Implications For Regional Policy Research Articles

How government policies promote transportation utilization in the national-level hydrogen supply chain: A case of China

Pipeline transportation is a low-cost option for delivering large volumes of hydrogen (H2), however, the high initial capital cost remains a major impediment to expanding pipeline delivery infrastructure. To quantitatively evaluate the impact of the H2 pipeline on the hydrogen supply chain (HSC), this paper develops an evaluation system for the development potential of the H2 pipeline and simulation models for H2 resource allocation. Furthermore, the HSC system in the southwest of China is used to validate the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the levelized cost range of a given 150–550 km H2 pipeline is 2.76–10.12 CNY/kg, which has price advantages over other transportation modes. Compared with the hydrogen supply chain resource allocation (HSCR) model, putting the H2 pipeline into use can optimize the layout and utilization of different transportation modes. It shows that the proportion of H2 transportation volume distribution in H2 pipelines has increased from 0 % to 73.44 %, while the proportion of HLT has first increased from 18.86 % to 54.27 %, and then decreased to 17.95 %. And then under different policy scenarios, the consideration of pipeline reduces the sensitivity of the H2 blending ratio of natural gas (NG) and NG demand to HSC. The impacts of policies on regional H2 development and regional policy implications are revealed. This approach provides a tool for policymakers to quantify the impacts of policy.

The source of heterogeneous externalities: evidence from foreign multinationals in the UK

ABSTRACT The relationship between inward investments and local firms’ productivity is contingent on several contextual conditions that collectively define the ability of firms and regions to recognise, assimilate and commercially apply external knowledge. Yet the empirical literature has been unable to account efficiently for such multidimensional sources of heterogeneous externalities. We introduce a novel two-stage empirical methodology that allows accounting for a wide range of moderating circumstances. Relying on a sample of 11,000 UK firms over the period 2012–2018, we show that while the nature of places affects the potential externalities from multinational enterprises (MNEs), what matters more are firm-level characteristics. This has important implications for regional policy, particularly in understanding the drivers of inequality, both within and across regions.

The Hard Worker, the Hard Earner, the Young and the Educated: Empirical Study on Economic Growth across 11 CEE Countries

Economic growth is an important metric for the sustainable development of any region or country. Central and Eastern Europe members of the European Union are important players of the single market, which implements regional policies to mitigate socio-economic differences between its newer and established members. The present study examines the factors that shape the phenomenon of economic growth across 62 NUTS 2 regions from 11 countries in Central and Eastern Europe during the period 2011–2020. The study investigates determinants related to education level, involvement of young people in the labor market, household net income, high-speed internet facilities and overall hours spent at work during a year. Three panel data models estimated with first-differenced generalized method of moments showed that regional economic growth was significantly influenced mainly by income, the rate of young employees and educational attainment level. Relevant insights and policy implications for regions in CEE countries are addressed.

Relationships between factors of regional competitiveness in Central and Eastern Europe

The divide between the eastern and western parts of the European Union has been widely discussed. However, significant territorial differences are undoubtedly present even within the narrower eastern region of the EU. This study focuses on the competitiveness of regions in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The analysis relies on the pyramid model, the theoretical background of which provides the basis for investigating the factors affecting the competitiveness of the 51 NUTS 2 regions across six CEE countries. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is applied to examine the relationships and effect mechanisms between the model’s factors (more specifically, between the latent variables representing the factors). We have adapted our general model to the so-called overperforming and underperforming regions described by Iammarino et al. (2019), exploring the connections of their competitiveness factors in this context. Research results reveal that the effect mechanisms observed between the above-mentioned regions are completely different. Various factors can be considered as either important or less decisive in terms of competitiveness development, which could have implications for regional policy moving forward.

Trust in Institutions and Tax Compliance. A Multilevel Analysis of the Regions of Spain

The purpose of the article/hypothesis: The aim of this work is to delve into the significance of trust in the phenomenon of tax compliance. Specifically, the relationship between taxpayers’ trust in the Government, administrations and institutions and their reported disposition towards tax compliance is explored based on the case of Spain and at regional level (NUTS2). Methodology: Using 2017 data collected by the European Values Study (EVS) and the Quality of Government Institute at the University of Gothenburg (QoG), a multilevel linear model is proposed where we assess the impact of citizen support for the Government and institutions on the disposition towards tax compliance. This model allows to simultaneously capture the relationships at taxpayer level and the effects of regional factors in the same equation. Results of the research: The results of the multilevel estimation allow the authors to reject the null hypothesis and accept, at least provisionally, the existence of a direct effect of trust in the institutions on tax compliance at regional level. Additionally, the low significance observed in the regional level variables suggests that citizens have non-decentralized perception of tax obligations. Furthermore, given that the effects are measured in terms of the quality of the institutions and government, the implications for regional policy and the actions of regional governments are of significant interest for the study of tax behavior and compliance.

