A spatial econometric analysis of the regional growth and volatility in Europe

Based on a sample of 1,084 European regions (EU15) from 1995 to 2004, we estimate the relationship between the average growth rate of GDP per capita and the volatility of the growth rate allowing for spatial effects. The spatial lag and spatial error models show that the regional per capita growth rate and volatility are significantly positively related on average. However, the inclusion of country interaction terms reveals that the volatility impact is not uniform across countries. In particular, the relationship between growth and volatility is significantly positive for the majority of countries but significantly negative for three countries (namely Finland, Italy, and Ireland).

The typology of technology clusters and its evolution — Evidence from the hi-tech industries

Clustering is one of the key drivers for regional economic growth. Development of clusters is a dynamic process shaped by a variety of internal and external factors such as availability of skilled labor, presence of functioning networks and partnerships, technological changes, and market competition, etc. As a result, the patterns of cluster growth may differ from one another. Although each cluster is unique in some way, previous research has attempted to identify few simplified models of evolution of clusters. In this study, we briefly reviewed the literature on a variety of models of clusters. Based on these models, we investigated 15 hi-performing metropolitan-based clusters in the United States, covering communications equipment manufacturing, information technology, and biopharmaceutical industries, in order to find out the similarities and differences between real-world clusters. Specifically, by examining the composition of these high-tech clusters, we attempted to find out the following: 1) What are the typologies of these technology clusters? 2) Whether different industries tend to support different cluster typologies? and 3) How do clusters change their typologies over time? Our analysis results suggest that the real-world clusters rarely feature any single type of typology; a mixed type of typology is much more prevalent in reality.We also found that different industries tend to support different types of cluster typologies. In other words, an individual cluster's typology is to some extent shaped by the industry group it belongs to. In addition, we note that, as a cluster goes through different stages of its lifecycle, its typology may change significantly.     

A generalized method of moments estimator for a spatial model with moving average errors, with application to real estate prices

This paper proposes a new GMM estimator for spatial regression models with moving average errors. Monte Carlo results are given which suggest that the GMM estimates are consistent and robust to non-normality, and the Bootstrap method is suggested as a way of testing the significance of the moving average parameter. The estimator is applied in a model of English real estate prices, in which the concepts of displaced demand and displaced supply are introduced to derive the spatial lag of prices, and the moving average error process represents spatially autocorrelated unmodelled variables.      

The spatial econometric analysis of the impact of internet on provincial innovation in China

Researches in the impact of the information technology on R&D activities have been noticed since this century to provide a foundation for the relationship between information technology and R&D activities.Using methods of spatial econometrics,this paper examines the impact of Internet on innovation and its spatial spillovers between Chinese provinces over 2001-2007.This paper find that Internet plays an important role in innovative activities,and spatial spillovers of the provinces to its neighbors are positive but weak when spatial effect of endogenous spatial lag variable is taken into consideration.     

Errors in variables and spatial effects in hedonic house price models of ambient air quality

In the valuation of the effect of improved air quality through the estimation of hedonic models of house prices, the potential “errors in variables” aspect of the interpolated air pollution measures is often ignored. In this paper, we assess the extent to which this may affect the resulting empirical estimates for marginal willingness to pay (MWTP), using an extensive sample of over 100,000 individual house sales for 1999 in the South Coast Air Quality Management District of Southern California. We take an explicit spatial econometric perspective and account for spatial dependence and endogeneity using recently developed Spatial 2SLS estimation methods. We also account for both spatial autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity in the error terms, using the Kelejian–Prucha HAC estimator. Our results are consistent across different spatial weights matrices and different kernel functions and suggest that the bias from ignoring the endogeneity in interpolated values may be substantial. This paper is part of a joint research effort with James Murdoch (University of Texas, Dallas) and Mark Thayer (San Diego State University). Their valuable input is gratefully acknowledged. The research was supported in part by NSF Grant BCS-9978058 to the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS), and by NSF/EPA Grant SES-0084213. Earlier versions were presented at the 5th International Workshop on Spatial Econometrics and Statistics, Rome, Italy, May 2006, the 53th North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International, Toronto, ON, Nov. 2006, the 2007 Meetings of the Allied Social Science Assocations, Chicago, IL, Jan 2007, and at departmental seminars at the University of Illinois. Comments by discussants and participants are greatly appreciated. A special thanks to Harry Kelejian for his detailed and patient clarification of the HAC estimator. The usual disclaimer holds.     

