Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Hikaru H. Peterson / The geographic distribution and structure of the U.S. dairy industry have changed considerably during the last 30 years with larger herds representing an increasing proportion of the nation’s overall dairy cow inventory and producing a greater share of the milk. Geographically, the migration of dairies from traditional production regions to states formerly unfamiliar with dairy production has transpired with the greatest increases in Federal Milk Marketing Order marketings occurring in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, West Texas and Southwest Kansas since the 1980’s. This study seeks to define the factors influencing the dairy location decision applying spatial econometric techniques. To examine the effects of county-specific demographic, environmental, and market factors as well as to test for the influence of spatial agglomeration economies on the geographic distribution of the U.S. dairy industry, a spatially explicit, county-level model of the dairy production sector was developed. Quantities of milk marketed through the Federal Milk Marketing Order during the month of May for counties in 45 states during 1997 and 2002 were specified as a function of natural endowments, business climate, production resource availability, milk price, and market access. The model was estimated according to spatial autoregressive (spatially lagged dependent variable) and spatial Durbin (lagged dependent and independent variables) specifications accounting for the censored nature of the dependent variable and heteroskedastic errors. Based on RMSE, the spatial error model was selected to make out of sample predictions for 2004. The change in milk marketings between 1997 and 2002 was regressed on the 1997 independent variables using non-Tobit versions of the same models with limited success. Results indicated a small but statistically significant presence of spatial agglomeration effects in the dairy industry in both 1997 and 2002 and revealed changes in the degrees of influence of several variables between the two periods examined. Population and the wages of agricultural workers became significant in 2002, while the elasticities of feed availability diminished, consistent with an increase in western-style dairy production. Interestingly, the spatial parameter decreased from 0.052 in 1997 to 0.028 in 2002 suggesting spatial agglomeration economies had a diminishing role in determining the amount of milk marketed in a county.

Dans la littérature économique, on remarque que l’agglomération spatiale joue un rôle clé dans la croissance économique. Il a récemment été reconnu que les conditions de développement des pays peuvent modifier la relation entre l’agglomération géographique et la croissance. Cette thèse vise à analyser les effets de l’agglomération dans les pays d’Amérique latine.Tout d’abord, nous allons examiner l’impact de l’agglomération sur la croissance des régions latino-américaines et nous analysons le rôle du niveau de développement dans cette relation. Afin de répondre à ces questions, un modèle de croissance est estimé compte tenu de l’interdépendance spatiale. Les résultats montrent que les régions d’Amérique Latine bénéficient des effets croissants d’agglomération géographique jusqu’à un certain niveau de revenu. Ensuite, nous allons étudier l’influence de la nature des externalités d’agglomération sur la productivité sectorielle en regardant le cas de l’ Equateur. Un modèle économétrique qui traite de facteurs endogènes potentiels est estimé. Les résultats indiquent que les externalités de diversité génèrent les effets les plus élevés sur la productivité. Enfin, nous analyserons la façon dont la concentration spatiale au sein des régions est influencée par le commerce extérieur. Un modèle de panel de données est estimé en tenant compte des particularités régionales, des effets temporels et des tendances temporelles des régions colombiennes. Les résultats montrent que l’effet de l’ouverture commerciale sur la concentration spatiale au sein des régions est renforcée par deux aspects : le fait d’avoir un grand marché et le fait d’avoir une localisation géographique favorable par rapport au accès au marché international. / In economic literature, it has been underscored that spatial agglomeration plays a keyrole in the economic growth. Recently, it has been acknowledged that the conditions of development of countries are likely to shape the agglomeration-growth relationship.On these grounds, this PhD thesis aims to analyze the effects of agglomeration in Latin American countries.First, it investigates whether Latin American countries experience positive effects ofagglomeration on growth and to what extent their level of development influences such effects. In order to answer these questions, a growth model using regional data is estimated considering spatial interdependence. The results show that Latin American regions enjoy increasing positive effects of agglomeration on their growth until a certain level of income is reached.Second, it studies the influence of the nature of agglomeration externalities, such as specialization, diversity, density and competition on industrial productivity in cantonsby looking at the case of Ecuador. Using Generalized Method of Moments, an econometric model dealing with potential endogenous factors is estimated. The results indicate that diversity externalities generate the highest positive effects of agglomeration on productivity.Finally, it addresses how spatial agglomeration within regions is shaped by external trade. A panel data model is estimated taking into account regional characteristics,time-specific effects and regional-specific time trends of Colombian regions. The results show that the effect of trade openness in spatial concentration within regions isenhanced by two aspects: the home market effect and the location advantage effect of main cities within regions.