Local Economic Change Research Articles

Strategi Promosi dan Pemasaran Dinas Pariwisata untuk Meningkatkan Kunjungan Wisatawan di Kabupaten Karimun

The promotion and marketing efforts by the Tourism Office of Karimun Regency aim to introduce and effectively promote local tourist destinations to both domestic and international visitors. According to a previous study by Andriani (2020), the development of tourist sites in Karimun Regency has not yet been fully realized by the local government. This research aims to reexamine and optimize Karimun's tourism potential through programs implemented by the Tourism Office, supporting local economic changes. This study uses a descriptive method with a qualitative approach, gathering data through interviews with informants, field notes, and relevant official documents. It focuses on examining the promotion strategies carried out by the Tourism Office to increase tourist visits. Based on Kooten's theory, there are four strategic indicators: organizational strategy, program organization, resource support strategy, and institutional strategy. The research results show that all strategic indicators have been implemented well in accordance with funding from the center, providing a positive impact on the development of tourist destinations and increasing the number of tourists who come to visit tourist attractions in Karimun district. However, if funding is not in accordance with the annual plan, the program that has been prepared by the marketing and promotion division will have an impact, hampering efforts to increase tourist visits from both inside and outside Karimun Regency.

Neighbourhood Change, Deprivation, Peripherality, and Ageing in the Yorkshire Coalfield

Low‐income neighbourhoods in contemporary England continue to be buffeted by roiling economic inequalities and social policy absences. Long‐term residents have a unique perspective on this socio‐spatial stress. This article zooms in to examine the condition of one spatial manifestation of these broader forces: peripheral council/public housing estates in the deindustrialised North of England—in this case the ex‐coalfields of West Yorkshire. Neighbourhood conditions are seen through the eyes of residents aged between 60 and 85 years. The article explores their accounts of the local economic, social, and political changes which have interlaced their experiences of work, community, and place over six decades. It also examines how irregular regeneration projects, emergency initiatives and local organising have tried to address and ameliorate structural marginalisation in recent years, not least during the Covid pandemic. The article provides a historically contingent account of contemporary socio‐spatial stress, one that emphasises the significance of long‐term residence and feelings of not only loss and nostalgia, but hopeful and resilient attachments to place.

Urban agriculture, local economic development and climate change: conceptual linkages

ABSTRACTGlobally, cities have become hubs for economic activity, productivity, and important platforms for achieving sustainable development goals. The potential of urban agriculture (UA) in improving urban local economies and urban micro-climate has been acknowledged in the literature. The study looked at how the concepts of UA, local economic development (LED), and climate change can be treated in unison. Based on the review of credible published papers on the various concepts of UA, LED, climate change and nature-based solutions (NBS), a proposed conceptual framework was developed in this paper showing the linkages. The paper established that UA could boost LED, build resilient urban settlements, and promote social inclusiveness, but with social challenges. It is therefore recommended that policymakers make UA a crucial aspect of their agenda in the coming years to address the local economic and climate challenges now and in the future.

County-Level Economic Changes and Drug Mortality in the United States: Evidence from the Great Recession

We aimed at examining whether county-level economic changes were associated with changes in county-level drug mortality rates since the Great Recession and whether the association is equally distributed across major sociodemographic subgroups. Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (2004-2019), combined with census data, we conducted fixed effects analyses by including county-level economic changes as primary exposures and county-level drug-related mortality rates (per 100,000 people) from 2004-2007 (i.e., prior to the recession) to 2008-2011, 2012-2015, and 2016-2019 as an outcome variable based on 1833 counties. Our findings showed that drug mortality rates increased from 13.9 (2004-2007) to 16.0 (2008-2011), 18.0 (2012-2015), and 23.0 (2016-2019). Counties experiencing smaller median household income growth during and/or after the recession were associated with greater increase in drug mortality than counties experiencing larger median household income growth among the total population and all sociodemographic subgroups. Counties experiencing larger increases in unemployment rates and percentage of vacant housing units were associated with greater increase in drug mortality than counties experiencing smaller or no increase in unemployment rates and percentage of vacant housing units among certain sociodemographic subgroups. Findings suggest the importance of local economic contexts in understanding drug mortality risk since the recession. Drug overdose prevention polices need to be formulated by taking local economic changes following a major recession into consideration.

