Rational Underdevelopment*

We propose a two‐region two‐sector model of uneven development, where technological change benefits either the lagging or the leading region. In this framework interregional transfers may lead to persistent underdevelopment; by raising wages, transfers reduce the chance of the backward region adopting a new technology and taking off. Due to uncertainty about which region benefits from technological change, the backward region may rationally choose to remain underdeveloped, while the advanced region continues to pay transfers. The model provides a rationale for cases, such as Italy's Mezzogiorno, where the same rich region subsidizes the same poor region on a continuous basis.     

Effects of pro-growth policies on employment: evidence of regional disparities

The main objective of our research is to study the direct impact of pro-growth economic policies on employment creation globally and regionally, as evidence has countered policy-makers’ expectation that output growth leads automatically to job creation. We innovate by using the ratio of employment to the population above 25 years as dependent variable instead of the customary employment elasticity. We apply generalized methods of moments’ econometrics on dynamic panel data models and find that growth stimulates employment creation on average across 76 countries. The policies promoting private sector credit, investments, openness, services, education spending, tertiary enrollment, and a fixed exchange rate are the ones that create employment. Larger government size undermines job creation, while policies promoting FDI and industrial development fail to stimulate employment. However, we establish that the effect of pro-growth policies on employment varies significantly across regions, with evidence of weaker links between economic policies and employment in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.     

博弈视角下皖江示范区区际经济协同发展研究

经济结构调整和产业转移升级是皖江示范区当前面临的主要任务,区际经济协同发展是皖江示范区经济发展不可或缺的外围因素。文章结合区域经济博弈论,运用比较、分析论证等方法,阐述示范区与外围区际政府间的关系,分析示范区区际经济协同发展的现状,探索示范区与长三角经济圈、长江中游地区经济协同发展的重点路径。     

金融发展、技术进步与区域经济增长——基于欠发达地区的分析

运用向量自回归模型(VAR)估计区域金融发展水平与全要素生产率之间的关系考察金融发展与区域经济增长之间的技术进步影响,并运用格兰杰因果检验对区域金融发展规模与全要素生产率增长率之间的因果关系做出检验。研究发现,1990年以来中国西北各省区的经济金融化程度均得到提高,但是金融发展对全要素生产率的影响较弱,全要素生产率对金融规模的响应程度和显著性不高,西北地区金融发展对经济增长的作用还没有得到充分的发挥。     

自然资源与区域经济增长:一个文献综述

自然资源是影响区域经济增长的重要因素,但是一直以来资源问题却没有引起主流经济学界的重视,包含有自然资源因素的增长模型是对区域经济增长模型的扩展。经验数据表明自然资源在某种程度上会挤出物质资本,并影响效率,从而形成区域经济增长过程中的"资源陷阱"现象,西方学者对此做出了理论上的解释。     

An empirical study on FDI international knowledge spillovers and regional economic development in China

This article has constructed a framework to analyze the relationship between national innovation investments, international knowledge spillover due to FDI and regional technological progress. We use the panel data sample in 1992–2006 from China’s 29 provinces (municipalities or autonomous regions) to test the impact of China’s regional R&;D investments, international knowledge spillovers of FDI on its regional technological progress. It reveals that the local investments in science and technology are the most important factors to promote technological progress; for the structure and quality of China’s current FDI, the knowledge spillover effects from FDI, especially through the FDI enterprises’ manufacturing activities, are not obvious; the local gains in its technology development from FDI depends on its economic and technological level. Based on the above conclusions we give the corresponding policy recommendations for China’s FDI policy and regional economic development.     

山东省区域经济差异研究

将山东省划分为东、中、西三大经济区域,分析了1995-2011年山东省三大区域经济的三大产业、GDP以及泰尔指数,将定量和定性分析方法相结合来评价山东省三大区域的经济差异现状。结果显示：山东省三大区域的经济差异在逐年扩大后趋于平稳,区域间差距比区域内部差距的扩大速度更快是造成区域差异大的主要原因。并在此基础上提出相关建议：对经济差异的调控应以缩小区域间的差异为重点;同时,加强各区域经济中心的建设,更好地发挥经济中心对周围各区县的辐射效应和带动作用等。     

Dynamics of environmental quality and economic development: the regional experience from Yangtze River Delta of China

This article investigates the dynamic relationship between economic progress and environmental quality at a regional level. An important economic intuition in this context is that environmental degradation will be limited by human behaviour if costs and benefits of such degradation are local since economic agents will then be incentivized to choose appropriate corrective action. Therefore, we note the likelihood that regional economic development can help regions ‘grow out of’ environmental problems. Using a new data set from Yangtze River Delta of China, we find a strong confirmation of the intuition that human can and will resolve the environmental problem by altering the damaging behaviour of economic agents. A very interesting finding of this study is that the relationship between environmental quality and economic progress measured by per capita income can display a wave-like function in the case of water pollution, as opposed to the much dramatized environmental Kuznets curve, with significant policy implications.     

