Pan, Jutong. / "August 2011." / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 23-24). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Basic Model --- p.4 / Chapter 3 --- Analysis --- p.6 / Chapter 3.1 --- Starrett Theorem with Labor Productivity Differences --- p.6 / Chapter 3.2 --- A Simple Case: Indivisible Labor --- p.9 / Chapter 3.3 --- Divisible Labor and Partial Labor Mobility --- p.12 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Scenario 1: high transportation costs and no trade across regions --- p.13 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Scenario 2: low transportation costs and inter-regional trade --- p.17 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- The parameter conditions for Scenario 1/2 --- p.20 / Chapter 4 --- Conclusion --- p.21

O objetivo desta tese é analisar o processo de ocupação do Grande Cerrado do Brasil Central no que diz respeito à economia e à geopolítica. Avaliam-se alguns aspectos físico-naturais fundamentais para a interpretação deste processo, procurando mostrar a diversidade do Cerrado brasileiro e as implicações desta diversidade sobre a agricultura, especialmente a aptidão agrícola. Discorre-se sobre aspectos da história da ocupação da região Central do Brasil, procurando chamar a atenção para os pontos históricos que marcaram a formação territorial regional. Resgata-se a influência da geopolítica e traça-se um paralelo entre as diversas políticas públicas e as suas implicações sobre o território. Discute-se a construção de Brasília, resgatando os seus antecedentes históricos e o que sua construção representou para o crescimento da região. Analisam-se alguns dos determinantes da ocupação recente do Cerrado brasileiro - dos anos 1960 até os dias atuais. Para isso, resgata-se o processo de modernização da agricultura brasileira e os principais instrumentos de política utilizados para que a agricultura brasileira entrasse em uma nova fase, dentre os quais a criação do Sistema Nacional de Crédito Rural (SNCR) e os programas de incentivo à incorporação produtiva do Cerrado, como o Polocentro e o Prodecer, além daqueles voltados para a abertura de estradas e a colonização pública e privada. Traça-se um panorama da estrutura produtiva da região, a partir de 1975, com destaque para os principais produtos agropecuários (arroz, feijão, soja, milho, algodão e boi) e a agroindústria, buscando identificar as áreas para onde se dirigiu a produção. Resgata-se o mapa de aptidão agrícola e é analisada a coerência entre as áreas para onde a produção se expandiu e aquelas que têm melhor aptidão agrícola. Analisa-se, ainda, o binômio soja-boi e a conformação do complexo grãos-carne em parte da região. Busca-se caracterizar a agroindústria com ênfase na indústria frigorífica, na indústria processadora de soja e no setor sucroalcooleiro. Em seguida, analisa-se o crescimento populacional e a constituição da malha urbana da região. Discute-se a importância da cidade no processo de desenvolvimento regional e apontam-se os principais trabalhos sobre o tema desenvolvidos no Brasil. Procura-se mostrar que o crescimento da região foi muito diferenciado inter-regionalmente, o que deu origem a uma malha urbana diferenciada segundo sua função. Mostra-se ainda que o crescimento populacional nas últimas três décadas ocorreu ao longo dos principais eixos de transporte da região. Conclui-se que o meio natural influi sobre o processo de localização das atividades agropecuárias e suscita o debate acerca da necessidade de industrialização da região para que a mesma possa manter seu patamar de desenvolvimento e crescimento. Mostra-se que, diferentemente do que o censo comum supõe, o Cerrado é heterogêneo e seu desenvolvimento vem gerando disparidades regionais significativas - áreas muito desenvolvidas e áreas muito atrasadas -, cujo resultado pode ser verificado em alguma medida por meio da análise da rede urbana da região. / This thesis aims at analyzing the occupation of the Grande Cerrado do Brasil Central the great Brazilian woodland-savanna) as to its economic and geopolitical aspects. It analyzes some basic physiconatural aspects for understanding such a process, aiming at showing the Brazilian Cerrado\'s diversity and its implications on agriculture, chiefly on its agricultural ability. It also includes the historical aspects of the occupation of Central Brazil viewing to focalize historical places that have influenced the formation of this regional territory. The influence of geopolitics is recovered and a parallel is made between the several public policies and their implication on the territory. It also discusses the construction of Brasilia by tracing its historical antecedents and by attempting to understand what its role in regional growth. The study analyzes some determinants of the recently occupied Brazilian Cerrado - since the 1960s. For this, it focuses on modernization of the Brazilian agriculture as well as the major specific policy tools employed so as to enable agriculture to enter a new stage. Among such tools, the Sistema Nacional de Crédito Rural - SNCR (national system of rural credit) and programs designed to incorporate the Cerrado into the productive effort, such as Polocentro and Prodecer, were implemented, in addition to those viewing the opening of new roads and public and private colonization. A panorama of the regional productive structure since 1975 is depicted, emphasizing the major agricultural products (rice, beans, soy beans, corn, and bovine livestock) and agroindustry as well, in an attempt to identify those areas where production has been directed to. An agriculture vocational map is traced and the coherence between the areas to where production has been expanded and those better inclined to agriculture