Assessment of regional productive performance of European health systems under a metatechnology framework

Within last seventy years, healthcare spending in Europe has grown faster than national income. However, this does not always translate into good health indicators, suggesting a problem of efficiency in different European health systems. This paper analyzes the efficiency of such systems for 185 European regions in 17 countries by grouping them into three clusters according to their institutional setting: regulation, funding and service provision. We investigate their productive performance by adopting a metafrontier framework for exploring the role of technological spillovers. Our findings suggest that the three European health systems show similar efficiency performance; the best performers are regions that have adopted social healthcare insurance; kernel analysis indicates that there is convergence toward a single club in each frontier. Finally, we find a dramatic change in the convergence process after the nancial crisis, with European regions converging toward different groups with different levels of efficiency.     

In search of patterns among travellers' hotel ratings in TripAdvisor

This paper sheds light on ways travellers' rating patterns in the hotel review website TripAdvisor differ between independent and chain hotels. To delve deeper, travellers were classified according to their profiles, namely, business, couple, family, friend and solo. Besides, hotels straddled across four geographical regions, namely, America, Asia Pacific, Europe as well as Middle East and Africa. A 5 (profiles) × 4 (regions) two-way factorial analysis of variance was conducted separately for independent and chain hotels. A qualitative analysis was further conducted to tease out the findings from the quantitative analyses. Travellers' rating patterns were found to differ substantially between independent and chain hotels across both profiles as well as regions. The paper concludes by highlighting its implications, limitations and potential directions for future research.     

New regional aviation policy in India: Early indicators and lessons learnt

In this article, we study the new regional aviation policy of India along with data collected on the performance of the scheme since its introduction in 2016. The scheme has multiple objectives. First, it wants to increase footprints of civil aviation to unserved and underserved airports of India. Second, it intends to make flying more affordable. It comes out, the aviation market in the country has expanded due to the addition of new routes under the scheme but data indicates that there is a regional imbalance in the performance of the scheme. Moreover, there are still questions on the long term sustainability of many routes and finding a solution for neglect of some priority regions. We have identified economic and commercial challenges that need to be addressed for the program to achieve its goals. The insights gathered during the study can be generalized and policy makers and managers of remote area air-connectivity schemes of different countries should find them useful.     

Urbanization,land use transformation and spatio-environmental impacts: Analyses of trends and implications in major metropolitan regions of Ghana

Urbanization induces spatial and environmental changes. Monitoring and understanding the nature of these changes is crucial to achieving sustainable urban development imperatives. To this end, this paper examines the evolution and spatio-environmental impacts of rapid urbanization in two major metropolitan regions of Ghana—Accra-City Region and the Greater Kumasi Sub-Region. The analysis uses Landsat satellite data and landscape metrics to examine land use transitions and to characterize the emergent landscapes over the last three decades. The results show that built-up land has increased significantly in these metropolitan regions largely at the expense of environmental land cover classes. The expansion process follows a general trend where the historical-core zones were initially sites of rapid land cover conversion to built-up, with settlements in the suburban and peripheral zones expanding in recent years and becoming integrated into the conterminous urban areas of the metropolitan regions. The analysis also uncovered a unique, dynamic and complex process whereby the urban-open-space class, being in a permanent state of flux, mediates transitions between built-up land and vegetation and vice versa. The metric-based land use transformation analysis shows that the landscape of the metropolitan regions has fragmented because of an increased expansion and aggregation of patches of built-up land in the core areas and leapfrog, sprawling expansion in the outlying suburban and peripheral zones. The paper concludes on the need for integrative urban growth management strategies that brings together spatial planning and environmental resource governance to avert the negative consequences on the natural environment of unfettered urban expansion.     

Spillover effects of the development constraints in London Heathrow Airport

In this article we assess the growth impact of London Heathrow’s development constraints on other airports in the UK. To test the relationship we use a two-stage methodology yielding an estimate of a congestion spillover effect. Our data are passenger traffic from 1990 to 2012 containing both intercontinental and European air traffic. For intercontinental air traffic, our results show high congestion spillover effect between Heathrow and Gatwick airports, and significant but lesser effect to Stansted airport. We also find significant congestion spillover effects from Heathrow to the spatially more distant Manchester and Birmingham airports, showing the extensive spatial impact of Heathrow’s development constraints. For European air traffic, controlling for low-cost air carrier growth, only two airports show significant congestion spillover effects: Gatwick and London City Airports. Illustrating that low-cost carriers do not operate from Heathrow, so its limitations cannot affect the predominant low-cost air traffic in other airports. The novel methodology we present in this paper can be applied to congestion research in general to assess regional and modal spills within networks.     

后危机时代我国区域出口贸易战略的调整——基于东中西三大区域面板模型的分析

国际金融危机对我国区域出口贸易影响主要来自需求因素、供给因素与阻力因素的冲击。通过面板模型分析,结果显示外部需求锐减、劳动力成本上涨是导致我国出口贸易骤减的重要原因。从区域层面看,国外收入水平下滑、劳动力成本上涨、投资下降对东部地区出口波动影响显著,需求减少与原材料价格波动是中部地区出口受挫的主要原因,劳动力成本上涨与FDI是西部地区出口下滑的重要因素。在后危机时代,我国应加快对外贸易转型升级,优化东部地区出口贸易结构,培育中西部地区产业转移承接能力。     

试析ECFA的特征及其后续发展

2011年1月1日起实施的ECFA早期收获方案是两岸经贸关系发展过程中重要的阶段性成果,本文分析了在ECFA后续阶段影响两岸经贸关系发展的两大因素,一是世界经济的复苏速度,二是大陆市场内外部需求的变化。从长期效应看,ECFA的推进符合未来世界贸易以区域为单位发展的趋势。在ECFA框架下,两岸实现更加广泛的投资与贸易自由化,有利于两岸三地资源的优化配置,其产生的整体综合效益,将提高两岸三地以及大中国市场的地位。     

新疆发展制造业的必要性、可行性及对策研究

制造业发展落后是新疆经济欠发达的原因之一。长期以来,国家对新疆的支持主要在能源矿产和农业等产业方面,对制造业发展的支持和重视略显不足。随着新疆内外环境的变化,大力发展制造业成为促进新疆经济实现跨越式发展的一条重要途径。新疆今后应大力发展劳动密集型制造业,填补＂空白＂制造业,扶持弱势制造业;以外向型经济为方向,发展制造业集群和专业化市场。与此同时,还应完善鼓励制造业发展的政策措施,为制造业发展营造良好的政策环境。     

西部民族地区商品市场集群发展研究

西部民族地区城乡商品市场集群的发展对促进民族地区的经济增长有着重要的作用。本文在分析市场集群的形成机理的基础上,从城乡二元结构、城乡市场信息不对称、产业链不完善以及市场竞争力弱四个方面分析了西部民族地区发展城乡商品市场集群的困境,并在此基础上提出了促进西部民族地区城乡商品市场集群发展的策略建议。