Understanding and simulating the relationship between urban land-use configuration and patterns of human spatial interaction has been the subject of multi-disciplinary research. Conceptually, it is recognized that the location decisions of several urban actors including individuals, households, firms and public sector institutions, collectively determine the spatial distribution of land-use activities; the emergent land-use patterns, in turn, provide the structural conditions within which flows and interactions between locations occur daily and respond to each other over time. Over the past six decades, various theories and concepts from urban economics, social-physics, transportation studies, and the complexity sciences have underpinned empirical research and development of state-of-the-art simulation models to explore the land-use and travel nexus. Using a case study design and selecting the Kumasi Metropolis, a medium-size metropolis of nearly two-million inhabitants in Ghana, West Africa as the case study area, two main objectives, which reflect research trends and gaps in both the empirical literature and simulation model development have been addressed in this thesis. The first objective was to examine empirically, the location choice behaviour of households and individuals with respect to their residential and job locations, and the mobility patterns associated with the observed home-work location combinations within the metropolis. The second objective was to develop an integrated geospatial and agent-based model to simulate how the residential and job location choice behaviour of heterogeneous households and individuals co-emerge with mobility patterns in the metropolis. The empirical studies presented in this thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of how location-defining attributes at multiple spatial-scales interact with socio-demographic attributes of heterogeneous households and individuals to determine their residential location choice, job location choice and mobility characteristics. The development of the Metropolitan Location and Mobility Patterns Simulator (METLOMP-SIM)—an integrated geospatial and agent-based model also demonstrates how the encoded micro-scale behaviour of purposive households and individuals, interacting with each other and their environment dynamically, could reproduce macro-scale urban location patterns, property market price formation and evolution, and patterns and attributes of spatial flows and interactions anchored on the population’s residential-job location combinations.

This dissertation models K-12 enrollment within an urban school district using two grade progression ratio (gpr)-based and two housing choice methods. The housing choice methods provide, for the first time, a new spatio-demographic model for projecting school enrollments by grade for any flexibly defined set of individual catchment areas. All methods use the geocoded pattern of individual, address-matched, enrollments within the study district but are different in the way they model this data to estimate key parameters. The conventional method projects the intra-urban pattern of enrollment by assuming no change in grade progression ratios (gprs), which are themselves functions of enrollment change. The adaptive kernel ratio estimation (KRE) of local gprs successfully predicts local changes in gprs from three preceding two-year periods of gpr change. The two housing choice methods are based on different mixtures of a generalized linear and a periodic model, each of which use housing counts and characteristics. Results are clearly sensitive to these differences. Using the above predictions of gpr change, the adaptive KRE enrollment projections are 4.1% better than those made using the conventional model. The two housing choice models were 2.0% less accurate than the conventional model for the first three years of the projection but were 5.1% more accurate than this model for the fourth and fifth years of the projection. Limitations are discussed. These findings help close a major gap in the literature of small-area enrollment projections, shed new light on spatial dynamics collected at areas below the scale of the school district, and permit new kinds of investigations of urban/suburban school district demography.

Over the last two decades there has been a tremendous increase in collaboration among competing firms. A significant number of these collaborations are international. This thesis explores the incentives and welfare consequences of collaboration in the context of international trade. We consider two types of cross-border collaborations. The first is collaboration by sharing a part of firms' value creating activities, such as technology development, product design and distribution. This saves on production costs but reduces product distinctiveness. Firms collaborate if and only if the reduction in product distinctiveness is lower than a threshold level. We find that the threshold increases with an increase in trade costs. That is, an increase in trade costs makes collaboration more likely. Higher trade cost lowers competition, which in turn enables the firms to save on fixed costs while forgoing some product distinctiveness. Furthermore, we demonstrate that contrary to standard intuition, higher trade cost could enhance consumers' welfare by inducing competitors to collaborate. We extend our model to endogenise location choice by the firms where collaboration requires co-location (due to the benefit of local spillovers or joint investment in key infrastructures). Unlike the original model, we find that an increase in trade costs can discourage collaboration. In both circumstances, we find that an increase in trade cost can improve consumer surplus. The second type of collaboration considered in this thesis is licensing. We extend the standard licensing literature to an environment where firms compete in the domestic as well as foreign market. We examine how trade cost affects the licensing decision as well as the optimal payment mechanism. We find that an increase in trade costs reduces the possibility of licensing. Concerning the payment mechanism, we find that (i) either royalty or (ii) a two-part tariff (involving a fixed fee as well as royalty payments) is optimal. An increase in trade costs reduces the likelihood of royalty only being the optimal payment mechanism.

