The changing nature of minority business: A comparative analysis of asian,nonminority, and black-owned businesses

This study compares the performance of small businesses formed between 1976 and 1982 by three groups: 1) Asian males, 2) black males, and 3) nonminority males. Self-employed Asians are outperforming nonminorities and blacks. A subset of black-owned firms—small scale ghetto-oriented operations—is shown to be laggard. Weak internal markets, commercial bank redlining, and loss of entrepreneurial talent are factors in undermining the inner city black business community. Successful black-owned firms are increasingly removed from the ghetto and from serving a minority clientele.     

Black economic well-being since the 1950s

Conclusion Industrial cities like Cleveland and Pittsburgh that once offered manufacturing jobs as a route to economic advancement no longer provide an economic environment conducive to long-run gains in black incomes. Faced with massive losses in blue-collar manufacturing jobs in the 1970s and 1980s — as well as growing local government fiscal difficulties — these cities are changing rapidly in character. Administration and management are more and more the dynamic, expanding sector, and the resultant demands for workers have been concentrated in the white-collar fields. Highly educated blacks benefit from these trends in job availability; the less educated lose ground economically. The swing between widespread progress (as in World War II) and widespread regression in relative economic status (as in the 1930s) was the traditional cyclical fate of the overall urban black population. Today the smaller white-collar group prospers while the larger blue-collar urban black work force is undermined, except in periods of labor shortage.     

Black enterprise and the legacy of slavery

The 1997 Economic Census data on minority and women-owned businesses reveals distinct cross-state and cross-county differences in ownership characteristics. The breakdown of this data into racial groups provides the opportunity to study the geographical features of black enterprise. As will be seen, both in aggregate and across states and counties, significant differences exist in the prevalence and magnitude of black and white enterprise. I propose a "legacy of slavery" hypothesis to explain these observed differences. Preliminary analysis indicates that this hypothesis has considerable explanatory power. A significant negative relationship exists between the geographical concentration of slavery in 1840 and the current prevalence and magnitude of black-owned enterprise. At the state level, this relationship remains even after controlling for the normal business climate as indicated by white enterprise levels. County level regressions with state fixed-effects yield similar estimated coefficients. In total, I find that the legacy of slavery has reduced the number of black-owned businesses by at least 71,009 and sales by $27.3 billion per year.     

Capital issues and the minority-owned business

This article presents some of the results from an unusual survey of small business owners who differ in their ethnicity: Asians, blacks, Hispanics, and nonminorities. Contrary to the prevailing view of black and Hispanic business owners and their firms, the blacks and Hispanics in the data base—in general and on average—had the same human and financial capital as their Asian and nonminority counterparts. As a result, the black-owned and Hispanic-owned firms performed as well as the Asian-owned and nonminority-owned firms. Nevertheless, black business owners had lower success rates than nonminority men in obtaining commercial bank loans, although the terms for loans granted were similar for the two groups. In light of the apparent credit discrimination, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loans remain an important source of debt-type capital to black-owned firms.     

Market structure and minority presence: Black-owned firms in manufacturing

This study uses a market structure framework to analyze the presence of black-owned businesses in manufacturing sectors of the U.S. economy in 1972. Tobit analysis reveals that black-owned firms tend to be concentrated in those industries with a relatively large small-business presence. High advertising expenditures are a significant barrier to black presence in a given industry. The amount of government purchases from an industry is found to have no significant relationship to black presence.     

URBAN HISTORY AND THE FUTURE OF AUSTRALIAN CITIES

Urban growth is a major theme in economic development and a policy imperative for developed countries that seek to create sustainable cities. We argue that the past weighs heavily on the ability of societies to sustainably manage urban environments. The policy implications of urban history are revealed in comparisons of cities across times and between places. The special issue presents some of the best recent work on the economic and social history of Australian cities. We aim to encourage historians to incorporate urban variables into studies of historical processes and to persuade policymakers to consider historical trends in their analysis.     

Why should black-owned businesses hire predominately black labor forces?

In the past, black-owned businesses appear to have hired a predominately black labor force. This article questions if incentives exist for them to continue to do so in the future. Various discrimination incentives are discussed and largely dismissed. It is concluded that the qualifications for gaining access to set-aside contracts and subsidies do provide incentives for black-owned businesses to hire a predominately black labor force.     

