The Winner's Choice: Sustainable Economic Strategies for Successful 21st Century Regions

Throughout the second half of the 20th Century, urbanization, new technologies, rapid labor-saving productivity growth in primary industries, and improved highways combined to create large-scale rural-urban functionally integrated regions. These forces have raised the stakes for regions in their pursuit of economic development and growth, making successful regional policy even more important. Changes to the governance structures consistent with the increased interdependence within broad rural-urban regions will improve the region's competitiveness; adopting fad-based approaches and policies aimed at “picking winners” will be less fruitful. Going forward, continuing globalization and environmental sustainability have the potential to fundamentally reshape relative regional attractiveness.Regional Policy, Rural Development

Determinants of non-farm labour participation rates among farmers in Australia

In recent decades, non‐farm employment has become prevalent and an important source of income for Australian farm families. However, models identifying the relative significance of the socioeconomic variables influencing non‐farm employment participation rates have never been estimated in Australia. In this paper, a bivariate probit model of non‐farm employment participation rates was estimated, using information from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics (ABARE) 1994–1995 surveys. It was found that the participation decision of the farm operator and spouse is likely to be jointly determined, that non‐farm employment participation increased at a declining rate with age among farmers and that university education enhances the participation rates particularly among spouses. Participation rates were also higher among spouses with lower other income and with no dependent children.Farm Management,

Regional entrepreneurship and innovation in Chile:a knowledge matching approach

This paper presents a model of regional innovation based on the matching of research and entrepreneurial skills. We provide a method of empirically testing the model using a dynamic knowledge matching (KM) function, which is applied to data on patent applications and new firms in Chilean municipalities for the period 2002-2008. The estimations confirm the explanatory power of the KM mechanism regarding the spatial variation of innovation in the country, a result that is largely robust to the consideration of other main hypotheses of regional innovation. This evidence warrants further consideration of the spatial dimension of innovation in the country. It also suggests that there are unexploited synergies to be had between support policies for innovation and support policies for entrepreneurship in the context of regional development initiatives

LOCATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP:INSIGHTS FROM A SPATIALLY-EXPLICIT OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE MODEL WITH AN APPLICATION TO CHILE

Occupational choice and heterogeneous managerial ability enter a spatial Dixit-Stiglitz setting, linking location, wages and regional entrepreneurship rates. Market potential has a positive partial effect and wages a negative partial effect on the regional supply of entrepreneurs, both balancing in equilibrium with endogenous wages. Market potential increases profits, but also the opportunity cost of entrepreneurship. In the long-run equilibrium with perfect mobility, the cut-off level of ability determining selection into entrepreneurship will be the same across regions; moreover, regional differences in entrepreneurship rates depend only in differences in average fixed costs of firms. An empirical application is provided for Chile

The Winner's Choice: Sustainable Economic Strategies for Successful 21st Century Regions

Throughout the second half of the 20th Century, urbanization, new technologies, rapid labor-saving productivity growth in primary industries, and improved highways combined to create large-scale rural-urban functionally integrated regions. These forces have raised the stakes for regions in their pursuit of economic development and growth, making successful regional policy even more important. Changes to the governance structures consistent with the increased interdependence within broad rural-urban regions will improve the region's competitiveness; adopting fad-based approaches and policies aimed at “picking winners” will be less fruitful. Going forward, continuing globalization and environmental sustainability have the potential to fundamentally reshape relative regional attractiveness

The Winner's Choice: Sustainable Economic Strategies for Successful 21st Century Regions

Throughout the second half of the 20th Century, urbanization, new technologies, rapid labor-saving productivity growth in primary industries, and improved highways combined to create large-scale rural-urban functionally integrated regions. These forces have raised the stakes for regions in their pursuit of economic development and growth, making successful regional policy even more important. Changes to the governance structures consistent with the increased interdependence within broad rural-urban regions will improve the region's competitiveness; adopting fad-based approaches and policies aimed at “picking winners” will be less fruitful. Going forward, continuing globalization and environmental sustainability have the potential to fundamentally reshape relative regional attractiveness

U.S. Regional Poverty Post-2000: The Lost Decade

The strong U.S. real income gains and reductions in poverty during the 1990s were largely erased in the following decade, which contained two economic recessions and tepid job growth otherwise. Areas most affected by weak U.S. economic performance could be expected to also have experienced the largest increases in poverty, particularly if interregional labor market adjustment is increasingly limited. We examine this issue, finding that not only was regional poverty affected by regional labor demand shocks, the effect was stronger post-2000, particularly in the long run. Consistent with the poverty results are findings of greater post-2000 regional labor demand effects on employment rates and reduced population adjustments to asymmetric labor demand shocks

International Trade and Local Labor Markets: Do Foreign and Domestic Shocks Affect Regions Differently?

Despite the attention given to international trade in discussion of the economic struggles of many U.S. regions, it is unclear whether international trade shocks impact local economies more, or differently than shocks originating within the domestic economy. A challenge in making this discernment is separating trade shocks from common or domestic shocks. Therefore, using U.S. county-level data for 1990-2010, this study carefully constructs shocks to local economies, isolating those arising from international imports and exports to assess whether trade shocks have different effects from domestic shocks. In confirmatory analysis, we also employ a novel combination of IV and matching strategies. We examine a variety of indicators including employment growth, population growth, employment rates, wage rates and poverty rates. The results suggest that international trade shocks have some different effects than overall domestic shocks, though likely less than commonly perceived. We also find that domestic shocks dominate international trade shocks in explaining variation in regional labor market outcomes

International Trade and Local Labor Markets: Are Foreign and Domestic Shocks Created Differently?

Despite the attention given to international trade in discussion and analysis of the economic struggles of many regions across the U.S., it is unclear whether international trade shocks impact local economies more and differently than shocks originating from within the domestic economy, thus requiring special policy attention. Therefore, using U.S. county-level data for 1990-2010, this study carefully constructs demand shocks to local economies, isolating international import and export impacts to assess whether trade shocks have different effects from domestic demand shocks. We examine a variety of economic indicators including population growth, employment rates, wage rates and poverty rates. The results suggest that international trade shocks have some different effects than overall domestic shocks, though public perception of trade appears to be more negative than reality. We also find that domestic shocks dominate international trade shocks in explaining variation in regional labor market outcomes over the entire period

International Trade and Local Labor Markets: Are Foreign and Domestic Shocks Created Differently?

Despite the attention given to international trade in discussion and analysis of the economic struggles of many regions across the U.S., it is unclear whether international trade shocks impact local economies more and differently than shocks originating from within the domestic economy, thus requiring special policy attention. Therefore, using U.S. county-level data for 1990-2010, this study carefully constructs demand shocks to local economies, isolating international import and export impacts to assess whether trade shocks have different effects from domestic demand shocks. We examine a variety of economic indicators including population growth, employment rates, wage rates and poverty rates. The results suggest that international trade shocks have some different effects than overall domestic shocks, though public perception of trade appears to be more negative than reality. We also find that domestic shocks dominate international trade shocks in explaining variation in regional labor market outcomes over the entire period