Interregional Competition Research Articles

PASIENIO REGIONŲ VYSTYMOSI NETOLYGUMAI IR JŲ ĮTAKA ĮMONIŲ RODIKLIAMS

Today’s global change and integration processes, which aim to strengthen the economic potential of countries and regions, lead to the separation of smaller geographic areas. This is particularly true in countries' border regions, which are remote not only by distance, but also economically. The effects of coherent development to the regions’ economic integration are one of the main objects of regional studies, but their importance for regional development policies at a national or EU level is still very relevant. The European Commission takes care of the development of peripheral borders of the EU and cross-border regions, the macro-economic indicators of which are significantly below the EU average. These regions may face the increasing inter-regional competition in the markets of goods and manpower. It is generally acknowledged that the country's border regions are different from the country's inland regions due to objective circumstances, which are usually unfavorable to the local population. The border zone is usually characterized by certain restrictions of economic activity (construction, road infrastructure development, entrepreneurship, new business development). Any activity in the border region is restricted in certain spatial, social, cultural, political and institutional features. All of this directly affects the relevant area, population and infrastructure. However, despite these problems, border regions have a specific development potential, which can be exploited by using a targeted regional policy. Many scientists and researchers working in this field agree that the main thing guaranteeing regional competitiveness is business development, which ensures job stability, manufacturing and service sector development, social well-being of the region’s population. In order to develop adequate, region-specific development models, it is necessary to identify the local operating conditions, to assess the regional specificity. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors, which affect the characteristics of cross-border development ant to assess their impact on the Lithuanian border regions’ economic and financial indicators. The paper analyzes the causes and factors that determine the specificity of cross-border regional development and the economic indicator differences when compared with other regions. The level of a region’s economic development is characterized by its investment attractiveness and the activity and performance of companies operating in the region, which are reflected by their financial indicators. Empirical research was done using statistical data published by the Lithuanian Statistics Department, which helps to reveal the differences of cross-border regional development in comparison with other regions of the country. The research covers the period of 2005 – 2010. Indicators used in this study: gross value added, the number of operating economic entities, turnover of enterprises, investment in tangible fixed assets, foreign direct investment, turnover of enterprises engaging in trade, the average gross monthly earnings. The results showed that the indicators of companies operating in the border regions are significantly different from the ones of companies operating in other regions. We use common scientific research methods : systematic and logical analysis, statistical and comparative analysis. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.17.4.2989

The study on the frontoparietal networks by continuous theta burst stimulation in healthy human subjects

Frontoparietal networks (FPNs) including the regions of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) have been implicated in visuospatial attention. However, the functional interactions among different regions of dorsal FPNs remain elusive. The Attention Network Test (ANT) and continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) were used to investigate the functional interactions in healthy subjects. During the ANT task, subjects receiving right PPC cTBS responded significantly slower in spatial cue condition, had deficits in both alerting and orienting indices compared with those receiving either the sham cTBS or left PPC cTBS. In addition, subjects receiving left-DLPFC cTBS showed significant improvements on alerting and conflict indices whereas significant deficits on the orienting index compared with those receiving the sham cTBS. Moreover, compared with subjects exposed to the sham cTBS condition, subjects exposed to cTBS to the right-DLPFC exhibited significant decreases in the efficiency of the alerting and conflict indices whereas significant increases in the orienting index. Furthermore, there were significant differences in the alerting, orienting and conflict effect indices between subjects receiving the left-DLPFC-cTBS and those receiving the right-DLPFC-cTBS. These results suggest that the right DLPFC played a pivotal role in executive control process, whereas the right PPC was associated with orienting attentional function. The current study not only supports the model of inter-hemispheric rivalry for visuospatial attention, but also indicates inter-regional competition between the different areas of the FPNs.

Converging transport policy, industrial policy and environmental policy: The implications for localities and social equity

This article argues that nurturing the nascent electric vehicle industry and the attempts to achieve low carbon mobility in Europe, while laudable policy aims, lack a coherent treatment of social equity. The transition process is assumed to be largely technocratic and unproblematic. Consequently, the article identifies inter- and intra-regional dimensions of inequality that are emerging around the convergence of transport policy, industrial policy and environmental policy. First, inter-regional competition and a lack of national or international coordination will result in some regions failing to capture the wealth creation benefits of this new industry. Second, within regions the privileges accorded to those owning and using electric vehicles will further exacerbate mobility disadvantage for those excluded from ownership or use. It is concluded that transitions theory is overly technocentric and pluralist, and lacking in critical content.