The driving forces of the change in China's energy intensity: An empirical research using DEA-Malmquist and spatial panel estimations

Energy shortage and environmental degradation have become significant hurdles for China's sustainable development nowadays. One of the most efficient and effective ways to ease energy shortage is to sufficiently reduce energy intensity. In the extant literature on the influential factors of China's energy intensity, the regional imbalance and spatial spillover effects were basically ignored, which may yield to biased and unreasonable results. As a result, in this paper, the driving forces of China's provincial energy intensity were for the first time investigated by combining the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)-Malmquist and spatial panel approaches for the period between 2000 and 2014. The results indicate that technological progress plays a dominant role in decreasing China's overall energy intensity. In both the Eastern and Central regions, the technological progress and its components can decrease energy intensity, while this effect doesnot significantly exist in the Western region. Rapid industrialization should be responsible for China's currently high energy intensity, while energy price hiking is conducive to the decrease in energy intensity. Moreover, there is also clear evidence that these factors influence on energy intensity partly through the spatial spillover effects.     

A spatial taxonomy of broadband regions in the United States

The steady growth of broadband penetration in the United States is indicative of a major shift in advanced data services and last-mile infrastructure in the deregulated telecommunication environment. Although there are concerns with the equitable provision of broadband services in urban, rural and remote areas, the diffusion process has also created a unique landscape of broadband availability that reflects elements of competition, federal policy, local government initiatives, technological limitations and location. This paper explores the dynamic and diverse spatial landscape of broadband availability in the United States at the zip code level, for 2004. In addition, this study provides a multivariate, spatial taxonomy of broadband regions, highlighting their socioeconomic and demographic differences.     

Exploratory spatial data analysis of the distribution of regional per capita GDP in Yangtze Delta, China: 1994-2004

Based on the spatial economy theory and the exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) technology, this paper studies the space-time dynamics of regional per capita GDP in the Yangtze Delta. A sample of 74 regions in the Yangtze Delta over the period of 1994 to 2004 provides clear evidence of global and local spatial autocorrelation as well as spatial heterogeneity in the distribution of regional per capita GDP The dynamism of regions is investigated by exploring the spatial pattern of regional growth, compared with that before 1997, the economic growth disparities among Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces have decreased, so have the inside regions of Zhejiang Province, while it is opposite to the inside regions of Jiangsu Province.     

Amenity values of spatial configurations of forest landscapes over space and time in the Southern Appalachian Highlands

This research analyzes amenity values of spatial configurations of forest landscapes over space and time in the Southern Appalachian Highlands using geographically weighted regression (GWR) in a hedonic housing-price framework with a census-block group (CBG) dataset. Results show that housing-price response to mean forest-patch size and forest-patch density increased substantially between 1990 and 2000 in a few specific areas with economically significant amenity values. The spatial and temporal dynamics of the resulting amenity-value estimates are evaluated for potential use as site-selection indicators for implementation of forest conservation programs.     

The participation decision versus the level of participation in an environmental treaty: a spatial probit analysis

This paper represents treaty participation as a two-stage game, for which nations first decide whether or not to participate and then they choose their level of participation. The resulting subgame perfect equilibrium is used to derive a reduced-form equation for estimating and separating the influences of the variables at the two decision stages. This spatial probit equation forms the basis for a full-information maximum likelihood estimator that accounts for the simultaneity bias associated with public good spillins at both stages. When the procedure is applied to the Helsinki Protocol, we find that the strategic influence of a variable may drastically differ depending upon which stage is scrutinized.     

An empirical study of the initial adoption of ISO 14001 in Japanese manufacturing firms

This paper analyzes stakeholders' environmental preferences/pressures and the financial flexibility that together influence firms to adopt ISO 14001, which is the international standard primarily concerned with an Environmental Management System (EMS). Since firms retain ISO 14001 once they have adopted it, a firm's decision to adopt ISO 14001 is considered from the period that they initially acquire the certification. Therefore, we assert that we have to focus on the determinants of initial ISO 14001 adoption. We analyzed: 1) the determinants of initial ISO 14001 adoptions respective to 1996, 1999, and 2004; and 2) the determinants of initial ISO 14001 adoptions during the period 1996-2004. The estimation results support the view that stakeholders' environmental preferences/pressures and firms' financial flexibility influenced their decision to adopt ISO 14001 in both analyses. Particularly, it is remarkable that we found that: 1) the determinants of the initial ISO 14001 adoption differed among the years of adoption; and 2) there is a positive relationship between economic performance and initial ISO 14001 adoption.     

Market thickness,sunk costs,productivity, and the outsourcing decision: an empirical analysis of manufacturing firms in France

Abstract This paper presents an empirical analysis of outsourcing behaviour by French manufacturing industries. It focuses on the effects of market thickness, sunk costs, and the productivity of firms on the outsourcing decision. I estimate a dynamic probit model where outsourcing decision is linked to past outsourcing behaviour. The results show that outsourcing is a persistent strategy adopted by large firms and suggest the presence of significant sunk costs associated with outsourcing. The results also show that market thickness reduces search costs and enhances the establishment of outsourcing relationships.     