is analyzed. Furthermore, the work also analyzes the soy-cattle dual production and the configuration of the grain-meat complex in an area of the region. It also attempts to characterize agroindustry, with emphasis on the slaughter industry and soy processing industry, and on the sugar and alcohol industry as well. Then it analyzes population growth and the constitution of the urban network in the region; the relevance of the urban center in the regional development and finally; mainstream studies on the subject developed in Brazil are shown. It also attempts to show that regional growth has been much differentiated inter-regionally speaking, which has in turn given birth to a differentiated urban network contingent on its function. It also shows that population growth has emerged along the main transport axes within the region during the last three decades. A conclusion has been drawn that natural environment affects localization of agricultural activities and stimulates the debate on the need for regional industrialization so as to enable the region to keep its development and growth levels. Differently from common sense, however, the study shows that the Cerrado is heterogeneous and its development has been provoking significant regional inequalities - some well-developed areas together with lagging ones -, the outcome of which could be verified, in some measure, by means of an analysis of the regional urban network

O objetivo desta dissertação é avaliar os impactos do Sistema Viário Oeste, importante intervenção no sistema rodoviário da Bahia, sobre a distribuição espacial da atividade econômica e da acessibilidade. Objetivando avaliar os impactos do projeto sobre a atividade econômica, integramos um modelo inter-regional de equilíbrio geral computável especialmente desenvolvido para análises de impacto no Estado da Bahia a rede rodoviária do Plano Nacional de Logística e Transportes. A partir de simulações na rede rodoviária e de uma função de custo de frete rodoviário estimamos a redução percentual do custo inter-regional de transporte, variável relevante para integração da rede ao modelo de equilíbrio geral. Podemos destacar três resultados desta análise. Primeiro, as variações na atividade são sensivelmente mais intensas no Estado da Bahia. Segundo, dentre as regiões do Estado da Bahia, àquelas contidas nas regiões Sul, Centro-Sul e a Mesorregião Metropolitana de Salvador são as mais beneficiadas pelo Sistema Viário Oeste. Estes ganhos ocorrem em detrimento das regiões localizadas na porção setentrional do estado, que apresentam acréscimos menos expressivos ou até decréscimo da atividade econômica. Terceiro, o projeto apresenta efeitos de spillover relevantes, tendo em vista que, em todas as situações modeladas, ao menos 30% do aumento do produto real decorrente da operação do projeto beneficia regiões fora do Estado da Bahia. Objetivando avaliar os impactos do Sistema Viário Oeste sobre a acessibilidade, calculamos quatro indicadores de acessibilidade: o índice de acessibilidade locacional e três índices de acessibilidade potencial. Empreendemos então três análises sobre os índices calculados. Em um primeiro momento, avaliamos os impactos da redução dos tempos de deslocamentos decorrentes da construção do Sistema Viário Oeste sobre a distribuição espacial da acessibilidade. Como resultado desta análise, constatamos que os mesmos se concentram intensamente no Estado da Bahia. No estado, os municípios mais fortemente impactados são aqueles localizados nas regiões do Sul e Centro-Sul Baiano, com claro destaque para os municípios do Recôncavo. Em um segundo momento, analisamos os impactos do Sistema Viário Oeste sobre a desigualdade na distribuição de acessibilidade. Esta análise evidencia, em linhas gerais, o aumento da desigualdade regional na distribuição de acessibilidade entre os municípios baianos, sinalizando a intensificação da desigualdade na distribuição espacial das vantagens locacionais decorrentes das possibilidades de interação. Em um terceiro momento, empreendemos uma análise raramente efetuada em estudos desta natureza. Recalculamos os índices de acessibilidade utilizando as estimativas da variação do produto interno bruto proveniente das simulações no modelo de equilíbrio geral. Nesta análise, procuramos avaliar as consequências de se considerar às variações na atividade decorrentes do Sistema Viário Oeste sobre os índices de acessibilidade. Nesta perspectiva, observamos que a variação da atividade é relevante para explicar o comportamento da acessibilidade apenas em regiões pouco impactadas pela redução no tempo de deslocamento. Ainda, observamos que esta não impacta significativamente a análise empreendida sobre os índices de desigualdade / The objective of this dissertation is to evaluate the impacts of the Sistema Viário Oeste, an important intervention in the road network of Bahia (Brazil), on the spatial distribution of economic activity and accessibility. In order to evaluate the project\'s impacts on economic activity, we integrated an interregional computable general equilibrium model specially designed for impact analysis in the State of Bahia to the road network of the National Plan of Logistics and Transport. We then estimated the percentage reduction in inter-regional transport costs, the relevant variable for integrating the road network to the general equilibrium model, based on simulations on the road network and a freight cost function. Three results from this analysis can be highlighted. First, variations in economic activity are significantly more intense in the State of Bahia. Second, within the State of Bahia the South, South-Central mesorregions and Metropolitan Mesorregion of Salvador are the ones that most benefit from the Sistema