Inter-regional competition and quality in hospital care

This study analyzes the effect of episode-of-care payment and patient choice on waiting time and the comprehensive quality of hospital care. The study assumes that two hospitals are located in two cities with different population sizes and compete with each other. We find that the comprehensive quality of hospital care as well as waiting time of both hospitals improve with an increase in payment per episode of care. However, we also find that the extent of these improvements differs according to the population size of the cities where the hospitals are located. Under the realistic assumptions that hospitals involve significant labor-intensive work, we find the improvements in comprehensive quality and waiting time in a hospital located in a small city to be greater than those in a hospital located in a large city. The result implies that regional disparity in the quality of hospital care decreases with an increase in payment per episode of care.

How does trade-mediated technology transfer affect interregional and intersectoral competition? Exploring multi-sectoral effects in a global trade model

In this paper, all technology transfers are embodied in trade flows within a three-region, six-tradedcommodity version of the GTAP model. 4% Hicks-Neutral technical progress in heavy manufacturing in one region has uneven impacts on productivity elsewhere. Why? Destination regions’ ability to harness new technology depends on their absorptive capacity and on the structural congruence of the source and destination. Together with trade volume, these two factors determine the recipient’s success in capturing foreign technology. Sectors, intensive in heavy manufacturing, register higher productivity growth. Inter-regional competition coupled with changes in price relativities, loom large in general equilibrium adjustment. Hicks-neutrality of the TFP (total factor productivity) improvement implies that, at the initial configuration of inputs, the marginal products of land, labour, and capital, change by the same proportion in any region. However, for the experiment conducted, productivity changes and the spillover coefficients dominate the variable impact across sectors and regions.

Barriers to sustainable economic development: The Dallas–Fort Worth experience

This article examines the scope of existing economic development activity and the motivations and perceptions of practitioners to shed light on the barriers to sustainable practice. In contrast to related fields like urban planning, the economic development literature has minimally examined how practitioners think about sustainable development and the extent to which sustainable development principles are adopted in practice. This omission is significant because economic development policies can have a notable impact on the sustainable development goals of environmental protection and social equity alongside economic growth. To capture the extent to which economic developers engage in sustainable development and the barriers that practitioners face, we study fifteen cities in the Dallas–Fort Worth region. We find that six key barriers – a conventional economic development mindset, incentive-based practice, a lack of resources, ad hoc planning, inter-regional competition, and a lack of coordinated regional planning – impede sustainable economic development in the region.

Interregional synaptic competition in neurons with multiple STDP-inducing signals

Neocortical layer 5 (L5) pyramidal cells have at least two spike initiation zones: Na(+) spikes are generated near the soma, and Ca(2+) spikes at the apical dendritic tuft. These spikes interact with each other and serve as signals for synaptic plasticity. The present computational study explores the implications of having two spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) signals in a neuron, each with its respective regional population of synaptic "pupils." In a detailed model of an L5 pyramidal neuron, competition emerges between synapses belonging to different regions, on top of the competition among synapses within each region, which characterizes the STDP mechanism. Interregional competition results in strengthening of one group of synapses, which ultimately dominates cell firing, at the expense of weakening synapses in other regions. This novel type of competition is inherent to dendrites with multiple regional signals for Hebbian plasticity. Surprisingly, such interregional competition exists even in a simplified model of two identical coupled compartments. We find that in a model of an L5 pyramidal cell, the different synaptic subpopulations "live in peace" when the induction of Ca(2+) spikes requires the back-propagating action potential (BPAP). Thus we suggest a new key role for the BPAP, to maintain the balance between synaptic efficacies throughout the dendritic tree, thereby sustaining the functional integrity of the entire neuron.

Dutch Disease, Factor Mobility, and the Alberta Effect - The Case of Federations

Do reduced costs of factor mobility mitigate Dutch Disease effects, to the extent that they are reversed? The case of federations provides an indication they do. We observe Resource Blessing effects at the federal-state level (within federations) yet rather Resource Curse ones at the federal level (between federations), and argue the difference in outcomes stems from the difference in factor mobility costs. Through a two-region tax competition model we show that with sufficiently low factor mobility costs a resource-boom triggers an Alberta Effect – where resource abundant regions exploit the fiscal advantage, provided by resource rents, to compete more aggressively in the inter-regional competition over capital, and as a result attract vast amounts of capital – that mitigates, and possibly reverses, Dutch Disease symptoms, so that Resource Curse effects do not apply. Thus, this paper emphasizes the significance of the mitigating role of factor mobility in Dutch Disease theory, and presents a novel mechanism (Alberta Effect) through which this mitigation, and possible reversion, process occurs. The paper concludes with empirical evidence for the main implications of the model.

