Preface: The Linkages between Local Entrepreneurship and Regional Economic Development

       A discussion of the linkages between local entrepreneurship and regional economic development provides an intriguing starting point for a wider reflection on the role of existing policies as well as emerging practices that promote regional economic development. Existing literature investigates the role of entrepreneurship and regional economic development. Increasingly, this has been conceptualized in terms of entrepreneurial ecosystems. However, the current literature is fragmented and too often based on problematic assumptions. There are major disconnects between scholars, policymakers, and practitioners. For example, a fast-growing phenomenon is the rise of ecosystem building and ecosystem builders as championed by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and its ESHIP initiative. Little research has addressed this and presents a significant opportunity for innovative, rigorous research that will influence policy and practice. This editorial introduction provides a summary of the contributions included in the special issue on the linkages between local entrepreneurship and regional economic development. These articles focus on the various application of the linkages between local entrepreneurship and regional economic development. The editorial concludes by providing some direction for future research

China’s Stimulus Package: What are the Effects?

Many questions surround the stimulus package that was passed in early November 2008 by the Chinese government and the value of this stimulus package is worth four trillion yuan ($586 billion) over two years.  This stimulus package is equivalent to about 16% of China's annual GDP and this stimulus package is new spending, which was not part of its economic plan.  The intention of this stimulus package is to fund an array of infrastructure projects such as railways, highways, urban transit systems and other infrastructure projects.  However, many economists have claimed that the stimulus package is not as significant as it seems and some of the funds from this stimulus package has already been implemented before the announcement of this stimulus package. According to Sherman Chan, a Sydney-based economist with Moody's, the real size of the package may not be as large as the government has described

The Development of the Chinese Transportation Infrastructure: A Case of Highway Development

Economists have long envisaged that China would be a major economic power in the 21st century.   China along with India accounts for 18 percent of the global economy (on purchasing power parity basis) and 40 percent of the global working age population. During the past decade, China’s economy grew on average at ten percent per annum, and China’s share of world trade increased from one percent in early 1990s to six percent in 2004. China’s industrial production also increased at an annual rate of 17 percent in 2004.  Going forward, the continued economic growth of China will continue to impact other countries as well as provide impacts within China.  Long term impacts of this growth will likely result in spillover effects in countries surrounding China as well as other countries in the Pacific Rim.

Forecasting Cycles in the Transportation Sector

This paper predicted fluctuations in the transportation sector using leading indicators. From 25 initial candidates, we selected seven leading indicators, using various screening techniques and modern time series models. A composite leading index was constructed and found to perform well in predicting transportation reference cycles. The leading index signals downturns in the transportation sector 10 months ahead and upturns six months ahead on average. The index predicted the latest recession in transportation with a lead of 20 months. The analysis also confirms the predictive contents of the composite leading index (CLI) in relation to transportation growth cycles. These evaluation criteria ensure accurate forecasts of the general state of the transportation sector in a timely fashion

How Europe Is Seen From Outside (and Inside) the European Union: A Discussion Paper

This paper presents the foundation for an assessment of the current views of Europe as seen from inside and outside of the European Union. The discussion paper introduces some of the factors that contribute to these perceptions, and how these perceptions are understood and seen by the residents inside and outside of the European Union. Once these opinions are identified, what future research and debates can be developed from this exploratory assessment? The present discussion carefully provides some of the factors that contribute to these perceptions of Europe by those living inside and outside of the European Union

Forecasting Cycles in the Transportation Sector

This paper predicted fluctuations in the transportation sector using leading indicators. From 25 initial candidates, we selected seven leading indicators, using various screening techniques and modern time series models. A composite leading index was constructed and found to perform well in predicting transportation reference cycles. The leading index signals downturns in the transportation sector 10 months ahead and upturns six months ahead on average. The index predicted the latest recession in transportation with a lead of 20 months. The analysis also confirms the predictive contents of the composite leading index (CLI) in relation to transportation growth cycles. These evaluation criteria ensure accurate forecasts of the general state of the transportation sector in a timely fashion

The Relationship Between Transportation and Economic Development: The Yangtze Region

The rapid economic growth of China since the beginning of the economic reforms in 1978 has received much attention from economists and policy-makers throughout the industrialized world.  China has experienced rapid economic growth since the beginning of the economic reforms in 1978.  In terms of economic size, China is surpassed today only by the U.S., Japan, Germany, and France.  Despite the global economic crisis of 2008, the Chinese economy managed 8.7% growth in GDP in 2009, and much of this growth in GDP can be attributed to the stimulus package passed by the Chinese government.

A New Approach for a Forecasting Model in the Estimation of Social Security Benefits

This paper developed a new way in which Social Security benefits are estimated in response to the reforms to Social Security to retain its financial solvency. The present research carefully presented the current methodology to calculate the Social Security benefits and carefully examined changes to the methodology to estimate Social Security benefits. More specifically, the proposed methodology included functional specifications such as a linear spline, a cubic spline, and a cubic smooth function that would be fitted between the index factor and the cumulative number of years a beneficiary receives the benefits. After a functional relationship was derived, the best fit specification was determined based on the data used to estimate future Social Security benefits

Development Application of Composite Indices (CI): An Emerging Method to the Disciplines of Engineering, Economics and Finance

Interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary research involves the use of a combination of principles from various disciplines: engineering, economics, finance, etc. This particular approach makes a lot of sense; otherwise, all the research will become compartmentalized, and researchers from one discipline will not know what researchers from other disciplines are doing and how those principles can be applied to their own disciplines. One way to create a common base connecting all these disciplines is to use the concept of composite indicators (CI), which is an emerging field of study. The use of composite indices, as part of an emerging method, for research problems in various fields allows for greater understanding of research problems and provides a visionary approach to solve such problems. This paper first states the existing methods for calculation of composite indicators in the literature and then suggests a new method

An application of the LASSO and elastic net regression to assess poverty and economic freedom on ECOWAS countries

The study of poverty has been studied from several different research approaches over the years. This analysis intended to determine which variables tell us about poverty in the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) countries. Many ECOWAS countries have recorded high economic growth rates in the past few decades. However, a recent trend is that this progress is reversing, and poverty rates are increasing. In this analysis, we examined the variables describing poverty in ECOWAS. We used a statistical approach coupled with economic theory to justify the inclusion of the variables used to assess poverty. Furthermore, we include the use of the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom index for each of the West African States. As far as we know, the economic freedom and poverty of West African states have not been presented for consideration toward African growth rates and poverty rates. With few exceptions, economic freedom research suggests that economic freedom is the foundational ingredient for increasing prosperity and reducing poverty. Then, we interpreted the empirical results and assess the validity of the model as applied to the ECOWAS countries. More specifically, we use the LASSO and elastic net regression to obtain sparse solutions to regression problems. LASSO and elastic net are computational methods that rapidly inform us about the relevant variables for the model. These computational methods' performances will in the context of the number of variables exceeds the number of observations by generating a low mean squared error (MSE)