Identifying spatial overlap in the values of locals,domestic- and international tourists to protected areas

Nature-based tourism is increasingly encouraged to support local socioeconomic development in and around protected areas, but managing protected areas for tourism could challenge existing park uses associated with self-organized outdoor recreation and local resource use. We used a web-based Public Participatory Geographic Information System (PPGIS) to identify the most important places and values of local, domestic, and international visitors to Jotunheimen National Park and Utladalen Protected Landscape in Norway. Scenic and recreation values were prioritized by all groups, but local users mapped more values relating to hunting, fishing, gathering and cultural identity. While the three user groups overlapped in some places, we found that they self-segregated to some extent. Our study affirms the importance of spatially explicit analyses to support protected area management. Understanding the spatial distribution of values held by different user groups can aid in designing tourism management strategies that minimize intergroup conflict.     

CROSS‐SECTIONAL DEPENDENCE AND SPILLOVERS IN SPACE AND TIME: WHERE SPATIAL ECONOMETRICS AND GLOBAL VAR MODELS MEET

To enhance the measurement of economic and financial spillovers, we bring together the spatial and global vector autoregressive (GVAR) classes of econometric models by providing a detailed methodological review where they meet in terms of structure, interpretation, and estimation. We discuss the structure of connectivity (weight) matrices used by these models and its implications for estimation. To anchor our work within the dynamic literature on spillovers, we define a general yet measurable concept of spillovers. We formalize it analytically through the indirect effects used in the spatial literature and impulse responses used in the GVAR literature. Finally, we propose a practical step‐by‐step approach for applied researchers who need to account for the existence and strength of cross‐sectional dependence in the data. This approach aims to support the selection of the appropriate modeling and estimation method and of choices that represent empirical spillovers in a clear and interpretable form.     

知识专业化与关联性对竞争优势的影响

针对目前各省域知识技术发展同质化问题，基于国家知识产权局专利数据，揭示2000—2017年中国（内地）31个省市自治区知识专业化和关联性时空演化特征，探讨二者对竞争优势的影响。结果表明：创新活动层级差距显著，高层级地区知识创造活动多样性特征更显著，低层级地区的知识倾向于关注单一领域；知识关联性空间分布呈现出自东向西减弱趋势，东部沿海地区技术演化对知识基础的依赖性较强，中西部地区则较弱；知识产品竞争优势转换存在显著路径依赖，与地方知识库结构关联密度高的知识生产可能会成为未来比较竞争优势。从区域内知识集聚视角看，专业化程度越高越有利于关联密度较低领域竞争优势形成；从全国知识分工视角看，多样化程度越高越有利于关联密度较高领域下一期竞争优势形成。     

The cost,coverage and rollout implications of 5G infrastructure in Britain

Despite 5G still being embryonic in its development, there is already a quest for evidence to support decision-making in government and industry. Although there is still considerable technological, economic and behavioural uncertainty, exploration of how the potential rollout may take place both spatially and temporally is required for effective policy formulation. Consequently, the cost, coverage and rollout implications of 5G networks across Britain are explored by extrapolating 4G LTE and LTE-Advanced characteristics for the period 2020–2030. We focus on ubiquitous ultrafast broadband of 50 Mbps and test the impact of annual capital intensity, infrastructure sharing and reducing the end-user speed in rural areas to either 10 or 30 Mbps. For the business-as-usual scenario we find that 90% of the population is covered with 5G by 2027, but coverage is unlikely to reach the final 10% due to exponentially increasing costs. Moreover, varying annual capital intensity or deploying a shared small cell network can greatly influence the time taken to reach the 90% threshold, with these changes mostly benefiting rural areas. Importantly, simply by integrating new and existing spectrum, a network capable of achieving 10 Mbps per rural user is possible, which is comparable to the UK's current fixed broadband Universal Service Obligation. We contribute to the literature by quantifying the effectiveness of the spatial and temporal rollout of 5G under different policy options.     

The Commission and the Council Presidency in the European Union: Strategic interactions and legislative powers

This paper develops spatial, game-theoretical models of European Union (EU) policy-making that include the rotating Council Presidency as one of the main actors. Previous such models have typically ignored the Presidency's role, even though it is instrumental in shepherding the Commission's proposals through the legislative process. We study whether the Commission takes the Presidency's preferences into account when formulating proposals, and whether the Presidency's role limits or expands the Commission's powers. We find that even though the Commission has lost powers as a result of the introduction and extension of the codecision procedure, as shown in the literature, it maintains a degree of legislative power by strategically using the rotating Presidency. In particular the Commission times its proposals. It formulates a proposal on an issue when the Presidency is close to itself on that issue.     

The role of infrastructure investment and factor productivity in international tax competition

In this paper we use data from 30 developed economies from 1999 to 2014 to analyse the importance of infrastructure investments and factor productivity for explaining international capital tax competition. Our results indicate the existence of intensive tax competition in effective average corporate taxation during this period. It is also suggested that non-tax variables of third countries affect a country's corporate tax policy. Countries whose direct competitors have better infrastructures or are more productive compensate with lower capital taxation. In this way, their infrastructure investment and productivity-enhancing policies are used as strategic substitutes for capital taxation. With regard to the characteristics of closest competitors, we find that corporate tax competition is fiercer among countries that are characterized by similar infrastructure investments and geographical proximity.     