Competition for private capital and central grants: the case of Japanese industrial parks

Local governments invest in public infrastructure to develop their regions. When they depend on intergovernmental grants for local development and have opportunities to lobby upper-level governments for such grants, horizontal intergovernmental competition in lobbying activity may emerge in addition to competition over public infrastructure. This paper empirically examines the existence of these interactions between Japanese localities, by using data on the value of industrial parks as infrastructure provisions and on personnel interchanges between the central and local governments as a measure of lobbying activity. Our results suggest that a Japanese local government’s choice of the size of industrial parks and its invitation to central officers to act as a director on loan are positive responses to the neighboring local government’s policy choices. As the value of the industrial parks in a district is affected by the neighboring districts’ lobby activities and their industrial park values, we can interpret these results as evidence of inter-regional competition in these two dimensions, rather than control by the central government in this unitary state.

Book Reviews

Melville L. McMillan of University of Alberta reviews “Fiscal Federalism: Principles and Practices of Multiorder Governance” by Robin Boadway, Anwar Shah,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Presents an account of the principles and practices of fiscal federalism based on the currently accepted theoretical framework and best practices. Discusses an introduction to federalism and the role of governments in federal economies; the decentralization of government authority; expenditure assignment; revenue assignment; natural resources ownership and management in a federal system; local governance in theory; local governance in practice; revenue sharing; the principles of intergovernmental transfers; the practice of intergovernmental transfers; finance and provision of health and education; finance and provision of infrastructure; poverty alleviation in federations; fiscal federalism and macroeconomic governance; interregional competition and policies for regional cohesion and convergence; decentralized governance and corruption; and adapting to a changing world. Boadway is David Chadwick Smith Chair in Economics at Queen’s University. Shah is Lead Economist and Program Leader of the Public Sector Governance Program at the World Bank Institute. Index.”

Promotion of Sustainable Oil and Gas Operations in Africa

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are aggressively developing infrastructure, analytical support systems, and human capital to support economic growth objectives and interregional competition in key economic sectors. Energy is the lifeblood of economic development activities. In the case of some sub-Saharan African countries such as Nigeria, Angola, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Cameroon, oil and gas dominate the national economy. This is the case despite the acknowledged global climate change impacts of an increasingly carbon-dominated global economy. Still, the production of more gas for development of gas-powered electric power plants as replacements for the coalfired plants, which emit more pollution, is at least a desirable intermediate step toward more sustainable power systems. Estimates of the crude oil reserves for Nigeria, the most populous African country with a population of 150 million , range from 24.0 billion barrels to 31.5 billion barrels. Nigeria’s proven natural gas reserves are about 124 trillion cubic feet Tcf , which ranks ninth in the world. Many large projects, such as the construction of the $7 billion, 4,000-kilometer Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline to convey gas from the Niger Delta of Nigeria to the export terminal at Beni Saf in Algeria; the $620 million West African Gas Pipeline that will traverse Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana; the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Project, which is projected to generate about $1 billion per year over a 22.5-year operational period; and Ghana’s $750 million Jubilee Oil Field Project, underscore the growing role of the oil and gas sector in the African economy. Currently, the scarcity of trained personnel for support of oil and gas industry operations is limiting growth in this economic

Regional information and market efficiency: the case of spread betting in United States college football

Using game results over a seven year span (1999–2006), we find that United States college football teams in arid regions “win” against the spread in 56.64% of games in which they host a team from a humid region. This result provides statistically significant evidence for both weak and strong form inefficiency in the spread betting markets of such games. By examining other cases of intraregional and interregional competition within the sport, we conclude that this inefficiency does not arise from the effects of travel or home field advantage. Rather, the result indicates that climate aridity is an observed characteristic for which college football betting markets do not accurately control. It is quite rare to find strong form market inefficiency arise from a single variable rather than from an elaborate, multivariable betting strategy. Therefore, the effect of climate aridity upon college football spread betting market efficiency can be characterized as dramatic. It is conjectured that remote market participants may need to “experience” certain types of relevant regional information, such as climate, to act in a market efficient manner.