How government policies promote bioenergy’s permeability in national-level energy supply chain: A case of China

As the most competitive energy for replacing fossil fuel, bioenergy accords with the requirement of clean supply and brings great economic and social benefits. This study develops a comprehensive framework to quantitatively evaluate the impact of policy on the bioenergy industry. The proposed framework comprises of two major parts, containing simulation models for the biomass resource allocation under different policies and the comprehensive evaluation system for bioenergy development potential under the specific policy. Five policies are considered, including encouraging biomass cogeneration (EBC), supporting biomass heating (SBH), developing technology for biofuel (DPT), establishing raw material collection system (RMC), and priority of using bio-natural gas (PUB). The results demonstrate that the order of policy impact is DPT > PUB > SBH > EBC > RMC. DPT has the largest promotion of biofuel, which is the preferred policy of the development of bioenergy. PUB can better promote the development of biomass power generation, while EBC and SBH have a greater impact on biomass heating. The impacts of policies on regional bioenergy development have been revealed and regional policy implications are given. This approach provides a tool for policymakers to quantify the impacts of policy.

Contesting the politics of neoliberal resilience: regional labour market resilience from a workers’ perspective

ABSTRACT The concept of resilience has been captured by a neoliberal discourse displacing responsibility to individuals and regions. This article specifically examines the regional labour market resilience of workers and other regional stakeholders relating to an ongoing economic restructuring process of deindustrialization and redundancies in Anglesey, North West Wales, in the UK. Using 11 years of longitudinal qualitative research, we provide an empirical narrative that applies a labour market resilience framework (challenge, context, responses and outcomes) from a workers’ perspective. It connects the empirical findings from this critical case study to broader generalizability for regional studies and regional policy implications. Regarding generalizability to regional studies theory, the labour market resilience of workers is impacted at different but interlinking levels: the global systemic level of neo-liberal capitalism; the national country level of institutional varieties of capitalism (liberal market economies versus coordinated market economies); and regional variations across countries.

Heating demand with heterogeneity in residential households in the hot summer and cold winter climate zone in China -A quantile regression approach

Heating in the Hot Summer and Cold Winter (HSCW) climate zone in China has become the fastest-growing part in urban residential energy consumption, with a high average annual growth rate of 50%. This creates opportunities for decision-makers to make effective policies on impacting energy consumer behavior. However, for these policy intervention strategies to be efficient and equitable, the factors determining heating energy usage need to be known. This study employs the quantile regression model to explore the heterogeneity in consumer response between groups by using survey data from 1075 households in 2016 in Chongqing, China. We identify the characteristics of high heating electricity-consuming households. Households with larger household sizes, more elderly family members, and high-income would tend to consume more electricity. In terms of building characteristics, more rooms and detached houses lead to higher heating electricity consumption. Additionally, higher-performance residential buildings can reduce household heating electricity consumption. Compared to central heating system, using split ACs and distributed electric heaters provide a smoother path towards increasing electricity load to achieve better thermal comfort. Our empirical findings have important regional policy implications to support heating policy design. Finally, strategies for reducing heating demand concerning high heating electricity-consuming households are provided.

Spatiotemporal characteristics and influencing factors of urban resilience efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China.

Urban resilience efficiency is an important indicator to explore the relationship between resource consumption and urban resilience, shedding new light on the study of urban sustainable development. Based on the panel data of 2008, 2012, and 2017, this paper makes a spatiotemporal assessment on the urban resilience efficiency of 126 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) in China by applying an entropy weight-TOPSIS method and a slack-based measure (SBM) model. Combined with the analysis of a geographically weighted regression model (GWR), the influencing factors on resilience efficiency are also investigated. The results show that both the resource consumption index (RC, inputs) and the urban resilience index (UR, outputs) presented a steady upward trend, and their spatial distribution characteristics were similar, showing a gradual decrease from the eastern coastal cities to the central and western inland cities. Derived from inputs and outputs, the mean values of resilience efficiency index (RE) in three periods were 0.3149, 0.2906, and 0.1625, respectively, revealing that there had been a noticeable decline. Spatially, its spatial distribution has evolved from a relatively balanced pattern to an unbalanced one, showing a gradual decrease from west to east. The results of the GWR model analysis indicate that the total electricity consumption and area of construction land had a considerable correlation with the overall urban resilience of the YREB. Furthermore, total quantity of water supply and science and technology (S&T) expenditure continued to be the main driving factors on urban resilience of the upstream cities. The midstream regions mainly depended on the scale of construction land, and the influencing factors are relatively single. The influencing factors in the downstream areas have changed from dominance of resources and capital factors to the single dominance of resource factors, and total electricity consumption had a strong explanatory power. Based on these findings, we had put forward the overall and local regional policy implications.

