The Growing Localness of the Canadian City, or, On the Continued (Ir)relevance of Economic Base Theory

The past 50 years have brought massive changes in the patterns of economic activity around the world. Not only has global trade increased, but, precisely because of this, many scholars suggest that local (and regional) networks of production and exchange have become more prevalent and important. The nature of local economic development has, as a result, changed quite substantially. And yet theoretical approaches to it largely have not. Fifty years after Douglass North introduced economic base theory - asserting that economies grow only through increased exports - it remains the familiar refrain, if not the basis, of local economic development theory. We think it is about time to reassess the merits of base theory as an approach to, and explanation of, local economic development. Accordingly, in this article, we review briefly North's argument for base theory and the debate it stirred up early on. Then we present two evaluations of its current relevance. The first is theoretical: we consider whether changes in the patterns of economic activity in the global north, including the emergence of local/regional networks of production and exchange and the growth of consumer services, have made it possible to achieve economic growth without increasing exports. The second is empirical: using the minimum requirements method, we examine whether the economies of Canada's cities have become more locally oriented and, if so, whether they have grown. Both evaluations indicate that economic development is indeed possible through increased local activity (although exports remain important). We conclude that it is time to consider more nuanced models of local economic development that accommodate the multiple ways in which development can be achieved.     

A Distributional Analysis of the FairTax Plan: Annual and Lifetime Income Considerations

Dissatisfaction with the current federal tax system is fostering serious interest in the FairTax Plan, which would replace most of the federal taxes with a national retail sales tax. The FairTax is promoted as being progressive, but there is considerable skepticism of this claim. We examine the distributional effects of the FairTax, as well as the current system it intends to replace, under both annual income and lifetime income approaches. Global measures of progressivity suggest that the current federal tax system is progressive while the FairTax is regressive. Our results are also robust to different assumptions used for estimation.     

从零开始——新建一个质量体系的路线图和工具箱

虽然各种质量体系、方法和设计工具之间的不同并不十分清楚--这是所有质量文献面临的共同问题--旦识别出这些质量方法的关键联系,就可了解各体系之间相互关联的概况.     

Food Values Applied to Livestock Products

Food values have been proposed in previous research as a method of identifying stable constructs of consumer preference. We conducted an online survey of 1950 US respondents using best–worst scaling applying the concept of food values to four specific meat and dairy products: ground beef, beef steak, chicken breast, and milk. We test the applicability of general food values to specific products, while further discovering the nature of heterogeneity of values by defining classes of respondents. Our findings suggest that the general food values previously proposed apply well to specific products of the livestock industry. We also found that the differences between consumer classes were driven primarily by price sensitivity, with many of the most important and least important values remaining the same.     

Big brands,big cities: How the population penalty affects common,identity relevant brands in densely populated areas

The population density of a geographical area has a well-known and strong positive effect on sales in the area. Yet, for some brands, there may be factors that affect the strength of this density-sales relationship. The present research shows that for product categories that consumers use to signal their identities (e.g., clothing, restaurants and cars), the strength of this relationship varies with brand commonness. Consumers residing in densely populated areas are motivated to express their distinctiveness by reducing their preference for identity relevant brands that are common, such as large chains and brands owned by many people. Thus, as identity-relevant brands become more common, they suffer from a “population penalty” – a weakening of the positive effect of population density on sales. We show this effect with three experiments and two empirical analyses of automobile and alcohol sales. Our findings extend literature on distinctiveness theory by demonstrating these effects at the community level and provide insights for marketers on accounting and adjusting for this effect.     

人民币问题并非表面那么简单

美国国会希望通过一项法案,惩罚那些被判定为货币汇率过低的国家。该法案直接针对中国。但它有助于解决中美贸易不平衡的问题吗？