Economic Centrality Research Articles

Behavioural economics and social economics: opportunities for an expanded curriculum

Purpose The global financial crisis (GFC) has undermined the legitimacy of orthodox neo-classical economic assumptions, which nevertheless continue to frame the philosophical assumptions of teaching in business schools. The purpose of this paper is to make a case in favour of an expansion of the business school curriculum to incorporate behavioural economics. The paper will also contend that behavioural economics can be connected to social economics, as they are both heterodox in this study and analyse economic phenomenon outside of a neo-classical framework. The aim is to contribute to arguments for an expanded curriculum, beyond the framing assumptions of neo-classical rationalism. This paper will also support its case by reviewing behavioural economics to make the case that this literature can be connected to social economics. This assertion is based on shared connections, including the importance of Kantianism in behavioural economics and in social economics. These connections will be discussed as a common point of reference points, or ties that can serve to broker links between these two economic paradigms. Practical implications (if applicable) the GFC presents an opportunity to re-shape the business school curriculum to acknowledge the centrality of socio-economics and behavioural economics, and consequently to offer an alternative to the dominant ontological assumptions – taken from the economic understanding of rationality – that have previously underpinned business school pedagogy. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents an inter-disciplinary teaching case, which incorporates socio-economic and behavioural economics perspectives. The teaching case concerned a socio-economic understanding of corruption and white-collar crime. It was also inter-disciplinary to include inputs from business history and criminology. The teaching case developed an appreciation among students that corruption, white-collar crime and entrepreneurship can be analysed within a social economics and behavioural economics lens. Findings The teaching case example discussed an alternative socio-economic and behavioural economics understanding to core areas of the MBA curriculum with the potential to be included in other academic disciplines. This enabled students to apply a behavioural economic approach to white-collar crime. The findings derived from this case study are that behavioural economics has the potential to enhance the teaching of socio-economics. Originality/value The originality of this paper is to apply behavioural economics to a socio-economic teaching case, in core subject areas of the MBA curriculum.

Predicting US county economic resilience from industry input-output accounts

ABSTRACTResilience is defined as a system’s ability to initially resist and then recover from a shock. Here we apply this concept to examine the performance of U.S. counties during the Great Recession. The response of local economies to manmade and natural shocks is hypothesized to depend on the centrality of local industries within the economy, or how well connected they are to the other industries. We first calculate a centrality value for each industry using the national Input-Output accounts. We then ‘step down’ these values to the county level using industry employment data. We then test empirically whether local economies containing more centralized industries were more resilient, using a resilience measure that compares the local employment rebound and decline during the Great Recession. Our results suggest that measures of economic centrality adopted from the study of complex networks provide new insights when applied to the fields of regional science and spatial analysis, and economic growth more generally.

Central Place and Liminal Landscape in the Territory of Populonia

This article aims to outline new data on the urbanization of Populonia starting from its foundation, with particular reference to the results of archaeological surveys carried out by the University of Siena since the 1980s. The landscape archaeology approach has allowed us to reconstruct the Etruscan city’s organization of settlements as well as its management of resources. In addition, this investigative tool has proven the most effective method to detect both places of economic or ideological centrality and specific liminal landscapes in the territory of Populonia. The urban development of the Etruscan city represents an anomalous case for several reasons that are mainly dependent on its shape, which required unconventional choices in the organization and management of its territory and natural resources. Our research leads us to suggest that the Etruscan city’s acropolis seems to have played the role of central place starting right from the establishment of the city. Within some of the new acquisitions coming from my PhD research we have to consider the feature of the hilltop fortresses system and the detection of a “liminal landscape” in the northeastern stretch of the territory between Populonia and Volterra. This particular part of the landscape had been a sacred district with a strong peripheral character and possibly close connections to the central place thanks to the significant availability of natural resources.

