Toward a Resource‐Based View of City Quality: A New Framework

Based on an extensive literature review on intelligent cities, smart cities, and happy cities, and on their conceptual connections with citizens' well‐being, quality of life, and happiness, we developed a resource‐based view on City Quality: the PESNAT (political, economic, social, natural, artificial, and technological) framework. The concept of City Quality rests on the idea of cities interconnected sub‐habitats—PESNAT—which are powerful analytical categories needed for understanding cities as complex and intricate loci. This framework eventually aims at assessing the cities' power to attract businesses and people, to contribute to a sustainable development of the city and an increased quality of life. Furthermore, two hypotheses are outlined regarding the level of importance of each sub‐habitat in relation to happiness, and the level of controversy of each one for citizens, city planners, and decision makers.     

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.     

Rural land reforms and villagers' preferences for urban settlement: A case study of Shandong Province,China

Based on surveys conducted in Shandong Province, China, this paper examined the interests of rural residents to move to and settle in cities, as well as the factors that motivate or discourage their potential settlement changes. Results of the binary logistic regression analysis showed that villagers' urban settlement preference was related to sociodemographic factors such as gender, age, and occupation. Overall, the separation of the “three rights” (collective ownership, land contract right, and land use right) associated with rural land has strengthened the urban settlement preference of rural residents. Nevertheless, we did not find significant association between land transfer and the preference for urban settlement. For villagers who expressed interest in urban settlement, better job opportunities, education opportunities, and higher income are the leading “pull” factors that would attract them to cities. The attachment to rural life, high living costs, and high housing prices in cities were the top concerns for villagers who did not want to move. The study also found that villagers' desired urban destinations changed with the changing land parameters, indicating that the outcomes of China's rural land reforms may not be aligned well with the policy goals laid in the country's urbanization and rural development plans.     

Neoliberalism and the Urban Economy in Ghana: Urban Employment,Inequality, and Poverty

Ghana is one of a few African countries where more people now reside in cities than in the countryside. What is not as well‐known are the changes that have taken place in the economic base of Ghanaian cities. This paper tells that story. It focuses particularly on jobs, incomes, inequality, and poverty, and their characteristics in an era when neoliberal policies have been implemented. It draws on census reports, national surveys, and published reports in order to overcome the dearth of information about the urban and national economies. The paper shows that, on the one hand, the increasing prominence of the private sector in the urban economy has impacted positively on capital formation and job creation. On the other hand, urban and national inequality levels have dramatically increased. Whether these changes are favourable to the majority of urban citizens is contestable.     

Living better and feeling happier: An investigation into the association between housing quality and happiness

This study examines the relationship between housing quality and individuals’ subjective well-being. Using data from the China Labor-force Dynamic Survey (CLDS), results show that housing quality is associated positively with one’s overall happiness. Moreover, the results are robust to potential omitted variable bias. In addition, we determine that housing quality is more correlated with perceived happiness for local residents compared with migrants, who generally have lower levels of happiness. Mechanisms are provided through which the migrant population, which is generally less likely to reside in the current cities, cares less about living conditions than the local population. Policy implications for these findings are discussed.     

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.     

How does tolerance affect urban innovative capacities in China?

This study investigated how urban cultural and economic tolerance affects urban innovative capacities based on China's prefecture‐level cities. Several tolerance indices, including ratios of migrants, rental housing, gay people, and private economies were introduced and the cities’ tolerance scores were measured using factor analysis. The results show that cities with higher cultural and economical tolerant scores were agglomerated in three metropolitan areas in China's southeastern coastal region. The spatial regression model demonstrates that urban cultural and economic tolerance increases urban innovation output and promotes innovation capacities. We also introduced the crime rate as an instrumental variable and found that the effect of tolerance on innovation remains robust. Our study suggests it is important for the Chinese government to establish an open and tolerant environment to attract migrants, creative artists, and entrepreneurs to foster urban vitality and improve urban innovative capacities.     

Does Commuting Reduce Wage Disparities?

ABSTRACT This paper shows that in the Baltic countries, commuting reduces urban‐rural wage and employment disparities and increases national output. To quantify the effect of commuting on wage differentials, two sets of earnings functions are estimated (based on Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Labor Force Surveys) with location variables (capital city, rural, etc.) measured at the workplace and at the place of residence. We find that the ceteris paribus wage gap between capital city and rural areas, as well as between capital and other cities is significantly narrowed by commuting in some cases but remains almost unchanged in others. Different outcomes are explained by country‐specific spatial patterns of commuting, educational and occupational composition of commuting flows, and presence or absence of wage discrimination against rural residents in urban markets. A treatment effects model is used to estimate individual wage gains to rural—urban or inter‐city commuting; these gains are substantial in most but not all cases. Wage effects of commuting distance, as well as impact of education, gender, ethnicity, and local labor market conditions on the commuting decision are also explored.     

