Multinational Firms’ Location and the New Economic Geography

Multinational Firms ’ Location and the New Economic Geography
Edited by Jean‐Louis Mucchielli and Thierry Mayer, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. 1704. xii + 238 pp. $100.00 (Cloth). ISBN 1‐84376‐654‐X.
Reviewed by Nicholas A. Phelps
School of Geography, University of Southampton     

Location,Automotive Policy,and Multinational Strategy: The Position of South Africa in the Global Industry since 1995

The South African automotive sector has become much more integrated into the global industry since 1995. Rapid export expansion has shifted its orientation fundamentally away from its focus on the small domestic market and the industry is widely regarded as a success story of South Africa's democratic transition. However, important vulnerabilities remain, and it is by no means clear that the mode of integration has been particularly favorable to the long‐term development of the industry. The relatively small size of South Africa's domestic market and its regional location pose clear disadvantages in terms of attracting international investment. Integration into the global industry has therefore been partial and continues to reflect a degree of hesitancy by multinational firms to make really major commitments to the South African industry. The warning signs include recent import expansion and low local content in domestically assembled vehicles. Automotive policy has also produced distortions, encouraged uneconomic investments, and led to unforeseen side effects. These impacts limit the gains that have been made and are likely to cause complications in the future.     

Bank Branch Geographic Location Patterns in Spain: Some Implications for Financial Exclusion

Over the last 20 years, the Spanish banking industry has undergone a profound reshaping in several respects. One of the factors that has allowed this has been the geographic expansion of most savings banks into other regions outside their regions of origin that has been taking place at a significant pace since 1989. Almost simultaneously, the Spanish economy has grown at remarkable annual rates, a growth pattern that came to an abrupt halt in 2008. Under these circumstances, this paper analyzes the geographic expansion patterns of Spanish financial institutions during the postderegulation period. This goal extends previous analyses in two main ways: by considering a broader set of variables affecting bank branch location and by using a quantile regression in order to obtain results that go beyond conditional mean models. Results indicate that 1) location and geographic diversification patterns vary mostly across firms and by type of firm; 2) the evaluation of growth and financial development at municipal level indicates that some communities have experienced financial exclusion; and 3) it is difficult to establish a linear relationship to explain bank branch geographic diversification strategies.     

生产控制在种子企业目标实现中的问题及解决办法

1 种子的生产环节种子的生产环节包括生产计划的制定、生产基地分配、田间管理以及种子采收。     

机载 LiDAR生成DEM的一些关键问题评述

提取DEM是机载LiDAR技术应用研究关键内容之一,从LiDAR数据滤波、DEM模型选择、内插、误差控制和数据压缩等几个方面,分析当前利用机载激光雷达数据提取DEM的主要研究进展.着重讨论插值滤波、倾角滤波和形态学滤波算法,定量分析滤波算法的性能;分析比较确定性内插方法和地学统计内插方法,并指出内插方法在提高精度同时也要考虑稳定性和序同构性;论述DEM格网压缩和三角网压缩方法,并指出在满足地形可视化需要的同时提高压缩效率;并进行了总结展望,为相关研究提供参考.     

Some Issues about the Recycling Liquid Sludge Water from Water Treatment Plant

The liquid sludge water is produced from coagulation/filtration units and filtration operation of water treatment plant. The utilization of liquid sludge water from water treatment plant is an efficient way to save water resource. The potential problems in recycling the liquid sludge water are discussed in this paper from the aspects of its biological, physical and chemical properties. The microbiological safety of filtered water can be improved by recycling the liquid sludge water after coagulation and sedimentation or membrane filtration pretreatment. The status of utilization of the liquid sludge water at home and abroad is presented as well.     

Evaluating the Importance of Business Location Factors: The Influence of Facility Type

This study examines two important issues concerning the evaluation of business location factors. First, in contrast to many analyses that seek to determine the influence of a single factor or set of factors on site selection, this study aims to measure the relative importance of a wide range of factors. Second, it investigates the extent to which the perceived importance of a given location factor varies based on the type of facility in question. While there is a substantial amount of research devoted to identifying industry‐specific location factors, little is known about the influence that facility type has on the assessment of location criteria. Drawing on original survey data collected from real estate professionals in the U.S., we found significant differences in the mean ratings for more than half of the 39 location factors on the basis of facility type. In particular, “corporate/office” respondents were significantly more likely than “manufacturing” or “retail” respondents to assign higher ratings to “quality‐of‐life” location factors, such as crime rates, amenities, housing, and schools. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research on location theory.     

种子休眠与萌发研究中若干问题的探讨

种子休眠与萌发一直是种子生理生态学研究中的热点,近年来,这一领域的研究有了更广泛深入的发展.对相关概念和术语理解是否正确,研究材料选择是否科学,试验设计是否合理,研究方法是否严谨规范,这些问题都决定着相关研究与国际接轨的程度,决定着研究水平和被同行的认可度.结合国内外相关文献资料,重点从试验材料选择、试验设置和实施、相关概念和观点的比较几个方面对种子休眠与萌发研究中容易误解和出错的一些问题进行了总结和探讨,明确了相关概念、观点和做法.建议研究者在从事种子萌发生态学研究过程中注意以下几点问题:1)试验材料的选取要考虑具体目的,并注意种子的完整性、成熟度、贮藏时间等问题;2)严格控制试验条件和过程,设置合理的样本容量和重复次数进行试验;3)掌握最新的种子体眠概念和分类理论,正确区分种子休眠的概念和类型;4)加强对种子休眠破除与萌发过程的理解和认识,明确相关争议问题的焦点和不同观点.     