The Fall of the Old Guards: Explaining Decentralization in China

In the absence of a credible constitution, what mechanism can commit authoritarian leaders to preserving local economic autonomy? We explore the political origin of the puzzling economic decentralization in China, which persisted for two decades. Through a detailed analysis of the composition of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, we find that the Cultural Revolution radically reoriented the composition of the elite selectorate from one favoring central agencies to one favoring local interests. Due to relatively lower turnover in subsequent years, this realigned elite incentive to favor decentralization policy, thus committing the Chinese leadership in the 1980s to a path of decentralization. In addition, the association between the party elite composition and policy orientation also emerged in other Leninist regimes, particularly Taiwan under Kuomintang (KMT)’s rule and the Soviet Union. The re-population of central officials in the Central Committee in the 1980s and the 1990s led to robust economic centralization into the 2000s, making decentralization an unlikely path of reform in the near future.

Towards ‘ethno-national peripheralisation’? Economic dependency amidst political resistance in Palestinian East Jerusalem

Recent studies discuss ‘peripheralisation’ as an uneven socio-spatial phenomenon driven by processes of economic centralisation and marginalisation (Kühn and Bernt, 2013) in capitalist (or capitalising) societies (Bernt and Colini, 2013). In this article, I utilise the concept of peripheralisation in the context of an ethno-national dispute in which spatial, economic and regional dynamics are largely determined by territorial policies of control and exclusion. I combine extant literature on the geopolitics and economy of Jerusalem with the Centre–Periphery framework in order to analyse the development and decline of East Jerusalem’s socio-economic status and political environment from 1967 to 2016. As I will show, since the beginning of the 1990s, Israeli national security policies have transformed East Jerusalem from a Palestinian metropolitan centre into a region on the socio-economic periphery of Israel. I term this particular type of marginalisation ‘ethno-national peripheralisation’, a process of socio-economic decline that is not a relational product of neoliberal centralisation, but an output of ethno-national policies of division and annexation. The radical shift in East Jerusalem’s regional socio-economic status, from a centre of one national realm to the periphery of another, transforms urban life and political spatial strategies in contemporary Jerusalem. The case of East Jerusalem’s peripheralisation demonstrates the ways in which ethno-national policies can create counter outcomes of ethno-national desegregation accelerated by physical entrapment, economic dependency and urban neoliberalism.

The regulation of the financial sector in China: a tale of two governments

ABSTRACTThis article discusses an important regulatory phenomenon in China’s securities markets: regulation by local governments. Multi-level financial market regulation is an intrinsic part of the Chinese financial regulatory system, and the article looks at the nature and dynamics of the role played by local governments, and interactions between the central government and local governments. The article commences with a review of the degrees of economic decentralisation and political centralisation evident in China. The article then discusses the struggle between local governments and the central government that arise from competing objectives. After reviewing regulatory powers of local governments in general, and their powers to regulate credit companies, financing guarantor companies, private capital management companies, and regional markets, the article examines the competition between local governments for financial resources and its implications.

Factors determining intra-regional fiscal decentralization in Russia and the US

Abstract We use panel data for Russia's regions (2005–2013) and the US states (1997–2013) and several different econometric specifications to estimate and compare the determinants of fiscal decentralization in the two countries. We find that while the factors of decentralization in the US states largely conform to existing theoretical predictions, this is not so for Russia, where almost no factors are consistently associated with intraregional fiscal decentralization. Moreover, our results for Russia differ from prior results based on earlier data. We conjecture that the recent weakening of the effects of conventional fiscal decentralization determinants in Russia is due to the decline of democratic institutions in Russia's regions and overall political and economic centralization in the country.

Contested Space, Peacebuilding and the Post-conflict City

The physical renaissance of Belfast, with new waterfront developments, shopping precincts and tech-led industries, are potent signifiers of how far the region has come since the Belfast Agreement. However, the effects of regeneration have been socially and spatially uneven, and sites of modernity sit uncomfortably close to communities that are still affected by poverty, division and violence. This article identifies a range of competitive discourses on contested space, each one attempting to frame the problem in preferential but inevitably partial ways. The analysis concludes by emphasising the centrality of economics in peacebuilding, especially in the places left behind in the new post-conflict order.

