http://repub.eur.nl/res/concept/jel-R12/ Recent publications classified by JEL Code R12 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/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/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/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/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/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. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/9705/ 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z This paper investigates differences between opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs in terms of socio-demographics, attitudes and perception of obstacles . We use the 2004 Flash Eurobarometer Survey data. Explanatory variables include gender, age, education level and self-employed parents, risk tolerance, locus of control, perceptions of four obstacles and country effects. The obstacle variables include the perception of availibility of financial support; administrative complexity; of access to information on new venture creation and an unfavorable economic climate. Using probit equations we investigate differences in the preference for self-employment of opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs. A probit equation is estimated relating the explanatory variables to opportunity versus necessity entrepreneurship. Moreover, differences in the entrepreneurial engagement of opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs are investigated on the basis of a (ordered) multinomial logit model. Findings indicate that opportunity entrepreneurs have a higher preference for self-employment because of family encouragement. Also, opportunity entrepreneurs are found to perceive of administrative complexity and an unfavorable economic climate, negatively influencing their entrepreneurial involvement, while this is not the case for necessity entrepreneurs. Bhola, R. Verheul, I. Thurik, A.R. Grilo, I. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/15796/ 2005-12-01T00:00:00Z This paper uses 2004 survey data from the 15 old EU member states and the US to explain country differences in latent and actual entrepreneurship. Other than demographic variables such as gender, age and education, the set of covariates includes the perception by respondents of administrative complexities, of availability of financial support and of risk tolerance as well as country-specific effects. A comparison is made with results using a similar survey in 2000. While a majority of the surveyed population identifies lack of financial support as an obstacle to starting a new business, the role of this variable in both latent and actual entrepreneurship appears to be even more counterintuitive in 2004 than in 2000: it has no impact on actual entrepreneurship and is positively related to latent entrepreneurship. Administrative complexities, also perceived as an obstacle by a large majority of the population, have the expected negative impact both for latent and actual entrepreneurship in both years. Country-specific effects are important both for latent and actual entrepreneurship and the comparison of 2000 and 2004 results suggests that, once all other factors are controlled for, an improvement in actual entrepreneurship in the EU relative to the US has taken place in the last four years. However, in terms of unweighted averages actual entrepreneurship remained about the same. Latent entrepreneurship dropped while this drop seems to have occurred evenly in the US and the EU member states. Grilo, I. Thurik, A.R. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/9862/ 2005-12-01T00:00:00Z Determinants from different streams of literature and spanning different disciplines are used to explain entrepreneurial decisions. A multinomial logit model and survey data from the old 15 EU member states, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and the US are used to establish the effect of demographic and other variables on various entrepreneurial engagement levels. These engagement levels range from “never thought about starting a business” to “thinking about it”, “taking steps for starting up”, “having a young business”, “having an older business” and “no longer being an entrepreneur”. Data of two Entrepreneurship Flash Eurobarometer surveys (2002 and 2003) containing over 20,000 observations are used. Other than demographic variables, the set of explanatory variables used includes the perception by respondents of ad-ministrative complexities, of availability of financial support and of risk tolerance, the respondents’ prefer-ence for self-employment and country specific effects. The most striking result is that the perception of lack of financial support has no discriminative effect across the various levels of entrepreneurial engagement. Thurik, A.R. Grilo, I. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/15798/ 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z A multinomial logit model and survey data from the 25 EU member states and the US are used to establish the effect of demographic and other variables on various entrepreneurial engagement levels. These engagement levels range from “never thought about starting a business” to “thinking about it”, “taking steps for starting up”, “having a young business”, “having an older business” and “no longer being an entrepreneur”. Data of the 2004 Entrepreneurship Flash Eurobarometer survey containing over 13,500 observations is used. Other than demographic variables such as gender, age, education level and whether parents are self-employed, the set of explanatory variables used includes country specific effects, measures of risk tolerance, internal and external locus of control and four perceptions of ’obstacles’. The ‘obstacle’ variables include the perception by respondents of administrative complexities, of availability of financial support, of accessibility of information for start-up and whether the current economic climate is favorable. Among the four perception variables only administrative complexities displays an unambiguous obstacle profile in that its presence has a significant negative impact on higher entrepreneurial engagement levels. Country effects suggest a clear underperformance of Europe relative to the US in less mature entrepreneurial phases. Grilo, I. Thurik, A.R. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/9708/ 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z A multinomial logit model and survey data from the 25 EU member states and the US are used to establish the effect of demographic and other variables on various entrepreneurial engagement levels. These engagement levels range from never thought about starting a business to thinking about it , taking steps for starting up , having a young business , having an older business and no longer being an entrepreneur . Data of the 2004 Entrepreneurship Flash Eurobarometer survey containing over 13,500 observations is used. Other than demographic variables such as gender, age, education level and whether parents are self-employed, the set of explanatory variables used includes country specific effects, measures of risk tolerance, internal and external locus of control and four perceptions of obstacles . The obstacle variables include the perception by respondents of administrative complexities, of availability of financial support, of accessibility of information for start-up and whether the current economic climate is favorable. Among the four perception variables only administrative complexities displays an unambiguous obstacle profile in that its presence has a significant negative impact on higher entrepreneurial engagement levels. Country effects suggest a clear underperformance of Europe relative to the US in less mature entrepreneurial phases. Grilo, I. Thurik, A.R. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/9710/ 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z This paper uses 2004 survey data from the 15 old EU member states and the US to explain country differences in latent and actual entrepreneurship. Other than demographic variables such as gender, age and education, the set of covariates includes the perception by respondents of administrative complexities, of availability of financial support and of risk tolerance as well as country-specific effects. A comparison is made with results using a similar survey in 2000. While a majority of the surveyed population identifies lack of financial support as an obstacle to starting a new business, the role of this variable in both latent and actual entrepreneurship appears to be even more counterintuitive in 2004 than in 2000: it has no impact on actual entrepreneurship and is positively related to latent entrepreneurship. Administrative complexities, also perceived as an obstacle by a large majority of the population, have the expected negative impact both for latent and actual entrepreneurship in both years. Country-specific effects are important both for latent and actual entrepreneurship and the comparison of 2000 and 2004 results suggests that, once all other factors are controlled for, an improvement in actual entrepreneurship in the EU relative to the US has taken place in the last four years. However, in terms of unweighted averages actual entrepreneurship remained about the same. Latent entrepreneurship dropped while this drop seems to have occurred evenly in the US and the EU member states. Grilo, I. Thurik, A.R.