Urban Concentration and Poverty in Developing Countries

We investigate the impacts of urban concentration (share of the population living in large cities) on poverty in developing countries. We use instrumental variables to estimate a system linking urban concentration, growth and urban and rural poverty. The results show that the importance of the population living in (small) cities (less than 0.5 million inhabitants) or very large cities (beyond 5 million inhabitants) has no impact on poverty. The importance of cities of 1 to 5 million inhabitants is poverty reducing. We conclude that developing countries with a large share of the population living in very big cities could reduce poverty by deconcentrating their urbanization toward cities of between 1 and 5 million inhabitants.     

Relationship between Farmland Use Right Circulation and Non-agricultural Employment——Based on Survey Data from Eastern and Western China

Relationship between Chinese rural non-agricultural employment and farmland use circulation has always been a hot research topic without final conclusions.This paper uses survey data of"China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS)"covering 1,549 households of 95 villages in Zhejiang and Gansu Province in 2008.According to the data analysis,Zhejiang Province has a higher ratio of rural households leasing out their farmland than Gansu Province has,while the latter has a higher ratio of rural residents going out for earning a living.In both provinces,non-agricultural employment and farmland use circulation show significant positive correlation,but in Gansu,non-agricultural employment of farmers shows no significant positive correlation with rural households leasing out their farmland.The factor shows that for peasants in underdeveloped regions of west China,they rely more on land because of its social security functions,so they are not willing to lease out their land even when they go to cities for earning a living.For local government,it is not appropriate to promote farmland use circulation by depending on the transfer of rural labor forces,fundamental needs of peasants must be taken into consideration.     

Big or Small Cities? On city size and economic growth

Policy makers and academics frequently emphasize a positive link between city size and economic growth. The empirical literature on the relationship, however, is scarce and uses rough indicators for the size of a country's cities, while ignoring factors that are increasingly considered to shape this relationship. In this paper, we employ a panel of 113 countries between 1980 and 2010 to explore whether 1) there are certain city sizes that are growth enhancing and 2) how additional factors highlighted in the literature impact the city size/growth relationship. The results suggest a nonlinear relationship which is dependent on the country's size. In contrast to the prevailing view that large cities are growth‐inducing, for a majority of countries relatively small cities of up to 3 million inhabitants are more conducive to economic growth. A large share of the urban population in cities of more than 10 million inhabitants is only growth promoting in countries with an urban population of 28.5 million and more. In addition, the relationship is highly context‐dependent: a high share of industries that benefit from agglomeration economies, a well‐developed urban infrastructure, and an adequate level of governance effectiveness allow countries to take advantage of agglomeration benefits from larger cities.     

City and Inhabitants

Based on the relationship between cities and inhabitants as the main point, the characters, complexity and openness of the urban system are discussed in this paper. Then, the nature of the city is revealed.     

Analyzing the distribution of researchers in China: An approach using multiscale geographically weighted regression

We employ a Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) model to examine the spatial variation of researchers in China in 2015 and its determinants. It is found that the distribution of researchers is driven by the economy in urban centers, public services, natural areas of recreation, urban consumption, and work‐related facilities. Results from the MGWR model conclusively identify significant spatial non‐stationarity in the determinants measuring scientific researchers' distribution. Other factors such as per capita GDP, the number of hospital beds per 10,000 inhabitants, and public financial expenditures influence the distribution of researchers more in the Western cities, and their effect decreases steadily from West to East. Air pollutants affect researchers negatively in the eastern part of the country, while the percentage of available green land is a strong driver in the central and western parts. The factor measuring the effect of the number of universities is seen to affect researchers more strongly in the northwestern and northeastern cities. Other findings further suggest that the economy and public services in cities have a consistent effect on the distribution of researchers across the country whereas, natural areas of recreation, work‐related facilities, and urban consumption have a significantly varying effect across cities.     

