Economic Activities In Cities Research Articles

Structure of Plot Systems and Economic Activity in Cities: Linking Plot Types to Retail and Food Services in London, Amsterdam and Stockholm

Plot systems (also referred to as “property”, “parcel”, or “lot”) are generally recognised as the organisational framework of urban form that contributes to the economic performance of cities. However, studies that link the spatial form of plots to economic data are limited. The paper builds on the theory of Webster and Lai, which argues that the process of urbanisation is aligned with increased subdivision of property rights (increased division of land into plots, for example) due to the process of economic specialisation that is typical of cities. The aim of the paper is to test this theory by analysing whether there is a correlation between: (a) the shape and structure of plot systems, which are classified as types based on three plot metrics (size, compactness, and frontage index) and b) economic activity, measured as the concentration of retail and food activities per plot. The paper will use statistical analysis to relate plot types to economic activity in three European cities (London, Amsterdam, and Stockholm). The results provide empirical support for our initial hypothesis and Webster and Lai’s theory, which states that plots of smaller size, more regular shape, and smaller frontage generally correspond to a higher concentration of economic activity in cities.

Theoretical Arguments versus Empirical Evidence in Strategic Planning

The question this paper raises is whether implicit theoretical premises of seminal strategic planning documents are confirmed by empirical data. It is necessary to answer this question in order to assess the validity of proposed regional policy measures; in this respect, these measures may vary significantly depending on their academic basis. It is shown that, despite the latest achievements in regional science, current regional policy remains trapped in the theoretical frameworks of the twentieth century. That being said, there are obvious problems with empirical confirmation of agglomeration economies. The difficulties in interpreting observable data relate to the use of macroeconomic indicators for testing initially microeconomic models. One is compelled to use this practice for methodological reasons and due to a lack of data. We verify empirically the assertions that the territorial concentration of economic activity in cities and towns creates absolute advantages in terms of production efficiency, ensuring national economic growth and reducing regional disparities. According to our estimates, higher labor productivity is not inherent only to large cities; there is no sufficient evidence in favor of concentrating economic growth in agglomerations; rising interregional inequality is observed in most countries, including ones with high per capita income. We conclude that the results contradict widely disseminated declarations about the higher economic efficiency of agglomerations. It is particularly disturbing that some of these declarations are included in the Fundamentals of the State Policy of Regional Development of the Russian Federation until 2025 and in the Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation until 2025, thus having acquired the force of law.

Anatomy of Economic Activity There are Two Main Flows

I draw attention to an economic theory discovered in the 1930’s by the Canadian scholar Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984). At the time, Lonergan was unable to find an economist to read his manuscripts. Eventually, however, his results were published in For a New Political Economy (Lonergan 1998); and Macroeconomic Dynamics: An Essay in Circulation Analysis (Lonergan, 1999), volumes 21 and 15 of the Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan. Volume 21 contains almost all of Lonergan’s typewritten work on economics prior to and including the 1944 Essay in Circulation Analysis. Lonergan’s theory, however, remains largely unknown to both orthodox and heterodox economics. Within the contemporary ethos, economic models typically are remote from actual economic activities in cities, towns and people’s lives. Lonergan’s theory, by contrast, begins with economic activities. It builds on a key observation that there are not just “firms and households” but two functionally distinct types of firm. Businesses can and often do function in both ways, depending on transactions. Orthodox economics has been causing great damage to world cultures and ecosystems. Attempts to merely adjust mainstream models have proven ineffective. Within heterodox economics there has been a growing interest in finding a viable alternative. This paper gives a brief introduction to the alternative provided by Bernard Lonergan’s two-flow theory. It is a theory that will ground the possibility of effective and humane strategies for local and global economies. Elements of this paper were originally presented at the International Confederation of Associations for Pluralism in Economics (ICAPE), January 4th, 2018, Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Perception of future professionals of the construction industry of green building and architecture practices

Green building as a new concept is gaining more and more value, acts as an important mitigating measure against the negative side effects of economic activity in cities. The implementation of the ideas and practices of sustainable development in the construction industry has led to the emergence of a new direction – benvironmental (“green”) construction, which provides a much higher level of quality of facilities for constructed object. A study was carried out of the problems and prospects of green construction and architecture in cities. In this paper, the concept of green building and architecture is refined. The perception of green building and architecture practices by future construction industry professionals, the advantages and benefits of green building and architecture was investigated, factors that impede the implementation of green building in practice were identified. Currently, green building is little practiced for objective reasons. The practice of green building is hindered by a number of factors, for example, an unfavorable external environment in the form of policy or legislation, the economic situation in the country, negative market expectations, and lack of awareness. Health and increased productivity have been identified as the most important benefits of green building, followed by a reduction in the cost of construction and individual operations, and the conservation of natural resources. The recommendations addressed to non-governmental organizations, government bodies, professional communities are formulated.

