The Center-periphery Dilemma and the Issue of Equity in Regional Development

Different regions are endowed with production factors and characteristics that offer different opportunities for specialization, which can be transform to a regional comparative advantage. Many outlying regions (peripheral regions) suffer from a high rate of unemployment, low level of per capita income and net out migration. Outlying areas attract less investment in comparison to central regions. This is because of the low marginal productivity of factors of production in the outlying areas. In order to alleviate these hardships, inflicted on outlying regions, central governments often devise incentive and investment programs whose main objective is to reduce the gap between regions in the country and thus reduce regional inequalities. To attract high tech industries to outlaying regions is now in vogue. In reality we observe a distinct geographical distribution between centers of R&D and large mass production plants. This is due primarily to agglomeration economies and industrial cluster in central regions. Mass production, because of their needs for a large number of relatively unskilled labors gravitates towards the edge of Metropolitan regions and the outlying areas. But then their contribution to the wellbeing of the population in these regions is limited. Public/private investment in large scale facilities (or infrastructures), like highways and railways, Technological Incubators, R&D Centers, universities and hospitals, are among the projects proposed in order to facilitates economic growth in outlying areas. However investing in these projects is not necessarily the panacea for outlaying areas. Because of scarce resources it is paramount to select the most cost-effective program which will take into account the profile of the region under consideration, its natural endowments, and the administrative and political structure of the local government and its ability, together with the region's population, to turn the chosen program to a success. In this paper we critically discuss the spatial implications of selected public investment programs design to facilitate the development of peripheral regions.

Technological incubators as creators of high-tech firms in Israel

The Israeli High-Tech industry boom in the past decade deserves a thorough study of the local reality as well as an appraisal of the efficiency of existing programs. This research sets as its main objective an analysis of the effectiveness of the Incubator Program in Israel. First we evaluate the High-Tech incubators as a filter of new technological ideas that subsequently become New-Technology-Based companies. Then we discuss their efficiency and contribution to the Israeli High-Tech industry. Second, we identify the kind of investors who are willing to participate in a project during and after the incubation period. This enables us to link the incubator with other private and public sources of venture capital. Finally we analyze the geographical dispersal oft the incubators and their contribution to local economic development. For this purpose, incubators were divided into two groups, ?peripheral? and ?metropolitan?, and an extensive comparison was made of the two groups: their efficiency, relocation, and investment patterns. Our general conclusion is that although technological incubators constitute an efficient program at both the national and the local level, their wide geographical dispersal negatively affects their performance, since it contrasts with the general tendency of High-Tech industries to agglomerate. It is our belief that the number of incubators should be reduced and be more precisely located. Moreover we argue that a comprehensive High-Tech policy that includes locational considerations is needed at the national level.

The Center-periphery Dilemma and the Issue of Equity in Regional Development

Different regions are endowed with production factors and characteristics that offer different opportunities for specialization, which can be transform to a regional comparative advantage. Many outlying regions (peripheral regions) suffer from a high rate of unemployment, low level of per capita income and net out migration. Outlying areas attract less investment in comparison to central regions. This is because of the low marginal productivity of factors of production in the outlying areas. In order to alleviate these hardships, inflicted on outlying regions, central governments often devise incentive and investment programs whose main objective is to reduce the gap between regions in the country and thus reduce regional inequalities. To attract high tech industries to outlaying regions is now in vogue. In reality we observe a distinct geographical distribution between centers of R&D and large mass production plants. This is due primarily to agglomeration economies and industrial cluster in central regions. Mass production, because of their needs for a large number of relatively unskilled labors gravitates towards the edge of Metropolitan regions and the outlying areas. But then their contribution to the wellbeing of the population in these regions is limited. Public/private investment in large scale facilities (or infrastructures), like highways and railways, Technological Incubators, R&D Centers, universities and hospitals, are among the projects proposed in order to facilitates economic growth in outlying areas. However investing in these projects is not necessarily the panacea for outlaying areas. Because of scarce resources it is paramount to select the most cost-effective program which will take into account the profile of the region under consideration, its natural endowments, and the administrative and political structure of the local government and its ability, together with the region's population, to turn the chosen program to a success. In this paper we critically discuss the spatial implications of selected public investment programs design to facilitate the development of peripheral regions

