Spatial dependence,agglomeration externalities and the convergence of carbon productivity

By combining the extended slack based measurement (SBM) model directed distance function and the meta-constrained production function to measure China's carbon productivity, this paper studies the spatial spillover effects and convergence characteristics of carbon productivity. According to the results, carbon productivity showed obvious viscosity and spatial dependence in adjacent regions. China's carbon productivity had spatial conditional β-convergence and club convergence effects. Specifically, agglomeration externalities constituted an important mechanism for increasing carbon productivity and realizing the convergence thereof. Different agglomeration forms under different agglomeration degrees corresponded to different carbon productivity levels; with an increase in the degree of agglomeration, the emission reduction effect of specialized agglomeration diminished, while that of diversified agglomeration increased. Furthermore, depending on suitable agglomeration degrees, the emission reduction effect of specialized agglomeration could coexist with that of diversified agglomeration. In terms of regional distribution, in East China, both specialized agglomeration and diversified agglomeration presented relatively significant emission reduction effects. In contrast, in Central China and West China, only specialized agglomeration showed a weak emission reduction effect.     

The effect of trade on productivity growth and the demand for skilled workers in Canada

We use an input–output model to examine the effect of trade integration on productivity growth and the demand for skilled workers in Canada for the period 1981–1997. We find that trade integration has a positive effect on both labour productivity and total factor productivity. Labour productivity and total factor productivity grew faster in export and import industries than in the total business sector over this period, and this productivity growth gap has widened over time. Canada is found to have a comparative advantage in capital- and natural-resource-intensive industries, although it has declined over time. We find that trade integration has little effect on the demand for skilled and unskilled workers in Canada.     

Identifying the impact of geographical proximity on spillover effect of FDI: The evidence from Indian local firms’ performance gains

This paper investigates the role of geographical proximity on FDI spillovers from foreign to Indian local firms. We use data set of the manufacturing firms between 1988 and 2018 in India, estimating the productivity based on Cobb–Douglas production function. For measuring geographical proximity, the coordinates of each firm, represented to as ‘latitude and longitude’, provided by Google maps geocoding API is used. To conduct spatial analysis, we adopted the revised ‘SINM’ (Spatial Industrial Network Model)’ with GMM estimator, and used firm based point spatial unit. The analysis, in particular, reveals that within 30 km–70 km distance the presence of FDI creates significant positive backward and negative horizontal spillovers, but gradually decaying as threshold increases. Meanwhile, the negative horizontal spillovers to Indian local firms located within industrial clusters turned to positive, and the positive backward spillovers more magnifies compared to non-clustered firms. Based on these findings, we suggested the several policy implications regarding the development of industrial cluster, FDI promotion policy, and location decision for foreign investors.     

Spatial externalities and agglomeration in a competitive industry

We introduce spatial spillovers as an externality in the production function of competitive firms operating within a finite spatial domain under adjustment costs. Spillovers may attenuate with distance and the overall externality could contain positive and negative components with the overall effect being positive. We show that when the spatial externality is not internalized by firms, spatial agglomerations may emerge endogenously in a competitive equilibrium. The result does not require increasing returns at the private or the social level, increasing marginal productivity of private capital with respect to the externality, or location advantages. In fact agglomerations may emerge with decreasing returns to scale, declining marginal productivity of private capital with respect to the externality, and no location advantage. The result depends on the interactions between the structures of production technology and spatial effects as shown in the paper. No agglomerations emerge at the social optimum when spillovers are internalized and diminishing returns both from the private and the social point of view prevail. Numerical experiments with Cobb–Douglas and CES technologies and an isoelastic demand confirm our theoretical predictions.     

Strategic Location Behaviour: The Case of Japanese Investments in Europe

SUMMARY

We address the question of competition within the location choices of firms. In a framework of agglomeration effects, both spatial and temporal dimensions of the firms' decisions are studied. We show that the competition consequences of preemptive move and optimal time of entry can interfere with the geographical decisions. Our results contrast with those of agglomeration economics models which generally provide extreme results of mono-location. The equilibria described here tend to demonstrate that the relation between competition strength and spatial differentiation remains pertinent in a context of agglomeration economies. A conditional logit empirical study analyses the geographical choice of Japanese firms in Europe. Agglomeration variables, public policies and labour market determinants are tested, highlighting the existence of temporal and spatial proximity in the behaviour of firms. The competition conditions experienced by firms of each specific sector also appear to be important in the location decision of Japanese investors.     

