The commuting time paradox

We examine the conditions for the ‘commuting time paradox’ which states that the average commuting time does not vary between different periods. We develop therefore an equilibrium job search model with endogenously chosen commuting costs. Presuming wage bargaining between workers and firms, the optimally chosen maximum commuting costs jointly maximise the worker's and firm's payoffs. We demonstrate that when productivity levels increase over time, average commuting costs and average wages both increase, which affects the optimally chosen commuting time. We establish the conditions under which the paradox holds.     

Transport tax reform, commuting, and endogenous values of time

We consider a model of urban transport with two trip purposes, commuting (assumed perfectly complementary to labour supply) and noncommuting, to analyse the effects of transport tax reform on the value of time and marginal external congestion costs. Higher commuting taxes plausibly reduce time values, but higher noncommuting transport prices will typically raise the value of time. The intuition for this latter finding is that the reduction in congestion that follows from the tax increase itself raises net wages per hour of work (inclusive of commuting time). Empirical illustrations with Belgian data show a potentially large effect of transport tax reform on time values. In quite a few of the tax reforms studied traffic levels are reduced, but the increase in time values implies that marginal external congestion costs actually increase.     

Trade and the structure of cities

Our purpose is to investigate how the interplay between trade, commuting and communication costs shapes the economy at both the interregional and intra-urban levels. Specifically, we study how economic integration affects the internal structure of cities and show how decentralizing the production and consumption of goods in secondary employment centers allows firms located in a large city to maintain their predominance. Several new results in both economic geography and urban economics are established, which all agree with empirical evidence.     

Effects of residential relocation on household and commuting expenditures in Shanghai, China

Over the past three decades, China's cities have undergone massive spatial restructuring in the wake of market reforms and economic growth. One consequence has been a rapid migration of urban residents to the periphery. Some movers have been forced out either by rising urban rents or government reclamation of their residences. Others have relocated willingly to modernized housing or for other lifestyle reasons. This article examines the effects of relocation to the urban edge on household well-being. It explores the factors underlying changes in housing and transportation costs as households move to the periphery. The research also examines whether those who moved involuntarily are affected differently from those who moved by choice. Results show that, relative to those who moved by choice, involuntary movers are disproportionately and adversely affected in terms of job accessibility, commute time, housing consumption and disposable income. The findings also show that, compared with higher-income households, lower-income groups are disproportionately affected in relation to housing costs, accessibility losses, disposable income and household worker composition. These results indicate that relocation compensation for involuntarily relocated households should be expanded to include more than just housing value: it should encompass urban location changes, household needs and relocation costs.     

Political economy of commuting subsidies

We study the political economy of commuting subsidies in a model of a monocentric city with two income classes. Depending on housing demand and transport costs, either the rich or the poor live in the central city and the other group in the suburbs. Commuting subsidies increase the net income of those with long commutes or high transport costs. They also affect land rents and therefore the income of landowners. The paper studies how the locational pattern of the two income classes and the incidence of landownership affects the support for commuting subsidies.     

Estimating the commuting cost and commuting time property price gradients

In this paper, we estimate the property price gradients in Hong Kong. We distinguish our effort from previous studies on the subject by directly measuring the economic distance, i.e., the monetary commuting cost and commuting time, instead of merely the physical distance. Our results are generally supportive of the prediction of a negative property price gradient. In one specification, the estimated capitalization of the savings of commuting cost in property prices appears to be just right. The expected negative effect of commuting time on property values, however, can only be detected among observations with larger commuting times. Nevertheless, over the range where the effect of commuting time has the expected negative sign, the values of time implied by the estimates agree well with the results reported in the transportation economics literature.     

Labour supply and commuting time: An empirical study

We estimate a simple labour supply model that incorporates commuting time in a utility maximizing framework. Housing prices are assumed to vary with commuting time, and the elasticity of housing prices with respect to the latter is estimated to be about 10 percent. Using this elasticity estimate the price of commuting time averaged over all individuals is $3.22 while the wage rate is $4.72; thus commuting time is implicitly valued at about two-thirds of the wage rate on average. As far as work hours are concerned, almost all individuals are on the backward bending part of their labour supply curve.     