全球經濟生產及市場組織產生重大轉變，製造業廠商從過去設計、生產、行銷一貫作業的大量生產模式，轉向消費者導向生產模式的同時，需要大量策略性服務的投入，尤其是生產性服務業的使用。從彈性生產理論觀念說明專業化分工的有利發展，但事實上製造業廠商對於生產性服務並非皆如其所言皆轉包委外至專業化獨立的公司，生產性服務的使用也存在於製造業廠商的內部。 　　本文探討台北都會區製造業與生產性服務業二者關係與製造業廠商區位選擇得到以下結論： 　　一、從總體資料分析： 　　　（一）台北都會區製造業場所單位家數、員工數以都會區外圍比重較高，但員工數有向都會中心集中的現象。 　　　（二）生產性服務業場所單位家數、員工數以都會中心比重較高，但有向都會中心外圍分散的現象。 　　二、從個體廠商調查發現： 　　　（一）製造業廠商對生產性服務使用受廠商屬性及生產性服務業別有不同程度的影響，一般而言，製造業對生產性服務的使用委外生產比例較高，服務來源區域以台北市居多，但生產性服務以傳統生產所需服務投入為多，除資訊服務外，近三年來未能在其他迂迴投入有所增強。 　　　（二）生產性服務的輸出以製造業與服務業為主，並以都會區本身為主要輸出地。透過製造業總管理單位及服務業本身的分化，使二者生產流程的串聯更為緊密。 　　　（三）以羅吉特模型實證發現製造業廠商選擇接近生產性服務業區位之機率，受地方市場及土地持有方式影響較為顯著。 / The structure of global production and market has changed overwhelmingly. The old-fashioned mass production mode on design, manufacture, and selling has been turning into the consumer-oriented production mode. At this turning point, lots of strategic service, especially producer service, is needed. The idea of flexible production explains the beneficial development of specialized division of labor. However, in practical application, the manufacturers do not contract out all their needs for the producer service to the specialized independent companies according to the flexible production theory. The departments inside the manufacturers also supply a certain part of the producer service for their relative departments. 　　I hereby explore the relationship between the manufacture and producer service inside the Taipei Metropolis, and the location choosing of the manufacturers. My conclusions are: 　　I. Analyzed from the overall data: 　　　　A. In the Taipei Metropolis, the percentage of the number of establishment units and persons engaged of manufacturing is higher in the suburbs than in the downtown area. Yet, there is a tendency for the persons engaged to be gathering toward the downtown area. 　　　　B. The percentage of the number of establishment units and persons engaged of producer service is higher in the downtown than in the suburbs. Yet, there is a tendency for them to be gathering toward the suburbs. 　　II. Found from the survey on individual manufacturers: 　　　　A. The manufacturers have various influences on the use of producer service, according to the manufacturers' natures and the kinds of producer service. In general, more manufacturers prefer to contract out their needs on producer service, which are mainly supplied from the downtown of Taipei City. Yet, the producer service has devoted more into the traditional manufacture. Except for the information service, the other indirect devotion has not been increased in the latest three years. 　　　　B. The output of the producer service is mainly on manufacturers and service industry with the metropolis as its main target. Through the division between the manufacturers' general managing departments and the service industry, the series connection between their productive procedures is reinforced further. 　　　　C. Proved by the Logit Model experiment, manufacturers are found more vividly influenced by the local market and land possession styles when they are choosing if they want to be close to their producer service suppliers.