Development similarities in urban clusters: Evidence from a spatial analysis of Israel''s urban system

The effect of geographic proximity on the similarity of development rates exhibited by urban localities in Israel is investigated. The analysis is carried out in three stages. During the first stage, Moran's I measure of spatial autocorrelation is used, indicating that the spatial autocorrelation of development rates drops as inter-town distances increase. In the second stage, the impact of explanatory variables (population size, remoteness, etc.) is tested using both Ordinary Least Squares (OLSs) and Spatial Lag Models (SLMs). The analysis indicates that inter-town proximity is a significant factor that helps to improve regression fits. Lastly, during the third step of the analysis, the spatial association of development rates is studied separately for centrally located and peripheral towns. The analysis points out that proximity effects appear to be stronger in the periphery.     

生产性服务业对制造业生产效率提升效应的实证分析——基于中国城市面板数据的空间计量分析

依托生产性服务业的发展带动制造业生产效率的提升,对于中国制造业转型升级具有重要意义。基于2005-2016年中国239个城市层面的面板数据,运用空间面板计量模型（SEM和SAR）,并且构建地理邻接与地理距离两种空间权重矩阵,实证分析了生产性服务业对制造业效率的提升作用。研究表明,生产性服务业不仅可以提升本地区的制造业效率,而且通过空间溢出效应提升其邻近地区的制造业效率。各个区域的生产性服务业对制造业效率的提升作用存在一定的差异,其中长江三角洲地区的提升作用明显高于其他地区,而中部地区的提升作用最小,并且中部地区的空间溢出效应不显著。     

Location,Proximity, and M&A Transactions

In this paper, we examine how the geographic location of firms affects acquisition decisions and value creation for acquirers in takeover transactions. We find that firms located in an urban area are more likely to receive a takeover bid and complete a takeover transaction as a target than firms located in rural areas, and takeover deals involving an urban target are associated with higher acquirer announcement returns, after controlling for the proximity between the target and the acquirer. In addition, a target's urban location significantly attenuates the negative effect of a long distance between the target and the acquirer on acquirer returns, a fact that is documented in the existing literature. Our findings reveal a previously underexplored force—firm location—that can affect takeover transactions, in addition to proximity. Our paper suggests that a firm's location plays an important role in facilitating the dissemination of soft information and enhancing information‐based synergies.     

Does recession drive convergence in firms’ productivity? Evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms

This paper provides evidence on the effect of recessions and expansions on the productivity growth rate of productivity leaders and followers. We use data of a representative sample of the Spanish manufacturing sector for the period 1991 and 2005. These data allow us to estimate firm level productivity for a relatively long period of time and provide us with firm level perception of the business cycle. We find that productivity tends to converge in recessions because, in these periods, the productivity growth of followers is higher than the productivity growth of leaders. This fact is consistent with theoretical models of managerial incentives and competition. A recession can be seen as an exogenous increase in competition that reduces demand and poses a threat of liquidation. This threat is higher for followers and is high enough to create asymmetric incentives to become more productive. We test the robustness of our results to sample selection and different productivity measure.     

Dynamic and non-neutral productivity effects of foreign ownership: A nonparametric approach

This paper studies two novel productivity characteristics of foreign acquisition on high-tech manufacturing firms: the dynamic and the non-Hicks-neutral effects. A dynamic productivity effect of foreign ownership arises when adoption of foreign technology and management practices takes time to fully realize. Furthermore, these dynamic adjustments may be capital or labor augmenting as adoption of advanced production technologies tends to have non-neutral productivity implications in developed countries. We propose and implement an econometric framework to estimate both effects using firm-level data from China's manufacturing sector. Our framework extends a nonparametric productivity framework, in which identification is achieved using a firm's first-order conditions and timing assumptions. We find strong evidence of dynamic and non-neutral effects from foreign ownership, with significant differences across investment sources. Investment from OECD sources is found to provide a long-term productivity boost for all but the largest recipients, while that from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan does not raise performance. These findings have implications for China's declining labor share and for the rising domestic value-added content of its high-tech exports.     