Knowledge Externalities, Economic Centralization, and Job Creation

This paper examines the effects of knowledge externalities (technology specialization and technology diversification) on job creation in European regions. The moderating effect of economic centralization on the above relation is also tested by using the measure of size of government from economic freedom index. For empirical analyses, a panel data on 203 regions in Europe from 2000 to 2012 was used. The results indicate that whereas specialization and related diversification of technology have negative effects on regional job creation, unrelated diversification of technology has a positive effect on regional job creation. This study also suggests that economic control to transform knowledge externalities into regional job creation should be decentralized in Coordinated Market Economies but centralized in Liberal Market Economies. Overall, we provide one- size-fits all solution for regional job creation by disentangling the complex interrelationships among knowledge externalities, economic centralization, and the varieties of capitalism.

Confronting scales of settlement hierarchy in state-level societies: Upper Mesopotamia and Central Anatolia in the Middle Bronze Age

In this article, I adopt a long-established method known as rank-size analysis to detect particular settlement patterns in the Khabur Triangle (KT) and central Anatolia (CA) during the Middle Bronze Age. Archaeologists must be particularly careful when applying rank-size analysis to a given study area as the results can change at a different spatial scale. With these premises in mind, in this work, I first show the results produced by performing rank-size analyses on the two whole study areas and assess comparatively any difference in the observed patterns between them. Second, I break down each study area into smaller window analyses in order to detect how settlement size distributions change at a more local scale. The results show that at a larger regional scale, both central Anatolia and the Khabur Triangle in the Middle Bronze Age are characterized by fragmented politically landscapes of competing independent polities loosely integrated. By contrast, at smaller local scales central Anatolia and the Khabur Triangle show a different picture. In central Anatolia settlement systems appear more nucleated in large centres dominating their surrounding rural hinterlands and strong political and economic centralization is evident at Kültepe and Boğazköy. On the other hand, in the Khabur Triangle settlement primacy is less accentuated and the polities are more loosely integrated. These examples demonstrate the advantage of using rank size analysis at different spatial scales for having a complete understanding of the dynamics behind the observed empirical data.

‘There’s always winners and losers’: traditional masculinity, resource dependence and post-disaster environmental complacency

ABSTRACTThe 2013 Southern Alberta flood was a costly and devastating event. The literature suggests that such disasters have the potential to spur greater environmentalism and environmental action, as residents make connections between global environmental change and local events. However, the literature also suggests that residents in communities dependent on fossil fuel extraction might see technological disasters, like oil spills, as threats to their economic well-being, thereby limiting environmental reflexivity. Given that Alberta is home of the tar sands, how might a flood disaster affect men’s environmental views, given both traditional notions of masculinity and men’s economic dependence on oil production? Using a survey of 407 flood-affected residents of Calgary and in-depth qualitative interviews with 20 men directly impacted by the flood, this article demonstrates men’s decreased tendency to change their environmental views after the flood. The qualitative data reveal that men justify this reluctance by shifting blame for climate change to the Global South, by arguing for the economic centrality of the tar sands for Alberta, and by discussing how a warming climate will largely be a positive outcome for Alberta. The article concludes with discussion of relevance for environmental sociology and for public policy.

Measuring the economic centrality of the Chinese urban network

In recent years, global concern has arisen regarding the significant changes in economic centrality in the Chinese urban system induced by informatisation, globalisation and regionalisation. This study aimed to establish a quantitative method based on a comprehensive analysis of economic centrality in the urban system and to apply this to a case study of the Chinese urban system. This paper, based on the analysis of three key factors – hinterland or large spatial scale; co-operation with a division of urban economy or competitive substitution relationship; and reliance on its own resources or a service network (in the case of an enterprise) – argues that economic centrality in an urban network is complex and is based on the size, network and headquarter economy (HQE) of a city. This paper demonstrates that the increasing importance of the network economy and the HQE does not displace that of a city's size, thus indicating that a city's size is still relevant but no longer a primary factor. The results prove that the methods used in this study permitted an effective analysis of the economic centrality in the Chinese urban system. The authors, therefore, hope that this paper can provide a frame of reference for analysing economic centrality in urban systems of developing countries.

