Spatial interaction modeling of interregional commodity flows

Drawing from both the spatial price equilibrium theoretical framework and the empirical literature on spatial interaction modeling, this paper expands models of interregional commodity flows (CFs) by incorporating new variables and using a flexible Box-Cox functional form. The 1993 US commodity flows survey provides the empirical basis for estimating state-to-state flow models for 16 commodity groups over the 48 continental US states. The optimized Box-Cox specification proves to be superior to the multiplicative one in all cases, while selected variables provide new insights into the determinants of state-to-state CFs.     

Estimating and interpreting internal migration flows in Russia by accounting for network effects

The present article follows two objectives. First, to apply a recently developed spatial interaction model and discuss its power in explaining social developments. Second, to obtain information on internal migration's determinants in Russia by taking into account that its eastern and western regions differ in many respects. Two alternative panel specifications are considered, labelled “spatial interaction specification with exogenous spatial lags” and “gravity-type specification with network effects”. While both specifications are designed to capture the impacts of neighbouring regions in migration dynamics, they differ with respect to the implementation of fixed effects. It is argued that neighbourhood impacts manifest themselves either as spillover effects, which amplify a variable's impact, or competition effects, which attenuate them. The results show that variables indeed differ from each other in these respects, demonstrating how migration patterns are subject to events beyond the directly involved regions, and that these are furthermore influenced by the distances between regions. In addition, the results provide further evidence that migration determinants differ for Eastern and Western Russia.     

Experience of Canadian and Chinese acquisitions in Kazakhstan

Our intention is to explore and describe the nature and the role of social integration mechanisms that moderate relationships between cultural distance and social integration. We followed one company, currently named KazOil, over 10 years and during two consecutive acquisitions by very different MNCs (Hurricane and CNPC) from two different national cultures (Canada and China, respectively). We found differences in the levels of post-acquisition social integration of the two acquisitions. Surprisingly, a more culturally distant MNC from a national culture perspective was more successful in achieving post-acquisition social integration than a culturally close one. We ascribe this to the fact that although both acquirers made extensive use of both formal and informal social integration mechanisms, they favored different types. We also specify other contextual variables which may explain the above findings.     

Working in Kazakhstan and Russia: perception of French managers

The purpose of this exploratory research study is to provide an understanding of how French managers perceive major characteristics of Kazakhstani and Russian management cultures. Based on literature review about culture, the paper uses the cultural dimensions developed by such researchers as Adler, Hall, Hofstede, Schein, Trompenaars, etc., and summarized by Schneider and Barsoux (1997). A qualitative research method - an adaptation of the critical incident technique developed by Flanagan (1954) - is used to explain the peculiarities of Kazakhstani and Russian management culture that create problems for the French managers interviewed (fifteen in Kazakhstan and twelve in Russia). The results indicate that French managers find many common points in the management cultures of Kazakhstan and Russia: both cultures are perceived as cultures with a higher power distance and as more particularistic cultures where a social orientation prevails over a task orientation. Other common points concern human nature, time and truth and reality dimensions. However, there are important differences noted by French managers. Kazakhstani management culture is perceived by them as about being rather than doing and a more collectivist culture, with an orientation towards higher uncertainty avoidance. In the case of Russia, the most importance difference is about hierarchy and affectivity dimensions.     

Interregional Migration and Thresholds: Evidence from Spain

We analyse the effects of labour market factors on interregional migration in Spain for the period 1988–2010. A basic theoretical framework is developed, suggesting that the effect of labour market variables on migration varies, depending on a certain threshold. The model implications are tested using a new approach based on the presence of endogenous thresholds. We show that Spanish interregional migration can be explained by labour market variables when the labour market conditions at the source region are unfavourable relative to those of the host region. We test the results for several migrant characteristics, such as citizenship, the age range, and return migration.

Migration inter-régionale et seuils - résultats de la recherche en Espagne     

The determinants of individual happiness in Kazakhstan

This paper investigates the impact of social, economic and institutional changes on individual perceptions of happiness in Kazakhstan. We use household level data for Kazakhstan for 3 years—1996 (in the initial years of transition), 2001 (as it became a fully fledged transition economy) and 2006 (an emerging economy with a market system in many sectors including banking and finance). Data across these years allow us to consider how the transition as well as personal, household and regional factors have impacted on individual happiness. We find that the size of dwelling had a significant impact in all 3 years and that ethnic Kazakhs were happier than Russians as transition matured. We also find that living in regions of high unemployment, contrary to expectations, did not increase the unhappiness of individuals. This is because living in regions with high unemployment meant that the unemployed did not feel too marginalised from society. At the same time, it allowed the employed to feel particularly fortunate.     