Interregional competition, spillovers and attachment in a federation

We examine decentralized environmental policy making in a federation characterized by decentralized leadership and imperfect labor mobility due to attachment to regions. Energy consumption generates positive consumption benefits, but energy supply generates federal air pollution. Regional authorities regulate energy supply by controlling supplies of pollution permits. Energy and pollution permits are traded in interregional markets. The center redistributes incomes after it observes regional supplies of pollution permits. Regions are populated by mobile and immobile households and profits are expatriated. We show that the subgame perfect equilibrium for the federal policy game played by regional and central authorities is socially optimal.

Cage Matching: Head to Head Competition Experiments of an Invasive Plant Species from Different Regions as a Means to Test for Differentiation

Many hypotheses are prevalent in the literature predicting why some plant species can become invasive. However, in some respects, we lack a standard approach to compare the breadth of various studies and differentiate between alternative explanations. Furthermore, most of these hypotheses rely on ‘changes in density’ of an introduced species to infer invasiveness. Here, we propose a simple method to screen invasive plant species for potential differences in density effects between novel regions. Studies of plant competition using density series are a fundamental tool applied to virtually every aspect of plant population ecology to better understand evolution. Hence, we use a simple density series with substitution contrasting the performance of Centaurea solstitialis in monoculture (from one region) to mixtures (seeds from two regions). All else being equal, if there is no difference between the introduced species in the two novel regions compared, Argentina and California, then there should be no competitive differences between intra and inter-regional competition series. Using a replicated regression design, seeds of each species were sown in the greenhouse at 5 densities in monoculture and mixed and grown till onset of flowering. Centaurea seeds from California had higher germination while seedlings had significantly greater survival than Argentina. There was no evidence for density dependence in any measure for the California region but negative density dependence was detected in the germination of seeds from Argentina. The relative differences in competition also differed between regions with no evidence of differential competitive effects of seeds from Argentina in mixture versus monoculture while seeds from California expressed a relative cost in germination and relative growth rate in mixtures with Argentina. In the former instance, lack of difference does not mean ‘no ecological differences’ but does suggest that local adaptation in competitive abilities has not occurred. Importantly, this method successfully detected differences in the response of an invasive species to changes in density between novel regions which suggests that it is a useful preliminary means to explore invasiveness.

Reconfiguring ‘post‐socialist’ regions: cross‐border networks and regional competition in the Slovak and Ukrainian clothing industry

AbstractThe global garment industry is currently being reshaped in dramatic ways through processes of trade liberalization, delocalization and interfirm and interregional competition. There has been much speculation about the increasing importance of factor (especially labour) costs in fuelling further rounds of de‐localization of garment production towards low‐cost production locations, such as China and India. However, the extent to which these processes mean the end to garment production in higher factor‐cost locations, including those neighbouring the major clothing markets of the USA and the EU, is open to question. In this article we interrogate the interregional shifts in garment sourcing taking place in Europe and its surrounding regions. While factor costs (including labour) are important determinants of the geography of sourcing, a range of other costs (logistical and policy costs) are important in structuring the geographies of global and regional production. Firms in the Slovak Republic are responding to increasing competitive pressures and we assess how trans‐border sourcing, subcontracting and FDI are being integrated into strategies to sustain European production networks. We highlight the emergence of cross‐border production relocation to Ukraine as one specific strategy. We examine the product specificity of these changes and the ways in which they are embedded within already existing production networks, forms of cross‐border contracting and central European trade regimes. In other words, we explore some of the forces that shape the somewhat tentative continuation of garment production for export to EU markets in central Europe despite the ‘spectre of China’.

Is Local Government Spending Converging?

A substantial body of theoretical and empirical evidence demonstrates that interregional competition for factors of production leads to convergence of per capita output. Is there an analogous process that leads to convergence of public sector activity? Skidmore et al. develop a model that is consistent with the macroeconomic growth literature, which predicts convergence in government spending. Using this framework, we test for convergence in government spending using detailed data from Wisconsin for a variety of municipal government expenditure categories over the period 1990–2000. Our empirical investigation provides compelling evidence of convergence in per capita government spending for all the expenditure categories we study.

Inter-Regional Competition in Co-operative Federalism: New Modes of Multi-level Governance in Germany

In its territorial dimension, the reconfiguration of the state is mainly revealed in the development of multi-level governance. Generally speaking, we observe a shift from hierarchical and co-operative modes towards competitive modes. As a consequence, regions are increasingly challenged by competition. Beyond the driving forces of the market, which are often overestimated, central governments use policy competition to influence and control regional policy making. Based on an analytical distinction between these types of competition, the article explains how this new mode of multi-level governance works. Empirical evidence is provided for Germany where inter-regional policy competition organized by the federal government is implemented in a co-operative federalism. This case allows us to explain practical problems and constraints of competitive governance.