Growth and Change in U.S. Cities and Suburbs

Differential rates of growth and decentralization are processes that characterized U.S. urban areas over the past three decades. This paper examines the determinants of growth in cities and suburbs during the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s. The modeling approach adopted in the study allows for simultaneity between population and employment, and between cities and suburbs, while also taking into account a range of other explanatory factors. Results indicate that population and employment growth in cities tend to be jointly determined, but that growth of employment in the suburbs tends to drive growth of suburban population. Results also suggest that suburban and city growth are interrelated, but that the nature of these interrelationships varies over time: suburban growth promoted city growth during the 1970s and 1980s, while city and suburban growth were jointly determined during the 1990s. Other factors that consistently explain variation in city growth include demographics, population density, crime rates, and income inequality. Factors consistently explaining suburban growth include regional location and climate.     

Life Sciences and Human Capital: Jobless Growth on Specialised and Local Labour Markets?

Policy makers and scholars often regard the life science industry in general, and bio‐technology in particular, as an engine of future economic growth. The expectation is that growth in the industry will ultimately provide a major boost to national employment numbers. However, in this paper, I find that the Swedish life science industry (encompassing pharmaceutical, bio‐technology, and medical technology firms) accounts for only a small proportion of total employment in Sweden. Given the recent discussion on jobless growth (i.e., economic growth without employment growth), it is here argued that focusing on employment is not necessarily the best policy approach to assessing the impacts of the life science industry on the overall economy. This paper maps and analyses the scope, structure, and geography of the life science industry and its workforce in Sweden using a unique set of data covering approximately 1,200 firms and 53,000 employees. The industry's workforce has education and income levels significantly higher than national averages, and is heavily concentrated in larger metropolitan areas and major university cities. Despite employing relatively few people and being more or less dependent on the existence and success of a few major pharmaceutical firms, the industry may still have a significant impact on the national economy by engendering high levels of education, income, and export revenues, particularly in specific regions.     

The Impact of the Maquiladora Industry on U.S. Border Cities

For decades, the maquiladora industry has been a major economic engine along the U.S.–Mexico border. Since the 1970s, researchers have analyzed how the maquiladora industry affects cities along both sides of the border. Hanson produced the first comprehensive study on the impact of the maquiladoras on U.S. border cities, considering the effects of in‐bond plants on both employment and wages. His estimates became useful rules of thumb for the entire U.S.–Mexico border; however, they have become dated. Using Hanson's framework, we estimate the maquiladora industry impact on U.S. border cities from 1990 to 2006. We find that a 10 percent increase in maquiladora production leads to a 0.5 to 0.9 percent increase in employment. We also find large differences among individual border cities. Furthermore, we estimate the cross‐border maquiladora impacts before and after 2001 when border security begins to rise, and the global low‐wage competition intensified after China joined the World Trade Organization. Empirical results indicate that U.S. border cities are less responsive to growth in maquiladora production from 2001 to 2006 than in the earlier period; however, when looking into specific sectors, we find that U.S. border city employment in service sectors is more responsive post‐2001.     

Analysis of Local Sales Taxation in Rural Areas: An Oklahoma Case Study

This study examines the impact of tax rates and tax rate differentials in a trade area on local sales tax revenues. Sales data for FY 1986 were analyzed for the 75 nonmetropolitan communities in Oklahoma with populations between 2,500 and 50,000. Multiple regression techniques were used to estimate local tax revenues as a function of tax rates, tax rate differential and local community economic and locational attributes. The results indicate that the tax rate differential was not significantly related to local revenue collection in the overall sample, but that the differential was significant for rural communities with relatively higher tax rates. Tax rate, income, service sector employment and a gravity factor were also significant influences on local sales tax revenues. These results imply that, because of the unique characteristics of rural retail markets and the dominance of rural trade centers, these rural trade center cities are able to raise local tax rates and effectively export tax burden to nonresidents without significantly affecting their retail sales when the tax differential is not a large one.     

A quantitative analysis of Hukou reform in Chinese cities: 2000–2016

This paper documents the changes in China's Hukou reform before and after 2014 based on a unique data set of Hukou policy documents from Chinese cities between 2000 and 2016. We construct a Hukou registration index to measure the stringency of local Hukou qualification in Chinese cities. There are four main channels for migrants to get local urban Hukou: investment, home purchase, talent program, and employment. The requirements of the four channels have large variations across different tiers of cities between the two periods of 2000–2013 and 2014–2016. First‐tier and some second‐tier cities set high criteria for local Hukou registration that have become more stringent over time, while other cities have much lower requirements. The point account system for Hukou registration shows that cities have different preferences over workers eligible for local urban Hukou. The quantitative measures developed in this paper can be used to study a variety of topics on the social and economic consequences of labor mobility barriers.     