Using laser scanner technology to analyse mud-brick architecture in the ancient Near East: the Palatial Complex of Arslantepe (Malatya, Turkey)

This paper presents the preliminary results of a laser scanning survey carried out at the archaeological mound site of Arslantepe, located in eastern Turkey. The Italian Archaeological Expedition in Eastern Anatolia has largely brought to light its long history spanning from the 6th millennium BCE to the Byzantine period. The most outstanding evidence unearthed so far is a group of remarkably well preserved monumental buildings erected during the final centuries of the 4th millennium BCE, when the economic and political centralization reached its climax. Recently, the whole area became an open-air museum protecting the archaeological structures from climatic stress and enabling visitors to have a glimpse of the monumental complex as it was. The laser scanning survey was aimed at aiding the interpretation of the archaeological features through extremely accurate measurements as well as to provide the researchers with structural and condition monitoring of the surfaces overtime. Given the ever-changing plastic shape that mud-brick buildings take on over the time, this survey turned out to be an interesting challenge for testing laser scanner technology, since it is not easy to connect to any regular design.

Spatial planning and its implementation in provincial China: a case study of the Jiangsu region along the Yangtze River plan

Spatial planning is considered as an important governance instrument to cope with uncoordinated regional problems. This article explores the underlying rationale and mechanisms of spatial planning in provincial China through a case study of the Jiangsu region along the Yangtze River (JSYR) plan. It reveals that the practice of the JSYR plan reflected the changing strategic expression of the provincial government on regional development and was shaped by the contests between provincial and municipal governments. The planning policies and provincial economic and political mobilizations formed as a spatial policy framework that promoted plan implementation at the municipal level. The plan achieved development goals of overall economic growth and infrastructural construction, but it was ineffective regarding development control and regional coordination. The case study also sheds light on the dynamic relationship between provincial and municipal governments, and the structural problems of spatial governance under economic decentralization and political centralization in China.

Flemish Diamond or ABC-Axis? The spatial structure of the Belgian metropolitan area

ABSTRACTThis contribution traces the evolution of the Belgian urban system by adopting a historical taxonomy of agglomeration-economy regimes, and poses the question whether a new centralizing agglomeration-economy regime based on renewed ‘metropolization’ can be observed. Belgium has federalized into three regions during the last decades and different spatial perspectives emerged about how the central metropolitan area crosscuts the regional borders. After placing Belgian metropolization in its historical context, we engage with its contemporary geography. We inquire if the metropolitan area of Belgium is more akin to the ‘Flemish Diamond’, with capital city Brussels as the southernmost node, or whether a spatial pattern reminiscent of the historical ‘Antwerp-Brussels-Charleroi (ABC)-Axis’ is a more adequate description. To answer these questions, we examine the spatial integration of the Belgian labour market utilizing the connectivity field method and a 2010 nationwide travel-to-work data set. Based on this analysis, inferences are drawn about labour market interdependencies between various parts of the urban system. The results indicate that contemporary metropolization in Belgium can be topographically expressed as an area that is more trans-regional than the Flemish Diamond yet more polycentric than an extension of Brussels, thus pointing to renewed economic centralization tendencies at the supra-regional level.

On the Consequences of Nation State and Welfare State: The Case of InternationalMigration

On the Consequences of Nation State and Welfare State: The Case of InternationalMigration Dr. Devrim Özkan Abstract This study analyses the structural characteristics of the political, economic and cultural outcomes caused by the welfare state policies that render the problems such as migration and identity irresolvable. With the establishment of the modern society, while communising the political decision-making processes, interests and goals to increase development dynamics, it also caused the emergence of numerous social problems. The structure of the nation state that boosts the cultural, political and economic centralisation also lays the groundwork for the establishment of the welfare state by way of communising the wealth. A society comprising of individuals with common interests and goals has a uniform and centralised structure. Such a society defines itself according to its differences from other societies and has the tendency to construct a common identity and future. Designed national identities cause racist and xenophobic political movements which are against international migration gaining in power, and hence increase conflicts, risks and crises. In this context, our study investigates the structural causes of the rapidly increasing risks, crises and social conflicts resulting from the policies of the welfare state. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/rah.v5n2a3