Planning of Sustainable Industrial Zones and Means of Achieving them in Iraq

.

The impact of city reputation on city performance

ABSTRACTStudies have found that good corporate reputation benefits firm outcomes. Our research tests whether these benefits also hold for city reputation. We use a sample of 76 Spanish cities to analyse the effect of city reputation on city performance as measured by city economic activities, unemployment rates and net migration rates. After controlling for endogeneity and spatial autocorrelation, we find that good city reputation is positively associated with economic activities and negatively with unemployment, but not related to net migration. Our results may be of interest to local authorities, as they indicate the relevance of efforts to consolidate city reputation.

Panama canal expansion, U.S. trade diversion from west coast seaports and urban innovation

Adapting to the rapid process of globalization requires nodes of international trade and global financial operations conveyed in the world urban system. Urban and metropolitan areas need to strategically approach to incorporating the city economic activities to enlarge the scope and complexity of the city service and commodity. Because strong urban agglomerations usually lead to technological innovation, investigating the relation between the expansion of Panama Canal and its state and regional economic impacts that will be potentially affected within the U.S. can provides various policy insights in urban growth and technical innovations for the local areas. This study estimated reduced impacts of transportation and warehousing activities for foreign imports and exports for the west coast seaports of California, Oregon, and Washington as well as the concurrent impacts in other states stemming from the trade diversion in their direction, which will affect urban growth and innovation. We applied both the supply- and demand-side National Interstate Economic Models. We assumed that foreign imports and exports that currently arrive and leave the west coast customs district ports and are now transported to other U.S. Southern and East Coast states by truck and rail modes would be directly shipped to these other states via the deepened and expanded Panama Canal. The total negative impacts of transportation and warehousing values lost in the three west coast states from foreign import diversion were estimated to be $5795 million; for foreign exports, $1630 million. However, total positive gains due to the shift of transportation modes and new warehousing activities for foreign imports in the other states were estimated at $6304 million, while the gains were $9218 million for the case of foreign exports. The net impacts resulting from port modernization investment and shipping route changes will be an economic engine to affect U.S. states.

Rural–Urban Linkages and Sustainable Regional Development: The Role of Entrepreneurs in Linking Peripheries and Centers

Urban and rural areas differ in economic, social and environmental terms. Due to the diverging dynamics in urban and rural areas, the social and economic distance between them might increase in the future even more. Rural entrepreneurs with linkages to urban areas are able to bridge the rural–urban divide by accessing some of the urban features, such as knowledge and markets, while at the same time profiting from the advantages of their peripheral location. This paper highlights exploratory results from qualitative interviews with rural entrepreneurs, and we illustrate entrepreneurial linkages to urban centers. The interview data show that rural entrepreneurs with rural–urban linkages develop sensibility for core market demands and trends, they valuate rural assets, and they combine rural and urban sources of knowledge for innovation. Through their entrepreneurial activity, rural entrepreneurs with linkages to urban areas might constitute an opposite force to polarizing concentration of economic activities in cities. Hence, rural entrepreneurs with urban linkages might contribute to sustainable economic relationships between urban and rural areas.

Farther on down the road: transport costs, trade and urban growth in sub-Saharan Africa.

This paper investigates the role of inter-city transport costs in determining the income of sub-Saharan African cities. In particular, focusing on fifteen countries whose largest city is a port, I find that an oil price increase of the magnitude experienced between 2002 and 2008 induces the income of cities near that port to increase by 7 percent relative to otherwise identical cities 500 kilometers farther away. Combined with external estimates, this implies an elasticity of city economic activity with respect to transport costs of -0.28 at 500 kilometers from the port. Moreover, the effect differs by the surface of roads between cities. Cities connected to the port by paved roads are chiefly affected by transport costs to the port, while cities connected to the port by unpaved roads are more affected by connections to secondary centers.

Methods of assessing flood resilience of critical buildings

An overview is presented of recent advances in the assessment methods and mitigation solutions for the performance of critical buildings during flood events. This draws on research focusing on critical urban infrastructure, which is defined as assets that are essential for the continuity of economic activities in cities and for the basic living needs of the urban population. These assets include networks as well as buildings, the latter (termed ‘critical buildings‘) having an important role in protecting equipment and personnel associated with the networks. Examples include power stations, transport control centres, communication hubs, fire stations, shelters and hospitals. Unlike domestic constructions, due to their specificity, these buildings cannot easily be categorised in terms of type of construction or age, and have to be treated as individual buildings. Three methods are presented as a framework with a logical progression for the assessment of building flood vulnerability and the identification of improvement measures: the ‘quick scan’ method, the ‘selection and evaluation tools for flood proofing of buildings‘ and the ‘individual building flood damage tool’. It is expected that building owners, insurance companies, local authorities and agencies with urban flood management responsibilities will benefit from the application of the framework and tools presented.