Community economic development: Some critical issues

Community development is an issue of continuing interest not only because of the need for more successful economic development within our cities, but because the survival of a significant portion of African-American poor is at stake. Community development planning seeks to improve all aspects of community life, including health, education, crime prevention, employment and training, business development, family stability, and housing. Community economic development must arise from our black churches, historically black colleges and universities, African-American officials, business leaders, teachers, and health and welfare professionals. In the real world, where group welfare functions are interdependent, only two possible long-term outcomes are both just and stable: win-win or lose-lose. Consequently, there is a need for significant Pareto improvements in all social programs. There are roles for both race-specific and race-neutral policies because long-term Pareto improvements can result both from programs such as targeted minority employment and training as well as color-blind policies that encourage legislators to forgo the coffers of the gun lobby and control the sale and use of guns. The paper will focus on the historical logic of public policy as reflected in housing policy, financing mechanisms under community development corporations, and the issue of an urban underclass. By reestablishing its commitment to the inner cities, the government can redress the onerous impact of two and a half decades of social and economic neglect and private investment re-trenchment.     

Market structure and the pattern of black-owned firms

This article discusses the relationship between industrial concentration and the presence of black-owned firms. Strong evidence is found that more monopolistic industries have a smaller black presence. This demonstrates that the monopolistic industries in which black workers are known to face the worst discrimination are also the industries in which blacks face the highest structural entry barriers as entrepreneurs. Indeed, entry barriers may cause the monopolistic conditions which allow discrimination while simultaneously frustrating the entry of black entrepreneurs.     

Progress and success in the development of black-owned franchise units

One path to black entrepreneurship is via the franchise. This article analyzes the basic issues of progress and success in the development of black-owned franchise units, with a focus on the measurement and promotion of such progress and success. Existing measures and promotional efforts are evaluated, and the perspectives of both the franchisor and the franchisee are probed. Secondary sources of data are analyzed, as are a series of in-depth telephone interviews conducted with a sampling of top executives of both large and small franchisor companies and also with a variety of black owners of franchise units. Recommendations and conclusions, for both franchisors and franchisees, are presented.     

Urban tourism in the developing world: The case of Johannesburg

Urban tourism has attracted a growing literature in the context of cities in the developed world. In this article, the role of urban tourism is explored in the developing world setting of Johannesburg. As in the case of the developed world, in Johannesburg the promotion of urban tourism is linked to economic regeneration and urban economic development. Johannesburg's tourism economy exhibits distinct geographical and sectoral clustering, with business tourism being the most vibrant subsector for tourism development. New development initiatives by both provincial and local government are seeking to further enhance the role of tourism in Johannesburg's economic development.     

The growth of urban centres in Java since 1961

The rate of urban population growth from 1961 to 1980 in the larger cities of Java, Indonesia, is examined using data from the 1980 census. The author notes that these data disregard boundary changes, and he attempts to take these changes into account by presenting revised rates of growth for various major urban centers in Java. The differences among the growth trends of the national capital, the three provincial capitals, and the remaining urban centers are discussed.     

口岸营商环境与区域经济增长耦合协调分析

优化营商环境是经济发展的重要条件。选取2013—2021年中国9个主要的海运集装箱口岸城市面板数据，分别构建口岸营商环境与区域经济增长系统指标体系，并结合耦合协调模型，研究了各城市口岸营商环境与当地经济增长的耦合协调关系。结果显示，各城市口岸营商环境与经济增长耦合协调水平不断提升，但不同城市间二者协调程度存在差距。随着经济的快速发展，存在口岸营商环境滞后于经济发展现象，因此要持续加强口岸营商环境优化与建设。     

Modern secondary education and economic performance: the introduction of the Gewerbeschule and Realschule in nineteenth‐century Bavaria†

Do new school types focusing on practical and business‐related knowledge lead to increased economic performance? To analyse this question, this article examines the introduction of two types of modern secondary education, the Gewerbeschule and its successor, the Realschule, in nineteenth‐century Bavaria. Since the opening of these schools is arguably endogenous—as it was mainly the large, prosperous cities that opened one—the estimated treatment effect capturing the economic influence of the Gewerbeschule/Realschule will lead to biased results. To alleviate this bias, propensity score matching is adopted to compare relatively similar counties with and without these schools. Using historical county‐level data on tax revenues, business formations, employment structure, and patent holdings, ordinary least squares regression analysis shows that the opening of a modern secondary school is in general positively associated with economic performance several years later.     