Les staycations peuvent-elles contribuer à une transition territoriale vers le tourisme doux ?

This article presents the origins of the staycation (from ‘stay’ and ‘vacation’; literally to stay at home for one’s vacation) phenomenon and its potential impacts (economic, social, environmental) on territories. Based on recent figures and current trends in both society and tourism and recreation, staycations are likely to experience increasing interest over time. In addition, to a significant extent staycations appear consistent with slow tourism principles. It might be concluded that staycations could lead territories to a transition towards slow tourism and recreation activity, but could it? The article discusses the issues and challenges faced by territories in such a hypothesis, including tourism and regional policy implications.

Economic Sustainability in Wastewater Treatment Companies: A Regional Analysis for the Iberian Peninsula

An important part of environmental degradation is caused by the discharge of untreated or mistreated wastewater. The reuse of water is paramount to the National Strategic Plan for the Water Supply and Wastewater Sanitation Sector in Portugal and Spain. Since centralized treatment systems have proved to be inefficient, tackling environmental issues requires a regional approach. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) mitigate environmental impacts and contribute to the financial savings of other firms. However, the literature evaluating WWTPs’ financial performance and economic sustainability is scarce. The implementation of a resource recovery technology depends heavily on economic viability. Thus, this paper analyses the financial sustainability of 222 WWTPs in the Iberian Peninsula by NUTS II regions in 2016–2019 to assess the region with the best performance and financial stability and provide regional policy implications. Using the SABI database, this research encompasses a numerical and narrative analysis of key financial ratios. Results show that firms in Algarve and La Rioja exhibit higher financial sustainability when compared to other regions. Results can foster enhancements in the governance of regulated utilities.

A Systems Approach to Understanding Geopolitical Tensions in the Middle East in the Face of a Global Water Shortage

In this paper the potential for conflict in the Middle East due to the depleting of regional water reserves is explored and the implications for regional policy making, in the light of other tensions are investigated. We use System Dynamics to develop a model for water resources management and explore via simulation issues that emerge as important, in order to highlight required policies. This analysis validates part of the existing thinking and policies in place and signifies further the need for transboundary cooperation and emphasis on areas that may not be viewed traditionally as key priorities (e.g. demand management, as opposed to continuity of supply).

Explanatory models of regional innovation performance in Europe: policy implications for regions

Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization (RIS3) was integrated as a key piece of the cohesion policy for the European Union (EU) for 2014–2020. During the recent years, more than 120 RIS3 have been developed, being a large-scale EU experience aimed to develop innovation-driven economic transformations at national and regional levels. The objective of this article is to explore the models that best explain innovative employment and the emergence of new markets in Europe’s regions. For that purpose, the latest dataset of the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2019 was used, and regressions performed to identify the main factors behind the impact of regional innovation. The results unveil the ‘double edge role’ that some variables have on regional innovation, indicating the difficulties of managing different trade-offs and of a standalone innovation policy strategy. Policy measures are discussed to best manage these critical compromises and increase the impact of RIS3.

ASPIRATIONS FAILURE, DISADVANTAGE TRAPS AND INCLUSIVE REGIONAL POLICY

This paper examines the implications for regional policy of new research on the role played by a failure in the ‘capacity to aspire’ [Appadurai, A. (2004), ‘The capacity to aspire’, in Rao, V. and Walton, M. (eds), Culture and Public Action, Washington, DC: World Bank.] in perpetuating disadvantage traps. After a brief review of the magnitude of the challenge that regional policy needs to confront, it provides a summary of the theoretical and empirical literature on poverty and aspirations failure (and the associated loss of agency, beliefs and self-efficacy). The key implication for the design of an inclusive regional policy is that it needs to address simultaneously the sources of external constraints (such as the availability of resources or adequate infrastructure) and mitigate the aspirations failure inherently linked to persistent disadvantage.

The estimation of sectoral contribution to regional divergence in Poland and Ukraine

The research aims to identify industrial and other economic sectors’ contribution to the regional divergence in Eastern European countries, particularly Poland and Ukraine. The ambiguity of the results of previous studies on the factors of regional convergence indicates the need for further research, considering the peculiarities of distinct economies’ development. The countries selected for analysis – Ukraine and Poland – had similar starting conditions for market transformation, have a common border, and a comparable population. The analysis of regional inequality in Ukraine revealed a tendency of asymmetric regions’ growth in 2010–2017. In Poland, divergent trends in regional development in 2009–2017 were significantly less pronounced. The statistical method to identify the impact of the industrial, agricultural, and service sectors on regional σ-convergence based on coefficients of variation measuring the differences in regional economies’ sectoral structure was used. The analysis demonstrated that, in general, the uneven structure of regional economies does not significantly impact any of the analyzed countries, which confirmed the results of some other studies. Simultaneously, it highlighted that the industrial sector had the greatest impact on regional divergence in Poland. Despite the dominant role of services in regional divergence in Ukraine, most researchers emphasize the importance of the industrial sector for regional development. To consider this factor in the regional divergence of Ukrainian regions, some regional policy implications were considered.

