Economic Centrality Research Articles

Centralised Development and Inactive Business Sector: The Case of Nakhon Si Thammarat City Municipality

This article examines the relationship between the business sector and the policymaking of Nakhon Si Thammarat City Municipality in Southern Thailand. We find that business influence on local policy remains highly limited. We argue that this is primarily due to two factors: political and economic centralisation which limits the capacity of the municipal government, and the limited economic opportunities for medium and large businesses within the municipal borders. The result is that medium and large firms tend to focus their attention on and cultivate links with officials at the provincial and national level. At the same time, small businesses have expanded in the municipality. However, their inability to coordinate to make collective demands limits their influence on municipal policymaking. Instead, small entrepreneurs individually lobby the local government through the same channels as the general public, appealing for allocations from the government's limited community service budget.

The role of indirect oil and natural gas revenues in the Russian government budget

ABSTRACT The Russian federal and consolidated government budgets accrue large revenues directly from oil and natural gas, mostly from royalties and export fees. We use Russian Input-Output tables and other economic statistics to estimate how much revenue flowed to these budgets indirectly due to government spending of direct revenues in 2016–21. Although the addition of indirect revenues to the federal budget is modest (8–10 Russian rubles per 100 rubles spent), the corresponding increase in consolidated budget is quite sizable (26–30 rubles per 100 rubles spent). Given the high degree of political and economic centralization in Russia, the impact on the consolidated budget is more important than the impact on the federal budget. In addition, we speculate about the changing role of oil and natural gas budget revenues in the current environment and the near future.

Research on urban economic centrality in the perspectives of knowledge stocks and flows

In light of the profound advancements in information and communication technologies ushering in the knowledge economy, the urban space is undergoing a transformation from the traditional “space of places” to the emerging “space of flows.” This shift poses questions about the influence of knowledge flows on urban economic centrality. This paper seeks to address this knowledge gap by introducing a theoretical framework that elucidates how knowledge contributes to urban economic centrality. Our analysis focuses on both intra-city knowledge stocks and inter-city knowledge flows. Empirical findings in China highlight that knowledge stocks based on R&D and education levels, along with knowledge flows, significantly and positively influence all four dimensions of centrality. In contrast, knowledge spatial agglomeration within the knowledge stocks exhibits a significant positive correlation solely with power centrality. Additionally, although the knowledge stock structures don't yield significant results in the diffusion centrality model, for agglomeration and power centralities, a combination of specialized knowledge and telecommunications enhances urban economic centrality, while face-to-face communication strengthens the positive impact of diverse knowledge on urban economic centrality. The results suggest implementing knowledge-based policies tailored to different nodes in the city network is expected to promote sustainable competitiveness in the urban system.

Breast self-examination practice and its determinants among women in Indonesia: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression.

4 Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most diagnosed cancer in Indonesia, according to the World Health Organization in 2020. Economic centralization in Java Island worsens the accessibility and inequality of healthcare facilities. The limited standard BC screening, such as mammography and ultrasound, generates breast self-examination (BSE) as the practical and effortless method to detect the earliest sign of breast cancer. Early detection and prompt management of BC improve survival rate and quality of life. Hence, we aimed to synthesize the pooled prevalence data, identify the determinants, and compare BSE practice between Java Island and non-Java Islands in Indonesia. Methods: This study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). We conducted intensive searches in Cochrane Library, PubMed, Google Scholar, and SINTA (Science and Technology Index) - Indonesian web-based research information from September 2017 – 2022. For a critical appraisal of the studies, we employed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal checklist for studies reporting prevalence data. We utilized Review Manager 5.4 for conducting the meta-analysis. The pooled analysis was reported as a prevalence and odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: Total samples (n = 6,361) from 41 full-text publications were included. The overall national prevalence of BSE practice was 43.14% [95% CI: 36.08, 50.20, P <0.001, I2 = 100%]. BSE practice in Java Island was 44.58% [95% CI: 35.42, 53.75] and significantly higher than that of Non-Java Island at 41.62% [95% CI: 29.83, 53.41]. University students reported the highest prevalence of BSE practice with 49.90 [95% CI: 40.27, 59.33]. Good knowledge, good attitude toward BSE, family history of BC, family support, and BC information exposure were all statistically associated with a higher determinant of BSE practice among women in Indonesia. Conclusions: Only less than 50% of fertile women in Indonesia practiced BSE, with the lowest percentage on non-Java Islands and community-group. Integrative and collaborative programs should be established with the government, health policymakers, and community health groups to promote BSE as routine screening for breast cancer.

