Searching for the parallel growth of cities

Three urban growth theories predict parallel growth of cities. The endogenous growth theory predicts deterministic parallel growth; the random growth theory implies that city growth follows Gibrat’s law with a steady-state distribution; and the hybrid growth theory suggests the co-movement of random city growth. This paper uses the Chinese city size data from 1984-2006 and time series econometric techniques to test for parallel growth. The results from various types of stationarity tests on pooled heterogeneous cities show that city growth is random. However, once growth trend and structural change are taken into account, certain groups of cities with common group characteristics, such as similar natural resource endowment or policy regime, grow parallel.Urban growth; Parallel growth; Zipf’s law; Unit root; Structural change

Air Quality and Manufacturing Firm Productivity: Nationwide Estimates for China

We provide nationwide estimates of air pollution’s effect on short-run labor productivity for manufacturing firms in China from 1998 to 2007. An emerging literature estimates air pollution’s effects on labor productivity but only for small groups of workers of particular occupations or firms. To provide more comprehensive estimates necessary for policy analysis, we estimate effects for all but some small firms (90% of China’s manufacturing output) and capture all channels by which pollution influences productivity. We instrument for reverse causality between pollution and output using thermal inversions. Our causal estimates imply that a on

Air Quality and Manufacturing Firm Productivity: Nationwide Estimates for China

We provide nationwide estimates of air pollution’s effect on short-run labor productivity for manufacturing firms in China from 1998 to 2007. An emerging literature estimates air pollution’s effects on labor productivity but only for small groups of workers of particular occupations or firms. To provide more comprehensive estimates necessary for policy analysis, we estimate effects for all but some small firms (90% of China’s manufacturing output) and capture all channels by which pollution influences productivity. We instrument for reverse causality between pollution and output using thermal inversions. Our causal estimates imply that a on

Sequence analysis reveals mosaic genome of Aichi virus

Aichi virus is a positive-sense and single-stranded RNA virus, which demonstrated to be related to diarrhea of Children. In the present study, phylogenetic and recombination analysis based on the Aichi virus complete genomes available in GenBank reveal a mosaic genome sequence [GenBank: FJ890523], of which the nt 261-852 region (the nt position was based on the aligned sequence file) shows close relationship with AB010145/Japan with 97.9% sequence identity, while the other genomic regions show close relationship with AY747174/German with 90.1% sequence identity. Our results will provide valuable hints for future research on Aichi virus diversity

Steady-State Analysis of Necrotic Core Formation for Solid Avascular Tumors with Time Delays in Regulatory Apoptosis

A mathematical model for the growth of solid avascular tumor with time delays in regulatory apoptosis is studied. The existence of stationary solutions and the mechanism of formation of necrotic cores in the growth of the tumors are studied. The results show that if the natural death rate of the tumor cell exceeds a fixed positive constant, then the dormant tumor is nonnecrotic; otherwise, the dormant tumor is necrotic

Air Quality and Manufacturing Firm Productivity: Comprehensive Evidence from China

We provide comprehensive estimates of air pollution’s effect on short-run labor productivity for manufacturing firms in China from 1998 to 2007. An emerging literature estimates air pollution’s effects on labor productivity but only for small groups of workers of particular occupations or sets of firms to ensure causality. To provide more comprehensive estimates necessary for policy analysis, we estimate effects for all but some small firms (90% of manufacturing output in China) and capture all channels by which pollution influences productivity. We instrument for reverse causality between pollution and output using thermal inversions. Our causal estimates imply that a on

The effect of housing wealth on labor force participation: evidence from China

This paper uses the 2011 China Household Finance Survey data to estimate the effect of change in housing value on homeowners’ labor force participation. Using the average housing capital gains of other homes in the same community as an instrument for the housing capital gains of a given household, we find that a 100 thousand yuan increase in housing value leads to a 1.37 percentage point decrease in female homeowners’ probability of participating in the labor force and a 1.49 percentage point increase in their probability of becoming housewives. We find little effect on men’s labor force participation

The effect of housing wealth on labor force participation: evidence from China

This paper uses the 2011 China Household Finance Survey data to estimate the effect of change in housing value on homeowners’ labor force participation. Using the average housing capital gains of other homes in the same community as an instrument for the housing capital gains of a given household, we find that a 100 thousand yuan increase in housing value leads to a 1.37 percentage point decrease in female homeowners’ probability of participating in the labor force and a 1.49 percentage point increase in their probability of becoming housewives. We find little effect on men’s labor force participation

Trans-Boundary Air Pollution Spillovers: Physical Transport and Economic Costs by Distance

The economic costs of trans-boundary pollution spillovers versus local effects is a necessary input in evaluating centralized versus decentralized environmental policies. Directly estimating these for air pollution is difficult because spillovers are high-frequency and vary with distance while economic outcomes are usually measured with low-frequency and local pollution is endogenous. We develop an approach to quantify local versus spillover effects as a flexible function of distance utilizing commonly-available pollution and weather data. To correct for the endogeneity of pollution, it uses a mixed two-stage least squares method that accommodates high-frequency (daily) pollution data and low-frequency (annual) outcome data. This avoids using annual pollution data which generally yields inefficient estimates. We apply the approach to estimate spillovers of particulate matter smaller than 10 micrograms (PM10) on manufacturing labor productivity in China. A one μg/m3 annual increase in PM10 locally reduces the average firm’s annual output by CNY 45,809 while the same increase in a city 50 kilometers away decreases it by CNY 16,248. The spillovers decline quickly to CNY 2,847 at 600 kilometers and then slowly to zero at about 1,000 kilometers. The results suggest the need for supra-provincial environmental policies or Coasian prices quantified under the approach

Searching for the parallel growth of cities

Three urban growth theories predict parallel growth of cities. The endogenous growth theory predicts deterministic parallel growth; the random growth theory implies that city growth follows Gibrat’s law with a steady-state distribution; and the hybrid growth theory suggests the co-movement of random city growth. This paper uses the Chinese city size data from 1984-2006 and time series econometric techniques to test for parallel growth. The results from various types of stationarity tests on pooled heterogeneous cities show that city growth is random. However, once growth trend and structural change are taken into account, certain groups of cities with common group characteristics, such as similar natural resource endowment or policy regime, grow parallel