Does labor migration affect rural land transfer? Evidence from China

Land transfer in rural areas and labor migration from rural areas to cities are both becoming common in China due to the increasing development of the non-agricultural sector resulting from rapid urbanization. Many rural labours who migrated to cities left their land in rural areas, and in most cases, this land was abandoned. To make full use of abandoned land in rural areas, the central government in China has formulated policies to promote rural land transfer, but rural land transfer still lags far behind labor migration in China. Drivers of rural land transfer still need to be explored. In addition, the labor migration scale shows dynamic features as the labor migration of more family members is substituted for that of individuals recent years. Thus, the phased feature of household labor migration should be taken into consideration to examine the phased influence of the labor migration scale on rural land transfer. Considering the probability threshold effect of the impact of labor migration on rural land transfer, a threshold model was used to perform the empirical analysis. Based on the threshold model and CHARLS 2015 data, this study empirically analysed the impact of the labor migration scale on rural land transfer. On the national level, labor migration will significantly promote rural land transfer if it is less than or equal to 0.125, but when it is greater than 0.125, its impact on land transfer is not significant. On the basis of the spatial differentiation of rural land transfer, four regions were divided to do the regional threshold regression analysis. On the regional level, the thresholds of labor migration scale of the central region, the east region and the west region are 0.112, 0.221 and 0.133 respectively, and there is no threshold in the north region. The results show that labor migration have a phased impact on rural land transfer in China and policies should be targeted to different labor migration phases and different regions.     

When does comparability better enhance relevance? Policy implications from empirical evidence

This study investigates the user-specific contexts under which comparability better enhances relevance of accounting information. We first confirm the intuition in the FASB’s (2010) current conceptual framework by documenting that the short-window earnings response coefficient (ERC) is positively associated with the pre-determined level of comparability. Using the cross-sectional variation in the positive relation between ERC and comparability, we show that the link between ERC and comparability is more pronounced for firms with higher investor sophistication and lower information asymmetry among investors. We further support our predictions using analysts’ earnings forecast revisions and various alternative measures of earnings informativeness. In sum, our paper shows that comparability improves information users’ ability to identify similarities and differences across different firms to a greater extent when investor base is more sophisticated and private information is less prevalent. These results suggest that standard setters, regulators, and practitioners should devote more attention to the role of comparability in firms whose investors are less sophisticated and information environment is more opaque.     

Evaluating spatial service and layout efficiency of municipal Wi-Fi facilities for SmartCity planning: A case study of Wuhan city,China

This paper explores an approach to evaluating spatial service and layout efficiency of municipal Wi-Fi facilities for cyber infrastructure planning in the construction of a smart city. Based on the equilibrium principle that Wi-Fi services supply should meet the spatial demand for recreation, urgency, and security, two evaluation models were built. In the first model, the spatial service efficiency of Wi-Fi facilities is measured by a mean ratio of three types of demand spaces covered by Wi-Fi service. In the other model, spatial layout efficiency of each Wi-Fi facility is calculated by a demand load indicator - the sum of the three types of demand space's ratios of served quantity to the average quantity it should carry, and then assessed by relationship with its adjacent facilities. Corresponding statistical methods and analysis processes were also designed using the function modules found in ArcGIS software. The approach was applied to Wuhan city in 2016. After overlaying influence areas of 688 Wi-Fi facilities with demand spaces of 137 access points for recreation, 1200.99 km roads for urgency, 121.54 km² regions for security, the results show that there exists a spatial disequilibrium between supply and demand of Wi-Fi service in Wuhan due to lack of comprehensive planning. Specifically, there are 67 points, 700.76 km roads, and 42.59 km² regions of demand spaces covered by Wi-Fi service, with service efficiencies of 48.91%, 58.35%, and 35.04% respectively and an overall spatial service efficiency of 47.43%. Among all the Wi-Fi facilities, there are 481 carrying saturated demand, 3 straying from the centre of demand space, and 204 redundant. The overall spatial layout efficiency of Wi-Fi facilities is 43.01%. The conclusion is that the dense and massive redundant Wi-Fi facilities should be optimized, especially in the centre areas along the confluence of Yangtze and Han rivers and new Wi-Fi facilities supplemented in other ill-equipped areas. Since many metropolitan cities experience the same problem, this novel approach will find wide application in the future and offer improved evaluation strategies for researchers and policymakers.     

Impact of the European Water Framework Directive on local-level water management: Case study Oxunda Catchment, Sweden

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) of the European Union provides a common framework for water policy that focuses on holistic and integrated water management in river basins. In many member states, implementation of the WFD has shifted the main responsibility for local water issues from the municipal level to the regional or supra-regional levels. In this study, we investigated how the implementation of the WFD has influenced local-level water management including the interpretation of the new environmental quality standards. Specifically, we considered Sweden, which has traditionally had relatively strong governance at the municipal level. Because a sufficient amount of time has now passed for evaluation of WFD-related effects on operational water handling, we interviewed individuals directly involved in water planning and land use planning at the municipal level in one sub catchment in the Northern Baltic Sea River Basin District of Sweden, as well as representatives for superior levels and associations. Despite divergent views regarding the priority of water issues in physical planning among the local-level planners interviewed, they had all participated in successful inter-municipal pre-WFD collaboration projects. Although such collaborations could help increase the understanding and acceptance of WFD-related goals and costs, as well as facilitate conflict solving, as shown in the Oxunda Catchment, they have not gained much attention in the WFD implementation process. Additionally, physical planners have generally been reluctant to accept new environmental quality standards resulting from WFD implementation, in part because they lack precise definitions, but also because they could challenge the municipal routine of weighing various objectives against each other. Furthermore, despite WFD-related increases in ambition levels, lack of resource improvements at the municipal level were identified as potential problems by local environmental planners.