Analysis on the Feasibility of Collecting Traffic Congestion Charges in Beijing

On the basis of analyzing connotation of congestion pricing,through the qualitative analysis of the main content and implementation effect of the congestion policy in cities such as Singapore,London and Stockholm,the basic conditions for urban congestion charges were summarized.Compared with Beijing’s urban development,traffic development status,urban transport infrastructure and social factors,the current policy of traffic congestion charging is still not available from the perspective of the current status of car ownership in Beijing,residents’ travel composition,and population density distribution.     

城乡居民养老保险发展水平研究——基于省际数据的因子分析

在新型城镇发展与户籍改革的双重条件下,为发现城乡居民养老保险之间的差距,利用SPSS19.0软件对2012年中国内地总人口、收入与支出以及城乡居民养老保险的参保人数、基金收入与支出的统计数据进行因子分析,并分别按照总分、公因子得分值进行排名。通过对城乡居民养老保险相关数据的因子分析,结果发现：各个省市城乡居民养老保险发展水平有着较为明显的差异性的,两类公因子得分值排名前几名的省市是不同的,其总分也是不同的。通过因子分析,发现了省市之间的差距,这为以后解决养老保险水平的地区差异提供了理论与实践方面的支撑。     

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.     

The Persistence of Urban Deprivation: The Example of Wichita,Kansas, in the 1970s

Abstract During the 1970s, several programs were implemented to deal with the problem of urban deprivation within US central cities. This study examines the changing spatial distribution of various deprivation indicators within the city of Wichita, Kansas, and identifies the social and economic characteristics of those areas most affected by changes. Linear regression is utilized to develop a typology of change. Areas that deteriorated in relation to the rest of the city are characterized by disproportionate concentrations of the city's “underclass,” while areas that improved in relation to the rest of the city were the most affluent neighborhoods. The study found little evidence that deprivation was reduced in those areas of the inner city targeted for special assistance; indeed, in much of the inner city, levels of deprivation increased relative to the rest of the city.     

Twenty‐first century nomadic city: Ger districts and barriers to the implementation of the Ulaanbaatar City Master Plan

Since the early 1990s, Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, has experienced rapid rural to urban migration and population growth resulting in the growth in informal settlements across the city. The informal settlements are known as ‘ger’ districts. In response to these pressures, since the 1990s, the central government has adopted a programme of land reform and metropolitan planning. These new reforms take place in the context of a unique, post‐socialist political, economic and institutional context. The land reform process has attempted to privatise land ownership, which has traditionally resided with the state. The privatisation process was initiated under the new Constitution of Mongolia, which initiated reforms in all sectors of social and economic development, and since 2003, targeted land reform in ger districts. Running parallel, a series of urban land‐use planning schemes have been introduced to frame the development of Ulaanbaatar in the context of an emerging market economy. Although master plans for urban development have been established since the 1950s, urban land‐use planning is a new concept in this emerging market economy. The aim of this paper is to trace the rationales and challenges of implementing master plans and land privatisation processes in Ulaanbaatar. Drawing on interviews with city, national and local government officials conducted in 2009, the paper focuses on the implications of these reforms for both the government and the residents of ger districts.     

The geographically variegated connections of the Jakarta metropolitan area as produced by manufacturing firms

Connectivity in urban networks is often deemed to be an important feature of economically vibrant cities. Under conditions of contemporary globalization, the importance and geographies of these connections are increasingly variegated. Accordingly, various attempts have been made to analyse the external relations of cities and metropolitan regions, often through the lens of multilocational firms. Our purpose in this paper is to address the to‐date limited empirical knowledge about whether firms originating from different regions (i.e., firms with different headquarter [HQ] locations) create different patterns of inter‐urban relations. Drawing on the interlocking network model and using the Jakarta metropolitan area (JMA) as a case study, this paper explores how manufacturing firms with HQs either inside (further differentiating between the JMA and other cities) or outside (further differentiating between East Asian and non‐East Asian countries) Indonesia produce different patterns of external relations. Our findings indicate that each category of firms generates unique configurations of interurban relations for the JMA at the global and national scales. We argue that these variegated networks patterns not only reflect different locational strategies of firms, but also Indonesia's evolving policy orientations which have complex relations with evolving patterns of economic globalization.     

Internal Migration in Mexico: Consolidation of Urban–Urban Mobility, 2000–2015

Internal migration has been recognized as the major influence in terms of population redistribution across urban systems, but it is not a homogeneous phenomenon. Within the context of internal rural‐urban migration decline and the negative changes in migratory balances in the metropolitan area of Mexico City, the core of enquiry in this paper is the approach to growth and consolidation of an internal urban–urban migration system in the early twenty‐first century (2000–2015). This process has taken place through two main networks, among metropolitan areas not corresponding to the principal city and among intermediate cities. Internal migration is a complex process that involves both individual and spatial characteristics and which leads to spatially uneven development in the long term. Data from three censuses of the population of Mexico (2000, 2010, and 2015) show a transition to a more urban–urban migration pattern, with skilled migrants tending to have metropolitan and urban destinations, whereas less‐skilled migrants prefer rural and small urban destinations.     