This thesis consists of three papers that examine Marshallian sources of growthand interdependent location of Swedish firms and households. Paper [I] examines the impact of static and dynamic knowledge externalitiesand their impact on Swedish market operating firms growth pattern between1997 and 2005. The three types of externalities are: (i) Marshall-Arrow-Romer(MAR), (ii) Jacobs, and (iii) Porter. My empirical findings for the 40 industriescan briefly be summarized in the following points: (i) static MAR, Jacobsand/or Porter externalities are present in all but nine industries; (ii) except for five cases all industries are exposed to one or more of the MAR, Jacobs and/orPorter type of dynamic externalities; (iii) contrary to previous studies but inline with theoretical predictions, we do find positive and significant effects forstatic as well as dynamic Jacobs externalities. Paper [II] focuses on the presence of agglomeration economies in the form of labor pooling and educational matching and their impact on economic growth in Swedish manufacturing and service industries from 1997 to 2005. To accomplish this I employ a translog production function that enables me to decompose the total agglomeration elasticities into returns that accrue to: direct agglomeration effects, an indirect effect of agglomeration at given input levels, a cross agglomeration effect of matching on labor pooling and vice versa. Household services is the single industry where both the labor pooling and matching hypothesis is supported by our data. Publishing is the sole instance of betterinput usage due to matching consistent with the theoretical claim. Paper [III] studies the interdependent location choices of households and firms expressed as population and employment in Swedish municipalities. Using a model of the Carlino-Mills type to investigate the impact of various location attributes such as differences in public revenue and spending patterns, accessibility to jobs and potential workforce, quality of the labor pool, concentration ofcommercial, private and public services. The findings suggest that fiscal factors significantly alters the impact of housing and accessibility attributes compared to exiting studies on Swedish data. Another finding, in line with previous studies, indicate that there is a significant degree of inertia in household and firm location choices.

My dissertation focuses on foreign entrepreneurs—individuals who establish firms outside of their native countries. Despite the prevalence of foreign entrepreneurs, their strategic choices have received little attention in the research literature. For example, when starting a firm, an entrepreneur must decide whether to manage the business personally or hire a local manager, yet we know little about how this choice affects firm performance. To examine this issue, in the first study I use a novel dataset of foreign entrepreneurial firms in Russia and a visa policy change as an instrument for the owner-manager choice. Contrary to the expectation that foreign entrepreneurs would underperform local managers due to the liability of foreignness, I find that foreign owner-managers can benefit their firms: Exogenous assignment of a local manager in place of a foreign owner-manager reduces profits. Foreign owner-managers benefit their firms by hiring cheap native-country labor as well as through reduced agency costs. The second study examines how private benefits of occupying a managerial position affect an entrepreneur’s choice between owner-management and hiring an agent. I show that foreign entrepreneurs with a strong desire to reside in a host country are more likely to become owner-managers. These results are consistent with the idea that entrepreneurs expecting to gain private benefits from managing their firms are more likely to become owner-managers. Moreover, I demonstrate that entrepreneurs are willing to substitute the non-pecuniary benefits associated with relocation for firm profit. These findings add to a growing literature exploring the role of personal preferences in entrepreneurs’ strategic decisions, such as location choice and ownership structure. The third study examines the impact of media coverage on the location choices of foreign firms. Publicly available media information has largely been ignored by the location literature, perhaps because its impact on location choice is expected to be trivial. This study challenges this assumption: Using a new instrument for media coverage (a major anniversary of a city’s establishment date), I show that extensive foreign media coverage of a city increases the number of foreign entrants. Moreover, this effect is strongest for socially and geographically distant firms and entrepreneurs.

Institutional environments and the following institutional factors are viewed as the important characteristics in examining firm¡¦s strategic choices as well as the firm¡¦s endogenous resources and the industrial factors. In addressing the multinational company¡¦s location choices issues, institutional factor and the MNC¡¦s reactive strategies are seldom examined since the data limitation. This research tries to discuss the possible institutional sources impact on multinational company¡¦s location choices in China from the institutional theory viewpoint. There are giant institutional transitions in China since the open-market policies in the early 1990s. The announcement of the 12th ¡§five year plan¡¨ in China has estimated to generate great impact on multinational company¡¦s location choices. Thus, this research tries to addressing the multinational company¡¦s location choice issues in China context. Utilizing the in-depth interviewing method from Taiwanese multinational companies, this research supports the arguments from the institutional theory in location choice issues. In that, the higher coercive forces, or the formal forces instead, in a host country, the more likely that the multinational company will choose the acquiesce strategy to move. Moreover, the multinational company¡¦s acquiesce strategy in reaction will also generate economic side-effect in decision-making process. Additionally, in deciding the new location choice, the formal as well as the informal institutional forces will generate impact in multinational company¡¦s location choice, as argued from revised eclectic paradigm. The results provide a beginning in addressing location choice issues in China from the institutional viewpoint.