Spatial accounting methods and the construction of spatial social accounting matrices

The paper examines modifications to Regional Accounts used to construct regional and interregional Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs). It is argued that as the size of the basic areal unit used in studies declines, more traditional accounting approaches are no longer satisfactory. A three-dimensional spatial approach (termed two-by-two-by-two) to the identification of fundamental dimensions (commodity and factor market; geographical; and social accounts) has been developed in contrast to the more traditional non-spatial approach (termed two-by-two). This involves a novel approach using the geographical concepts of place of production for production activities, place of residence for institutions, marketplace for commodities and marketplace for factors. The use of these concepts permits accounting balances to be calculated at the spatial level. The theoretical basis of the spatial regional accounting model is presented and an example of the construction of a Danish Interregional SAM (SAM-K) is examined. Particular attention is given to data requirements, showing that these are much more modest than generally assumed.     

Is agglomeration really good for growth? Global efficiency,interregional equity and uneven growth

According to NEG literature, spatial concentration of industrial activities increases growth at the regional and aggregate level without generating regional growth differentials. This view is not supported by the data. We extend the canonical model with an additional sector producing non-tradable goods which benefits from localized knowledge spillovers coming from the R&D performing industrial sector. This view, motivated by the evidence, generates both an anti-growth and a pro-growth effect of agglomeration for both the deindustrializing and the industrializing regions and leads to two novel results: (1) when agglomeration takes place, growth is lower in the periphery; (2) agglomeration may have a negative effect on the growth rate of real income, both at the regional and at the aggregate level. Our conclusions have relevant policy implications: contrary to the standard view, current EU and US regional policies favouring industrial dispersion might be welfare-improving both at the regional and the aggregate level and may reduce regional income disparities.     

Econometrically accounting for identities and restrictions in models of interregional migration

"Interregional demographic identities and other restrictions are explicitly taken into account in a simple time-series model of interregional migration. This goal is accomplished through the imposition of adding-up constraints on the estimated coefficients of a multi-equation linear system and by testing for homogeneity and symmetry. The pitfalls of utilizing the described procedures for migration analysis and forecasting are discussed. Full implementation of the technique is shown to require far more time-series observations on interregional migration than are commonly available."     

Local Labour Markets and the Interregional Mobility of Italian University Students

Abstract

This paper looks at a little-explored role that universities can play: that of representing a channel for brain gain, enabling regions to attract bright students who may decide to stay after they have graduated. In this way, universities can be a source of selective migration processes and possibly of diverging development paths, by augmenting the capability of economically dynamic regions to attract bright people from the lagging regions. In this paper, we argue that student mobility behaviour is a function not only of the quality of universities, but also of local labour market conditions in the destination locations. The paper relies on a gravity model, and shows that graduate migrations respond to several determinants, among which graduate job vacancies (that is, the dynamism of the local labour market) appear to be essential.     

The emergence of migration theory and a suggested new direction

Abstract. The literature on internal labour migration is surveyed using a fourfold taxonomic scheme. The potential migrant, as presented in the existing literature, can be viewed as a supplier of labour, an investor in human capital and a consumer of regional amenities such as public goods. The paper develops a fourth approach which treats the household, rather than the individual, as the migrating unit and which views the potential migrant as a producer of home produced commodities. The continuities as well as the contrasts between the four approaches are discussed in the paper.     

A School-Level Gravity Model of Student Migration Flows to Higher Education Institutions

This paper presents a gravity model of student migration flows to higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland. The analysis is performed on a novel dataset containing detailed information on a range of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors, allowing one to estimate the effects of a number of important school-level characteristics on these flows. This is achieved by estimating and comparing a fixed-effects Poisson model and two conditional fixed-effects negative binomial models and selecting the best model on the basis of the Akaike information criterion (AIC). The preferred negative binomial model accounts for over-dispersion in the student flow data and allows for estimation of the parameter coefficients of the HEI-invariant characteristics. The analysis suggests that while geography plays a very important role in explaining student flows, so too do a range of school-level characteristics. Furthermore, it is found that distance has a differential impact across HEIs and HEI types with important implications for policy-makers and HEI managers.     