行业间生产率联动对中国工业生产率增长的影响——引入经济距离矩阵的空间GMM估计

本文把反映行业间生产率联动的购买距离矩阵和销售距离矩阵引入空间自回归模型,研究行业间生产率联动对我国工业生产率增长的影响。为了克服引入社会经济距离矩阵带来的异方差和矩阵的行标准化问题,本文采用空间GMM法进行模型的估计。结果表明,行业生产率联动对我国工业生产率增长具有显著的正影响,并且在资源密集型、劳动密集型和资本密集型工业行业中,行业间生产率联动对工业生产率增长的影响相对于其他因素的影响更为稳健。此外,由销售距离矩阵所体现的联动作用效果整体上大于购买距离矩阵体现的相关效果。     

Profit, productivity and distribution: Differences across organizational forms - The case of Spanish banks

We examine variations in financial and economic performance as a function of organizational form, and, over time. The forms we consider include Spanish commercial banks, savings banks, and financial cooperatives. We decompose multilateral variation in operating profit, our measure of financial performance, into price and quantity effects. We then decompose the latter into a margin effect and productivity change. Our measure of economic performance, productivity variation, is subsequently disaggregated into technical, cost efficiency, and scale. We find that deregulation and liberalization have acted to narrow performance gaps among organizational forms; this, despite less-than compelling evidence that increased competition has contributed to this convergence. For the Spanish banking system as a whole, the margin effect appears to deliver twice as much financial benefit as do improvements in productivity. Importantly, this finding does not vary across organizational form. Such regularity has an important implication: Incentives for growth are apparently provided by a positive margin rather than by the more elusive benefits of economies of scale and improved cost efficiency.     

Endogenous job destruction and job matching in cities

We propose a spatial search-matching model where both job creation and job destruction are endogenous. Workers are ex ante identical but not ex post since their jobs can be hit by a technological shock which decreases their productivity. They reside in a city, and commuting to the job center involves both pecuniary and time costs. As a result, workers with high wages are willing to live closer to jobs to save on time commuting costs. We show that, in equilibrium, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the productivity space and the urban location space. Workers with high productivities and wages reside close to jobs, have low per distance commuting costs and pay high land rents. We also show that higher per distance commuting costs and higher unemployment benefits lead to more job destruction.     

Agglomeration within an urban area

This paper utilizes a newly created index for colocalization to estimate the determinants of industrial agglomeration within a single urban area. Our new index directly incorporates the location of individual establishments while controlling for the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) in order to create this measure of spatial similarity between two industries. We estimate that proximity to transportation infrastructure and consumers as well as knowledge spillovers largely explain patterns of agglomeration. We find a smaller role for input–output linkages and consumption externalities for retail and consumer service industries.     

Technology catching-up and regulation in European regions

This paper analyses the effects of the intensity of regulations in the product and labour markets on the growth of total factor productivity (TFP) for 121 European regions. A technological catch-up model is estimated for the period 1995–2007. We use the spatial lag of X (SLX) model to capture possible spatial interactions across spatial units. Our empirical findings show that lower levels of regulation are associated with higher TFP growth. Lower barriers to entrepreneurship and lower bureaucratic costs have a positive effect on productivity growth. Corruption raises operational costs, distorts the allocation of resources and negatively affects innovation activities, thereby reducing TFP growth. Further liberalization in the labour market (in terms of hiring and firing regulation, working hours regulation and employment protection legislation) has a significant positive effect on the growth of TFP. In addition, both regional technological and regional human capital have a positive impact on the TFP growth in European regional economies.     

