http://repub.eur.nl/res/concept/jel-R1/ Recent publications classified by JEL Code R1 en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/34708/ 2012-07-06T00:00:00Z In the modern economy, cities are assumed to be in fierce competition over attracting foreign investments in leading sectors of the world economy. Despite the rich theoretical discourse on these 'wars', it remains unclear which territories are competing with each other over which types of investments Combining insights from international economics, international business, and urban systems literature, we develop an indicator to measure revealed competition between territories for investments based on the overlap of investment portfolios of regions. Taking competition for greenfield investments between European regions as a test subject, we identify competitive market segments, derive the competitive threat a region faces from other regions, the competitive threat regions pose to other regions, and the most important market segments in which regions compete. We show that European regions with similar locational endowments pose a fiercer competitive thre at to one another. In addition, regions that are sufficiently large and distinctive, face the smallest average competitive threat from all other regions. Burger, M.J. Knaap, G.A. van der Wall, R.S. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/32879/ 2012-07-01T00:00:00Z This study examines the changing competitiveness of financial centres in mainland China and Hong Kong based on the geography of equity listing of mainland Chinese firms. Pre-listing firm characteristics are used to explore firms' motives for listing on a particular exchange and whether these motives have changed over time. The results show that Hong Kong's prominence as an international financial centre is attracting the largest and, recently, also the best performing mainland Chinese state-owned enterprises to go public. Less differentiation exists between the competitiveness of Shanghai and Shenzhen, although the renewed strategy of the Shenzhen stock exchange to attract smaller firms appears to be successful. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT] Karreman, B. Knaap, G.A. van der http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31776/ 2012-02-16T00:00:00Z Empirical studies in spatial economics have shown that agglomeration economies may be a source of the uneven distribution of economic activities and economic growth across cities and regions. Both localization and urbanization economies are hypothesized to foster agglomeration and growth, but recent meta-analyses of this burgeoning body of empirical research show that the results are ambiguous. Recent overviews show that this ambiguity is fuelled by measurement issues and heterogeneity in terms of scale of time and space, aggregation, growth definitions, and the functional form of the models applied. Alternatively, in this paper, we argue that ambiguity may be due to a lack of research on firm-level performance in agglomerations. This research is necessary because the theories that underlie agglomeration economies are microeconomic in nature. Hierarchical or multilevel modeling, which allows micro levels and macro levels to be modeled simultaneously, is becoming an increasingly common practice in the social sciences. As illustrated by detailed Dutch data on firm-level productivity, employment growth and firm survival, we argue that these approaches are also suitable for reducing the ambiguity surrounding the agglomeration-firm performance relationship and for addressing spatial, sectoral and cross-level heterogeneity. Oort, F.G. van Burger, M.J. Knoben, J. Raspe, O. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26694/ 2011-07-01T00:00:00Z Empirical evidence suggests that regional disparities in income are often very wide, that these disparities do not necessarily disappear as economies grow and that these disparities are themselves a major driver of growth. We use a novel approach based on multilevel modelling to decompose the sources of inequality in household incomes in Burkina Faso. We show that differences in income across space are explained not only by the spatial concentration of households with favourable characteristics but to a large extent also by disparities in community endowments. Climatic differences across regions do matter, also, but to a much smaller extent. On the basis of the findings, it would be worth assessing the potential effects of policies which build and enhance infrastructure that connects communities complemented by interventions targeted to specific villages that particularly lag behind. Gräb, J. Grimm, M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/20447/ 2010-08-10T00:00:00Z This study examines the changing competitiveness of financial centres in mainland China and Hong Kong based on the geography of equity listing of mainland Chinese firms. Pre-listing firm characteristics are used to explore firms’ motives for listing on a particular exchange and whether these motives have changed over time. The results show that Hong Kong’s prominence as an international financial centre is attracting the largest and, recently, also the best performing mainland Chinese state-owned enterprises to go public. Less differentiation exists between the competitiveness of Shanghai and Shenzhen, although the renewed strategy of the Shenzhen stock exchange to attract smaller firms appears to be successful. Karreman, B. Knaap, G.A. van der http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/15775/ 2010-07-14T00:00:00Z We test a new model where the entrepreneurial decision is described as a process of successive engagement levels, i.e. as an entrepreneurial ladder. Five levels are distinguished using nearly 12 000 observations from the 2004 ‘Flash Eurobarometer survey on Entrepreneurship’ covering the 25 European Union member states and the United States. The most surprising of the many results is that perception of lack of financial support is no obstacle for moving to a higher entrepreneurial engagement level whereas perceived administrative complexity is a significant obstacle. We also show that the effect of age on the probability of moving forward in the entrepreneurial process becomes negative after a certain age implying that if entrepreneurial engagements are not taken early enough in life they may well never be taken. Zwan, P.W. van der Thurik, A.R. Grilo, I. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/19519/ 2010-04-28T00:00:00Z Recent empirical studies in regional science and urban economics show that agglomeration economies may be one source of the uneven distribution of economic activities and economic growth across cities and regions. At the same time, the body of research into the importance of agglomeration economies for the performance of firms is still growing. Such development is necessary, as the theories that underlie agglomeration economies are microeconomic in nature, but still insufficiently understood. In this study, we focus on the determinants of survival among new establishments in the advanced producer services sector in the Netherlands. Employing a mixed hierarchical and cross-classified probit regression, we introduce a model of establishment survival that is specific to characteristics of the internal and external environment of the establishment. Controlling for firm and sector characteristics, we conclude that location accounts for about 4% of the variance in the probability of survival of new establishments. We also find that localization and urbanization economies have a positive effect on the survival of new establishments. However, new establishments with large start-up sizes appear to profit more from agglomeration economies than new establishments with small start-up sizes. Burger, M.J. Oort, F.G. van Raspe, O. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/19534/ 2010-04-01T00:00:00Z Conceptually, the degrees of spatial and functional integration and urban complementarities in economic network relations are hypothesised to be important. In this paper, data on interfirm relations in the Dutch Randstad are used to test conditions for integration and the existence of economic complementarities. A clear hierarchy is observed in the different types of spatial interdependencies in the Randstad, in which the central place model prevails. Furthermore, no evidence is found for the functional integration of municipalities in the Randstad. It is concluded that, at this moment, the Randstad does not function as a spatially and functionally integrated region and that spatial economic policy can better focus on smaller regions within the Randstad. This also calls into question the applicability of the urban network concept in general, as the Dutch Randstad is usually seen as a prime example of an economically successful polycentric urban system. Oort, F.G. van Burger, M.J. Raspe, O. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/16557/ 2009-08-18T00:00:00Z This paper deals with real-time disruption management of rolling stock in passenger railway transportation. We present a generic framework for modeling disruptions in railway rolling stock schedules. The framework is presented as an online combinatorial decision problem where the uncertainty of a disruption is modeled by a sequence of information updates. To decompose the problem we propose a rolling horizon approach where only rolling stock decisions within a certain time horizon from the time of rescheduling are taken into account. The schedules are then revised as the situation progresses and more accurate information becomes available. We extend an existing model for rolling stock scheduling to the specific requirements of the real-time case and apply it in the rolling horizon framework. We perform computational tests on instances constructed from real life cases and explore the consequences of different settings of the approach for the trade-off between solution quality and computation time. Nielsen, L.K. Maroti, G. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/16518/ 2009-08-01T00:00:00Z We investigate which countries have the highest potential to achieve entrepreneurial progress. This progress is defined using an entrepreneurial ladder with five successive steps: “never thought about starting a business”, “thinking about starting a business”, “taking steps to start a business”, “running a business for less than three years”, and “running a business for more than three years”. We assess the influence of individual-level and country-level variables on progression through these stages. Data are used from the 2007 “Flash Eurobarometer Survey on Entrepreneurship”, covering 27 European countries and the United States. We find that countries display large variation in the ease with which businesses come into existence and survive. In the US many people think about setting up a business whereas Europeans are better at achieving higher levels of engagement. Particularly in Austria, France and Lithuania there appear to be low probabilities to advance in the process. Our analysis suggests that country differences can be explained by the level of economic development and risk tolerance while the administrative and financial climate play a role for some steps. The paper also provides results on the influence of individual-level demographic and obstacle perception variables. Zwan, P.W. van der Verheul, I. Thurik, A.R. Grilo, I. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/16214/ 2009-06-29T00:00:00Z The current debate on polycentric urban development suggests that inter-firm relations are important for the creation and sustainment of urban networks. Conceptually, the degrees of spatial and functional integration and urban complementarities in economic network relations are hypothesised to be important. However, the theoretical economic rationale has not been convincingly tested. In this paper, we use data on inter-firm relations in the Dutch Randstad to test conditions for integration and the existence of economic complementarities within this region. Contrary to the ‘polycentricity hypothesis’, we observe a clear hierarchy in the different types of spatial interdependencies in the Randstad, in which the central place model prevails. Furthermore, we do not find evidence for the functional integration of municipalities in the Randstad. We conclude that at this moment the Randstad does not function as a spatially and functionally integrated region, and that spatial economic policy can better focus on smaller regions within the Randstad when urban economic complementarities and integration are desired. This also calls into question the applicability of the urban network concept in general, as the Dutch Randstad is usually seen as a prime example of an economically successful polycentric urban system. Oort, F.G. van Burger, M.J. Raspe, O. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/16181/ 2009-06-19T00:00:00Z Performance evaluation has been one of the most critical components in management. As production systems nowadays consist of a growing number of integrated and interacting processes, the interrelationship and dynamic among processes have create a major challenge in measuring system and process performance. Meanwhile, rapid information obsolescence has become a commonplace in today’s high-velocity environment. Managers therefore need to make process design decisions based on incomplete information regarding the future market. This thesis studies the above problems in the evaluation and design of complex production systems. Based on the widely used Data Envelopment Analysis models, we develop a generalized methodology to evaluate the dynamic efficiency of production networks. Our method evaluates both the supply network and its constituent firms in a systematic way. The evaluation result can help identify inefficiency in the network, which is important information for improving the network performance. Part II of the thesis covers multi-criteria process design methods developed for situations of different information availability. Our design approaches combine interdisciplinary techniques to facilitate efficient decision-making in situations with limited information and high uncertainty. As an illustration, we apply these approaches to project selection and resource allocation problems in a supply chain. Chen, C-M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/16014/ 2009-05-20T00:00:00Z We are concerned with evolutionary algorithms that are employed for economic modeling purposes. We focus in particular on evolutionary algorithms that use a binary encoding of strategies. These algorithms, commonly referred to as genetic algorithms, are popular in agent-based computational economics research. In many studies, however, there is no clear reason for the use of a binary encoding of strategies. We therefore examine to what extent the use of such an encoding may influence the results produced by an evolutionary algorithm. It turns out that the use of a binary encoding can have quite significant effects. Since these effects do not have a meaningful economic interpretation, they should be regarded as artifacts. Our findings indicate that in general the use of a binary encoding is undesirable. They also highlight the importance of employing evolutionary algorithms with a sensible economic interpretation. Waltman, L.R. Eck, N.J.P. van Dekker, R. Kaymak, U. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18725/ 2009-02-01T00:00:00Z Empirical evidence suggests that regional disparities in incomes are often very high, that these disparities do not necessarily disappear as economies grow and that these disparities are itself an important driver of growth. We use a novel approach based on multilevel modeling to decompose the sources of spatial disparities in incomes among households in Burkina Faso. We show that spatial disparities are not only driven by the spatial concentration of households with particular endowments but to a large extent also by disparities in community endowments. Climatic differences across regions do also matter, but to a much smaller extent. Gräb, J. Grimm, M. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/13834/ 2008-11-14T00:00:00Z The modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) refers to the sensitivity of statistical research results to the initial spatial nomenclature used. Despite a substantial literature in the related field of geography on the potential influence of the MAUP, the urban economic modeling tradition has not paid much attention to this issue. In this article, we test to what extent the MAUP moderates the effect of agglomeration externalities on areal sectoral employment growth by varying the initial geographical scale of analysis. Using spatial cross-regressive modeling in which we account for spatial spillover effects of agglomeration externalities, we find different effects of agglomeration forces across geographical scales. As the MAUP is a theoretical as well as a methodological problem, research should not only work with proper statistical specifications of spatial agglomeration models incorporating different geographical scales, but also relate this more explicitly to hypotheses concerning the geographical scale at which agglomeration externalities operate. Burger, M.J. Oort, F.G. van Knaap, G.A. van der http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/13692/ 2008-10-23T00:00:00Z Office buildings are a major investment vehicle, provide a working environment for numerous employees across the globe and determine the