Viário Oeste. This expansion occurs at the expense of regions located in the northern part of the State. The aforementioned regions accrue less significant positive gains or even losses in economic activity. Third, the project has significant spillover effects, given that at least 30% of the increase in real output due to the operation of the project benefits regions outside the State of Bahia. Aiming at evaluating the impact of the Sistema Viário Oeste on accessibility, we calculated four accessibility indexes: the locational accessibility index and three potential accessibility measures. We then performed three distinct analyzes over the calculated indexes. First, we evaluated the impact of travel time reductions on the spatial distribution of accessibility. As a result of this analysis, we found that the benefits generated by the Sistema Viário Oeste accrue mostly to regions in the State of Bahia. Within the state, the most heavily impacted municipalities are those located in the South-Central and South Bahia. Second, we analyzed the impacts of the Sistema Viário Oeste on accessibility inequality. This analysis shows, in general terms, the increase in regional inequality in the distribution of accessibility, signaling the increased inequality in the spatial distribution of location advantages arising from the possibilities of interaction. Third, we undertook an analysis rarely made in studies of this nature. We recalculated the accessibility indices using the estimates of the impacts on gross domestic product derived from general equilibrium simulations. In this analysis, we evaluated the impacts of activity changes resulting from the Sistema Viário Oeste over the accessibility indices. In this perspective, we observe that change in economic activity is relevant for the explanation of accessibility growth only in regions mildly affected by the decrease in travel time. Furthermore we found that changes in activity have no impact on the inequality analysis undertaken

Este trabalho busca explorar a questão do financiamento da infraestrutura rodoviária, analisando o impacto de se financiar um projeto de melhorias em uma rodovia por meio da cobrança de pedágios vis-à-vis seu financiamento pelo incremento da alíquota do imposto sobre os salários ou do imposto sobre as vendas do setor de transportes. Utilizando um modelo de transportes sequencialmente integrado a um modelo inter-regional de equilíbrio geral computável foram simuladas as alternativas de financiamento de investimentos na rodovia BR-040, rodovia recém concedida pelo Governo Federal que figurou como estudo de caso para a presente pesquisa. Os resultados indicam que a escolha da alternativa de financiamento é relevante para os impactos regionalmente distribuídos do projeto, sendo determinante na definição das regiões beneficiadas pelas melhorias. Sob a perspectiva dos impactos agregados do país, a situação que apresenta o maior impacto no crescimento do PIB nacional é o investimento financiado pelo próprio usuário da rodovia por meio do pagamento de pedágios. Sob a perspectiva regional, percebe-se uma clara área de influência da rodovia que se beneficia de suas melhorias e, quando os custos para a execução de tais melhorias são compartilhados por todo o país por meio de uma elevação tributária, acentuam-se ainda mais os benefícios observados nessas regiões / This study explores the issue of road infrastructure funding, analyzing the impact of financing a road improvement project through tolls tariff charged from the final users vis-a-vis the financing through an increase in the country\'s payroll tax rate or in the tax rate on the sales of the transport sector. Using a transport model integrated to an interregional computable general equilibrium model this research simulated alternative arrangements for financing investments made at BR-040, Brazilian road recently granted by the Federal Government and which figured as the case study for this Master thesis. The results indicate that the way the investment is financed is relevant to the regionally distributed impacts of the project, being decisive in defining which regions are benefited by the improvement project. Analyzing the country\'s aggregated results, the situation that has the greatest impact on the Brazilian\'s GDP growth is the investment financed by the road users through the payment of a toll tariff. From a regional perspective, a clear area of influence that benefits from the improvements on the road can be identified and, when the costs for executing such improvements are shared with the whole country through a tax increase, these benefits are accentuated

Unfortunately, rural Appalachia is perennially one of the poorest areas of the United States. Many scholars have offered opinions as to why this trend of poverty continues in this region, but one potential cause has not been the subject of much research: do residents in Appalachia have a functional knowledge of the financial system, or even a simple understanding of basic savings, which is necessary for achieving certain levels of financial security? We conduct a survey modeled after a national study which measures basic financial literacy in local Appalachia, expecting to find that at-risk Appalachians would have less financial literacy than the national average. While our initial response rate was too low to justify a concrete claim, our preliminary findings suggest that local at-risk Appalachians were more likely to incorrectly answer basic financial literacy questions, and we believe that a larger study into this issue is warranted. Should a concrete outcome arise in the affirmative, we offer suggestions for policy responses, including implementation of free personal finance classes to combat the issue.