Movement for Balanced Development: A Case Study of a Local Government in South Korea

South Korea has a metropolitan area where, like major cities worldwide, the population is dense as a result of employment opportunities. To prevent economic centralization, the government has implemented policies to relocate public institutions to provincial areas, completing its basic plan for innovation cities in 2003. This case study uses the Granger causality analysis, the impulse response function, and the variance decomposition method to investigate the relations among economic growth, employment, population inflow, and tax revenue for the period 1989-2018 in Chungbuk Innovation City, South Korea. Besides evidence of Granger causality among the variables, we also find that the impulse response function and variance decomposition results produce meaningful outcomes. This indicates that Chungbuk Innovation City must increase its competitiveness through population expansion measures and by promoting the development of related industries. In a sluggish economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government needs to actively promote relocation policies.

Relation of migration trend and gender of RMG labour force in Industrial areas in Bangladesh

Legitimate labour migration has, no doubt, got much attention in various economies and labour force irrespective of gender tempt for diverse employment. Industrial employment and job concentration in industrial cluster always provoke work driven migration. People relocate their whereabouts based on their secure livelihoods. And, economic centralization and targeted migration thus associate each other with no exception in Bangladesh. In the 5-decade long industrial history, many changes, reforms and challenges were noticed throughout our industrial ecosystem and labour dynamics. Labour force is a critical strength for efficient and low-cost productivity. In this regard, our mixed labour force, skilled, semi and unskilled workforce, has shaped our local industry and positioned as the most competitive regionally and contributed to gain productivity momentum and foreign trade growth. RMG industry, the forefront export-oriented sector of economy, has emerged as the largest employer of local migrated workforce of all contemporary industries in Bangladesh encouraging labour migration in urban area. This industry shares relatively large in GDP and export earning. With unprecedented contribution by RMG to economy, this study attempted to know whether any relationship of migration trend and gender status since this industry is a female dominant industry. The assessment of correlation is justifiably demanded due to women employment intensity since inception. But, this quantitative research-cause and effect study resulted that gender and migration condition and flow have no positive relationship and integration upon applying non-parametric test Chi-square test of significance. Around 252 independent samples from RMG factories in Dhaka and nearby districts where industrial hubs are located. It has obtained the null and rejected alternative hypothesis. These findings may help for national perspective planning and development planning. The drawn outcomes may also enable us national resource planning, mapping and human development index. As well, we can measure labour productivity in RMG industry and plan for future facility as well urban living and economic development.

FACTORS THAT AFFECTED COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE IN SPATIAL PLANNING OF DEPOK CITY

The aims of the study are to analyse the factors that affected collaborative governance and also efforts to build collaborative governance in spatial planning in the city of Depok. This research used qualitative method with post-positivist approach. The data collection method consists of (1) Primary data which were collected through in-depth interviews with Public Works and Spatial Planning Department of Depok city; Development Planning Board of Depok city; and stakeholders in Depok related to the research problem such as housing developers and social society. (2) Secondary data were collected through the literature and documentation at the Public Works and Spatial Planning Department in Depok city.According to Indonesian laws and regulations Article 26 of 2007 on Spatial Planning, each city in Indonesia is required to have a Green Open Space (GOS) of at least 30 percent of its territory. It is also purposed to increase cooperation of all elements for Depok’s spatial planning.This research indicates that the implementation of collaborative governance in Depok’s spatial planning has not been effective because Depok only has 3227.26 ha GOS less than 30 percent of 202.9 KM² city wide; the economic centralization in one particular region should have been intended for office or municipal services; and the role of government is still dominant in cooperation with stakeholders in spatial planning and management through public discussion, public hearing, and public consultation. Such a condition is influenced by several factors: lack of networked structure; lack of distributive accountability/ responsibility; and the lack of trust among the participants in spatial planning of Depok city. Keywords: collaborative governance, good governance, spatial planning, green open space