Sustainable Transportation and Urban Development

The challenges facing transportation planners have grown continuously over the years owing to mounting problems of congestion, concerns with environmental degradation and global warming, enhanced awareness of safety, and the increasing complexity of travel behaviour patterns associated with modern life. Modern life has brought about more travel, more leisure time, and more engagement in out-of-home, non-work activities. Modern life, especially in more recent years, has also witnessed rapid population and economic growth in many urban areas and the decentralization of residential, commercial, and work places. It has also seen more women entering the labour market. Accompanying these changes has been the relaxation of some constraints, such as the need to commute at fixed hours, thus providing more degrees of freedom of travel. Because of the significantly increased alternative activities and travel patterns from which households can now choose, travel patterns have become more complicated. In addition, the total number of trips has increased, trip chaining is more frequent, and traffic peaks are becoming smoother. All this has resulted in making the analysis of travel behaviour more complex. Understanding travel behaviour is paramount in the design of various policies towards sustainable transportation development that will on the one hand support economic growth and well-being of the population and on the other hand will minimize adverse transport externalities. These externalities are especially pertinent in metropolitan areas because there the infrastructure networks are most intensively used and development densities are high. Increased externalities from motor vehicles called for the development of new policy and planning objectives toward sustainable transportation. In this regard, travel behaviour lies at the core of procedures for analysing and evaluating transportation-related measures aimed at improving urban mobility, environmental quality, safety, and at achieving a wide variety of social objectives. Policy analysis and planning, then, rely on travel behaviour studies and travel-demand models. Policy-making today requires more sophisticated tools, and these have been developed in terms of advanced models, most of them activity-based, that go into different levels of detail on various scales: spatial, temporal, and social. Together with the development of activity-based models, various specific models have been estimated and implemented in support of sustainable policy analysis, some of them as auxiliary to activity-based models and some of them as stand-alone models. The aim of this paper is to highlight and emphasize the important role of understanding travel behaviour and the complex relations between the various travel externalities to the development of sustainable urban development and transport policies

Modeling adoption of innovations in agriculture using discrete choice models

This paper is concerned with the development of varieties and fertilization techniques of greenhouse tomatoes, and their spatial diffusion in the northwestern region of the Negev in Israel. The main objective of the paper is to identify the factors affecting the farmers’ decision to adopt innovations and the factors inducing the process of knowledge-diffusion in the rural region. The approach adopted is the use of discrete choice models based on random utility theory. Results of the empirical analysis when applying the disaggregate Logit Model indicate that the regional, local and individual attributes have a significant bearing on the farmers’ decision-making process in regard to choosing among alternative tomato varieties and fertilization techniques. The findings indicate that the models constructed for this study may be used as a planning tool for the purpose of evaluating the effect of different factors on the spatial diffusion of innovations in rural regions. The results of the research could also assist decision-makers in formulating development policies for rural regions. Keywords: Spatial diffusion; discrete choice models; greenhouse tomatoes; nested logit

Technological incubators as creators of high-tech firms in Israel

The Israeli High-Tech industry boom in the past decade deserves a thorough study of the local reality as well as an appraisal of the efficiency of existing programs. This research sets as its main objective an analysis of the effectiveness of the Incubator Program in Israel. First we evaluate the High-Tech incubators as a filter of new technological ideas that subsequently become New-Technology-Based companies. Then we discuss their efficiency and contribution to the Israeli High-Tech industry. Second, we identify the kind of investors who are willing to participate in a project during and after the incubation period. This enables us to link the incubator with other private and public sources of venture capital. Finally we analyze the geographical dispersal oft the incubators and their contribution to local economic development. For this purpose, incubators were divided into two groups, ?peripheral? and ?metropolitan?, and an extensive comparison was made of the two groups: their efficiency, relocation, and investment patterns. Our general conclusion is that although technological incubators constitute an efficient program at both the national and the local level, their wide geographical dispersal negatively affects their performance, since it contrasts with the general tendency of High-Tech industries to agglomerate. It is our belief that the number of incubators should be reduced and be more precisely located. Moreover we argue that a comprehensive High-Tech policy that includes locational considerations is needed at the national level

