Examining the relationship between municipal consolidation and cost reduction: an instrumental variable approach

This study explores the cost-reduction effects of local government consolidation, using data from Japanese municipalities. We use municipal panel data from Japan for the years 2000, 2005 and 2010, a data set including numerous consolidation cases. Reverse causality between consolidation decisions and size of municipal expenditure is a concern in the voluntary consolidation of local governments. An instrumental variable (IV) methodology is employed to deal with possible endogeneity associated with consolidation decisions. The main finding is that municipal current expenditure per capita increases immediately after consolidation, but then gradually declines. Because consolidation seems to increase per capita expenditure in the absence of the effect of this long-term declining trend, incorporating this trend into estimation is crucial in cost-efficiency analysis of consolidation. It is also shown that conventional panel data regressions yield biased consolidation effects, suggesting the superiority of the IV approach.     

An integrated analysis of the effects of local water institutions on irrigated agriculture outcomes in the arid western United States

Irrigation water rights and their governance structures constitute the foundation of local water institutions and profoundly influence water resource allocations, irrigated agricultural productivity and other consumptive water uses in the arid climate zones. This article explores the regional structures of irrigation water rights and water governance and empirically analyses the priority effects of water rights on irrigated agriculture at the micro level in Idaho, an arid and semiarid state in the western United States. We integrate a unique data set of water rights and water supplies with agricultural features and environmental characteristics into our empirical analysis. Results indicate that seniority in water resources allocation has significant, positive effects on both the average crop revenue and crop water use efficiency. Local water rights structures differ significantly in seniority and water sources from region to region. In response to the heterogeneity in local water rights structures, the aforementioned effect of allocative priority of water rights on average crop revenue per hectare and crop water productivity varies significantly, reaching up to an 87% difference, when measured across regions. In addition, the priority effects of water rights are nonlinear, which reflects the influence of historical patterns of water rights establishment on water institutions to date.     

Access prices,unbundling and product variety in European Internet markets

A fundamental policy in European broadband regulation is unbundled access to the local loop of the incumbent telephone company. We present comparative static results that show as the access price decreases, the retail price decreases, the variety of plans offered by Internet service providers increases and the quantity of each variety increases when a threshold condition is met. Using data from 18 European countries from 2006 to 2012, we find empirical support for these results when Internet product variety is measured by variation in download speeds.     

Producing drama: a comparison of film tax incentives to alternative uses

Incentive packages are popular tools for economic development. However, development projects are often considered in isolation without an analysis of opportunity costs. In this study, we use an intuitive framework for comparing projects and weigh alternate projects against North Carolina’s film incentive programme. The results indicate that there are substantial differences in the economic impact of the projects we consider in this study. Our results suggest that policy decisions by governments and economic development officials should weigh a potential project against alternative uses in order to optimize the use of incentives.     

Upgrading in China’s apparel industry: international trade,local clusters and institutional contexts

This article focuses on the concept of upgrading, and seeks to move away from a firm-centred approach of industrial upgrading towards a framework that recognises not only a firm’s integration into global value chains, but also its embeddedness within local networks and the context of wider institutional arrangements. Based on one firm-level database, this article measures upgrading in China’s apparel industry at the firm level, which allows us not only to evaluate the extent of upgrading in the industry as a whole and to compare its extent among individual firms and selected groups of firms, but also to differentiate and measure different types of upgrading. Empirical results confirm that the heterogeneity of firms, global and local linkages and the wider historical, political, institutional and economic context have all played a critical role in the process of upgrading, suggesting that a focus on dynamics of firm upgrading alone is insufficient.     

基于行政学原理的区域旅游不合作研究

随着世界经济全球化和一体化不断深化,区域经济的集团化、合作化趋势日益增强,区域旅游也不例外。但是,在我国区域旅游合作迅猛发展的过程中,区域旅游不合作仍是一个较为突出的现象或问题。运用行政学的相关原理,在列举出几个典型的区域旅游不合案例并对之进行分析的基础上,提出了解决对策建议。     

Productivity,innovation strategies and industrial relations in SMEs. Empirical evidence for a local production system in northern Italy

The paper aims to provide an original contribution to evaluating several kinds of relations between four areas of innovation activities – training, technology, organization, ICT (information and communication technologies) – and industrial relations and firm’s economic performance. Quantitative evidence for a SME‐based local production system is provided by exploiting two datasets: the first is derived from a direct survey carried out in 2005 collecting data on innovations, labour flexibility and industrial relations; the second is represented by a panel of official balance sheets data for the period 1998–2004. The analysis is divided in two consequential parts. We first examine the drivers of different innovation strategies and subsequently we exploit innovation indicators as potential drivers of firm’s productivity. The results show that training activities and organizational changes have strong links with many industrial relations indicators, thus emerging as industrial relations driven innovations. On the contrary, ICT and technological innovation seem to be more influenced by firms’ past performances than by industrial relations. The analysis on labour productivity drivers shows that training activities are the most relevant factors; then, ranked consequently, technological innovation, organisational innovations and, finally, ICT also appear to impact on productivity levels. It is worth noting that the role of ICT emerges more robustly when endogeneity is specifically addressed. Finally, the role of firm size seems here to be overshadowed by other drivers.     

制度变迁、地方政府行为与城乡收入差距 ——来自中国省级面板数据的经验证据

本文采用1997-2009年面板数据的变截距及变系数模型,利用控制地区经济开放程度、产业结构变迁、城市化率等因素,对中国30个省市的制度变迁、地方政府支出决策与城乡收入差距之间的关系进行实证分析。结果显示：就全国而言,制度变迁、地方政府对经济活动的干预和地方政府投资性支出均与城乡收入差距呈正相关,而地方政府保障性支出则与城乡收入差距呈负相关;就地区而言,大部分地区在市场化过程中的制度变迁、地方政府投资性支出扩大了城乡收入差距,而半数以上的地区其政府支出规模及其内部保障性支出对城乡收入差距的缩小则有一定促进作用,但不同地区其影响呈现一定的差异性。其政策含义在于,我国在推进市场化进程的同时还要兼顾公平与效率,加强地方政府对收入不平等的调节作用,完善地方财政支出结构特别是社会保障体系,以此来缩小城乡收入差距。     

中国转型期城市空间规模的决定因素——统一的单中心城市模型的理论研究与实证

文章根据城市土地经济学原理、结合我国城市特点构建了兼有"封闭"和"开放"特征的单中心城市模型,并发展了经典单中心城市模型的比较静态分析.文章提出的本地性均衡概念弥补了现有理论的不足,有助于揭示城市户籍人口和农村流动人口在城市的就业和居住模式以及城市用地特征.对中国630多个城市2003-2007年数据的计量分析显示,我国城市用地规模差异的88%可以被模型所解释.特别地,政府规划中较少考虑的城市收入、市内交通条件、流动人口对现阶段我国城市规模有显著影响.计量分析结果还表明,在控制了上述所有经济因素后,行政级别高的城市以及中西部地区城市使用了更多的土地.     

财政分权对地方公共投资的长期和短期影响效应研究——基于省级面板数据的实证分析

本文以1985—2008年我国25个省域面板数据为对象,采用面板单位根及协整检验等计量经济学方法,得出以下结论:我国各省域及省以下财政分权与地方公共投资之间存在长期且相互影响的内在作用机制,两者之间存在长期稳定的均衡关系。本文通过面板误差修正模型(PVECM)进一步得出结论:财政分权与地方公共投资的长期均衡具有显著的短期修正效应。