Identifying strategic interactions in Swedish local income tax policies

This paper uses data on Swedish local governments to test for strategic interaction in local tax setting. We make use of a number of indirect predictions from the theories of tax competition and yardstick competition in order to test for the presence of strategic interaction in these forms. Using such additional predictions of the theories serves a twofold purpose—first it helps us establish if the spatial coefficient is due to strategic interactions or merely reflecting spatial error correlation, and second, it helps identify the source of interaction. The analysis provides strong evidence for spatial correlation in tax rates among Swedish local governments. Moreover, we find weak evidence of tax competition effects in the setting of tax rates.     

空间水资源模型中对高效灌溉技术应用的效应分析

本文在实地调研的基础上建立了一个空间水资源模型。通过对模型的优化求解寻求项目区最优的水资源配置、输水系统管理模式和个体农户的灌溉技术选择。模型方法采用国际经济学界备受推崇的GAMS方法（General Algebraic Modeling System）。在所设计的四种情景模式中,对水资源利用现状、不同政策取向所引起的水资源分配变化及其对项目区社会经济及环境的影响,从数量上进行了模拟对比分析。模型结果对政策制定者和灌区水资源管理有极大的指导和参考价值,该研究具有很强的现实意义和可操作性。     

MODELS OF REGIONAL GROWTH: PAST,PRESENT AND FUTURE

Abstract This paper presents an overview of various models of regional growth that have appeared in the literature in the last 40 years. It considers the past, and therefore supply‐side models, such as the standard neoclassical, juxtaposed against essentially demand‐side approaches such as the export‐base and cumulative causation models (as integrated into the Kaldorian approach); before moving on to the ‘present’ and more recent versions of the neoclassical model involving spatial weights and ‘convergence clubs’, as well as new economic geography core–periphery models, and the ‘innovation systems’ approach. A key feature of the more recent literature is an attempt to explicitly include spatial factors into the model, and thus there is a renewed emphasis on agglomeration economies and spillovers. Discussing ‘present’ and ‘future’ approaches to regional growth overlaps with the current emphasis in the literature on the importance of more intangible factors such as the role of ‘knowledge’ and its influence on growth. Finally, there is a discussion of the greater emphasis that needs to be placed at the ‘micro‐level’ when considering what drives growth, and thus factors such as inter alia firm heterogeneity, entrepreneurship and absorptive capacity.     

Impact of the European Water Framework Directive on local-level water management: Case study Oxunda Catchment, Sweden

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) of the European Union provides a common framework for water policy that focuses on holistic and integrated water management in river basins. In many member states, implementation of the WFD has shifted the main responsibility for local water issues from the municipal level to the regional or supra-regional levels. In this study, we investigated how the implementation of the WFD has influenced local-level water management including the interpretation of the new environmental quality standards. Specifically, we considered Sweden, which has traditionally had relatively strong governance at the municipal level. Because a sufficient amount of time has now passed for evaluation of WFD-related effects on operational water handling, we interviewed individuals directly involved in water planning and land use planning at the municipal level in one sub catchment in the Northern Baltic Sea River Basin District of Sweden, as well as representatives for superior levels and associations. Despite divergent views regarding the priority of water issues in physical planning among the local-level planners interviewed, they had all participated in successful inter-municipal pre-WFD collaboration projects. Although such collaborations could help increase the understanding and acceptance of WFD-related goals and costs, as well as facilitate conflict solving, as shown in the Oxunda Catchment, they have not gained much attention in the WFD implementation process. Additionally, physical planners have generally been reluctant to accept new environmental quality standards resulting from WFD implementation, in part because they lack precise definitions, but also because they could challenge the municipal routine of weighing various objectives against each other. Furthermore, despite WFD-related increases in ambition levels, lack of resource improvements at the municipal level were identified as potential problems by local environmental planners.     

Horse riding posing challenges to the Swedish Right of Public Access

Increasing numbers of horses are being kept for sports and leisure purposes in peri-urban areas throughout the Western world. This expansion of the equestrian sector represents a multifunctional transition, with new production of rural goods and services and increasing influence on land use.In Sweden, the number of horses has increased from 70,000 to approximately 300,000 over the last 30 years. This increase is putting pressure on the traditional Right of Public Access, an old custom allowing the public to walk, cycle or ride on private or state-owned property.This paper analyses multifunctional land use in peri-urban areas in order to provide a deeper understanding of the potential conflicts arising due to the expanding equine sector and to assess how these can affect the Swedish right of public access and spatial planning.A survey of horse riders and landowners in three peri-urban regions of Sweden revealed that these groups differ in their attitudes towards the Right of Public Access. The data also showed that the expanding equine sector is generating new demands on rural areas and there are questions regarding how the current system of open accessibility can meet the increasing market for equestrian leisure activities. The main conclusion is that there seems to be a strong need for intervention and deliberate creation of new ways of handling the accessibility question, where both a bottom-up and top-down approach may be useful.