Addressing social inequality in Tanzania: Aspects of continuity and change in social policy between 1961 and 2020

One of the main challenges that newly independent African countries inherited from colonialism was that of inequality. Reviewing literature on the experience of Tanzania in dealing with this challenge, this article examines some social policies put in place by the Tanzanian state to address inherited inequality. The focus is on policies aimed at curbing inequality through economic centralization and nationalization of major means of production, agricultural products pricing and marketing, state financing of primary education as well as land use for small businesses. The article covers the efforts made by the socialist state in Tanzania starting from 1967 up to the introduction of liberalism in the early 1980s. The period starting 2015 and ending 2020 is treated as a period of attempted return to some of the interventionist social policies of Ujamaa. It is shown that the earnestness and political commitment of the leaders of Ujamaa succeeded in controlling the levels of inequality in the country for only sometime. Forces form both within and without the group of political elites culminated in the reversal of these efforts and the result is that inequality has persisted and, in some cases, increased in the country. Whereas a complete return to Ujamaa is not envisioned, it is suggested that a certain level of state control of capital employment in production and distribution of goods and services in the country is the way to curb the disturbing levels of inequality. Key words: inequality, social policy, Tanzania, ujamaa.

Covid-19 as a catalyst of asymmetric bilateralism: ASEM’s vulnerable position and economic salience as a saviour of the EU-Asia multilateral relations

The unprecedented global health crisis caused by COVID-19 has unleashed individual, self-centredresponses in most states, including Asian and European countries. Multilateralism may be moreimperative than ever, but the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) does not seem to epitomise a feasibleinternational platform to guide cooperation. This article attempts to assess whether the ASEM stillconstitutes a relevant instrument of intercontinentalism, as there seem to be indications suggestingthat EU-Asia relations will not abandon their apparent multilateral stalemate. In fact, ASEM couldrather deepen asymmetries between a highly institutionalised EU and an institutionally devoid Asia.Notwithstanding, the current pandemic offers ASEM an unprecedented opportunity to recover somesalience as a relevant multilateral EU-Asia platform, namely, the centrality of economics. Given theirremediable necessity to strengthen economic cooperation to alleviate the impact of COVID-19, this isa unique opportunity to strengthen connectivity as well as a multilateral cooperation and governancethat would otherwise blur.

Urban Network in Sumatra Island

Studies of a region’s growth can only be conducted thoroughly considering its position in a larger urban system. In this system a region interacts with another region resulting in a complex urban network. Inter-urban interactions manifest in various forms such as population migration, trade, or information exchange. This study shows that urban centrality based on its interactions differs from urban centrality based on size. These interactions can be seen from the intensity of urban functions based on labor as well as interactions that can be seen from the intent on movement. This research is aimed at explaining the centrality patterns of urban interaction in Indonesia as the first identification on the relationship of cities on the island of Sumatra based on gravity model on economy and passenger movement based. There is a positive relationship between transportation centrality and economic centrality in Sumatra Island. The highest centrality in Sumatra island can be found in the Medan Area and the lowest centrality in Bengkulu.

THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION ENERGY POLICY, AN INSTRUMENT FOR RECONSOLIDATING THE STATUS OF HIGH POWER

The disintegration of the USSR in December 1991 marked the end of the Cold War. Many foreign policy analysts were quick to point out that Russian Federation had ceased to be a threat to the Western world. Despite facing a multitude of economic, social and military problems, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin the Russian state managed to be reborn. Russian Federation's miraculous return was made possible by the successful implementation of a policy of economic centralization that overlapped with a period of rising global oil prices. Economic prosperity encouraged the Russian Federation government to return to the old practices of the Soviet period, succeeding in unbalancing the fragile states of Eastern Europe and once again endangering the peace of the entire continent.
 