论辽宁沿海经济区的区域经济一体化

辽宁沿海经济带开发建设上升为国家战略,为加快辽宁省经济的全面发展注入了新的动力。辽宁省沿海地带作为中国东北地区唯一的沿海区域,是东北地区对外物质交流和产品运输的重要通道。因此,如何利用这一区位优势加快辽宁地区的经济发展是一个非常值得研究的问题。从辽宁沿海经济带的发展现状出发,提出了其发展战略。     

Trade integration and regional income disparities in a growth model with the service sector and footloose capital

This paper proposes a North–South growth model of endogenous industry location which is consistent with recent empirical work showing that regional income disparities have increased in many countries with the process of trade integration. The model incorporates a service sector that benefits from intersectoral knowledge spillovers from the manufacturing sector. We find that, when these spillovers are local, trade integration leads to an increase in interregional real income inequality.     

浅论高职教育与区域经济发展

区域经济作为经济基础,对高职教育具有决定性作用,而经济和高新技术的迅速发展是高职教育产生和发展的直接动因。作为职业教育的主要组成部分,高职教育不仅为区域经济发展培养高素质人才,还为区域经济发展提供重要的知识基础和先进的科技成果。高等职业技术教育应确定以市场为导向的职业教育办学指导思想,在专业设置、办学形式和人才培养方面与区域经济发展相适应。     

The role of industrial policy in the economic development of Uzbekistan

This paper discusses the role of industrial policy in the economic development of Uzbekistan, which took a gradualist approach in transition and continued to record rapid economic growth from the early 2000s. It stopped depending on cotton monoculture and was able to achieve self-sufficiency in grain. It transformed itself from a net fuel importer to an exporter. The government promoted the manufacturing sector, focusing on the heavy industries, such as the automotive and chemical industries. Industrial restructuring in Uzbekistan has been supported by the industrial policy. The government has taken several industrial policy measures, including tax and financial incentives, state orders, policy selectively welcoming foreign direct investment, import protection and export promotion, and exchange-rate management. This paper provides policy implications for the other developing and transition economies pursuing economic development and considers the appropriate role of the government.     

Assessing the economic impact of entrepreneurship on a regional economy using social accounting matrices: the case of Andalusia

This article analyses the impact that entrepreneurial activity has, from the economic point of view, on a regional economy (Andalusia), based on a Social Accounting Matrix linear model. Moreover, to measure entrepreneurship at regional level, it is defined what can be considered an entrepreneurial initiative company from a quantitative point of view. The results obtained, in terms of Production, GDP and job creation, show how entrepreneurship, in the case of Andalusia, contributes to the sustainability of the economy, its growth and, above all, the reduction of unemployment in the short term.     

Impact of openness, economic policy reform and regional shocks on trade and growth of Thailand： An econometric study

Thailand has currently enhanced and promoted intensive trade and investment liberalization and implemented long-term growth policy according with current regional economic integration, WTO obligations and globalization. Nevertheless, several recent internal and external factors e.g. the massive SARS and avian flu outbreaks, the Indian Ocean tsunami devastation, the Asia financial crisis and domestic policy reforms （ICSEAD, 2006） have also impeded this policy. While the issues are important for Thailand and developing countries in Asia, only limited research has been undertaken to investigate them. The paper conducts a substantive quantitative study to contribute to these trade and development policy issues. A new econometric modelling policy method, namely the generalized gravity theory （Tran Van Hoa, 2004） is used to develop a simple flexible simultaneous-equation econometric model of Thailand＇s openness model with its seven major trade partners （ASEAN-4, Australia, the USA, the EU, China, Japan and India）. Using data from the ICSEAD, the World Development Indicators and the Bank of Thailand databases, the paper reveals efficient and reliable empirical findings on trade-growth causality, trade determination including the impact of shocks and policy reform on trade and growth between Thailand and its major trade partners over the past two decades. The paper also provides evidence on the linkages between trade in goods, FDI and services and regional economic integration for more credible policy implications.     