EU Cohesion Policy and spatial economic growth: trajectories in economic thought

ABSTRACT This paper aims at identifying the current main economic thought influencing the EU Cohesion Policy. Postulates and assumptions on how economic growth spreads spatially in key EU policy framework documents are discussed and compared to different economic theories. Strategic EU documents increasingly foster the urban dimension, and focus resources on cities at the expense of cohesive regional development. The findings indicate large overlaps with Perroux’ ‘growth pole theory’. However, several of the key assumptions of growth pole theory are not met in the new context of post-industrial globalized service economy, which is fundamentally different from its original use. This is a troublesome finding when seen from a strategic planning perspective. Current implications for regional policy and planning boil down to the cardinal question of supporting urban areas and/or peripheries. Taking the strategic EU policy documents and their trajectories in economic thought into consideration, this paper confirms that regional development focuses on cities. Yet, it suggests a new perspective on an urban-centred EU Cohesion Policy, one that normatively requests the ‘responsibility’ of cities towards their hinterland, instead of fostering a further dissociation of cities from their hinterland. This suggests a reorientation towards supporting the linkages between urban areas and peripheries.

Socio-demographic determinants of household electricity consumption: evidence from Greece using quantile regression analysis

This paper provides empirical evidence on the socio-economic, demographic and regional determinants of household electricity consumption. The case of Greece is taken as an example for the empirical investigation, using data from the 2017 Household Budget Survey. The results of the regional fixed effects quantile regression analysis show that household energy consumption is positively related to disposable income, the educational level, the age and the number of employed members in the household. As expected, larger households seem to consume more electricity, while there is indication that gender matters. Also, there is significant regional heterogeneity of household electricity consumption related to household energy consumption patterns, climate and demographic characteristics. Our empirical findings have important national and regional policy implications in the design of energy policies.

Green innovation efficiency across China’s 30 provinces: estimate, comparison, and convergence

Considering government and market failure of environmental regulation to combat increasing GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, green innovation can mitigate pollution through production processes and clean production. This paper aims to investigate endogenous green innovation efficiency and its convergence across China’s 30 provinces from 2004 to 2014. Due to factor endowment heterogeneity, it is important to explore the convergence of green innovation efficiency among China’s different regions, which can compare green innovation efficiency spatially and propose scientific policy implications for regions with relatively weaker green innovation efficiency. Green innovation efficiency is evaluated through epsilon-based measure (EBM) global Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) in order to overcome the demerits of radial model and slacks-based measure (SBM). Panel unit root test is implemented to explore the convergence of green innovation efficiency across different provinces of China, which addresses the invalid inference of conventional β convergence. The empirical analysis revealed that green innovation efficiency in the east is the highest among four regions of China. Unit root test of panel data revealed that the northeast had the highest convergence among China’s four regions. It is important to enhance green innovation capacity, and expand knowledge spillover of green innovation technology in order to mitigate GHG emissions.

Measurement of the circular economy in businesses: Impact and implications for regional policies

Currently, numerous governments and international organisations are promoting the implementation of the circular economy - both within the EU and in other regions - as an alternative to lineal models, and in search of a compromise between competitiveness and the sustainable exploitation of resources. The implementation of a circular business model is closely tied to the territory within which firms operate. As a result, firms are highly sensitive to the existence of favourable conditions at the regional level, which can greatly accelerate the transition towards circular models and regions play a relevant role in the adoption of the circular economy principles by the private sector. Similarly, the adoption of models based on circular economy principles at the micro level has an effect on macro indicators at the regional level, especially concerning the flow of raw materials and other resources, and this contributes to ensuring that quality standards and resource availability are maintained throughout the value chain. The effects of the adoption of these models on a territory can be measured in terms of volume of transactions, generation of jobs and consumption of raw materials. In this context, this study aims to contribute to the measurement of the activities related to the circular economy that have been implemented at regional level by business. This allows us to improve the knowledge of the socioeconomic impact of the circular economy, and offer an empirical approach for the development of specific regional policies to improve the circular economy in businesses.

Diffusion of Social Innovation: The Role of Social Entrepreneurs and Implications for Regional Policy

Diffusion of Social Innovation: The Role of Social Entrepreneurs and Implications for Regional Policy