Sustainable urbanization in Southeast Asia and beyond: Challenges of population growth,land use change,and environmental health

As economic growth centres, the Southeast Asian cities feature high population pressure, unsustainable land use, environmental degradation, and large ecological footprints. It is difficult to manage environmental health and basic services for urban dwellers, and ensure optimum flow of ecosystem services in the context of rapid, unplanned, and haphazard urbanization. These challenges are particularly multifaceted in the developing countries of Southeast Asian region. This study, based on secondary sources, adopted multidisciplinary lenses, such as geographical information systems, socio‐economic perspective, and sustainability science to examine the population situation, land use change pattern, and drivers of environmental degradation in the Southeast Asian cities as well as the Dhaka megacity, and brought forth a fresh perspective to look into contemporary urban ecosystems, population dynamics, environmental health, and sustainability. It also focused on identifying the commonalities among the cities under study to create a common understanding towards promoting collaborative urban development. This study shows that the urbanization process in the Southeast Asia region is taking place mostly in an unplanned and haphazard manner. With little concern for nature, life‐supporting ecological systems, and the environment, urban spatial growth continues unabated. The data surveyed and discussed in this paper shows that the current style of urbanization in Southeast Asia can best be called unsustainable. The findings also suggest that the general wellbeing and welfare of the current and future generations in Southeast Asian cities as well as in Dhaka is at risk. The paper recommends concerted efforts towards making the urbanization process sustainable, including better urban planning, policymaking, and international and regional cooperation.     

Can the Land Use Master Plan Control Urban Expansion and Protect Farmland in China? A Case Study of Nanjing

Urbanization represents a challenge for plans aimed at controlling urban expansion and protecting farmland, such as the land use master plan (LUMP) instituted by the Chinese national government. This paper studies the effectiveness of such top–down plans under the authoritarian regime through the case study of Nanjing. In contrast to previous studies that compare actual and planned land‐use maps, we compare actual and planned land‐use patterns. We use land‐use change data to examine spatio‐temporal land‐use change between the years 1997 and 2014. The results indicate that the actual amount of urban‐rural built‐up land exceeded planned regulatory amount by 50,185 ha and the total farmland was 70,541 ha less than the target outlined in the LUMP (1997–2010). Based on these results, and the fact that the allowed total urban‐rural built‐up land had already been surpassed in 2014, it is to be expected that the target of farmland protection outlined in the LUMP (2006–2020) will be broken, signaling the ineffectiveness of the plan to control urban expansion and protect farmland. Plan‐led developments (e.g., new towns, development zones) and market forces (e.g., housing market, foreign direct investment) explain these developments. This study indicates that when cities embrace “growth‐led” development and entrepreneurial governance, the ability of plans to control urban expansion and protect farmland is severely limited.     

Comparisons of three-dimensional urban forms in different urban expansion types: 58 sample cities in China

Traditional studies of urban spatial expansion typically focus on a single vertical or horizontal dimension and rarely consider the two together. Using 58 cities in China as examples, this paper first identifies the urban growth pattern (UGP) of newly built-up land patches in each city from 1995 to 2015 horizontally. It then compares and analyses the distribution patterns of three-dimensional buildings in different UGP patches vertically. There were two important findings: (a) Building patterns in the outlying patches were characterized by low density, high floor numbers, and smooth changes. The infilling patches represented compact development and had the lowest average building height. Edge patches had the highest average number of floors, the most dramatic floor variability, and the lowest utilization rate of three-dimensional space. (b) In western cities, building distribution characteristics in outlying patches were similar and formed clusters. The distribution characteristics of buildings in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration edge patches, as well as those in the northeast urban agglomeration infilling patches, were similar, forming clusters of different types. The results of this paper will contribute to an understanding of both sprawl and the compact development of Chinese cities and will provide international comparative examples.     

Resource‐based view of city quality: Scales development and validation

As the urban world population grows steadily, cities have become the main habitat for human beings. Against this backdrop, city quality or the level of development of the city's habitat that ensures the satisfaction of objective and subjective human needs become a matter of growing interest and concern for academics, policy makers, and citizens. Building on a resource‐based view of city quality, the aim of this paper is twofold. First, it proposes and validates scales for six city sub‐habitats: political, economic, social, natural, artificial, and technological. Second, it tests a model and the underlying hypothesis about the ranking of those sub‐habitats and of the perceived controversy regarding decision making upon them. For those purposes, a survey of 768 city inhabitants was conducted in Portugal to measure city quality and their sub‐habitats. Both the predicted ranking of importance of the sub‐habitats and the perceived ranking of controversy were empirically validated. The results constitute a novel and important contribution to understand city quality and its sub‐habitats, whose conceptual power relies on hierarchized factors linked to citizens’ happiness and to the level of controversy of the solutions.