The Status of Econometrics in the Economics Major: A Survey

In this article, the authors describe the place of econometrics in undergraduate economics curricula in all American colleges and universities that offer economics majors as listed in the U.S. News & World Report “Best Colleges 2010” guide (U.S. News & World Report 2009). Data come from online catalogs, departmental Web sites, and online course syllabi. About one-third of the schools require econometrics of all students majoring in economics, about half require it of none, and a sixth require it of some, but not all, economics majors. Among universities with economics PhD programs and liberal arts colleges, almost all those ranked in the top 10 require it. Below the top 10, there is little correlation between ranking and econometrics requirements. Liberal arts econometrics classes are much more likely to require research projects than their counterparts in universities.     

Biocapacity supply and demand in Northwestern China: A spatial appraisal of sustainability

Integrating spatial analysis with the supply and demand of biocapacity is critical for the sustainable development of regional eco-economic systems. Previous studies have focused on the temporal analysis of biocapacity at broad geographical scales, but lacked the systematic spatial realization at fine scales. An improvement is proposed of this conventional methodology of the ecological footprint by incorporating land-use data derived from high-resolution remote-sensing images into the calculation of biocapacity supply at regional, provincial and county levels in Northwestern China in 2000. The spatial heterogeneity and its effect on the biocapacity supply were systematically revealed for this region. First, the biocapacity supply declined from the east (the Guanzhong Basin and the Loess Plateau) to the middle (the Qaidam Basin and the Turpan Basin), and turned to rise from the middle to the west (the northwest of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomy). Second, although the gap between biocapacity supply and demand resulted in a small ecological deficit at the regional level, a large ecological deficit was observed at the provincial and county levels, highlighting an unsustainable situation for some of the sub-regions. Importantly, a power law relationship was unveiled between the biocapacity supply and population density, suggesting that (i) the biocapacity supply as a critical indicator could reflect the intensity of human exploitation on local biophysical resources and (ii) humans tend to have a preference to inhabit those areas with high biological productivity. These results provide opportunities to enhance policy development by central and local governments as part of the long-term Great Western Development Strategy of China.     

Modes of international activities and the innovativeness of firms: an empirical analysis based on the Japanese National Innovation Survey for 2009

We quantitatively examine the factors which account for differences in innovation output depending on the mode of international activities, employing the innovation accounting framework proposed by Mairesse and Mohnen [2001. To be or not to be innovative: An exercise in measurement. NBER Working Paper No. 8644. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research; 2002. “Accounting for Innovation and Measuring Innovativeness: An Illustrative Framework and an Application.” American Economic Review 92 (2): 226–230]. We find that internationally engaged firms use more innovation inputs and generate more innovation outputs. Firms with R&D establishments abroad show the best innovation performance. A significant part of the higher innovation performance of internationally engaged firms can be explained by their greater intra-firm knowledge spillovers, R&D intensity, perceived competitive pressure, and proximity to basic research. However, more importantly, our innovation efficiency analysis suggests that engagement in international activities increases the sales amount of innovative products though it does not necessarily raise the probability that a firm successfully develops a new product or process.     

A neglected controversy in the modelling of consumers' expenditure

In 1989 and 1992, Thomas noted the divergence of the 'stylisedhistory' of the consumption function from the true sequenceof events in its early history. To the list of overlooked elementscan now be added the debate on the cyclical nature of consumptionconsidered here. Analysis of the data used in the original studiesshows a simplistic model considered at the time to be the 'best'available. This contrasts sharply with Spanos (1989), who wascritical of the methods of the initial consumption researchers.However, use of recursive estimation shows concerns over a varyingmarginal propensity to consume to be unwarranted.     

A comparison of the spatial distribution of innovative activities in China and the U.S.

In order to enhance the independent innovation capability and help China to become an “innovation-oriented country” this article compares the spatial distribution of innovative activities between China (representing a typical developing country) and the United States. We also provide some recommendations for China and other developing countries to optimize the spatial distribution of their innovative activities. Using invention patents as an indicator gathered from the websites of the CSIPO and the USPTO, this paper compares the spatial distribution of innovative activity in China and the U.S. by methods such as rank-frequency, concentration and classification. The results show that the invention patents have experienced rapid growth and significant fluctuation in recent years in China, while the United States has been relatively stable. The spatial diversity of patent distribution in China is more obvious than in the United States. There is a concentrated trend of innovative activities in both China and the United States from the inland areas to the coastal regions.     

Market equilibrium in the presence of green consumers and responsible firms: A comparative statics analysis

This paper analyzes how the interaction between green consumers and responsible firms affects the market equilibrium. The main result is that a higher degree of responsibility of consumers and/or firms may both increase and decrease the total abatement and the social welfare. In general an increment in the degree of CSR of a firm entails an increase of its total clean-up and a reduction of the aggregate abatement of its rival. When the rival firm has a high degree of CSR this second effect is stronger than the first and total abatement falls down. At the same time, when the degree of consciousness of consumers and/or firms is very high, responsible firms overprovide environmental quality: in such case a further increment in the level of social responsibility of a market actor may trigger an increase of firms’ total clean-up but a reduction in social welfare.