Inter-municipal cooperation in the development of industrial parks and tax redistribution: The road to hell is paved with good intentions

Inter-municipal cooperation mechanisms have been promoted as flexible tools, reflecting the transition from government to governance in a new network economy and eliminating the need to engage in redrawing clear-cut boundaries in the context of soft spaces with fuzzy boundaries. An evaluation of inter-municipal cooperation in the development of industrial parks and tax revenue redistribution in Israel, from the first 1992 initiative to imposed redistribution in 2014/15, reveals how an initiative ’from below’ has been adopted and encouraged ’from above’, finally used by the central state as a tool of control, to serve its own objectives. It highlights the inherent temptation for top- down imposition, embedded in bottom-up cooperation mechanisms, calling for light-touch regulatory legislation and opting for gently imposed solutions where needed

Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Israel, Canada and California

Entrepreneurial activity has served as a route of economic advancement and social mobility for many of the more successful immigrant groups in their new host countries. In addition to varying ethnic resources, the formation of small-businesses by new immigrants depends greatly on characteristics of the host country and the specific urban area. Moreover, interaction of location and ethnicity factors may influence entrepreneurial behavior of immigrant groups; i.e. the role of location may differ for each immigrant group. This role of location has been given only cursory treatment in most previous studies of immigrant entrepreneurs.This paper outlines the relation between theories of entrepreneurship among immigrant groups and studies on entrepreneurship in space. Then, it focuses on case studies of self-employment among recent immigrants in Israel, Canada end California, basing the analysis on national censuses of population from the early 1980s. Special attention has been put on the influence of location on the propensity of immigrants from various origins to engage in self-employment, and on the types of entrepreneurial activities performed by different immigrant groups. The influence of human capital attributes, ethnic networks and local opportunity structures on spatial variations in entrepreneurial behavior of immigrants is discussed.Immigrant entrepreneurship is assessed in the context of changing realities of the 1970s and 1980s. These years witnessed a certain revival in the role of small businesses in job creation in many Western countries. A new role has been assigned to local entrepreneurs in public economic development efforts, replacing post-war strategies, based on capital-intensive industrialization (Storey 1988). International migration flows have also reemerged as a political and economic phenomenon of major importance, due to the passage of liberal immigration legislature in countries of destination during the period of economic growth and prosperity in the 1960's, and due to pressures in the countries of origin, aggravated by the economic crises of the 1970's and 1980's. Thus, the phenomenon of entrepreneurship among immigrant groups has a growing sugnificance in assessing local econimic development processes and social change

The impact of local government organization on development and disparities—a comparative perspective

Results of the comparative study presented in this paper suggests that local government organization influences land-use planning, and local development strategies and disparities. Local government reforms can, therefore, serve to modify spatial patterns of development and disparities. Based on a review of studies made in the developed and the developing world, the author provides a comparative perspective on these influences. Five major dimensions of local government organization—territorial, functional, political autonomy, fiscal, and electoral—are used to define four extreme models of local government. The American self-government model leads to substantial inequalities and to considerable sprawl. The Western welfare-state model alleviates these problems somewhat, but at a cost to central government. Its positive impact is also dependent on norms of administration at the central level, whereas reduced competition over economic development has its negative sides. Developing-world-type centralism has no real advantages in terms of development or disparities. The developing-world decentralized model can be regarded as a transitional phase towards either the self-government or the welfare-state models. Its implementation has been partial; hence its impact has, so far, been rather small.

Chapitre 8. Les dynamiques de métropolisation en Israël

Ce chapitre est consacré aux caractéristiques des 4 aires métropolitaines, aux processus de métropolisation et à ses effets sur le changement politique en Israël. Nous analyserons d’abord leur prédominance car dans un avenir proche la grande majorité de la population et la plus grande partie du territoire, à l’exception du Sud aride et éloigné, ne formeront plus qu’une seule région mégalopolitaine, composée de plusieurs métropoles. Puis nous décrirons le processus de suburbanisation qui s’acc..

Are Fragmentation and Sprawl Interlinked?: North American Evidence

The association between municipal fragmentation and suburban sprawl is examined, based on a cross-sectional analysis of all U.S. and Canadian metropolitan areas with more than 500,000 residents in the 1990s. Results reveal that this association is rathe

Are Fragmentation and Sprawl Interlinked?: North American Evidence

The association between municipal fragmentation and suburban sprawl is examined, based on a cross-sectional analysis of all U.S. and Canadian metropolitan areas with more than 500,000 residents in the 1990s. Results reveal that this association is rathe

Chapitre 8. Les dynamiques de métropolisation en Israël

Ce chapitre est consacré aux caractéristiques des 4 aires métropolitaines, aux processus de métropolisation et à ses effets sur le changement politique en Israël. Nous analyserons d’abord leur prédominance car dans un avenir proche la grande majorité de la population et la plus grande partie du territoire, à l’exception du Sud aride et éloigné, ne formeront plus qu’une seule région mégalopolitaine, composée de plusieurs métropoles. Puis nous décrirons le processus de suburbanisation qui s’acc..

THE COLLEGE CHASE: HIGHER EDUCATION AND URBAN ENTREPRENEURIALISM IN ISRAEL

Local government initiative to attract colleges, in spite of being formally excluded from the higher education system, is shown to represent urban entrepreneurialism, in which strategies undertaken - reactive or proactive, competition or co-operation, and means of support - are influenced by location. However, such decentralised forms of local governance do not indicate a diminishing role of the central state, but rather reshape regulation - decisions reflecting greater pluralism, becoming more exposed to external pressures for market-oriented initiatives in high demand locations, and for publicly supported colleges in less attractive locations. Local entrepreneurialism is particularly influential at the intra-regional level, but saturation could emphasise the need to move from local entrepreneurialism to competitive regionalism. Copyright (c) 2007 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.