The complex link of city reputation and city performance. Results for fsQCA analysis

Studies suggest that good corporate reputation benefits firm outcomes. Our research tests whether these benefits also hold for city reputation. We propose that the effect of city reputation on city performance does not depend on this individual variable, but on specific configurations of city reputation with other city characteristics. We use a sample of 72 Spanish cities to analyze the effect of these configurations on city economic activities, employment, and migration rates. Results for fsQCA show that city reputation has complex links with performance, so that specific combinations of city reputation with other city characteristics are sufficient conditions for city performance. Moreover, the combinations differ according to the measure of performance considered. Results also show that the influence of city reputation on performance is marked by causal asymmetry. These results are of interest for local authorities, as they indicate when efforts to consolidate city reputation are relevant for city performance.

Adsorption experiment of toxic micro-pollutants derived from automobiles using red soil.

In some countries, non-point source pollution derived from a city's economic activities tends to be a barrier to the improvement of water quality. Roadway runoff is known to contain toxic micro-pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Conversely, red soil is known to adsorb some organic matter. In this study, artificial roadway runoff water containing toxic micro-pollutants was made using roadway dust collected from a highway, and used for both batch-type tests and soil column tests with red soil in order to understand adsorption ability of the red soil on such toxic micro-pollutants, especially PAHs. In the batch-type tests, PAHs could be removed by approximately 40% when the contact time was 90 minutes. In the soil column tests, PAHs were removed by more than 80% while suspended solids were removed by more than 90%. Notably, PAHs with a high molecular weight were removed more readily in the tests than PAHs with a low molecular weight.

Roads and trade in Colombia

I estimate the effect of major roads within and between cities on the level and composition of trade for Colombian cities. I confirm that road distance between cities is a major impediment to trade. In addition, major roads within cities have a large effect on a city׳s exports and imports with an elasticity of approximately 0.20 estimated with ols and up to 0.50 with iv. If anything, the effects are stronger for the value than for the weight of exports. I interpret these results as city roads shifting economic activity in cities towards the production of tradable and somewhat lighter goods.

Characteristics of commercial bank branch networks based on complex networks theory：A case study on Bank of China in Beijing

Complex network theory, combined with social network technology, has been more and more widely used in the researches and applications related to realistically existing large irregular networks to find the rules of network operations and to improve operation efficiency. In human geography research, using complex network technology to analyze city economic activities can help improve the analysis and interpretation of the pattern, and the change of the pattern, of the distribution of geographic phenomena to a certain extent, and can be applied to the studies of the essential characteristics of geographic networks. In this paper, taking Bank of China as an example, using the theory of complex network and with the principle of proximity, based on data of bank branch distribution networks in the six administrative districts of Beijing, we constructed a complex network model of bank branch distribution networks with the service radius of 400 meters and 800 meters, and used GIS spatial visualization technology to analyze and interpret the network characteristics. The research shows that:(1) the bank branch networks showed a flat structure with sparsity and small world network characteristics. The flat management pattern of the bank branch networks shortens the length of typical routes, which enhances the clustering coefficient, improves network efficiency, and at the same time increases intensifies the degree of the market competition.(2) The convergence of the layout of bank branch distribution increases with the expansion of the service radius, and stability decreases. For bank branch spots in the network, best service radius is 400 meters to 800 meters; the network spots accessible by walking are more stable than the network spots accessible by public transportations. Specifically, for the bank branches with service radius less than 400 meters, since the sharing of the customers is weak, and also faced with the challenges of increasing land rent and intensifying competition, they should community-focused bank branches in order to enhance the cohesion and competitiveness of each community area. However, for the bank branches with service radius less than 800 meters, the increase of the length of typical routes causes the increase of the cost of the process and the decrease of operation efficiency. Therefore, the bank branches should diversify service features, improve the area's networking degree, enhance the survivability, and improve stability.(3) The bank branch distribution exhibit area differences. The high level nodes are showing high level of agglomeration in the areas within the 4th beltway, mainly concentrated in Financial Street, Sanyuanqiao, China World Trade Center, and CBD area. On the other hand, the node degrees show big differences at the street level. For example, on the streets of well-developed inner city areas, the network and node degree are high, while on the other streets, especially the streets close to suburban areas, there few bank branch networks, or even no nodes, indicative of financial exclusion. In the future the network planning should focus on cultivating a number of edge nodes to play leading roles, expanding the network coverage, and improving the area network service functions.