Econometrically accounting for identities and restrictions in models of interregional migration: further thoughts

The authors reply to some comments concerning "specification, estimation, and hypothesis testing in models of interregional migration which are internally consistent." They also attempt to clarify some additional conceptual matters in these three areas.     

Econometrically accounting for identities and restrictions in models of interregional migration : A comment

This comment clarifies and expands on an earlier article in this Journal by Greenwood and Hunt which addresses problems of estimating interregional migration models when non-stochastic adding-up constraints are present. The comment focuses on issues of specification, estimation and hypothesis testing within a closed system of migration equations stressing solutions to the degrees of freedom problem and tests for homogeneity and symmetry.     

Voting on public pensions with hands and feet

Aging changes the political power in a democracy in favor of the older generations. With free labor mobility like that of the EU, the success of the gerontocracy is, nevertheless, limited by migration of the young generations. This connection between political voting and voting with the feet is analyzed in a two-country model with overlapping generations. The interregional competition on public pensions yields premium payments which are larger when the young generations' migration decisions take the impact on future pensions into account (strategic migration) than when these decisions are made myopically. The paper also pays attention to migration (in-)efficiency and to the implications of harmonization principles. Received: November 1999 / Accepted: July 2001 RID="*" ID="*" The paper benefited greatly from discussions at the EEA conference in Santiago de Compostela, the CESifo Workshop on Public Pensions in Munich and seminars in G?ttingen, Mainz, and Tellow. We are grateful to many seminar participants, two anonymous referees of Economics of Governance and, in particular, to Paolo Manasse for their valuable comments and creative hints. The usual disclaimer applies.     

Rural-urban migration in economic development

Abstract. This paper provides a review of the theoretical literature on rural–urban migration in contemporary LDCs. The paper begins with a brief discussion of the Lewis model before going on to discuss the Todaro and the Harris–Todaro models and the large literature which these models have spawned. The question of job search in the context of migration and the role of family members in migration decisions are considered next. The paper then takes a closer look at the Informal sector and also sets out alternative migration functions to the ones usually employed in the literature. The paper concludes with a brief note on some of the important implications arising from our study.     

An empirical analysis of international labour migration in the Philippines

This study empirically investigates the impact of economic, demographic, and political factors on the size of emigration from the Philippines. In 2007, overseas workers from the Philippines sent remittances in excess of US$14 billion annually to their families back home. Although these remittances are an important source of foreign exchange and play an important role in economic development, the determinants of emigration in the Philippines are not well established. A simple unrestricted error correction model of migration was specified and estimated using data spanning the period 1975–2005. Results indicate that the level of unemployment, adult literacy and population density are the key determinants of emigration in the Philippines. The result also indicates that government instability impacts negatively on emigration in the Philippines. The policy implications of the results are discussed.     

The effect of agricultural price-support policies on interregional and rural-to-urban migration in Korea: 1976-1980

The impact of rice price-support policies, designed to increase farmers' income and reduce rural-urban migration in the Republic of Korea, is examined for the period 1976-1980 using a polytomous logistic model. "Our findings revealed that the elasticity of migration with respect to rice yield per origin farm household is positive and is significantly different from zero. The elasticities of migration with respect to rate of urbanization, particularly urban concentration-agglomeration, and population size of the destination are also positive and are significantly different from zero....Our findings questioned the wisdom of employing rice price price-support programs as a viable policy for reducing interregional and rural-to-urban migration in Korea."     

Place of origin and internal migration decisions in Mexico

This paper investigates internal migration decisions in Mexico. It analyses, first, the associations between migration decisions and pre-migration individual characteristics, testing the hypothesis of positive selection; second, whether and how the characteristics of the place of origin affect migration decisions; and third, whether the relationship between place characteristics and migration decisions varies depending on individual traits. Results indicate positive selection of emigrants in terms of both quantity and quality of human capital; and an important role of origin characteristics, consistent with migration transition theory.     

Economic analysis of intraurban migration in Tel-Aviv

A model of intra-urban migration is formulated and estimated using the same principles that are employed in deriving inter-regional migration models. The model, which emphasizes the relationship between migration and neighborhood amenities, is applied to data for the city of Tel Aviv, Israel. The results confirm the importance of neighborhood amenities in determining intra-urban migration patterns.