Trade-offs between economic development and biodiversity conservation on a tropical island.

Resolving trade-offs between economic development and biodiversity conservation needs is one of the defining issues of our time. This is crucial in currently developing countries and in particularly sensitive systems harboring high biodiversity. Yet, such a task can be challenging as human activities may have complex effects on biodiversity. Here we assessed the effects of intense economic development on different components of biodiversity using Hainan Island (South China) as model. This highly biodiverse tropical island has experienced intense economic development and extensive forest to agriculture conversion and urbanization across the last two decades. We characterized three main habitat clusters, based on local land use, climate and economic changes across 145 grids (10×10 km), and estimated avian biodiversity responses between 1998 and 2013. We recorded ongoing taxonomic biotic homogenization at the regional scale (i.e., the whole island), evidenced by decreasing differences between traditional and directional alpha diversity. Communities became overall phylogenetically clustered and functionally overdispersed. Biodiversity's priority effects were pervasive, with less diverse communities showing positive and more diverse communities showing negative biodiversity changes. Finally, at the local scale, different economic and environmental indicators showed complex and divergent effects across habitat clusters and biodiversity components. These effects were only partially ameliorated within a newly established Ecological Function Conservation Area in the mountainous central part of the island. Thus, our results depict complex effects of economic development on different biodiversity dimensions in different areas of the island with different land uses and protection regimes, and between local and regional spatial scales. Profound ecosystem damage associated with economic development was partially averted, probably due to enhanced biodiversity conservation policies and law enforcement, yet at the cost of regional-scale biotic homogenization and local-scale biodiversity loss. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Origin and mobility of Iron Age Gaulish groups in present-day France revealed through archaeogenomics

SummaryThe Iron Age period occupies an important place in French history because the Gauls are regularly presented as the direct ancestors of the extant French population. We documented here the genomic diversity of Iron Age communities originating from six French regions. The 49 acquired genomes permitted us to highlight an absence of discontinuity between Bronze Age and Iron Age groups in France, lending support to a cultural transition linked to progressive local economic changes rather than to a massive influx of allochthone groups. Genomic analyses revealed strong genetic homogeneity among the regional groups associated with distinct archaeological cultures. This genomic homogenization appears to be linked to individuals’ mobility between regions and gene flow with neighbouring groups from England and Spain. Thus, the results globally support a common genomic legacy for the Iron Age population of modern-day France that could be linked to recurrent gene flow between culturally differentiated communities.

Long-term projections of economic growth in the 47 prefectures of Japan: An application of Japan shared socioeconomic pathways

Assessing climate change impacts on local communities is an urgent task for national and subnational governments. The impact assessment requires socioeconomic scenarios, including a long-term outlook for demographic and economic indices. In Japan, the National Institute for Environmental Studies developed the Japan Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (JPNSSPs) and presented regional population scenarios corresponding to five different storylines. However, there exists no quantitative information about changes in local economies under the population scenarios. This study examines the economic activities in Japan's 47 prefectures using statistical models and calculates changes in the major economic indices (e.g., production, capital stock, and labor population) until 2100. The economic projection is based on ten socioeconomic scenarios generated from the JPNSSP population scenarios and original productivity scenarios. The economic projection results clearly show that Japan's population aging and decline have catastrophic impacts on national and subnational economies. Even in the most optimistic scenario, assuming a massive influx of immigrants and fast productivity growth, the GDP growth rate becomes negative in the 2090s. In the most pessimistic scenario, the GDP growth rate becomes negative in 2028 and continues to decline. As a result, Japan's GDP decreases to the level of the 1970s by 2100. The improvement of productivity cannot offset the GDP shrink caused by demographic changes. Furthermore, the population aging and decline accelerate the wealth concentration in urban areas. The Theil index, calculated using the economic projection results, shows increasing trends in all the scenarios. Tokyo's presence in Japan's economy will continue to increase throughout this century. Meanwhile, Kanagawa and Saitama, which belong to the top five prefectures in terms of economic production, may lose their positions. The Tohoku region, already suffering from population decline, will face severe economic stagnation. Our findings suggest that the depressing future is inevitable unless Japan overcomes the population aging and decline.