The economic value of conservation: Some empirical results

While conservation of privately owned buildings is produced by the private market, the benefit from conservation accrues not only to the estate of the building's owners, but also to the society at large. Conservation usually requires public involvement, as often market forces do not economically justify the conservation of buildings. The purpose of this research is to identify and estimate the factors affecting the private sector's (building owners') decision whether and when to invest in conservation. This decision is directly concerned as much with the profitability of the investment as with the economic state of the country, in particular housing market conditions (whether there is a demand or a supply surplus), the location of the property, and externalities (adjacent buildings and local infrastructure). We examined the case of the White City of Tel Aviv, which UNESCO declared a World Heritage Site in 2003 because of its outstanding architectural ensemble representative of the Modern Movement in a new cultural context. Data was collected on building's physical attributes, planning regulations applied to the plot, current and historical legal rights status, transactions, and date of conservation, if took place. The decision by building owners whether to invest in conservation and the economic value of conservation on the private market is examined using qualitative and quantitative models. The Logit Model and the Nested Logit Model were used in order to estimate the probability of a decision to conserve. The Hedonic Price Model was used in order to estimate the effect of conservation on the property value. The Real Option - Pricing Model was used in order to estimate whether the value of buildings not yet conserved includes an option component - the option to wait for the optimal timing in carrying out the conservation. We conducted a comparative analysis between buildings designated for conservation and buildings in the same area that needed renovation. The results of this research could assist public policy in promoting the conservation of cultural heritage that we wish to bequeath for future generations

Modeling adoption of innovations in agriculture using discrete choice models

This paper is concerned with the development of varieties and fertilization techniques of greenhouse tomatoes, and their spatial diffusion in the northwestern region of the Negev in Israel. The main objective of the paper is to identify the factors affecting the farmers’ decision to adopt innovations and the factors inducing the process of knowledge-diffusion in the rural region. The approach adopted is the use of discrete choice models based on random utility theory. Results of the empirical analysis when applying the disaggregate Logit Model indicate that the regional, local and individual attributes have a significant bearing on the farmers’ decision-making process in regard to choosing among alternative tomato varieties and fertilization techniques. The findings indicate that the models constructed for this study may be used as a planning tool for the purpose of evaluating the effect of different factors on the spatial diffusion of innovations in rural regions. The results of the research could also assist decision-makers in formulating development policies for rural regions. Keywords: Spatial diffusion; discrete choice models; greenhouse tomatoes; nested logi

Industrial characteristics, production milieu and regional innovation: A comparison of Israel and German industrial plants

In recent years, we have been witnessing a growing number of researchers whose objective is to gain a better understanding of the variation in the rate of spatial innovation of different industrial plants. Only a very small number of studies, however, have investigated the similarity and dissimilarity of spatial innovation between countries. This study attempts to fill this gap. It reports the results of a larger study carried out jointly by a team of researchers from Germany and Israel. In Germany, the study focused on the State of Baden Wurttemberg, and in Israel on the Northern District. Altogether in both countries, more than 400 industrial plants, belonging to the fastest-growing industrial branches (Electronics, Metals and Plastics) were included in the study. The use of simple statistical models, augmented by multi-variable Logit Models, enabled us to point out the similarity and dissimilarity in spatial innovation patterns between the two countries. The results further support the hypothesis that expenditure on R&D is a good surrogate for the probability of the firm to innovate, regardless of the industrial branch to which the plant belongs. In general, we can conclude that there exists a strong similarity in the frequency of industrial innovation in both countries; i.e., the rate of innovation in their hi-tech industries is significantly higher than in their traditional industries. On the other hand, the pattern of spatial variations in the rate of innovation in Israel is much more pronounced and visible compared to Germany

Satellite-cell pool size does matter: Defining the myogenic potency of aging skeletal muscle

AbstractThe deteriorating in vivo environment is thought to play a major role in reduced stem cell function with age. The capacity of stem cells to support tissue maintenance depends not only on their response to cues from the surrounding niche, but also on their abundance. Here, we investigate satellite cell (myogenic stem cell) pool size and its potential to participate in muscle maintenance through old age. The numbers and performance of mouse satellite cells have been analyzed using molecular markers that exclusively characterize quiescent satellite cells and their progeny as they transit through proliferation, differentiation and generation of reserve cells. The study establishes that abundance of resident satellite cells declines with age in myofibers from both fast- and slow-twitch muscles. Nevertheless, the inherent myogenic potential of satellite cells does not diminish with age. Furthermore, the aging satellite cell niche retains the capacity to support effective myogenesis upon enrichment of the mitogenic milieu with FGF. Altogether, satellite cell abundance, but not myogenic potential, deteriorates with age. This study suggests that the population of satellite cells that participate in myofiber maintenance during routine muscle utilization is not fully replenished throughout life