Community Changes and Growth in Small Cities: Resident Perceptions of Growth in Brandon,Manitoba, Canada

While research on rural depopulation and urbanization to large cities has dominated the literature for decades, small city growth has been largely ignored. Yet, small cities are important to the regional systems in which they are located, including serving as centres to their rural surround. This paper is concerned about growth and change in small cities. Using Brandon, Manitoba as an example, citizen perceptions of a range of specific aspects of city growth are analyzed. The study is based on a household postal survey conducted in May and June 2010 in which 2,500 randomly selected households in Brandon, Manitoba received questionnaires. The results are based on the 518 useable, completed questionnaires that were returned. Differences in perceptions of the pace of change in a range of aspects of development were found based on income, age, educational attainment, employment status, and home ownership. No differences were found based on gender. The paper concludes with comments about how city governments need to be aware of citizen perceptions when pursuing and managing development. The paper also illustrated the importance of citizen perceptions in understanding the pace and direction of change in small cities.     

Estimating Employment‐Related Migration from Overlapping Migration and Commuting Networks

A U.S. county workplace‐to‐workplace or latent migration data set is generated from overlapping migration and commuting networks. The latent migration network is the estimated number of movers between places of work, which is then compared with the actual number of migrants between places of residence. This allows both employment‐related and amenity‐related migration and pull/push factors as causes of migration flows to be identified and contrasted. Certain counties and cities that are not important migration destinations (e.g., with <200,000 net in‐migrants between 1995 and 2000) according to official data are in fact important targets when additional in‐migrants who commute into surrounding counties also are considered. An econometric analysis is then used to examine whether different regressors have different effects on the residence‐ versus employment‐based migration patterns. This is a first assessment of whether or not the proposed approach has merit. Results are consistent with prior expectations regarding the factors that would motivate latent versus actual migration.     

Factors and Correlates of Employment Growth in the Canadian Urban System, 1971–1991

The objective of this paper is to examine a number of hypotheses concerning the factors or correlates of employment growth in the Canadian urban system—a set of 152 urban areas having populations of more than ten thousand inhabitants which comprises 77.4 percent of the national population. Do observed patterns of sectoral employment growth obey some sort of underlying logic? More specifically, do the rates of employment growth that are found in individual urban areas vary significantly according to one or more of the following attributes of an urban area: a) the region in which it is located; b) its population size; c) its relative proximity to a major metropolitan area; d) its socioeconomic characteristics? While approaches involving a, e and f yield promising results, it is clear that there are few immutable laws that permit one to predict where employment growth will occur within the urban system. Perhaps the most fundamental characteristic of the analyses conducted involves the instability of the results from one decade to another; one decade’s category of winners is often the other decade’s category of losers.     

内蒙古自治区农业生产效率测算及影响因素研究

为了解内蒙古自治区各盟市农业生产效率概况,进而分析影响其农业生产效率的主要因素。以内蒙古自治区11个盟市为研究对象,通过数据包络分析法(DEA)测算出各盟市农业生产效率,并使用Tobit回归模型分析影响农业生产效率的因素。结果显示：内蒙古自治区整体农业生产效率较好,但只有4个盟市做到了DEA完全有效,其他盟市仍需提升;农业生产效率的地区集中性不明显,地广人稀的地区效率更高。在影响农业生产效率的因素中,政府支农力度和农业规模化生产有明显正向作用,而地区农业依存度负向作用显著。研究结果对内蒙古自治区农业生产效率有了进一步认识,对提高农业生产效率有一定借鉴作用。     

培育流通组织促进福建农村居民消费升级

为了研究流通组织对农村居民消费水平的影响,通过采用实地调研、数据收集等方式,结合福建省实际情况,分析了城乡居民消费结构的差异情况,指出了现阶段福建省农村流通组织存在的主要问题及其对农村居民消费水平提升的影响,并提出了培育农村流通组织、提高农村居民消费水平的建议。     