Territorial Cohesion of Tomorrow: A Path to Cooperation or Competition?

Explicit reference was made to “Territorial Cohesion” in the draft Constitution for Europe. The concept has recently been celebrated by many stakeholders of territorial development policies, including the European community of planners. Territorial Cohesion does not seem to have received any official definition, but it is clearly meant to aim at some sort of “spatial justice” while promoting integration between EU sector policies that have a territorial impact. Seemingly a consensual principle: who in Europe would object to a better coherence between various EU policies and the provision of reasonably equal standards of living to all EU citizens, regardless of their area of settlement? Yet a close examination of the current political debate suggests that very divergent views are being expressed as to what Territorial Cohesion exactly entails in practical terms. Two main different policy approaches seem to emerge in this debate. The first approach tends to equate Territorial Cohesion to a range of positive discrimination steps in favour of various penalised areas. Interest groups, in particular lobbies for specific regions, have proved influential in propagating this conception. In the area of regional policy, this approach embodies the neo-corporatist, depoliticised line of the contemporary political culture. It is primarily inspired by financial considerations and a competitive zero-sum game scenario: regions of a specific category should increase their share of the EU funding at the expense of the others. The opposite approach places much more emphasis on the need for integrated territorial planning strategies and the integration of EU policies. Its proponents are the heirs of the post-war urban and regional planning tradition. They strive to revive the politicised and rationalist ideology of the Enlightenment, based on the notion of public interest. They raise awareness about the steadily growing interdependence between regions and cities of Europe and advocate a cooperative approach focusing on issues of transnational relevance and win-win situations. This rather idealistic cooperative approach seems to be less influential than its rival, and currently confined to a relatively small group of planning professionals. The question remains: which of the two models—interregional competition or cooperation—will finally succeed in shaping the EU cohesion policy?

Regional Monopoly and Interregional and Intraregional Competition: The Parallel Trade in Coca-Cola Between Shanghai and Hangzhou in China

This article uses a “principal-agent-subagent”analytical framework and data that were collected from field surveys in China to (1) investigate the nature and causes of the parallel trade in Coca-Cola between Shanghai and Hangzhou and (2) assess the geographic and theoretical implications for the regional monopolies that have been artificially created by Coca-Cola in China. The parallel trade in Coca-Cola is sustained by its intraregional rivalry with Pepsi-Cola in Shanghai, where Coca-Cola (China) (the principal) seeks to maximize its share of the Shanghai soft-drinks market. This goal effectively supersedes the market-division strategy of Coca-Cola (China), since the gap in wholesale prices between the Shanghai and Hangzhou markets is higher than the transaction costs of engaging in parallel trade. The exclusive distributor of Coca-Cola in the Shanghai market (the subagent) makes opportunistic use of a situation in which it does not have to bear the financial consequences of the major residual claimants (the principal and other agents) and has an incentive to enter the nondesignated Coca-Cola market of Hangzhou by crossing the geographic boundary between the two regional monopolies devised by Coca-Cola. The existence of parallel trade in Coca-Cola promotes interregional competition between the Shanghai and Hangzhou bottlers (the agents). This article enhances an understanding of the economic geography of spatial equilibrium, disequilibrium, and quasi-equilibrium of a transnational corporation’s distribution system and its artificially created market boundary in China.

Wirtschaftlicher Strukturwandel in der Region Stuttgart

Economic structural change in the Stuttgart region. The Stuttgart region is one of the most highly developed regions in the EU. Growth rates, competitiveness and purchasing power are far more dependent than in other regions of the EU on the basic and export activities of the industrial sector, especially on the region’s closeley knit cluster of activities around the automobile industry. However, Baden-Württemberg’s economically strongest region is no longer the fastest growing one. Economy and population are certainly continuing to grow but structural weaknesses are evident in the below average growth of value added in both the producing and services sectors. These weaknesses are also evident in the labour market despite the relatively low rate of unemployment and the difficulties associated with finding new growth areas. in contrast to the industrial sector with its outstanding national and and international companies, there is a lack of basic and export activities in the services sector in the Stuttgart region. The polarised structure of employment, a large share of highly qualified employees and, at the Same time, a large share of those with few skills can be explained by the economic structure which is atypical for urban regions of highly developed countries. Because of the structural weaknesses and the strong interregional competition, development of the region and improvement in the research and education infrastructure have priority as fields for policy action.