local industrial systems and the location of FDI in Italy

This article investigates the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) location across Italian provinces. Specifically it examines the relationship between industry‐specific local industrial systems and the location of inward FDI. This extends previous analysis beyond the mere density of activity, to illustrate the importance of the specific nature of agglomerations in attracting inward investment. The article develops a model of FDI location choice using a unique FDI database stratified by industry and province. The results also suggest that the importance of agglomeration differs between industries, and offers some explanation for this.     

Evolving geographical concentration of European manufacturing industries

Evolving Geographical Concentration of European Manufacturing Industries. — This paper analyzes the geographical concentration of 32 manufacturing sectors over the 1972–1996 period for 13 European countries. Concentration has increased continuously over the sample period in employment terms, while remaining roughly unchanged in export terms. On average, increases in concentration were stronger prior to the launch of the Single Market than afterwards. The sectors most sensitive to the Single Market however, showed an acceleration in concentration after 1986. There is also evidence that low-tech industries are the most strongly concentrated, and that center-periphery gradients across countries are losing importance for industrial location in the EU.     

Resource abundance and regional development in China1

Over the past several decades, China has made tremendous progress in market integration and infrastructure development. Demand for natural resources has increased from the booming coastal economies, causing the terms of trade to favour the resource sector, which is predominantly based in the interior regions of the country. However, the gap in economic development level between the coastal and inland regions has widened significantly. In this paper, using a panel dataset at the provincial level, we show that Chinese provinces with abundant resources perform worse than their resource‐poor counterparts in terms of per capita consumption growth. This trend that resource‐poor areas are better off than resource‐rich areas is particularly prominent in rural areas. Because of the institutional arrangements regarding property rights of natural resources, most gains from the resource boom have been captured either by the government‐ or state‐owned enterprises. Thus, the windfall of natural resources has more to do with government consumption than household consumption. Moreover, in resource‐rich areas, greater revenues accrued from natural resources bid up the price of non‐tradable goods and hurt the competitiveness of the local economy.     

河北省大中型工业企业R＆D活动绩效的省际比较

采用数据包络分析方法，就河北省大中型工业企业R＆D活动的效率情况与东中部地区的其他省份进行了对比分析。结果表明，2003年-2005年间，河北省工业企业R＆D效率在逐步提高，但仍低于东部平均水平，且对中部地区的优势在缩小；河北省工业企业R＆D效率低下的原因主要在于技术无效而非规模无效。     

Road Taxes,Road User Charges and Earmarking

The UK Road Fund was set up in 1921 and financed by earmarked taxes, but was unsuccessful as a form of road finance and abandoned in 1937. The paper examines why earmarking failed and what problems arise for replacing road taxes by hypothecated road charges. These charges would need to be regulated and could evolve into a more efficient system of road pricing. The paper claims that recent experiences with regulating capital-intensive network industries make road user charging and the commercialisation of the public highway both feasible and desirable, but that recent government proposals for local earmarked taxes are inadequate.     

INTEGRATING THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY GOLD RUSHES

In the century preceding World War I, the world experienced a series of gold rushes. The wealth derived from these was distributed widely because of reduced migration costs and low barriers to entry. While gold mining itself was generally unprofitable for diggers and mine owners, the increase in the world's gold supply stimulated global trade and investment. In this introductory article we integrate the histories of migration, trade, colonisation, and environmental history to identify endogenous factors that increased the world's gold supply and generated sustained economic growth in the regions that were affected by gold rushes.     

THE GRAPE PHYLLOXERA PLAGUE AS A NATURAL EXPERIMENT: THE UPKEEP OF VINEYARDS IN CATALONIA (SPAIN), 1858–1935

This paper analyses the impact in Catalonia of the grape Phylloxera plague in Europe (1865–90). A statistical model is used to analyse the economic resilience of 35 districts in Catalonia to this external ecological and economic shock, and to explain why districts in the provinces of Barcelona and Tarragona resumed growing wine grapes after the plague, in contrast to districts in Girona and Lleida provinces. The opportunity cost of labour, the demand pull of Barcelona's commercial growth, and the agro-climatic suitability of land for growing grapes are used to explain the differing capacities of districts to endure the Phylloxera plague in Catalonia.     

R平方和噪声交易

本文采用中国证券市场的数据,研究了R平方和噪声交易的关系。采用小单子作为噪声交易的指标,采用未来盈余反应系数来作为价格中信息含量的指标,我们通过行业配对方法实证检验了R平方和噪声的关系。我们发现噪声交易对R平方有负向作用。该结果对于不同的信息指标、不同的样本和对于小单子不同的标准稳健,而R平方和价格中信息含量的关系并不支持Durnev等(2003)的结论。