Local Economic and Environmental Changes Associated with Plastic Ban Policy Implementation

The pervasive use of plastic raises major environmental concerns about the adverse effects on ecosystems as well as the economy, which impacts both consumers and vendors. To address the issue, in 2...

Patent Trolls and the Market for Acquisition

Frivolous patent-infringement claims increase the cost of innovation for small businesses and force them to exit via premature and discounted acquisitions. This study investigates the effect of abusive patent-infringement claims by patent trolls on acquisitions of small firms. I exploit the staggered adoption of anti-patent troll laws in 35 states as a quasi-natural experiment and find that the laws have two effects on acquisitions. First, the number of acquisitions of small businesses by large firms declines after these laws are passed. Second, the anti-troll laws increase the acquisition price for large firms. I find that the market reflects the increased cost of acquisition following the passage of anti-troll laws as measured by the lower acquisition announcement returns. Moreover, I find evidence that large firms increase R&D expenditure after the adoption of state laws. Using a sample of acquisitions that are plausibly unaffected by the state laws, I disentangle alternative explanations such as local economic shocks, industry-wide changes and merger waves. Overall, the findings suggest that the anti-patent troll laws increase the value of small innovative firms.

Women's agency in changing contexts: A case study of innovation processes in Western Kenya

In this paper we describe social change and the potential of agricultural innovation processes to create, or expand, spaces for women to exercise agency in economic and agricultural decision-making in Kenya. Rural communities are increasingly drawn into global processes that create local economic and agrarian change, with marked influences on gender relations, roles and responsibilities. We draw on a qualitative case study with 140 research participants from rural and peri-urban villages in Western Kenya. We examine how global processes have fostered local level changes in the last decade to contextualize innovation processes. Economic changes related to paid work and an evident increase of women's participation in rural development programs reflect, in part, a gender, often women-centred development agenda that targets women in rural programming. Next, we describe a more recent agricultural innovation process to explore decision-making about time use, access to and control over productive resources. Lastly, we describe patterns in gender relations, roles and responsibilities that have changed in response to broader community change and how innovation specific decision-making may create spaces for women to exercise agency in local contexts. We draw on feminist geographic perspectives to better understand these processes through an exploration of everyday practices. Our focus on gender relations and agency as spatial phenomena facilitates an understanding of how roles and responsibilities are created, reproduced and, in some cases, transformed to increase women's agency in particular spaces. Our key findings highlight how economic pressure and agricultural programs that focus on women have brought women into public spaces in new ways and created gendered opportunity spaces amidst persisting roles of men as authorities and final decision-makers and women playing supportive roles. Innovation processes often replicate gender patterns through decision-making in productive assets, however access to agriknowledge offers avenues for women to expand their opportunity spaces by expanding social networks and their ability to negotiate for resources in the household. We recommend further studies that draw on feminist geography to inform the design of agricultural innovations and interventions to benefit women, men and to improve overall livelihoods.

Student Loans and Homeownership

We estimate the effect of student loan debt on subsequent homeownership in a uniquely constructed administrative data set for a nationally representative cohort. We instrument for the amount of individual student debt using changes to the in-state tuition rate at public 4-year colleges in the student’s home state. A $1,000 increase in student loan debt lowers the homeownership rate by about 1.8 percentage points for public 4-year college-goers during their mid-20s, equivalent to an average delay of about 4 months in attaining homeownership. Validity tests suggest the results are not confounded by local economic conditions or changes in educational outcomes.

The multiple maternal legacy of the Late Iron Age group of Urville-Nacqueville (France, Normandy) documents a long-standing genetic contact zone in northwestern France