Marriage Markets and the Intermetropolitan Distribution of Skilled Couples

Costa and Kahn hypothesize that the growing concentration of skilled couples in large cities is due to their migration to large cities to solve their dual‐employment problem. However, there is only limited empirical evidence in support of this hypothesis. This research tests an alternative hypothesis: The intermetropolitan distribution of skilled couples is largely the result of marriages among skilled singles in large cities. The relative merits of both the “co‐location” and “marriage market” hypotheses are evaluated by comparing the effects of migration and marriage on the intermetropolitan distribution of dual‐degree couples using data from the 2008 American Community Survey. Migration is found to have little effect on the distribution of dual‐degree couples. Rather, the concentration of dual‐degree couples is strongly related to the high rate of marriages among single college graduates in the same cities.     

Note: Paid Informal Work in Deprived Urban Neighborhoods: Exploitative Employment or Cooperative Self‐Help?

The aim of this paper is to challenge the characterization of paid informal work as a form of employment based on exploitative relations that should be eradicated. Using empirical evidence gathered through structured interviews with 511 households in deprived and affluent neighborhoods in British cities, this paper reveals that paid informal work in deprived areas is mostly conducted for kin, neighbors, and friends for co‐operative reasons and is thus more like unpaid community exchange in the private sphere than exploitative employment. In consequence, the challenge for social and labor market policy is argued to be not to try to eradicate such work but to harness it in these deprived urban neighborhoods.     

The Impact of Metropolitan Structure on Commute Behavior in the Netherlands: A Multilevel Approach

ABSTRACT This paper documents the investigation of the impact of metropolitan structure on the commute behavior of urban residents in the Netherlands. Not only has the impact of monocentrism versus polycentrism been analyzed, but the influence of metropolitan density and size has also been considered, together with the ratio of employment to population and the growth of the population and employment. Furthermore, data are used at a variety of levels of analysis ranging from the individual worker to the metropolitan region rather than being drawn from aggregate level statistics alone. Multilevel regression modeling is applied to take account of the interdependencies among these levels of aggregation. With regard to mode choice, the results indicate that the probability of driving an auto to work is lower in employment‐rich metropolitan regions, and rises as the number of jobs per resident has grown strongly. Furthermore, women in most polycentric regions are less likely to commute as an auto driver. All else being equal, commute distances and times for auto drivers are longer in most polycentric regions than in monocentric urban areas. In addition, commute time as an auto driver rises with metropolitan size, whereas commute distance depends on employment density and the growth of the number of jobs per resident. The investigation shows that metropolitan structure, although significantly influencing commute patterns, explains only a small part of the variation of individuals’ commute behavior.     

Air Passenger Transportation and Growth in the U.S. Urban System, 1950–1987

The relationship between transportation and urbanization at the national scale is revisited by focusing upon the role that air passenger transportation has played in the post-war evolution of the U.S. urban system. Theory suggests that major transportation innovations have exhibited profound and prolonged interdependencies with patterns of growth in national or regional urban systems. As the most recent major intercity transportation innovation, it should be expected that utilization of air transportation should bear some relationship to patterns of growth in urban places. This paper documents this relationship by using FAA and U.S. Census data to correlate volumes of air passenger flows per capita with changes in population and employment for the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. The expectation that higher volumes of air passenger flow per capita exhibit a positive correlation with both previous and subsequent growth is confirmed by the analysis. More detailed examination of both high and low air passenger index cities suggests functional and regional consistencies with the central hypothesis. The implications of these results for air transportation and airport planning include at least some justification for increased attention to provision of air service and adequate airport infrastructure as well as reiteration of the importance of air transportation in economic development.     

State Infrastructure and the Geography of Employment

ABSTRACT The effects of state public capital investment on economic growth is an important question that has been the focus of a recent substantial research effort. But the majority of this research has ignored these investments’influence on the intra-state pattern of economic activity. Yet if external agglomeration economies are important determinants of growth, then investments may indirectly affect growth by fostering or discouraging agglomeration. This paper discusses the effect of state infrastructure investments on the distribution of employment within states and the implications of these spatial effects for aggregate state employment growth. Preliminary empirical results suggest that state infrastructure investments tend to redistribute growth from areas of dense employment to other parts of the state. This redistribution may diminish agglomeration benefits offered by cities, which has the potential to reduce state growth. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications of the work for research and policy.