 Keywords: Russian Federation; Cold War; Crimea; hydrocarbons; conflict.

Fragments of an anarchic society: Kura-Araxes territorialization in the third millennium BC town at Tel Bet Yerah

ABSTRACT Neither a polity, nor a culture, nor an ethnicity in any strict sense, Kura-Araxes has been described as a ‘society against the state’, with an aversion to structures of economic and social centralization. What happens when such a society is thrown into an apparently dependent relationship with a settled urban population? This question is explored through the lens of Tel Bet Yerah/Khirbet el-Kerak, in the Jordan river valley, where a small diasporic Kura-Araxes community settled in abandoned spaces within a 25-hectare walled town, maintaining its corporate identity over a span of two or three generations.

Vivienda y estrategias familiares de vida en barrios populares consolidados en Bogotá

This paper questions the way in which household owners, residents in consolidated working-class neighborhoods, mobilize their houses in their strategies for family life. This study was conducted in five informal neighborhoods in Bogota, applying 355 surveys and 29 in-depth interviews using a biographical approach. The results show the economic centrality of housing for these vulnerable households. They confirm that their houses are increasingly important to contain crises and in good times the house is the first to be invested in. In terms of social mobility, in some cases, the house has allowed for children to study, but in others its construction has provoked disinvestment in human capital. In short, for these households, owning a house has a role in containing the insecurities –typical of current capitalism and the neoliberal state– of the social system.

Competition and Risk

Merger review in the United States has overlooked a significant competition harm: increasing risk. Mergers can increase both direct and systemic risk. There is now persuasive evidence that negative shocks to a firm can harm the firm’s consumers and trading partners, leading to national economic effects. And, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown all too clearly, how we structure our markets can become a matter of life and death overnight. I argue that mergers that increase risk by harming competition can be blocked under the Clayton Act. Risk should therefore be treated like innovation in merger review as a factor that can increase or decrease merger legality. I show when a merger is likely to change risk, to whom, and in what direction. Important factors include pre- and post-merger market power, consumer exposure, and economic centrality. When a merger increases risk because of a harm to competition, that increased risk is an antitrust harm and can therefore be used to block the merger. Moreover, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice’s prosecutorial discretion allows them to consider risk harms in merger review even when such harms are not the direct result of reduced competition. To illustrate, I apply risk analysis to a large generic pharmaceuticals merger. I conclude with recommendations on how to incorporate risk analysis into merger review. Doing so reveals otherwise invisible but significant merger harms and demonstrates that merger efficiencies have serious costs in addition to their often-discussed benefits. In an Appendix, I propose language for a new section on risk that the new administration can consider if it revises the DOJ and FTC’s Horizontal Merger Guidelines.

Technocapitalism, the Intangible Economy, and Economic Centralization

Abstract The aim of this article is to analyze the underlying economic structures which have led to the rise of the tech giants. In their book Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy, economists Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake outline the four fundamental features of the technocapitalist (or what they consider the intangible) economy. Key to the emerging intangible economy, they suggest, are the four “S’s” of this new form of capitalism, viz., scalability, sunkenness, synergies, and spillovers. In the following, I explicate the ways in which, if taken seriously, these four features of the technocapitalist economy tend towards heightened levels of economic centralization and economic inequality as compared to those experienced under industrial capitalism.

Towards an Asian-Pacific or Atlantic Century?

