quality of information, and the voter's location on the issue space.     

Does FDI in manufacturing cause FDI in business services? Evidence from French firm‐level data

Abstract .  This paper uses a large French firm-level data set to evaluate the determinants of location choices in services. In a first step, estimates for four broad services sectors are compared with the estimates for the manufacturing sector. Using a discrete choice model, we find that this framework does fairly well in explaining location choices in services and that the parameter estimates for services are close to the ones for manufacturing. We then investigate whether the similarity in estimated parameters is due to a complementarity between location choices in manufacturing and in services, in the sense that manufacturing location choices may cause the location of services. A particularly appropriate services sector, for this purpose is the business services sector, for which input-output linkages with the manufacturing sector are particularly strong. It is found that the downstream demand of French manufacturing firms has a positive effect on the location choice probabilities of French business services firms. This effect is robust.     

Domestic Effects of Offshoring High‐skilled Jobs: Complementarities in Knowledge Production

We provide evidence on how changes in the use of high‐skilled workers (inventors) in a foreign location affect a firm's domestic use of the same type of worker. We exploit rich data that provide variation in the location of inventors within multinational firms across industries and countries to control for confounding firm–time and industry factors. We find that a 10% increase in the use of foreign inventors leads to a 1.9% increase in the use of domestic inventors. Our results suggest that foreign and domestic inventors are complementary in the production of knowledge.     

Firm heterogeneity in modelling foreign direct investment location decisions

This article investigates the probability of the FDI location decisions of multinational enterprises using a mixed logit panel data model, which is the most flexible discrete choice model. We employ a three-level data set, which includes over 1100 FDI location decisions into 13 alternative Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) over an 11-year period. Our empirical results on the effect of host country, industry and firm characteristics on the probability of undertaking FDI in a particular location are significant and consistent with the predictions of our theoretical model.     

Hospitality industry economic innovation out of tradition small–medium-size enterprises in North-Eastern Thailand

This study focuses on the creation of economic innovation out of tradition in small–medium-size hospitality industry enterprises in the north-eastern part of Thailand. We looked at the role of the roots of the business on its development and the roots vary from existing old traditional accommodations, to accommodations that developed out of a restaurants or a totally different types of hospitality related or unrelated businesses. We also looked as hospitality institutions that developed out of an existing building that could house accommodations or be expanded to a hotel. With the structure naturally comes the location. In real estate as in tourism location plays a very important role, location, location and location. So a three-star hotel may have developed out of a homestay or a bed and breakfast or a simple family restaurant. We did not look at the hotels that were the result of planned developments of real estate developer and hotel franchise operator. Innovation is broadly defined as a new idea, method or product. Product, process or service innovations may have their roots in the traditions of the business. Traditions are long established customs, believes that have been transmitted over generations or time in general terms. The study is quantitative in nature and explored a convenience sample 100 small–medium-size hospitality enterprises in the north-eastern part of Thailand by administrating a pretested survey to the owner/operators. The sample is a good representation of the hospitality industry in Thailand under the business model of tradition as an engine for innovation and the ongoing academic debate which generates implications for hospitality industry best practices and as strategic resource.     

Agglomeration economies and location choice of Korean manufacturers within the United States

Employing the micro data for 1997–2004, we investigate the location decision of Korean-affiliated manufacturing investments in the United States. The conditional logit estimates confirm that although industry-specific Korean agglomeration and domestic agglomeration play an important role, the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) location is more sensitively affected by the interstate difference in endowment conditions than by the same nationality agglomeration. Both business service and intermediate good agglomeration are main determinants of FDI location. Furthermore, estimation results show substantial change in the location pattern after recovery from the Asian financial crisis. We find quite different patterns of location decision across industry groups; dispersion forces work greater than the agglomeration force in the consumer goods industry, forward linkages with US upstream firms can be seen in the assembly and processing industry, and typical follow-the-leader pattern mixed with market potential effect by Korean immigrants is seen in the basic material manufacturing industry.     

Horizontal market concentration: Theoretical insights from spatial models

This paper aims to further the study of horizontal mergers by reviewing the theory on spatial models that may be useful for their analysis. We examine the incentives conveyed by locations for undertaking merger and merger-related strategies, as well as the impact of the latter on strategic location choices. This literature review therefore focuses on the two-way relationship between horizontal market concentration and firm location.