Cidades médias na Amazônia brasileira : da centralidade econômica à centralidade política de Marabá e Santarém (Estado do Pará)

Este artigo analisa a importância e o papel que cumprem duas cidades médias - Marabá e Santarém - em face das transformações espaciais que vêm ocorrendo na Amazônia brasileira, responsáveis por definir uma complexa estrutura territorial e novas centralidades urbano-regionais. Com base em pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, analisam-se fatores histórico-geográficos responsáveis pelo papel de destaque que essas cidades assumem no contexto regional amazônico. Da mesma maneira, buscam-se discutir, por meio de dados primários e secundários, elementos da centralidade urbana exercida por essas duas cidades nas suas respectivas sub-regiões, o sudeste e o oeste paraense. A centralidade é considerada em sua dimensão econômica, mas também em sua dimensão política, tendo em vista a proposta de fragmentação territorial pensada para o Estado do Pará, voltada para a criação de dois novos Estados da federação - Carajás e Tapajós.

Las ciudades latinoamericanas en la economía mundial: la geografía de centralidad económica y sus transformaciones recientes

In this paper I analyze the position of Latin America in the world economy and how it has change during the crisis of 2008/9. Going beyond the usual rankings of the gdp, the paper emphasizes the geography of economic centrality. Economic centers are conceptualized as cities which concentrate economic activities which are relatively monopolized. One particular manifestation of this core-ness are the global cities. In this paper data on the localization of the world's biggest companies (Forbes Global 2000) are as well analyzed as data on gross value added in producer services in 126 cities around the world and the Global Network Connectivity (GNC) of the global cities, as calculated by GaWC (Globalization and World City Study Group). The results show, firstly, that as regards formal economic power Latin American cities remain marginal, though they succeeded to improve their position during the recent economic crisis. Secondly, data also show that São Paulo and Mexico City have important clusters of producer services, what makes them important nodes in the organization and governance of commodity chains. However, for a discussion of the position of Latin America in the economic centrality of the world economy it is crucial to understand that the agents in this organization and governance of commodity chains are in many cases local offices of global firms. This leads to the conclusion that the centrality that some Latin American cities have in the world economy results from their exogenous relations rather then from their endogenous economic potential.

Contra el ciberutopismo. Discurso utópico "versus" análisis sociológico sobre la transición al paradigma digital de la esfera cultural

Culture is no longer the social sphere that illuminated modernity. In spite of its greater social and economic centrality centrality characteristic of postfordist society, economic and technological changes in recent years are questioning their existence as an autonomous sphere. In this context, the discourse ciberutopist takes a totally positive reading of these transformations as an empowerment of the consumer or the emergences of new chains of creative cooperation. Against this ideologically loaded discourse, it’s necessary an epistemological rupture and a construction of a research program from the sociology of culture, to evaluate critically and neutral the actual effects of the transition to digital paradigm and its effects. These, far from being completely positive, may incur an impoverishment of cultural consumption and creativity and lead to a scenario of oligopolistic dominance cultural sector by large technology corporations.

Quality labels and institutional density in the agro-food sector: the case of Andalusia (Spain)

Our paper analyses the gradual increase of quality labels in rural areas of Europe and the effect of Institutional Density (ID) over them. This new producer’s strategy is related to three different but related processes: changes in the global markets and consumer patterns, and within the European Rural Policy. Such scenario partly explains the increase of labelling as a strategy in rural areas, but not their success or failure. The contribution of this paper is to analyse three different kinds of labels (Protected Designation of Origin, Organic Agriculture and Parque Natural de Andalucia) in relation to the grade of Institutional Density (ID). We chose to study the case of Andalucia (Spain), a region characterized by economic centrality of agroindustry and for being one of the European areas with greater presence of institutional development agencies. The data was collected during fieldwork, and quantitative and qualitative techniques were implemented.