中国城市人口密度过高了吗:经济增长的视角

优化人口分布空间格局、提高城镇化质量对未来保持经济增长的重要性不言而喻，但对于如何优化人口分布格局和提高城镇化质量，现有的文献存在持续争议。文章从经济发展的过程来讨论城市最优人口密度问题，认为各城市之间存在一种赶超现象，少数城市是吸收和转化国外技术的主要场所，是本国的增长前沿，其他城市通过接受前沿城市的溢出来实现增长，城市人口的最优密度与城市在宏观经济增长中的角色有关，人口密度对经济增长的影响随城市在经济发展中的作用不同而不同。借鉴发展经济学的理论，文章在一个赶超的框架下分析了人口密度对城市经济增长的影响，重点考察在靠近增长前沿和远离增长前沿的城市中人口密度对经济增长的影响是否存在差异。运用1999—2014年中国地级以上的城市数据，实证结果表明，对于靠近增长前沿的城市来说，人口密度的经济增长正效应更大；对于远离增长前沿的城市来说，人口密度的经济增长正效应更小或效应为负；进一步研究发现，城市人口密度对经济增长的这种非线性效应随着与增长前沿城市的空间距离和行政边界数量增加而衰减。文章结果意味着，限制增长前沿城市的人口密度将会对它们的经济增长产生负向影响。下一步城镇化的政策重点应该是对这些城市做好发展规划，在增加城市人口密度的同时，通过科学规划公共服务设施和交通基础设施的空间分布，从而控制这些城市的拥挤，而不是简单地限制人口进入和将人口分布在广阔的空间上。     

Black Americans’ business ownership factors: A theoretical perspective

The black American struggle in the United States continues to occur in the political, cultural and economic spheres with some measure of success. Regarding the economic sphere as the most critical because it is the source of real power in this country, and business ownership as the ultimate manifestation of economic liberation, this article examines black Americans’ business ownership and factors facilitating it. Defining successful business ownership in terms of: (1) increasing business formations by black Americans, (2) survival/longevity of the formed businesses, (3) their creation of jobs, and, (4) their profitability, this article identifies three factors facilitating it. The facilitating factor types are: (1) individual-specific, (2) group-specific, and (3) environment-consequent. It is suggested that the complex interaction of elements of these factors at any time, most likely determines the proportion of black ownership of American businesses.     

Trends in relative earnings gains by black women: Implications for the future

The current article argues that the labor pattern of black women may be properly viewed within a trisectoral segmentation of the labor market. A three-phase characterization of their relative earnings behavior over the postwar period is implied. Empirical evidence lends support to the basic hypothesis of an acceleration in black female earnings growth, relative to white males and females, during the intermediate post-1964 period, but a decline thereafter. The quadratic trend model and its logistic transformation were found to fit the earnings patterns rather well. Projections based upon these models suggest that present trends do not bode well for major gains in black female median earnings relative to those of white men and women in the near future.     

The Contribution of the Urban Sector to Australian Economic Development Before 1914

This article examines the contribution of the urban sector to Australian economic development before the First World War. This contribution has often been seen in negative terms: contemporary observers generally thought that the major cities were to large and drained resources from the productive sectors of the economy, while some modern historians have portrayed cities as centres of poverty and environmental disamenity. The article evaluates these claims and presents a case for the urban sector having been a powerful stimulus to economic growth. The problems which Australian urbanization created did not stem from cities being too large, with more inhabitants than the number of well-paying jobs; rather, the general preference for low-density suburban living, and the ability of most of the population to be able to afford to live that way, meant that the cities would be expensive to build and difficult to service in a cost-effective way.     

Macroeconomic uncertainty,high-level innovation,and urban green development performance in China

This study incorporates macroeconomic uncertainty and high-level innovation into the framework of urban green development performance analysis. The positive impact of macroeconomic uncertainty on high-level innovation is related to the economic level and geographical location of cities. In developed cities and coastal cities, positive incentives for high-level innovation depicted by invention patents and green technology patents are generated, but the impacts are not significant in less developed cities. The negative impact of macroeconomic uncertainty on green development performance of developed and coastal cities is not significant, but it has a more obvious inhibition effect in less developed cities; raising the proportion of high-level innovation helps to weaken this negative impact.