Hymer and uneven development revisited:Foreign Direct Investment and regional inequalities

Picking up on one of Hymer's key contributions, this paper examines the impact that inward foreign direct investment (FDI) into the UK has on the patterns of development, both within and across regions. Using a panel of data for the manufacturing sector, the paper illustrates that even where one isolates the effect on the domestic sector alone, inward investment acts to increase the demand for skilled, relative to unskilled labour, and also generates the expected agglomeration effects in terms of the demand for capital investment. The paper then goes on to draw certain policy comparisons between these findings and the desired aim of attracting FDI, notably to increase demand for labour in those regions suffering structural unemployment, and secondly to reduce the disparities between regions.

Innovation and regional absorptive capacity:the labour market dimension

In 2003, Eurostat published an 'experimental' dataset on regional innovation levels derived from the Second Community Innovation Survey. This dataset, part of the European Innovation Scoreboard, also contains a range of regional labour market indicators. In this paper, we report an exploratory analysis of this data, focussing on how the labour market characteristics of regions shape regions' absorptive capacity (RACAP) and their ability to assimilate knowledge from public and externally conducted R&D. In particular, we aim to establish whether labour market aspects of RACAP are more important for innovation in prosperous or lagging regions of the European Union (EU). © Springer-Verlag 2006.

Knowledge capital, endogenous growth and regional disparities in productivity:multi-level evidences from China

This paper examines the role of knowledge capital in persistent regional productivity disparities in developing countries. The hypotheses are tested using regional and firm level longitudinal data from China. It is found that inequalities in knowledge creation and transfer, both inter-generational and international, played a significant role in increasing regional disparities in productivity. These inequalities are exacerbated by the accumulative nature of knowledge capital. All this leads to self-perpetuating cycles of success and failure, particularly compounded with asymmetric financial and human capital between different regions.

Industrial districts, inward foreign investment and regional development

This article compares the importance of agglomerations of local firms, and inward FDI as drivers of regional development. The empirical analysis exploits a unique panel dataset of the Italian manufacturing sector at the regional and industry levels. We explore whether FDI and firm agglomeration can be drivers of total factor productivity (separately and jointly), with this effect being robust to different estimators, and different assumptions about inter-regional effects. In particular, we isolate one form of firm agglomeration that is especially relevant in the Italian context, industrial districts, in order to ascertain their impact on productivity. In so doing, we distinguish standard agglomeration and localization economies from industrial districts to understand what additional impact the latter has on standard agglomeration effects. Interaction effects between FDI spillovers and different types of agglomeration economies shed some light on the heterogeneity of regional development patterns as well as on the opportunity to fine tune policy measures to specific regional contexts.

100-Gb/s point-to-point solutions for long-reach passive optical networks in sparse rural and urban areas

Long reach-passive optical networks (LR-PON) are being proposed as a means of enabling ubiquitous fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) by massive sharing of network resources and therefore reducing per customer costs to affordable levels. In this paper, we analyze the chain solutions for LR-PON deployment in urban and rural areas at 100-Gb/s point-to-point transmission using dual polarization-quaternary phase shift-keying (DP-QPSK) modulation. The numerical analysis shows that with appropriate finite impulse response (FIR) filter designs, 100-Gb/s transmission can be achieved with at least 512 way split and up to 160 km total distance, which is sufficient for many of the optical paths in a practical situation, for point-to-point link from one LR-PON to another LR-PON through the optical switch at the metro nodes and across a core light path through the core network without regeneration.

Food customs of rural and urban Inupiaq elders and their relationships to select nutrition parameters, food insecurity, health, and physical and mental functioning

The Inupiaq Tribe resides north of the Arctic Circle in northwestern Alaska. The people are characterized by their continued dependence on harvested fish, game and plants, known as a subsistence lifestyle (Lee 2000:35-45). Many are suggesting that they leave their historical home and move to urban communities, places believed to be more comfortable as they age. Tribal Elders disagree and have stated, "Elders need to be near the river where they were raised" (Branch 2005:1). The research questions focused on differences that location had on four groups of variables: nutrition parameters, community support, physical functioning and health. A total of 101 Inupiaq Elders ≥ 50 years were surveyed: 52 from two rural villages, and 49 in Anchorage. Location did not influence energy intake or intake of protein; levels of nutrition risk and food insecurity; all had similar rates between the two groups. Both rural and urban Elders reported few limitations of ADLs and IADLs. Self-reported general health scores (SF-12.v2 GH) were also similar by location. Differences were found with rural Elders reporting higher physical functioning summary scores (SF-12.v2 PCS), higher mental health scores (SF-12.v2 MH), higher vitality and less pain even though the rural mean ages were five years older than the urban Elders. Traditional food customs appear to support the overall health and well being of the rural Inupiaq Elders as demonstrated by higher intakes of Native foods, stronger food sharing networks and higher family activity scores than did urban Elders. The rural community appeared to foster continued physical activity. It has been said that when Elders are in the rural setting they are near "people they know" and it is a place "where they can get their Native food" (NRC 2005). These factors appear to be important as Inupiaq Elders age, as rural Inupiaq Elders fared as well or better than Inupiaq Elders in terms of diet, mental and physical health.

Essays on intergenerational and regional aspects of water management

This dissertation consists of three essays on different aspects of water management. The first essay focuses on the sustainability of freshwater use by introducing the notion that altruistic parents do bequeath economic assets for their offspring. Constructing a two-period, over-lapping generational model, an optimal ratio of consumption and pollution for old and young generations in each period is determined. Optimal levels of water consumption and pollution change according to different parameters, such as, altruistic degree, natural recharge rate, and population growth. The second essay concerns water sharing between countries in the case of trans-boundary river basins. The paper recognizes that side payments fail to forge water-sharing agreement among the international community and that downstream countries have weak bargaining power. An interconnected game approach is developed by linking the water allocation issue with other non-water issues such as trade or border security problems, creating symmetry between countries in bargaining power. An interconnected game forces two countries to at least partially cooperate under some circumstances. The third essay introduces the concept of virtual water (VW) into a traditional international trade model in order to estimate water savings for a water scarce country. A two country, two products and two factors trade model is developed, which includes not only consumers and producer's surplus, but also environmental externality of water use. The model shows that VW trade saves water and increases global and local welfare. This study should help policy makers to design appropriate subsidy or tax policy to promote water savings especially in water scarce countries.^

Fuel poverty in the UK : Is there a difference between rural and urban areas?

Date of Acceptance: 28/08/2015 Deborah Roberts acknowledges the support of funding from the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS). We would like to thank the reviewers and editor for their valuable comments. All usual caveat apply.

Fuel poverty in the UK : Is there a difference between rural and urban areas?

Date of Acceptance: 28/08/2015 Deborah Roberts acknowledges the support of funding from the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS). We would like to thank the reviewers and editor for their valuable comments. All usual caveat apply.

Small and medium-sized enterprises and regional economic growth in Brazil

This paper examines the relationship between the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector and economic growth for an annual panel of Brazilian states for the period 1985–2004. We investigate the importance of the relative size of the SME sector measured by the share of SME employment in total formal employment and the level of human capital in SMEs measured by the average years of schooling of SME employees. The empirical results indicate that the relative importance of SMEs is negatively correlated with economic growth, a result that is consistent with previous studies examining developing countries. In addition, our results show that the human capital embodied in SMEs may be more important for economic growth than the relative size of the SME sector.