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:52:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andre Leme da Silva Fleury Bonini.pdf: 1242460 bytes, checksum: 488c23820ad95328d64109fa8e4c21e2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-04 / The globalization of capital and the process of globalization are largely responsible for increasing competitiveness. On one hand, firms strategically seeking the best location to optimize the costs of production and distribution, on the other, local governments compete to create the most appropriate basket of opportunity to postulate the attraction of new private businesses. Under the vision of the New Economic Geography (NEG), this paper measures the indicators of geographical concentration maps and the spatial location of where they are established major industrial clusters of the State of São Paulo. Also investigates what are the positive externalities, or centripetal forces that lead to agglomeration of activities, and the negative externalities, or centrifugal forces, which lead to spreading of investments. To this end, this research presents estimates cross section, which incorporates the contributions of theories of endogenous growth. The model is evaluated empirically through several variables by means of an application to the cities of São Paulo in 2010. The main results show that the number of industries and the population with at least upper level of completed graduation, positively influence the agglomeration. Have the greater the distance of the town to the capital, the less likely the occurrence of agglomeration. The conclusion we reached is that the municipal level, the agglomeration of industries is a sufficient condition for attracting new businesses and is consistent with the clusters theory proposed by Krugman (1997), while in micorregion level demonstrate the relevance of skilled human capital as a determining factor in the location of industries, supporting ideas by Porter (1989). We recommend that municipalities acting cooperatively, can outperform the indicators that determine the formation of the industrial GDP and thus become more attractive for private investment, contributing to an environment where companies create competitive advantages. Evident the need for efforts to ensure that municipalities think of public policies together with the governments of region; and, with State aid, can improve the indicators presented, creating development poles that resonates in improvements in quality of life for society / A mundialização do capital e o processo da globalização são os grandes responsáveis pelo o aumento da competitividade. Se por um lado, as empresas buscam estrategicamente a melhor localização para otimizar os custos de produção e de distribuição, por outro, os governos locais competem entre si para criar a cesta de oportunidade mais adequada para postular a atração de novos negócios privados. Sob a visão da Nova Geografia Econômica (NGE), pesquisamos quais são as externalidades positivas, ou forças centrípetas, que levam à aglomeração das atividades, e as externalidades negativas, ou forças centrífugas, que levam a dispersão dos investimentos. Para este fim, apresentamos estimativas cross section avaliadas empiricamente através de diversas variáveis por meio de uma aplicação para as cidades e microrregiões paulistas no ano de 2010. Os principais resultados mostram que o número de indústrias do setor de transformação e a população com pelo menos o nível superior de graduação concluído, influenciam positivamente a aglomeração. Já quanto maior a distância da localidade até a capital, menores são as chances da ocorrência da aglomeração. A conclusão que chegamos é que ao nível municipal, a simples aglomeração de indústrias é condição suficiente para a atração de novas empresas e condiz com a teoria dos benefícios dos clusters proposta por Krugman (1997), ao passo que no nível micorregional demonstramos a relevância do capital humano qualificado como fator de determinante na localização de indústrias, corroborando as ideias de Porter (1989). Sugerimos que os municípios agindo cooperativamente em suas microrregiões, podem apresentar melhor desempenho dos indicadores que determinam a formação do PIB industrial e desta forma se tornam mais atrativos ao investimento privado, contribuindo com um ambiente onde as empresas criam suas vantagens competitivas. Evidenciamos a necessidade de esforços para que municípios pensem em políticas públicas em conjunto com os governos da microrregião; e, com a ajuda estatal, consigam melhorar os indicadores apresentados, criando polos de desenvolvimento que ressoe em melhorias na qualidade de vida para a sociedade