This study focuses on the determinants of agglomerations, natural advantages, spillovers, and transaction costs respectively, and intends to form a location choice model with those agglomerative factors. Besides, we examine the geographic concentration scope overall and by region with the data set of manufacturing industries in Taiwan in 2003. We also explore some interesting empirical results. First, the overall geographic concentration level is slightly decreasing through 1996 to 2003. Second, the plants in the South and Middle regions of Taiwan are more concentrated than those in the North region. And each region has its own specific characteristic that draws different types of industries to locate. Third, with OLS regression we find that outsourcing dependence variable applied to proximate transaction costs effect is the most significant of all and represents that transaction costs have large influence to agglomeration scope. Finally this model can be improved from some aspects of involving distance into consideration and extending to entrepreneur across countries.

My dissertation focuses on foreign entrepreneurs—individuals who establish firms outside of their native countries. Despite the prevalence of foreign entrepreneurs, their strategic choices have received little attention in the research literature. For example, when starting a firm, an entrepreneur must decide whether to manage the business personally or hire a local manager, yet we know little about how this choice affects firm performance. To examine this issue, in the first study I use a novel dataset of foreign entrepreneurial firms in Russia and a visa policy change as an instrument for the owner-manager choice. Contrary to the expectation that foreign entrepreneurs would underperform local managers due to the liability of foreignness, I find that foreign owner-managers can benefit their firms: Exogenous assignment of a local manager in place of a foreign owner-manager reduces profits. Foreign owner-managers benefit their firms by hiring cheap native-country labor as well as through reduced agency costs. The second study examines how private benefits of occupying a managerial position affect an entrepreneur’s choice between owner-management and hiring an agent. I show that foreign entrepreneurs with a strong desire to reside in a host country are more likely to become owner-managers. These results are consistent with the idea that entrepreneurs expecting to gain private benefits from managing their firms are more likely to become owner-managers. Moreover, I demonstrate that entrepreneurs are willing to substitute the non-pecuniary benefits associated with relocation for firm profit. These findings add to a growing literature exploring the role of personal preferences in entrepreneurs’ strategic decisions, such as location choice and ownership structure. The third study examines the impact of media coverage on the location choices of foreign firms. Publicly available media information has largely been ignored by the location literature, perhaps because its impact on location choice is expected to be trivial. This study challenges this assumption: Using a new instrument for media coverage (a major anniversary of a city’s establishment date), I show that extensive foreign media coverage of a city increases the number of foreign entrants. Moreover, this effect is strongest for socially and geographically distant firms and entrepreneurs.

Over the last two decades there has been a tremendous increase in collaboration among competing firms. A significant number of these collaborations are international. This thesis explores the incentives and welfare consequences of collaboration in the context of international trade. We consider two types of cross-border collaborations. The first is collaboration by sharing a part of firms' value creating activities, such as technology development, product design and distribution. This saves on production costs but reduces product distinctiveness. Firms collaborate if and only if the reduction in product distinctiveness is lower than a threshold level. We find that the threshold increases with an increase in trade costs. That is, an increase in trade costs makes collaboration more likely. Higher trade cost lowers competition, which in turn enables the firms to save on fixed costs while forgoing some product distinctiveness. Furthermore, we demonstrate that contrary to standard intuition, higher trade cost could enhance consumers' welfare by inducing competitors to collaborate. We extend our model to endogenise location choice by the firms where collaboration requires co-location (due to the benefit of local spillovers or joint investment in key infrastructures). Unlike the original model, we find that an increase in trade costs can discourage collaboration. In both circumstances, we find that an increase in trade cost can improve consumer surplus. The second type of collaboration considered in this thesis is licensing. We extend the standard licensing literature to an environment where firms compete in the domestic as well as foreign market. We examine how trade cost affects the licensing decision as well as the optimal payment mechanism. We find that an increase in trade costs reduces the possibility of licensing. Concerning the payment mechanism, we find that (i) either royalty or (ii) a two-part tariff (involving a fixed fee as well as royalty payments) is optimal. An increase in trade costs reduces the likelihood of royalty only being the optimal payment mechanism.