The distribution of the relative arc density of a family of interval catch digraph based on uniform data

We study a family of interval catch digraph called proportional-edge proximity catch digraph (PCD) which is also a special type of intersection digraphs parameterized with an expansion and a centrality parameter. PCDs are random catch digraphs that have been developed recently and have applications in classification and spatial pattern analysis. We investigate a graph invariant of the PCDs called relative arc density. We demonstrate that relative arc density of PCDs is a U-statistic and using the central limit theory of U-statistics, we derive the (asymptotic) distribution of the relative arc density of proportional-edge PCD for uniform data in one dimension. We also determine the parameters for which the rate of convergence to asymptotic normality is fastest.     

Open space, residential property values, and spatial context

We use hedonic analysis of home transaction data from the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area to estimate the effects of proximity to open space on sales price. We allow the effects of proximity to vary with demographic and location-specific characteristics and include fixed effects to control for observed and unobserved neighborhood characteristics. We find that the value of proximity to open space is higher in neighborhoods that are dense, near the central business district, high-income, high-crime, or home to many children. Using the metropolitan area's average value may substantially overestimate or underestimate the value of open space in particular neighborhoods.     

Geographical and cognitive proximity effects on innovation performance in SMEs: a way through knowledge acquisition

This study explores the relative influence of geographical and cognitive proximity to explain innovation performance. This paper deepens the controversy between the significance of both types of proximity, contributing to a better understand their interconnections. The study further analyzes to what extent knowledge acquisition provides a congruent explanation of the effectiveness of innovation in proximity contexts. The paper has tested a structural model based on a sample of 224 Spanish footwear firms. Footwear industry is a mature and traditional industry with a significant presence of the territorial agglomeration of firms all over Spain. Findings suggest both a direct and indirect effect of cognitive proximity on innovation performance. However, an excess of geographical proximity produces spatial lock-in, thus limiting the access to new knowledge and lowering innovations. By contrast, proximity in terms of goals and culture leads firms belonging to a territorial cluster to achieve knowledge acquisition resulting in relevant innovation. Findings suggest that although transferable valuable knowledge exists in clustered contexts firms should adopt a proactive behavior to have access common knowledge and in order to generate effective innovations.     

Issues in Assessing the Effect of Interindustry R&D Spillovers

This paper aims to clarify three issues concerning the weighting methodol ogy generally used to evaluate interindustry R&D spillovers. These issues concern the likely nature of the spillovers estimated through different types of supporting matrices; the similarity between input–output (IO), technology flows and technological proximity matrices; and the relevance of the assumption that a single matrix can be used for different countries. Data analyses of weighting components show that technology flows matrices are in an intermediate position between IO matrices and technological proximity matrices, but closer to the former. The various IO matrices, as well as the three technological proximity matrices, are very similar to each other. The panel data estimates of the effect of different types of interindustry R&D spillovers on industrial productivity growth in the G7 countries reject the hypotheses that a technology flows matrix can be approximated by an IO matrix and that a single IO matrix can be usedfor different countries. By transitivity, the procedure that comprises using a single technology flow for several countries is not reliable. The international comparison shows that each country benefits from different types of R&D externality. In Japan and, to a lesser extent, in the US, the rate of return to direct R&D is very high and is likely to compensate for relatively weak interindustry R&D spillover effects. In the five other industrialized countries, the reverse observation is true: strong social rates of return to R&D counterbal ance the poor performances of direct R&D.     

Using the variance structure of the conditional autoregressive spatial specification to model knowledge spillovers

This study investigates the pattern of knowledge spillovers arising from patent activity between European regions. A Bayesian hierarchical model is developed that specifies region‐specific latent effects parameters modeled using a connectivity structure between regions that can reflect geographical proximity in conjunction with technological and other types of proximity. This approach exploits the fact that interregional relationships may exhibit industry‐specific technological linkages or transportation network linkages, which is in contrast to traditional studies relying exclusively on geographical proximity. We also allow for both symmetric and asymmetric knowledge spillovers between regions, and for heterogeneity across the regional sample. A series of formal Bayesian model comparisons provides support for a model based on technological proximity combined with spatial proximity, asymmetric knowledge spillovers, and heterogeneity in the disturbances. Estimates of region‐specific latent effects parameters structured in this fashion are produced by the model and used to draw inferences regarding the character of knowledge spillovers across the regions. The method is illustrated using sample data on patent activity covering 323 regions in nine European countries. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.