skyline of major cities. Put differently: office buildings matter. This dissertation consists of six studies and focuses on office buildings from a broad, but always financial, perspective. The first study examines the effect of implications embedded in real option theory on office construction decisions by exploring the Singapore and Hong Kong office markets. In line with the predictions of real option models, we show that the effects of real interest rate and the expected demand growth on the hurdle rent become more negative when the market volatility is greater. The second study shows a model for measuring the effect of clustering of office space on rents. The results, based on the Amsterdam office market, show that office rents are higher in denser office areas. Our longitudinal data show that this effect is present irrespective of the phase of the office market cycle. The third study examines the relation between urban density and financial performance for a sample of Dutch firms. The analysis indicates that firms in densely populated areas have lower return on assets when compared to their counterparts in more rural areas. The following two studies examine office rent determinants in Europe and the United States respectively by applying two-stage error-correction-models. In contradiction to expectations based on U.S. office market research, we show that the use of local data does not significantly improve rent models in a study of ten European cities. For a panel of fifteen major office markets in the U.S. the results presented in the following chapter of this dissertation show that office rents react significantly stronger to positive changes in office employment when vacancy rates are relatively low. The final study shows the relation between direct and indirect office investment styles. Results indicate that the two formats are integrated over longer time periods, but can behave very differently over short time intervals. Jennen, M.G.J. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10843/ 2007-12-20T00:00:00Z Policy makers spend large amounts of public resources on the foundation of science parks and other forms of geographically clustered business activities, in order to stimulate regional innovation. Underlying the relation between clusters and innovation is the assumption that co-located firms engaged in innovative activities benefit from knowledge that diffuses locally. In order to access this knowledge, firms are often required to form more- or less formal relations with co-located firms. Empirical evidence shows however that besides some success cases like Silicon Valley and the Emilia- Romagna region where firms collaborate intensively, many regional clusters are mere co-locations of firms. To enhance our understanding of why some clusters become networks of strategic collaboration and others don’t, we study link formation within European biopharmaceutical clusters. More specifically we look at the effect of cluster characteristics such as number of start-up firms, established firms or academic institutions, or the nature of the collaborations on the probability of local link formation. Phlippen, S.M.W. Knaap, G.A. van der http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/8134/ 2006-11-22T00:00:00Z We test a new model where the entrepreneurial decision is described as a process of successive engagement levels, i.e., as an entrepreneurial ladder. Five levels are distinguished using nearly 12,000 observations from the 2004 “Flash Eurobarometer survey on Entrepreneurship” covering the 25 European Union member states and the United States. The most surprising of the many results is that perception of lack of financial support is no obstacle for moving to a higher entrepreneurial engagement level whereas perceived administrative complexity is a significant obstacle. We also show that the effect of age on the probability of moving forward in the entrepreneurial process becomes negative after a certain age implying that if entrepreneurial engagements are not taken early enough in life they may well never be taken. Zwan, P.W. van der Thurik, A.R. Grilo, I. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/8077/ 2006-11-06T00:00:00Z Using a comprehensive international trade data set we investigate empirical regularities (known as Zipf’s Law or the rank-size rule) for the distribution of the interaction between countries as measured by revealed comparative advantage. Using the recently developed estimator by Gabaix and Ibragimov (2006) we find strong evidence in favor of the rank-size rule along the time, country, and sector dimension for three different levels of data aggregation. The estimated power exponents that characterize the distribution of revealed comparative advantage are stable over time but differ between countries and sectors. These differences are related empirically to country and sector characteristics, including population size, GDP, and factor intensities. Hinloopen, J. Marrewijk, J.G.M. van http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/7639/ 2006-03-29T00:00:00Z In this study indicators of agglomeration economies and their effect on entrepreneurship in the ICT industry are analysed in diverse urban contexts. Agglomeration economies have a stronger impact on new firm formation than on the growth of incumbent firms. Concentration and diversity both have a positive effect on new firm formation as well as on the growth of incumbent firms, while competition only has a positive effect on new firm formation. It is especially the effects of industrial diversity that are revealed to be sensitive to urban contexts: positive effects on new firm formation are attached to the connected cities and to the highly urbanized Randstad, and positive effects on firm growth to the intermediate zone, the connected cities and urban municipalities. Oort, F.G. van Stam, F.C.