Linkage lock-in and regional economic development: the case of the Øresund medi-tech plastics industry

This paper examines the role of interfirm linkages in influencing the dynamics of regional economic development. Developing a conceptual framework, we claim that switching costs (real or perceived) can lock firms into existing linkages with the potential effect of impeding regional economic development. A main argument is that in dynamic and competitive environments a class of switching costs, learning opportunity costs, might arise out of the relative importance of learning and innovation. We apply our framework to understand what goes on in the Øresund medi-tech plastics industry, taking as a starting point the lack of cross-border linkage participation in this industry. Through a case study research design we obtain evidence about the characteristics and dynamics of linkage lock-in and switching costs in this particular context and explain that learning opportunity costs prevail and make increased linkage participation across Øresund tardy. Promising future research arising from the present study includes enquiry into dissimilar industries, the possible intermediating role of third parties and the complementarities of the Danish and Swedish areas with a focus on the potential of cross-border regional specialization. All this would potentially add to a more complete picture of the notion of switching costs.     

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.     

不确定条件下环境政策的时机选择

本文建立了一个连续时间模型，用于分析不确定条件下环境政策的时机选择。模型结果显示，环境政策的采用有两种不可逆性，而且它们在相反的方向上起作用：第一，旨在降低生态危害的政策对社会施加了沉淀成本。它产生立即采用这一政策而不是等待有关生态影响及其经济后果的更多信息的机会成本，这种机会成本使等待而不是现在就采纳政策更可取；第二，环境危害可能部分或完全不可逆。这就意味着立即采用一项政策而不是等待具有沉没收益，即负的机会成本。这种负的机会成本偏离了政策采用中传统的成本一收益分析。因此，现在立即采用一项政策可能是更合适的，即使传统的分析宣称它是不经济的。文章表明，不确定性对环境政策的时机选择有着重要的影响。     

基于经济联系量与地缘经济关系的城市经济区划分

运用空间相互作用理论引力模型测算城市之间的经济联系量,运用地缘经济学欧氏距离法测算城市之间的竞争合作程度,根据这两个测算结果确定中心城市的吸引范围,构建一个操作性强的城市经济区划的定量分析框架,并应用于大兴安岭地区案例之中.     

我国主要城市群的城市流动态比较

城市流描述了城市的基本活动,反映城市的对外服务职能,而城市流强度则是定量描述城市流的重要指标之一。通过对我国15个主要城市群城市流强度与结构的分析,从城市流视角探讨我国城市群对外服务功能空间分布特征及其增长情况。结果表明,京津唐城市群、长三角城市群和珠三角城市群为高城市流强度中心,是城市群外向服务能力和城市群综合实力最强的三个城市群,且国内较高城市流强度的城市群基本都分布于沿海和沿江的经济地带内;此外,城市群外部贡献率的高低也是城市群演化发展的内在动力之一。     

A simultaneous-equations analysis of urban development: migration and industrial growth in Israel's new towns

A simultaneous-equations econometric model is used to analyze the recent development of new towns in Israel. The focus is on the relationships among migration, industrial investment, employment, and other structural and policy variables affecting urban development. "Our results affirm the importance of economic opportunity, agglomeration effects, population socioeconomic and ethnic composition, and access in determining migration flows. At the same time, unemployment and investment indices are affected by local labor-market conditions, government incentives, and regional development effects as well as by population composition and migration flows. Policy implications of the analysis are considered."     