Urban energy use and carbon emissions from cities in China and policy implications

Urban areas contain 40% of the population and contribute 75% of the Chinese national economy. Thus, a better understanding of urban energy uses is necessary for Chinese decision-makers at various levels to address energy security, climate change mitigation, and local pollution abatement. Therefore, this paper addresses three key questions: What is the urban contribution to China's energy usage and CO 2 emissions? What is the contribution of large cities, and what alternate energy–economy pathways are they following? How have energy uses and CO 2 emissions transformed in the last two decades in key Chinese cities? This three-tier analysis illustrates the changes in urban energy uses and CO 2 emissions in China. The results show that the urban contributions make up 84% of China's commercial energy usage. The 35 largest cities in China, which contain 18% of the population, contribute 40% of China's energy uses and CO 2 emissions. In four provincial cities, the per capita energy usage and CO 2 emissions have increased several-fold. Rapid progress was made in reducing the carbon intensity of economic activities in cities throughout the 1990s, but alarmingly, such progress has either slowed down or been reversed in the last few years. These results have important policy implications.

Industrial Ecology and the Global Impacts of Cities

Cities are open systems and depend on the outside world to provide raw materials and assimilate waste to sustain their function. The input side of metabolism analysis involves characterization of various material and resource demands by a city. The output side looks at the by-products of the various urban functions and processes, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are a prominent example. There is yet a third aspect or dimension that is important in the metabolism of cities: the processes and mechanisms that shape, regulate, and govern the various flows. long been regarded as merely local issues. We know this is no longer true. On the one hand, the environmental problems of cities have grown beyond the city limits, both with multiple dimensions and with their scale of impacts ranging from local, to regional, to global (Bai and Imura 2000; Bai 2003; McGranahan et al. 2005). On the other hand, with approximately half of world population living as urban dwellers, and with the ongoing concentration of economic activities in cities, a majority of the global environmental impacts stem from cities. Because of the ever-increasing urban population this proportion is likely to become even larger. Thus, cities are rapidly becoming a “battleground for sustainability” (Clark 2003). Cities have not been major units of analysis in industrial ecology (IE), and industrial systems are not of much interest to urban scholars. People who are concerned about cities and those who are concerned about industrial systems generally belong to different

Urban development in Indonesia, 1990–2001: from the boom to the early reform era through the crisis

This article discusses the recent urban development in Indonesia and the extent to which the current economic crisis and uncertain sociopolitical situation have affected urban development. Until the mid-1990s, urban development fuelled by high economic growth has been characterized by restructuring of physical and economic activities. However, the recent economic crisis has caused economic activities in cities to shrink greatly. Meanwhile, the new legislation of regional autonomy and fiscal decentralization and current socioeconomic and political situation could have significant impacts on urban development in Indonesia in the near future.

SESSION 7B: SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY The Rise and Decline of Density in Economic Activity

In the United States the density of economic activity in cities differed significantly over time. Between the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, cities became increasingly dense; however, since the second half of the twentieth century, the trend has reversed as cities have become dispersed. The density of economic activities differed significantly across cities as well. At any given point in time, there is a great variation in the density of economic activities across cities. The dynamic changes in the spatial organization of economic activities also differed across cities. In some cities, such as New York, population density grew and plateaued while in others, such as St. Louis, it grew and fell dramatically. Yet, despite the fact that the defining element of a city is its density, few scholars have systematically examined the long-run changes in the spatial organization of economic activities. This paper documents the historical changes in the density of economic activities and explores the causes of their rise and decline.

Fiscal policies in open cities with firms and households

This paper provides an equilibrium numerical model of an open city economy with mobile firms and resident workers. Given household preferences and firm technologies and an exogenous configuration of city tax rates and national grants and fiscal mandates, the model calculates equilibrium values for aggregate city economic activity, factor prices, and finally, local tax bases, revenues, and public goods provision. The model is calibrated to the Philadelphia economy for Fiscal Year 1998. We then explore the economic and fiscal consequences of raising city tax rates and the city’s ability to finance rising local welfare payments. We find the city to be incapable of bearing significant increases in local responsibility for welfare transfers.

Infrastructure, Industrial Development, and Employment in Cities: Theoretical Aspects and Empirical Evidence

The article examines the impact of infrastructure supply on private economic activity in cities. Using a simple theoretical model, which takes the financing of infrastructure services into account, it is shown that infrastructures affect the sector composition in cities and the competitiveness of cities. The model also indicates that infrastructure effects can be identified using labor demand functions, which gives a theory-based motivation for empirical testing. In the applied part of the article, labor demand functions for large West German cities are estimated that make it possible to quantify the effects of providing infrastructure services on local job markets. The estimates reveal that differences in regional infrastructure supply explain up to 20 percent of the observed interregional disparities in employment growth across West German cities.