Impacts of IT Advances and E‐commerce on Transportation in Producer Services

ABSTRACT Producer services have been among the most rapidly growing industries, as measured by employment, in the United States and in Europe in recent decades. The production and delivery of these specialized forms of service industry work require the use of transportation and communications systems in a variety of ways, including the physical movement of people working in these industries, as well as the movement of the information related to the production and distribution of their work. Some of this work is performed in localized markets, requiring travel between clients and suppliers in local transportation modes, such as auto, bus, or other types of transportation. Other work is done by specialists who travel interregionally and globally to do their work, primarily traveling to their clients. There is little knowledge of how these production relationships have changed with the advent of the Internet and the widespread use of e‐mail in the business production process. Within the framework of this STELLA initiative, this paper outlines research needs in this area, and frames an approach that would produce badly needed knowledge about impacts on the producer services of the Internet and related e‐commerce initiatives on physical transportation systems at a local to interregional scale.     

The E‐economy and the Rise of Technocapitalism: Networks,Firms, and Transportation

ABSTRACT The e‐economy is part of a larger phenomenon, technocapitalism, that is transforming business organizations and the ways in which they transact, produce, and ship their goods. Technocapitalism is an evolution of market capitalism that is rooted in technological innovation and supported by such intangibles as creativity and knowledge. This paper considers first the main characteristics of networks that support the e‐economy and its source phenomenon, the emergence of technocapitalism. Networks are thought to be the main vehicle through which the e‐economy spreads, and they have major effects on the organization of business firms. The culture of technocapitalism, with its emphasis on continuous innovation and rapid adjustment, is largely behind the rising importance of networks. A second section then considers the deconstruction of business firms and its relation to networks, the e‐economy, and the rise of technocapitalism. A historical perspective is provided to show the contrast with previous eras. The deconstruction of business organizations involves a major transformation of the norms and ways in which firms are run and structured. Finally, the likely implications for transportation and shipping of the rise of the e‐economy, its networks, and the deconstruction of firms are discussed. The logistics, pricing, and infrastructure of shipping are likely to be substantially affected by the spread of the e‐economy, its networks, and the deconstruction of firms.     

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     

Transport Costs,the New Economic Geography,and Rural Development

This paper explores land use conflicts between non-farm neighbors and farmers to illustrate the usefulness of the concepts of interdependence, rules, and property rights when doing rural development. Recognizing interdependence and its implications helps economic analysis focus on and understand the types of rules and institutions having the most influence on economic behavior, and thus identify policy alternatives. The resolution of land uses conflicts, for example, unavoidably changes the bundle of rights associated with land, and influences who can impose costs of whom; it makes a difference if a large farm has the right to produce odors, flies, or noise that reduces their neighbors' abilities to enjoy the neighbors' own land, or if instead, neighbors have the right to use their property without experiencing farm-produced odors, flies or noise the farm may be unable to use its own land for agriculture without being inconvenienced.     

The State‐Level Impacts of Enforcing Sales Taxes for E‐retail Purchases

The Marketplace Fairness Act (S. 743) recently passed by the U.S. Senate may portend a national move toward states imposing sales taxes for business‐to‐consumer e‐retail purchases. While much of the policy debate surrounding this question has focused on trade creation versus diversion, there are likely distinct compositional effects at the state level, which will affect both economic activity and tax revenue. Consumers are clearly hurt by an online sales tax. However, such a policy would seemingly benefit state tax coffers, as well as traditional brick‐and‐mortar retailers and their employees. This paper uses a computable general equilibrium model approach to get a better understanding of the state‐level income, employment, and tax revenue effects of such a policy shift, in particular the likely tradeoffs between these three traditional economic targets across reasonable ranges of price elasticities.     

The Geography of a Mixed‐Race Society

The pattern and level of separation among ethnic groups continues to change, and there are certainly more mixed neighborhoods both in cities and suburbs than two decades ago. The immigration flows of the past decade have substantially altered the ethnic mix and neighborhood mixing. In addition, multi‐ethnic individuals themselves are altering the level of mixing among racial and ethnic groups. The research in this article shows that those who report themselves of more than one race have high levels of residential integration both in central cities and suburbs. These residential patterns can be interpreted as further evidence of tentative steps to a society in which race per se is less critical in residential patterning. The level of integration, for Asian mixed and black mixed is different and substantially higher than for those who report one race alone. The research in this article builds on previous aggregate studies of mixed‐race individuals to show substantial patterns of integration in California's metropolitan areas.     

Investigation of e‐commerce in China in a geographical perspective

In recent years, e‐commerce has become a phenomenal symbol for the ongoing socio‐economic transformation in China. Driven by the growth of the Internet and cyberspace, e‐commerce changes both the traditional patterns of economic transactions and the social relations embedded in social activities. E‐commerce is a new catalyst for economic growth in China as it reduces restrictions to market access and the costs of transaction. This research examines the geography of e‐commerce in China within a theoretical framework grounded by social theory and neoclassical economics. After presenting a background of the development of e‐commerce in China, the spatiality of e‐commerce and its correlation to socio‐economic variables are examined with both quantitative and geovisualization techniques. Results of this research address that the growth of e‐commerce in China presents a nationwide inequality constrained by local economic, politic, and infrastructure conditions. The growth of e‐commerce in China presents a hybrid feature in terms of spatiality, which relies on structures in both cyberspace and physical space. Policy implications and suggestions for future research were suggested based on these empirical results. A discussion of limitations associated with this research and a concluding note close the research.     

The formation of agricultural e‐commerce clusters: A case from China

Agricultural e‐commerce clusters are new phenomena that have emerged in rural China. In examining the case of Shuyang County in Jiangsu Province, this paper puts forward an integrated model revealing the formation mechanism of agricultural e‐commerce clusters. The paper shows that the formation of agricultural e‐commerce clusters involves four processes of technology introduction, technology diffusion, quality crisis, and industrial agglomeration based on elements such as industry bases, e‐commerce platforms, network facilities, logistics services, entrepreneurial talent, local government, and market demand. Rural social networks and imitation behaviors promote technology diffusion by reducing the cost of technology introduction, and industrial agglomeration is found in the economies showing a deepening of labor divisions and geographic agglomeration. Throughout the formation process, a quality crisis may occur due to a race to the bottom and the opportunistic behaviors of local farmers. This work suggests that regional e‐commerce development is a systematic project. Governments of developing countries should not only realize the positive impacts of e‐commerce for the development of the agricultural industry but also recognize the premise and logic of how e‐commerce can play a prominent role.     

The Interaction of Economic Reforms,Socio‐economic Structure and Agriculture in Mexico

National policydecisions in developing countries contribute to the increasing integration of agriculture into national and world economies. The spatial consequences of national policies, however, vary across regions and agricultural systems. Employing and adapting a methodology first proposed by King (1970), this study explores the relationship between national policy, agriculture, and population characteristics at the regional level in Mexico during the presidency of Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988–94). Statistical analyses corroborate the hypothesis that the impact of policy reforms on the agricultural sector in Mexico is mediated by the characteristics of the population. Results suggest that government credit for agriculture and federal funding of rural development during the Salinas de Gortari administration were mediated by factors associatedwith the level of urbanization. The provision of commercial credit at the regional level, however, does not appear to depend on population characteristics. Disparities in the impact of national policies are attributed to a historical urban bias, the differential ability of more highly urbanized states to attract government funding, manage and implement programs, and the existence of highly profitable, commercial agriculture in more developed states.