Verdoorn's law and increasing returns to scale in the UK regions, 1968-91: some new estimates based on the cointegration approach

The Johansen approach to estimating long-run cointegration vectorsis used with 1968–91 UK region by industry data to estimatereturns to scale. Thus, this approach has the advantages ofincluding a measure of capital, it overcomes the simultaneityproblems associated with the single-equation Verdoom law, andit involves estimating a correctly specified dynamic model inwhich is embedded the long-run solution(s). The results indicatethat there is substantial evidence that increasing returns arethe norm for the majority of manufacturing industries in Britishregions.     

Fiscal Decentralization and Poverty Alleviation in a Transitional Economy: The Case of Viet Nam

Intergovernmental fiscal arrangements may play an important role in ameliorating poverty in many countries. Successful poverty alleviation generally requires both ‘capacity improving’ and ‘safety net’ policies, and both types of policies may, to some extent, be implemented through, or affected by, intergovernmental transfers. From this perspective, we analyse the efficacy of intergovernmental fiscal arrangements in poverty alleviation in a transitional economy, Viet Nam. We argue that both general and specific transfers are needed for this purpose: the former to enable all provinces to provide a given basket of public services at a given tax-price by offsetting their revenue and cost disabilities and the latter to ensure that minimum levels of those public services provided by lower levels of government are targeted to the poor throughout the country.     

Urban development patterns in Indonesia

The author examines recent urban development in Indonesia. "Analysis of urban developments in Indonesia has been hampered in the past by weak data. Recently, the National Urban Development Strategy (NUDS) project has generated a set of improved data. This paper aims at elaborating and supplementing the NUDS study. After a discussion of definitional problems, an analysis is carried out of urban growth rates at the provincial level. Private investment is shown to be a principal determinant of urban growth rates. Other significant determinants are rural immigration and the present level of urbanisation. Private investment is shown to be strongly biased towards provinces with large urban areas. In addition, polarisation is studied at the level of individual cities. It is found that a period of rapidly increasing polarisation has come to an end during the last decade."