德国的城市化模式

德国的城市化采用了以大城市为核心、建立互补共生的区域城市圈的模式。在城市圈内,大中小城市均衡发展,中小城市是城市体系中的主体。德国的这种城市化模式保证了低房价,减少了居民上下班通勤时间和成本,完善了中小城市的基础设施和公共服务,降低了城市居民的生活成本,保持和发展了各城市独特的城市文化,形成和发展了多样化的旅游业。     

Variations in the value of reductions in commuting time

This paper applies the theory of consumer choice to investigate the variations in the value of a marginal reduction in commuting for motorists. Two models are developed: Model I includes leisure and goods in the utility function and Model II adds commuting time to the utility function. Model I predicts that the value of a marginal reduction in commuting time increases as income or commuting time increases and decreases as commuting time saved increases. Model II does not have clear qualitative implications. The empirical tests generally support Model I.     

Stepping-stones for integrated chain management in the firm

The Dutch government's National Environmental Policy Plans (issued in 1989 and 1993) identified Integrated Chain Management – the incorporation of sustainability considerations into supply chains and related networks – as an important means of implementing their ambitious environmental objectives in the economic sphere. However, there is a debate going on as to what kind of policy measures would support its adoption and how they can be implemented in practice. Integrated Chain Management has two main features. The first is the flows of materials which result from economic activities. The second is the institutional frameworks which shape the production and consumption processes which drive the material flows. Previous studies have examined the ecological, economic, organizational and public policy aspects of Integrated Chain Management. However, they have not clarified the business logic behind the forces that give rise to chain‒oriented action. This matters because public policy is most effective when it is compatible with existing business trends. This paper therefore examines these trends (in particular Total Quality Management, Supply Chain Management and environmental management) utilizing current literatures and four case studies of large British and Dutch companies. From this examination it generates four stepping-stones for encouraging movement towards Integrated Chain Management. In principle, the results are relevant to all economic sectors. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment.     

现代物流与城市区域空间组织研究

在明晰现代物流、城市区域与空间组织概念基础上,通过条分缕析现代物流与城市区域内经济系统、基础设施、社会系统、环境系统和自然资源等子系统的作用机理来阐释现代物流与城市区域空间组织之间的内在联系。     

The periurban city: why to live between the suburbs and the countryside

The last 30 years have witnessed the emergence of a new pattern of urban development in France, called the periurban belt. It is defined as a belt outside the city occupied both by households and farmers. We develop a residential model in which households commuting to an employment center may choose to live with farmers in this mixed belt because they value the rural amenities created by farming activities. Both types of agents compete on the land market and the equilibrium conditions allow us to obtain an analytical solution and to provide some insights about the robustness of the periurban form against decreases in commuting costs. Finally, the model is calibrated on French data.     

区域环保投资与经济可持续发展研究——基于我国区域面板数据比较分析

低碳环保下,环保投资对区域经济可持续发展影响存在差异。本文采用面板数据研究我国东中西部环保投资与经济可持续发展关系。研究结果表明,城市环境基础设施建设投资(CSHJ)是当前环保投资的关键,其在东中西部对经济增长影响度远大于工业污染源治理投资(GYWR)及新建项目"三同时"环保投资(XJXM);但是环保投资政策受到区域差异化影响而不同,在东部加强城市环境基础设施建设投资(CSHJ)和工业污染源治理投资(GYWR),其效果要好于中部,中部好于西部;在西部,要加强新建项目"三同时"环保投资(XJXM),其效果要好于中部,中部好于东部。因此,政府应实施区域差异化投资战略。     

Timing Equilibria in an Urban Model with Congestion

All spatial urban models with congestion assume that the departure (arrival) time of commutes is exogenously determined and assume that travel speed at a given time and location depends upon the traffic density at that point in time and space. This paper presents a framework that encompasses such models, but allows workers to choose the time at which they leave home (arrive at work). This paper then proves that in general only one equilibrium exists for urban models with traditional congestion technology: a commuting pattern in which commuting is continuous and the rush hour never ends, which is unrepresentative of traffic patterns anywhere. This paper concludes by discussing alternative general equilibrium urban models with congestion that may have more realistic equilibria.