The effect of NAFTA on internal migration in Mexico: a regional economic analysis

Trade facilitates growth in some regions of a country while shrinking others, and therefore to benefit from trade, labour may need to be able to migrate. This mobility is particularly crucial in a developing country with high income inequality like Mexico. We seek to answer the following questions: What characteristics facilitate or hinder that internal migration? Has trade liberalization changed the pattern of internal migration in Mexico? We first predict regional economic growth resulting from changes in Mexico-US tariffs by sector. We find that trade liberalization appears to have largely benefited the manufacturing sector. Next, using a spatial gravity model of migration, we find that while economic growth from trade openness drew workers to urban regions in the northern Border States of Mexico, much of the trade-driven migration occurred before NAFTA. Second, contrary to popular belief, migration from largely rural states appears to have decreased since NAFTA. We also find evidence that migration to the United States increased after NAFTA. Last, we find that income disparity in both the destination and origin region deters migration and that this effect increases after NAFTA. Thus, we see evidence that within-region income disparity can hinder migration, potentially exacerbating income disparity among regions.     

Implications of the Polish 1999 administrative reform for regional socio‐economic development

On 1 January 1999, four major reforms took effect in Poland in the areas of health, education, pensions and local administration. After 20 years, only in the last case does the original structural design remain essentially unchanged. We examine the implications of this reform from the perspective of the distance of municipalities from their regional administrative capital. We show that despite fears of negative consequences for peripheral regions, the reform did not result in slower socio‐economic development for those municipalities that found themselves further from the new administrative centres. We argue that regional inclusiveness in the process of development is likely to be an important factor behind the stability of Poland's administrative design.     

An increase in the retirement age in China: the regional economic effects

China’s pension system is in need of comprehensive reform. One measure on which we focus is to increase the retirement age. It is likely that a change in retirement age will have significantly different effects across China’s regions. Interregional disparities are already very substantial in China and it will be important to know how changes in pension arrangements will affect disparities. We consider four policies to increase the retirement age from 60 to 61. They differ according the use made of the extra revenue generated by the policy. All four policies increase welfare and reduce the interregional welfare gap.     

区域经济一体化的理性选择--建立自由贸易区及其相关理论问题

经济全球化和区域经济一体化是当今世界经济发展的两个并存的重要趋势.区域经济一体化是指地域相邻近的两个以上国家,在国际分工不断深化和经济联系愈紧密的基础上,通过政府间谈判并以签署协定形式,相互采取比区域外国家更为开放、更为自由的贸易投资政策,并在体制框架和调节机制上结合成为经济合作组织或国家经济集团.其组织形态有南南型、北北型及北南型区域经济一体化.亚洲与其他地区相比,区域经济一体化的实际进展不大,真正称得上区域经济一体化的组织只有东南亚国家联盟.     

中国生产性服务业区域发展差异的分解——基于劳动分工理论和Shapley值分解方法

中国的生产性服务业发展呈现出明显的区域性特征,并对制造业的发展产生较强的阻碍作用。基于上述背景,本文将生产性服务业的发展定义为由于横向分工和纵向分工效应导致的生产性服务业的出现和发展。在此基础上,建立了一个涵盖教育和创新的生产性服务业发展模型,得出了促进生产性服务业发展的内生机制。另外,本文利用2001—2007年的面板数据估计出生产性服务业的面板协整方程,然后以协整方程为基础利用Shapleyvalue对生产性服务业的区域差异进行了分解。夏普里值的分解结果表明：省际地理固有因素、制造业市场的交易效率对于生产性服务业的发展差异起到了非常重要的因素,其贡献程度分别达到了30．36％和26．87％,排在第3到第7位的分别为城市化水平、交通、信息、金融和教育市场的交易效率,2001—2007年其平均贡献率分别达到了22．36％、19．10％、15．23％、10．83％和7．54％。最后,本文提出政策建议。     

Spectrum allocation in Latin America: An economic analysis

As elsewhere, wireless markets play a crucial role in Latin American economic growth. Mobile telephone networks increasingly provide the communications infrastructure that has largely been lacking throughout the region. Yet, governments have generally made only modest allocations of bandwidth available to Latin American wireless operators, either absolutely (in terms of spectrum each country could allocate at modest opportunity cost) or relative to countries in North America, Asia and the European Union. Using an empirical model estimated on mobile phone data for international markets, we show that very large social benefits are available to countries that make more spectrum available for mobile phone markets. We conduct simulations using our calibrated model to provide lower bounds for country-by-country gains from larger allocations. We also discuss the impact of alternative regulatory regimes on the feasibility to achieve those social gains.