The compilation of archaeological and genetic data for ancient European human groups has provided persuasive evidence for a complex series of migrations, population replacements and admixture until the Bronze Age. If the Bronze-to-Iron Age transition has been well documented archaeologically, ancient DNA (aDNA) remains rare for the latter period and does not precisely reflect the genetic diversity of European Celtic groups. In order to document the evolution of European communities, we analysed 45 individuals from the Late Iron Age (La Tène) Urville-Nacqueville necropolis in northwestern France, a region recognized as a major cultural contact zone between groups from both sides of the Channel. The characterization of 37 HVS-I mitochondrial sequences and 40 haplogroups provided the largest maternal gene pool yet recovered for the European Iron Age. First, descriptive analyses allowed us to demonstrate the presence of substantial amounts of steppe-related mitochondrial ancestry in the community, which is consistent with the expansion of Bell Beaker groups bearing an important steppe legacy in northwestern Europe at approximately 2500 BC. Second, maternal genetic affinities highlighted with Bronze Age groups from Great Britain and the Iberian Peninsula regions tends to support the idea that the continuous cultural exchanges documented archaeologically across the Channel and along the Atlantic coast (during and after the Bronze Age period) were accompanied by significant gene flow. Lastly, our results suggest a maternal genetic continuity between Bronze Age and Iron Age groups that would argue in favour of a cultural transition linked to progressive local economic changes rather than to a massive influx of allochthone groups. The palaeogenetic data gathered for the Urville-Nacqueville group constitute an important step in the biological characterization of European Iron age groups. Clearly, more numerous and diachronic aDNA data are needed to fully understand the complex relationship between the cultural and biological evolution of groups from the period.

Serving seafarers in the Boston Harbor: Local adaptation to global economic change, 1820–2015

Religious people and organizations have provided services to seafarers in the port of Boston for nearly 200 years. While Boston’s history and present circumstances are specific, the port’s services to seafarers are broadly representative of the history of such provision in ports across the United States. We show how local and global economic changes shaped who worked in the port of Boston. Protestant individuals and organizations provided services to these workers, although the motivation behind the services and their content changed. The overt evangelism of the first generations diminished as mission societies transitioned into religiously-motivated social service organizations. Comprehensive social services and lodging were replaced by services provided on board vessels during increasingly quick turnarounds. While today’s port chaplains describe their work in much different terms than those of generations past, they continue a tradition of Protestant-supported care that has been evident in the port for the past two centuries.

Student Loans and Homeownership

We estimate the effect of student loan debt on subsequent homeownership in a uniquely constructed administrative dataset for a nationally representative cohort. We instrument for the amount of individual student debt using changes to the in-state tuition rate at public 4-year colleges in the student's home state. A $1,000 increase in student loan debt lowers the homeownership rate by about 1.5 percentage points for public 4-year college-goers during their mid 20s, equivalent to an average delay of 2.5 months in attaining homeownership. Validity tests suggest that the results are not confounded by local economic conditions or changes in educational outcomes.

Responses to Regional and Local Economic Change in New Zealand and Australia

Responses to Regional and Local Economic Change in New Zealand and Australia

Fifty years of environmental changes of the Amacuzac riparian ecosystem: a social perceptions and historical ecology approach

Critical aspects of hydrological science need to include historical perspectives about land and water use, and to understand the kind of knowledge policy­makers and society require, so that this expertise can be translated into actions directed to water management challenges. We combined environmental perceptions with historical ecology techniques to understand the past and present relationships between people and the riparian environment, and to highlight the overriding influences of historic land­use changes in the region. We analyzed the perceptions of elderly stakeholders who have lived for >50 years in ten localities established inside and outside a protected area along the Amacuzac, one of the largest rivers in Morelos, Mexico. The river was and still is an important part of community life, in spite of its present poor condition. Perspectives of elders living inside the protected area were mostly related to conservation aspects of ecosystem functioning, impact on vegetation, and water problems related to land use. The loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services were recognized as the leading cause ofthe loss of ecosystem products and of their commercialization, as well as other changes in local economies. We conclude that effectively protected areas can improve the biological quality of watercourses if a decidedly more conservationist focus is placed upon streams and the surrounding territory.