This paper aims to study whether the 21st century will be an Atlantic or an Asian-Pacific century. Indeed, the literature has been studying the reshaping of the world economy, motivated by the impressive economic growth of Asian countries observed in the last decades. As the main researchers have focusing on this problematic in a West versus Asia perspective, our main contribution is to give a different perspective, comparing the Atlantic with Asia-Pacific and, therefore, finding out the main features of each region.To do so, we identified the major trends on literature review, and through a quantitative analysis we describe the evolution in the period 1990-2018, using proxies for both regions. This analysis is mainly based on economic indicators, but we also analyse the political field.From a strengths and weaknesses analysis for each region, we were able to conclude that the Atlantic, despite including south emerging economies, has been losing its economic centrality. Nevertheless, an Asian-Pacific century is still uncertain, even though more probable than Atlantic’s. Although being the biggest economically region, the major FDI attractor and outward investor, as well as an increasingly relevant partner on merchandise trade, Asia-Pacific still faces some challenges regarding its soft power, influence in global governance and human development.

Re-centring peripheries along ring roads under a smart growth agenda: case studies of Espoo Innovation Garden and Vantaa Aviapolis in Finland

ABSTRACTThe study expands on the recent cluster-oriented smart growth vision in Greater Helsinki, Finland, and examines with two case studies the pertinent locational factor and locality-specific issues. The contemporary regional development tendencies of smart clustering have reframed place-making schemes with an aim of placing large concentrations of business activities on the periphery. The case studies of Espoo Innovation Garden and Vantaa Aviapolis draw on descriptive before-and-after analysis over a defined timeframe. The study addresses the formation and transformation of the spatial structure and its relative and relational qualities on an aggregated scale. It demonstrates the potential, challenges, tools, and strategies of the operating smart growth agenda generating spatial-economic competitiveness and attractiveness factors in these particular projects. The findings explain how the locational factor along ring roads parallel with the land-use management and former model of spatial and economic concentration and centralization are hampering the restructuring of new urban centralities.

The Maritime and Continental Networks of Kīsh Merchants under Mongol Rule: The Role of the Indian Ocean, Fārs and Iraq

AbstractBased on a variety of literary and archaeological sources, notably the tariff lists produced in Rasulid Yemen, this study reconstructs the trade routes of the Kīsh merchants, demonstrating that the Persian Gulf route—between South and West India (Coromandel, Malabar, and Gujarat) and Iraq via the Persian Gulf—and the Red Sea route—between South and West India and Egypt via the Red Sea—were closely connected in the Mongol period. This not only manifests aspects of the proto-globalization in Mongol Eurasia but also argues against the supposed economic decline of post-1258 Baghdad and the economic centrality of Cairo in the post-Abbasid Muslim world.

Entrepreneurship and regional dynamics: the case of Chile

ABSTRACTDuring the last 20 years, social and political consensus has afforded the successful gradual implementation of entrepreneurship policy in Chile, transforming the country into one of the world’s most productive entrepreneurship ecosystems. However, the excessive political and economic centralization that has characterized Chile raises the question of whether spatial dependence influences entrepreneurship and what factors have led to this condition. By applying spatial econometric tools to data from 320 districts in Chile during the period 2013–2014, we conclude that there is spatial dependence among districts in Chile in relation to the creation of new businesses and that the immigrant population, the presence of different categories of universities and local patenting capacity are the variables with the greatest positive effect on this dependence.

The Economic Centrality of Urban Centers in the Medieval Peloponnese: Late 11th–Mid-14th Centuries

The Peloponnese, a province of the Byzantine Empire in the 11th and 12th centuries, was divided into three distinct political entities after 1204: the Frankish Principality of Achaia, the Venetian colonies of Modon and Coron, and the Byzantine lands in the southeast. The number and size of cities in the Peloponnese during the 11th and 12th centuries expanded, and the establishment of the new political entities of the 13th century did not hinder the development of its urban centers. New urban centers appeared, and the dynamics of the old urban centers witnessed a major shift. The focus of this paper is on port towns, since the majority of the available data derive from them, and aims to investigate the economic centrality of the port towns in the Peloponnese in the context of their environs, economic activities, and their position in the eastern Mediterranean exchange system. The theoretical framework is based on concepts of network theory, centrality, and economic complexity, as well as on a thorough evaluation of the material and textual evidence. In doing so, the economic profile of each central place is reconstructed, as well as a comparison between them.