The Enlightenment of ''Fengshui'' Patternto Ecological Residence Location

In this paper, the authors put forward a basic 'Fengshui' pattern on the basis of expounding the origin of 'Fengshui'. Then it is demonstrated from the aspect of natural geography and example, and an attempt to apply it in locating the ecological residence is realized. At the end, the authors point out several factors that should be taken into account in the design of an ecological residence.     

The Effects of Environmental Regulation on Business Location in the United States

This article empirically examines whether variations in state environmental regulations have affected the location of manufacturing branch plants by the Fortune 500 companies. Using several measures of environmental regulation, no statistically significant effects of environmental regulation on business location are found. For most manufacturing industries, the estimates are precise enough to rule out the possibility of large effects of environmental regulation on business location. For highly polluting industries, however, the variance in the estimates is quite large. We cannot rule out the possibility of effects of environmental regulation on the location of highly polluting industries that are large enough to be important to policymakers.     

The Influence of Location on Productivity: Manufacturing Technology in Rural and Urban Areas

ABSTRACT Policies to counter the growing discrepancy between economic opportunities in rural and urban areas have focused predominantly on expanding manufacturing in rural areas. Fundamental to the design of these strategies are the relative costs of production and productivity of manufacturing in rural compared to urban areas. This study develops information that can be used to assess the productivity of manufacturing in rural and urban areas. Production functions are estimated for the meat-products and household-furniture industries to investigate selected aspects of location and productivity. The results show that the effect of location on productivity varies with industry, size, and the timing of entry. Although the analysis is specific to two industries, it suggests that development policies targeting manufacturing can be more effective if they focus on industries and plants with characteristics that predispose them to the locations they support.     

The Impact of City/Suburban Location on Moving Plans: A Cincinnati Study

ABSTRACT In order to improve the ability of central-city policymakers to retain middle-income families, this paper tests for the importance of city/suburban location as well as other background characteristics in explaining variations in moving plans. Stepwise discriminant analysis is applied to a mailed questionnaire sample of 1,738 households who purchased homes in Hamilton County (Cincinnati), Ohio, during the first half of 1986. The city buyers’ greater propensity to move reflected compositional effects, with younger households purchasing modest homes. Contrary to what was expected, recent city buyers with urban tastes did not have strong attachments to their location. The implications of these and other results to stem outmigration flows are discussed.     

红米色素着生位置及其基因定位

分别对红米和白米做了石蜡切片观察,其色素位于果皮和种皮中;并对红米水稻材料红宝石进行了遗传研究及基因定位。红宝石与白色水稻R272的杂交F1表现为红色,表明色素基因受显性基因控制;同时,其F2群体米色性状遗传分离规律符合3∶1的分离比例,表明红色米皮的性状受1对显性基因控制。利用R272/红宝石的F2群体和微卫星标记,将该基因定位在第7染色体上RM8006和RM21186两个标记之间,其遗传距离分别为4.0cM和2.1cM,在物理图上这两个标记的距离为1.7Mb,并将该基因初步命名为Red。     

New Insights into Senior Travel Behavior: The Canadian Experience

Societies in many developed nations around the world are aging. Over the past decade, a growing body of research has emerged internationally in an effort to anticipate and prepare for the transport challenges posed by this unprecedented demographic change. This paper contributes to this line of research by offering new insights into senior travel behavior focusing on the recent Canadian experience. Using weekday data from the 1992 and 2005 General Social Surveys on time use, changes in the number of trips, the duration of trips, trip mode, and trip timing are evaluated for urban seniors. In contrast to the experiences of many other developed nations, analysis of the first three indicators of behavioral change refutes the notion that “automobility” has increased in Canada over the 13‐year period. While this finding is encouraging, it is tempered by the fact that Canadian seniors who choose to travel by car are doing so increasingly during the morning and evening peak periods. The results from a peak versus non‐peak departure‐time model that pools data from both years offer important insights into factors driving this change. For instance, the results suggest that the propensity to start a trip during rush hour has increased over time for non‐work trip purposes.     

Location of New Firms: Influence of Commuting Behaviour

In the entrepreneurship literature, it is generally assumed that an individual establishes a new firm in a location in which they have strong ties, normally in the municipality of residence or employment. We scrutinise this general assumption and show that firm location depends on individual characteristics, such as the commuting experience. Our results show that commuting influences the firm location choice. The probability of establishing a firm in the work municipality increases if the entrepreneur is a commuter, holding constant the type of region and unobservable and observable individual features.     

The Location and Suburbanization of Business and Professional Services in the Atlanta Area

Despite an increase of 200,000 jobs in business and professional services in the Atlanta metropolitan area between 1982 and 1997, the central city saw employment as a percentage of these services drop by approximately 20 percent. Most growth occurred in the northern suburbs, resulting in a dispersed distribution of business and professional services in Atlanta. To understand the spatial distribution and suburbanization of business and professional services in Atlanta, regression analysis was carried out for 1982 and 1992. Flexible female workers, corporate headquarters, well –educated professionals, and highway access turned out to be important location determinants, with the latter two being increasingly responsible for the suburbanization of business and professional services.     

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.