Conflict entails numerous sacrifices in human resources in addition to loss of life, while it is difficult to appraise the real cost of conflict, one can determine the number of fatalities. It is the primary goal of this thesis to develop an accounting technique by which the human capital cost of fatalities due to the Northern Ireland Conflict may be measured in an accepted unit of account. While the development of a model for measuring human capital loss is in itself an important part of the study, the ultimate objective is to arrive at an estimate of the human capital cost of subversive deaths in Northern Ireland. In this analysis a representative individual is used to estimate human capital loss. The expected earnings stream over the relevant number of earnings period, discounted at the appropriate rate of interest and accounting for the probability of death and unemployment within these periods is the definition given to the value of the human capital stock of an individual. The primary data used in this study is that which recorded fatalities due to the conflict. Considering that human capital is an important input in the production function and that conflict tends to destroy the more productive portion of the human capital stock, the long-run effect of losses due to continuing strife and conflict are as yet unknown. In the short-run, however, the conflict is known to exert a heavy toll on the Northern Ireland economy. As of April 1990, the total human capital loss estimate of subversive deaths resulting from the Northern Ireland conflict were £186,993,266 for security forces and £400,493,890 for civilians, resulting in a total estimated loss of £587,487,156.

Hypothesis 1. Land values and distance from the central business district are inversely related. This hypothesis proved to be true for the city of Bowling Green. Although there was no pronounced peak of land values as found in many of the larger cities, there was found in the central business district the highest land values in the city. This particular theory is applicable to Bowling Green and probably other cities of the same size. Hypothesis 2. Land values and distance from the nearest shopping center are inversely related. Because the first attempt at testing this relationship was considered invalid for numerous reasons, two independent tests were conducted with the sample points in specifically selected areas. The first of the independent tests failed to bring out the hypothesized relationship and the results also opposed generally accepted theory. The second test, dealing with a second shopping center and study area of its own, also failed to support the hypothesis. The results of this test differed from the first by failing to show any definite relationship regardless of whether or not it was in accordance with the theory stated in the hypothesis. Hypothesis 3. Land values and distance from a major thoroughfare are inversely related. The test conducted to determine what relationship existed between land values and distance from the 31W By- Pass, which serves as the major thoroughfare in Bowling Green, resulted in an inverse relationship. The values had declined rapidly with increasing distance, therefore creating a steep ridge of values along the By-Pass. Only those parcels that directly abut the By-Pass can commercially benefit the most from the high volume of traffic in the area. Even though the hypothesis was tested on only one thoroughfare, the theory holds true for Bowling Green and it is suspected that the inverse relationship found between the two variables is most pronounced in cities the size of Bowling Green. The reasons for this suspicion are that in a smaller city a thoroughfare usually develops as a shopping district rather than as a high-speed by-pass or beltline as found in larger cities. Hypothesis 4. Land values and distance from a major public institution are inversely related. The results of the test using Western Kentucky University as the major public institution indicated the existence of an inverse relationship, although somewhat weak. The problem encountered here was that there was no other major public institution other than the university with which to make a comparison. Although the hypothesis was accepted, there is a demonstrated need for further research on this particular hypothesis.

This thesis investigates factors that explain for the variation in automation vulnerability of American metropolitan statistical areas. The rapid pace of technological innovation, exemplified by the pursuit of automated vehicles in recent years, is creating growing unease in their power to replace human employment. In certain respects, machines are much more productive and overall better workers than human beings. Decreasing cost in computer capital is also making automation investment more affordable than ever before. However, this is only part of the story. The study attempts to quantify and visualize the variation in regional technological exposure and determine whether industrial and socioeconomic characteristics can reveal an area’s vulnerability.

