Health is wealth: an empirical note across the US states

An attempt is made to establish the relation between risk-health factors (encapsulated in terms of obesity) and regional convergence, with special reference to the US states. The econometric results indicate that obesity does have an impact on regional growth and convergence. A preliminary examination of these findings shows harmful effects on the process of catching-up between ‘poor’ and ‘rich’ regions. Nevertheless, considerably more research is required before this relation can be discussed with confidence.Health risk factors; obesity; regional convergence; US states

The Morphology of Income Convergence in US States: New Evidence using an Error-Correction-Model

This paper reconsiders the question of regional convergence across the US States over the long-run. The analysis is carried out over the period 1929-2005. Our analysis advocates and implements an Error-Correction-Model (ECM) approach to deal with this issue. The aforementioned model is applied in order to assess the possibilities of intraregional convergence towards steady-state equilibrium, approximated in terms of the State with highest per-capita income in each broad region. Empirical analysis suggests a pattern of convergence in accordance with the ECM supporting its validity. Further inspection of the results provides an indirect indication of the agglomerative effects in shaping the patterns of convergence.Income Convergence; Error-Correction-Model; US States

The ‘Trade-off’ between Spatial Equity and Economic Efficiency Revisited: Evidence from the US States

The principle aims of regional policy can be encapsulated in terms of ‘spatial equity’ and ‘economic efficiency’. Establishing the relation between these two aims is of fundamental importance. Conventionally, however, it is assumed that there is a conflict or a ‘trade-off’ between them. In this paper, a hopeful view, i.e. that the two aims are complementary rather than competitive, is put forward. The validity of this view is examined empirically using data for the US States covering the period 1972-2005. The obtained results map an instructive framework for regional policy where the scope for reducing regional inequalities is not incompatible with improvements in economic efficiency.regional growth; regional policy; spatial equity; trade-off

Labour Market, Obesity and Public Policy Considerations

This paper attempts to investigate the relation among wages, unemployment and obesity and to identify public policies to address the problem of over-weightness. To this purpose, a simple search and matching model of labour market is developed. Our framework tries to capture the relationship between obesity and employment/unemployment by assuming that the fraction of obese workers is a function of the ratio of vacant jobs to unemployment (labour market tightness). We argue that if obesity is positively related with employment, then social optimality dictates the imposition of a lump-sum tax on all individuals. In the opposite case a subsidy should be given

COVID-19 Lockdown Intensity and Stock Market Returns: A Spatial Econometrics Approach

We investigate the impact of governments’ social distancing measures against the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on 45 major stock market indices. We find evidence of negative direct and indirect (spillover) effects for the initial period of containment measures (lockdown)

A Comment on "Sequential Spatial Competition in Vertically Related Industries with Different Product Varieties"

The aim of this paper is to revise and correct the results obtained in Beladi et al. [Beladi, H., Chakrabarti, A., Marjit, S., 2010. Sequential spatial competition in vertically related industries with different product varieties. Economics Letters 106, 112-114]. Specifically, we prove that following a vertical merger, the downstream firms will locate away from the social optimum in the following manner: to the direction of the un-integrated follower or to a direction determined by the wholesale price charged to the un-integrated leader

Vertical Mergers and Downstream Spatial Competition with Different Product Varieties, Revised and Corrected

The aim of this paper is to revise and correct the results obtained in Beladi et al. [Beladi, H., Chakrabarti, A., Marjit, S., 2008. Vertical mergers and downstream spatial competition with different product varieties. Economics Letters 101, 262-264]. Specifically, we prove that in the pre-merger case, Nash equilibrium locations are socially optimal, whereas a vertical merger will relocate downstream firms by making them move to the right of their socially optimal positions while keeping their in-between distance intact

Spatial Price Discrimination and Privatization on Vertically Related Markets

We consider a vertically structured market with two retail firms of mixed ownership competing against each other exercising spatial price discrimination. We examine the strategic behavior of downstream rivals as well as the effect of privatization on the intensity of competition and welfare in two cases; when location decisions are taken sequentially and when location decisions are taken simultaneously. We show that production cost differentials are crucial in determining the Nash equilibrium locations (hence market shares) and the impact of the degree of privatization on the level of downstream competition. Privatization leads to stiffer competition when the mixed ownership firm has the cost advantage. However, it can be welfare enhancing only when decisions are taken sequentially with the follower being the semi-public firm having a moderate production cost advantage over the market leader. The results of our model generalize to capture the case of vertical mergers