The new economic geography of land use change: Supply chain configurations and land use in the Brazilian Amazon

In this paper we present a framework for understanding regional land use processes by incorporating the concept of agglomeration economies into agricultural frontier theory. We show that agricultural firms can obtain positive externalities from locating in close proximity to other agricultural firms, leading to agglomeration economies. Agglomeration economies lead to high levels of competition and diversity within a local agricultural supply chain and influence local prices, information flows, and private enforcement of environmental institutions. We use the theory of agglomeration economies to understand the development of soybean production in two counties along the Santarém-Cuiaba (BR-163) highway in the Brazilian Amazon: Santarém, Pará and Sorriso, Mato Grosso. We conclude that differences in environmental and land tenure institutions influenced the occurrence of agglomeration economies in these two counties, which in turn affected the total factor productivity of soy in each region. In particular, the supply chain became extremely competitive and diverse in Sorriso where few environmental regulations existed, while environmental restrictions reduced the diversification of the supply chain in Santarém. The presence of a soy agglomeration economy in Sorriso spurred innovation, increased productivity, and led to extremely rapid soy expansion in that county, while the monopolistic supply chain in Santarém reduced producers’ access to land and capital and impeded soy expansion.     

Second-best cost–benefit analysis in monopolistic competition models of urban agglomeration

This paper examines the agglomeration benefits of a transportation improvement in a city by modeling the microstructure of urban agglomeration based on monopolistic competition of differentiated intermediate products. Properly extended to include variety distortion in addition to price distortion, Harberger’s measure of excess burden yields the agglomeration benefits. The agglomeration benefits are positive if increasing the variety is procompetitive; however, in the anticompetitive case, we cannot exclude the possibility of negative additional benefits. If there are multiple cities, the net agglomeration benefits can be negative when other cities that experience a reduction in population have larger agglomeration economies.     

Quantification of the non-transport benefits resulting from rail investment

Traditional methods of evaluation have not been very successful in accounting for non-transport benefits resulting from rail investments. But increasingly, these factors are becoming more important in well-developed transport networks, as the effects of additional links or capacity cannot be justified in transport terms alone. This paper brings together the evidence at three separate levels arguing that there are different impacts that must be investigated at different levels with appropriate methods. At the macroeconomic level, regional network effects can be identified, as can the impacts on the economy as measured through changes in output and productivity. At the meso level, the impacts relate more to agglomeration economies and labour market effects, with some additional network and environmental consequences. At the micro level, the impacts are determined by the land and property market effects. Examples of rail investment are given for each of the scales of analysis, and conclusions are drawn on the future directions and challenges for the quantification of both transport and non-transport benefits.     

MODELS OF REGIONAL GROWTH: PAST,PRESENT AND FUTURE

Abstract This paper presents an overview of various models of regional growth that have appeared in the literature in the last 40 years. It considers the past, and therefore supply‐side models, such as the standard neoclassical, juxtaposed against essentially demand‐side approaches such as the export‐base and cumulative causation models (as integrated into the Kaldorian approach); before moving on to the ‘present’ and more recent versions of the neoclassical model involving spatial weights and ‘convergence clubs’, as well as new economic geography core–periphery models, and the ‘innovation systems’ approach. A key feature of the more recent literature is an attempt to explicitly include spatial factors into the model, and thus there is a renewed emphasis on agglomeration economies and spillovers. Discussing ‘present’ and ‘future’ approaches to regional growth overlaps with the current emphasis in the literature on the importance of more intangible factors such as the role of ‘knowledge’ and its influence on growth. Finally, there is a discussion of the greater emphasis that needs to be placed at the ‘micro‐level’ when considering what drives growth, and thus factors such as inter alia firm heterogeneity, entrepreneurship and absorptive capacity.     

粤港澳大湾区金融集聚与区域经济增长

本文以粤港澳大湾区为研究对象,利用区位熵、单位根检验、格兰杰因果检验等方法实证分析金融集聚对区域经济增长的影响。研究发现:粤港澳大湾区金融集聚促进大湾区经济增长,对周边地区的经济增长具有拉动作用。同时,大湾区建设形成的"吸虹效应"明显,引致周边地区的金融资源向大湾区集聚,不利于区域经济平衡发展。从金融的具体表现来看,银行业对区域经济增长的作用最为突出,证券业和保险业的作用尚不明显。因此,在广东省经济高质量发展阶段,优化粤港澳大湾区金融资源配置对促进区域经济协调发展具有重要作用。     

产业专业化、多样化对城市群经济增长的影响

产业专业化、多样化分工与分工交易经济是研究城市群形成与发展的重要路径。已有研究往往忽略了区域经济发展水平的差异以及城市群中各城市的功能定位,鉴此,构建专业化与多样化分工要素的城市经济增长模型,结果表明,以广西北部湾城市群为研究进行实证对象能更好地解释产业专业化与多样化对城市群及其内部各城市经济增长的影响。     

集聚效应与农业外商直接投资的区位选择——基于1999-2009年中国省际面板数据分析

传统观点认为,农业因其产业链和分工较为简单等原因,相对来说并不易于形成空间集聚,因而,农业FDI的区位选择不存在集聚效应的影响。然而,本文通过统计分析和计量分析发现,农业FDI在中国的区位分布具有明显的空间集聚的特征,这种空间集聚产生的外部性利益,吸引了新进的农业FDI继续定位于这些地区。而且,随着时间的推移,由于因果循环的作用,农业FDI存量越大的地区,吸引的农业外资就会越多;而缺乏足够农业FDI存量的地区,就更加难以吸引农业外资的流入。集聚效应使得农业FDI地区分布的差距逐步扩大。     

流通溢出效应与海岸带城市群经济集聚

流通产业的溢出效应已获得国内众多学者关注,但流通产业对经济集聚的溢出效应却鲜有研究。本文以中国海岸带城市群为研究对象,用流通密度、流通规模和流通结构来刻画流通产业的溢出效应,对流通产业溢出效应与海岸带城市群经济集聚两者关系进行实证研究后发现:(1)流通密度对海岸带城市群经济集聚具有正向溢出效应。(2)在当前条件下,流通规模并未显示出对海岸带城市群经济集聚的积极促进作用,反而制约了海岸带城市群经济集聚程度的提高。(3)流通结构对海岸带城市群经济集聚具有正向溢出效应,但是在目前情况下其作用并没有得到充分发挥。     

后危机时代的企业集聚与创新——来自珠三角企业的调查报告

随着在成本方面的优势日益削弱,珠三角迫切地需要进行产业调整和升级。对珠三角的产业集聚及创新情况的问卷调查表明,珠三角企业间联系紧密,企业业绩较好并重视市场导向型的研发,珠三角地区营商环境的形成得益于上下游企业间相互支持,而非政府行会学校等支持组织给予的支持。总的来说,珠三角作为广东、全国经济活动的积聚地区,市场导向型的创新特点很突出,并且非正式联系在企业创新中发挥着重要作用。     

珠江三角洲地区专业化与制造业空间转移

本文在空间经济学关于市场一体化与地区专业化、产业集聚关系的理论框架基础上,研究发现随着珠三角地区一体化的增强,其制造业的地区专业化水平与产业地方化程度已有很大提高;同时,珠三角地区制造业激烈的结构调整,使部分产业出现扩散效应,进而促使珠三角逐渐形成具有一定特色的产业分工与集聚。