The aim of this research is to understand the socio-economic development of a metropolitan region in Sydney through an analysis of regional innovative activity. South West Sydney, a major growth region within Sydney, includes the Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Liverpool, Campbelltown, Camden and Wollondilly. This region has absorbed 25% of Sydney’s population growth in the period from 1991-2001. Although South West Sydney has experienced rapid population growth, this has not been matched by associated employment growth. In some sectors such as business services employment growth has been minimal in the previous decade, this is particularly the case in Liverpool, the regional centre of South West Sydney. Population growth is estimated to continue at the current rate (in excess of 5% per annum) for at least the next fifteen years. In this environment, local government authorities in the region are seeking ways in which to develop the regional economy of South West Sydney and increase the amount of sustainable employment commensurably with current population and labour force increases. The role of innovative activity has a central place in economic development. This thesis uses a ‘systems of innovation’ (SI) approach to examine innovative activity in the South West Sydney region. SI understands innovation as a socially embedded process of transforming ideas and knowledge into novel products, processes and services through the processes of learning and searching. The approach recognises that innovative activity is determined by various actors (firms and institutions) and the interactivity between these actors and the cumulative base of knowledge in which they operate. The Regional Innovations Systems (RIS) framework develops from an acknowledgement that innovation is primarily a geographically bounded phenomenon. The RIS approach sees that specific local resources are important in determining and encouraging the innovative activities carried out by local firms and hence, the competitiveness of these areas. The RIS literature provides two fields of understanding of what constitutes a regional innovation system. The first takes the global examples of highly innovative regions such as Silicon Valley and Route 128 in the United States of America (Saxenian 1994), South West England (Cooke and Morgan 1998), Baden Wurttemberg in Germany (Cooke 2001; Braczyk, Cooke et al. 2004), Northern Italy (Piore and Sabel 1984) and in Australia, the North Ryde corridor (Searle and Pritchard 2005). These regions represent ‘ideal’ or ‘star’ RIS, with highly specialised and networked clusters of firms, many forms of supporting regional infrastructure, and high levels of interactivity. The second and emerging field understands RIS to be in existence in all regions and individual RIS are identified on a scale from weak to strong (Wiig and Wood 1995; Cooke and Morgan 1998; Cooke 2001). This second stream includes the analysis of regions seeking to encourage innovative activity by using the RIS approach to examine their local resources and connectedness. It seeks to determine how not only local resources but also their connectedness could be enhanced to increase firm competitiveness. The innovation systems represented in the ����ideal���� regions are largely a world away from what is available and what is necessary in the encouragement of RIS in most other regions. However, the conceptual framework for examining and interpreting RIS is derived from the analysis of these ‘ideal’ regions. This framework does not provide for measurement and effective interpretation of a range of activities that may be present in less exceptional regions. This research contributes to this endeavour by providing a method that allows for interpretation of a wider range of innovation activities through the analysis of knowledge intensive services activities (KISA). The focus on knowledge gathering, particularly through the KISA analysis, provides an examination of the relationship between innovation, learning and knowledge, much more so than more traditional measures of innovative activity e.g. patents and research and development (RandD) expenditure. KISA analysis is an emerging field of innovation research. KISA are closely linked to firm innovative activity (OECD 2006) and through an analysis of regional KISA usage, an understanding of innovation and knowledge activities within the region can be constructed. This analysis applies equally across various regions and provides an opportunity to guide regional economic development policy intervention at the local government level in South West Sydney. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Organized Industrial Zones (OIZs) are used as a main and important industry policy tool in Turkey. In 2012, the number of OIZs is 263 with 148 active and 115 planned ones. Network between the firms reveal the knowledge spillovers which is inevitable for economic growth of a country for neo-classical economists. In this thesis, existence of intra-OIZ and intra-industry knowledge spillovers in Ankara and Istanbul is tested by the help of an export decision function. As it considers the spatial dependence between the regional units the spatial econometric method is preferred for the analysis. The data set is taken from the &ldquo / Field Research Survey&rdquo / of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization (SMEDO). It consists of 62,137 firm level observations from 24 manufacturing industries in 81 provinces between 2004 and 2007. After the cleaning process of the data, 1545 and 1172 observations are left for Ankara and Istanbul, respectively. The results show that the size of the firm (which is proxied by logarithm of total labor), technology (which is proxied by computer usage), organizational proximity and foreign language knowledge of the administrator are the common determinants of export decision for Ankara and Istanbul for both intra-IOZ and intra-industry relations when spatial dependence is not ignored. Besides these variables, in Ankara percentage of high skilled labor is significant while in Istanbul cluster proximity is significant. Moreover, for Ankara while for intra-OIZ relations the spatial effect is one third of the total effect, it is one fourth of the total effect for intra-industry relation. For Istanbul one fourth of the total effect is from spatial effects for both intra-OIZ and intra-industry relations.