Insecticides in sediment cores from a rural and a suburban area in South China: A reflection of shift in application patterns

A shift in pesticide application pattern has occurred in recent decades, yet little information is available in the consequence of this shift. To better understand how the shift is reflected in aquatic environment, two sediment cores were collected from a rural (RLY) and a suburban (SGZ) river in South China. A variety of legacy organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and current-use pesticides (CUPs), including organophosphate, pyrethroid and phenylpyrazole insecticides were quantified at distinct increments of the sediment cores. Total insecticide concentrations were in the ranges of 67.6–1671 and 99.2–231ng/g dry weight in RLY and SGZ with pyrethroids and organochlorines being the dominant components, respectively. In general, the shifting profile of sediment-bound insecticides from legacy OCPs to CUPs over time followed their historical application pattern, but significant differences were noted between the temporal profiles of the rural and suburban cores in regards to concentrations and composition of insecticides. The observed difference between the suburban and rural cores was synchronous with land use pattern and local economic changes. A steep increased occurrence of CUPs in the 1990s was observed in the RLY core, which is consistent with the onset of economic growth in this area. In contrast, the suburban SGZ area has been historically contaminated by legacy OCPs, with fresh input of OCPs in SGZ believed to be caused by soil erosion, caused by land reclamation activities associated with urban expansion. The current study shows the shift in insecticide application pattern from legacy OCPs to CUPs leading to an elevated CUP occurrence in the environment. It also suggests a stronger need for understanding not only environmental fate and risk, but also how their use pattern and land use changes impact the occurrence of pesticides.

Dams and population displacement on China’s Upper Mekong River: Implications for social capital and social–ecological resilience

China is home to nearly half of the world’s 50,000 large dams, which provide irrigation, flood protection, and hydroelectricity. Most of these projects involve substantial population displacement, which can disrupt social capital, the webs of interdependence and support that community members maintain with one another through relationships of trust and reciprocity. We use new empirical evidence to examine the association between dam-induced displacement and social capital in China and interpret our findings in the context of social–ecological resilience theory. Our focus is on agricultural households on the Upper Mekong River, where four large hydropower dams have been constructed over the past twenty years.Our broad finding is that resettlement is associated with diminished social capital, as measured by two key indicators: inter-household exchange of financial resources, and inter-household exchange of agricultural labor. These effects differ across the four dam sites in the study based on local economic conditions and changes in resettlement policy. We find that population resettlement is associated with markedly lower levels of agricultural labor exchange. In an economically under-developed setting, this reduces the depth and breadth of social support that agricultural households rely on to produce crops for subsistence and income. This in turn diminishes social–ecological resilience because social capital is a key factor that helps agricultural or resource-dependent communities manage risk and adapt to changes and stressors.We consider the policy implications of our findings in the context of scientific and industry efforts to minimize social harm, promote economic vitality, and improve the sustainability of hydropower as a form of renewable energy.

Resilience of family farming 1984–2014: Case studies from two sheep/beef hill country districts of New Zealand

AbstractIn this analysis, the resilience of family farmers is investigated in two hill country districts of New Zealand (Central Hawkes Bay and Waitomo District) by following the experiences of a sample of 119 sheep/beef producers through two snapshots of their circumstances taken three decades apart. The famers and their spouses were first interviewed in 1984 prior to the removal of state subsidies and other assistance. In 2012–2013, 94 of the farmers (or their successors) were interviewed again. During the period under investigation, they had coped with economic shocks, natural disasters (particularly major droughts) and for some, personal tragedies. The focus of the study is on the economic viability of the family farms in the face of a range of hazardous and adverse events, and how their owners (and families) are adapting and responding to global and local economic and social changes, and the natural disasters which are a normal backdrop to farming.

Multiple trends in interspecific crop diversity: a longitudinal case study from the Ecuadorian Andes

This case study reports on recent developments in the extent of interspecific crop diversity in Cotacachi located in the Northern Ecuadorian Andes. Like in many other regions, trends of genetic erosion led to simplified fields with reduced levels of crop diversity in this area during the twentieth century. The present study examines whether, at the crop level, this reduction continued after the millennium shift. The problem is approached through a longitudinal comparison of crop richness on surveyed farms in 2003 and 2009. The results display multiple trends; while a few field crops remained stable in terms of their presence among farms, some increased and others decreased their role. Simultaneously, there was a marked increase in the planting of vegetables and fruits in home gardens. On a general level, these varied trends resulted in a significant rise in farms’ average crop richness amounting to five more crops, as well as an overall 42 % increase in the frequency with which any crop was planted among the farms. The observed trends are discussed in the light of local sociocultural, economic and agroclimatic changes.