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325 Pages·2005·3.65 MB·English
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Advances in Spatial Science Editorial Board Luc Anselin Manfred M.Fischer Geoffrey J.D.Hewings Peter Nijkamp Folke Snickars (Coordinating Editor) Titles in the Series H.Eskelinen andF.Snickars(Eds.) G.Atalik andM.M.Fischer (Eds.) Competitive European Peripheries Regional Development Reconsidered VIII,271 pages.1995.ISBN 3-540-60211-9 X,220 pages.2002.ISBN 3-540-43610-3 A.Nagurney andS.Siokos Z.J.Acs,H.L.F.de Groot andP.Nijkamp(Eds.) Financial Networks The Emergence ofthe Knowledge Economy XVI,492 pages.1997.ISBN 3-540-63116-X VII,388 pages.2002.ISBN 3-540-43722-3 M.M.Fischer andA.Getis(Eds.) R.J.Stimson,R.R.Stough andB.H.Roberts Recent Developments in Spatial Analysis Regional Economic Development X,434 pages.1997.ISBN 3-540-63180-1 X,397 pages.2002.ISBN 3-540-43731-2 P.McCann S.Geertman andJ.Stillwell(Eds.) 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Regional Science in Business D.A.Griffith VIII,363 pages.2001.ISBN 3-540-41780-X Spatial Autocorrelation and Spatial Filtering XIV,247 pages.2003.ISBN 3-540-00932-9 M.M.Fischer andY.Leung(Eds.) GeoComputational Modelling J.R.Roy XII,279 pages.2001.ISBN 3-540-41968-3 Spatial Interaction Modelling X,239 pages.2004.ISBN 3-540-20528-4 M.M.Fischer andJ.Fröhlich(Eds.) M.Beuthe,V.Himanen, Knowledge,Complexity and Innovation Systems A.Reggiani andL.Zamparini (Eds.) XII,477 pages.2001.ISBN 3-540-41969-1 Transport Developments and Innovations M.M.Fischer,J.Revilla Diez andF.Snickars in an Evolving World Metropolitan Innovation Systems XIV,346 pages.2004.ISBN 3-540-00961-2 VIII,270 pages.2001.ISBN 3-540-41967-5 Y.Okuyama andS.E.Chang(Eds.) L.Lundqvist andL.-G.Mattsson(Eds.) Modeling Spatial and Economic Impacts National Transport Models ofDisasters VIII,202 pages.2002.ISBN 3-540-42426-1 X,323 pages.2004.ISBN 3-540-21449-6 J.R.Cuadrado-Roura andM.Parellada(Eds.) L.Anselin,R.J.G.M.Florax andS.J.Rey Regional Convergence in the European Union Advances in Spatial Econometrics VIII,368 pages.2002.ISBN 3-540-43242-6 XXII,513 pages.2004.ISBN 3-540-43729-0 G.J.D.Hewings,M.Sonis andD.Boyce(Eds.) R.J.G.M.Florax andD.A.Plane (Eds.) Trade,Networks and Hierarchies Fifty Years ofRegional Science XI,467 pages.2002.ISBN 3-540-43087-3 VIII,400 pages.2004.ISBN 3-540-22361-4 Daniel Felsenstein Boris A. Portnov Editors Regional Disparities in Small Countries With 61 Figures and 54 Tables 123 Professor Dr.Daniel Felsenstein Department ofGeography Hebrew University ofJerusalem Mount Scopus 91905 Israel E-mail:[email protected] Professor Dr.Boris A.Portnov Department ofNatural Resources and Environmental Management University ofHaifa Mount Carmel,Haifa 31905 Israel E-mail:[email protected] Library ofCongress Control Number:2005921919 ISBN 3-540-24303-8 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York This work is subject to copyright.All rights are reserved,whether the whole or part ofthe material is concerned,specifically the rights oftranslation,reprinting,reuse ofillustrations,recitation, broadcasting,reproduction on microfilm or in any other way,and storage in data banks.Dupli- cation ofthis publication or parts thereofis permitted only under the provisions ofthe German Copyright Law ofSeptember 9,1965,in its current version,and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer-Verlag.Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copy- right Law. Springer is a part ofSpringer Science+Business Media springeronline.com © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005 Printed in Germany The use ofgeneral descriptive names,registered names,trademarks,etc.in this publication does not imply,even in the absence ofa specific statement,that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design:Erich Kirchner Production:Helmut Petri Printing:Strauss Offsetdruck SPIN 11375630 Printed on acid-free paper – 88/3153 – 5 4 3 2 1 0 Contents Introduction 1. Introduction 1 DANIELFELSENSTEINand BORISA. PORTNOV Part I: Concepts, Theory and Methods 2. The Liability of Smallness: Can We Expect Less Regional Disparities in Small Countries? 13 DANIELFELSENSTEINandBORISA. PORTNOV 3. Country Size in Regional Economics 25 MICHAELBEENSTOCK 4. Measures of Regional Inequality for Small Countries 47 BORISA. PORTNOVandDANIELFELSENSTEIN 5. Investigating Spatial Patterns of Income Disparities Using Coordinate Transformations and GIS Mapping 63 BORISA. PORTNOVandRIMMAGLUHIH Part II: Empirical Evidence 6. Regional Employment Disparities in Belgium: Some Empirical Results 85 OLIVIERMEUNIERandMICHELMIGNOLET 7. Regional Income Convergence and Inequality in Boom and Bust: Results from Micro Data in Finland 1971-2000 109 HEIKKIA. LOIKKANEN, MARJARIIHELÄandRISTOSULLSTRÖM 8. Regional Disparities in Ireland: The Roles of Demography, Profit Outflows, Productivity, Structural Change and Regional Policy 1960-1996 129 EOINO’LEARY 9. The Persistence of Regional Unemployment Disparities in the Netherlands 147 OEDZGEATZEMAandJOUKE VAN DIJK 10. The Dynamics of Regional Disparities in a Small Country: The Case of Slovenia 169 PETERWOSTNER vi Contents 11. Interregional Disparities in Israel: Patterns and Trends 187 BORISA. PORTNOV 12. Does Decentralisation Matter to Regional Inequalities? The Case of Small Countries 211 CARLOSGIL, PEDROPASCUALandMANUELRAPÚN 13. Regional Inequalities in the EU Enlargement Countries: An Analysis of Small Versus Large New Member States 233 GEORGEPETRAKOS, YIANNISPSYCHARISandDIMITRISKALLIORAS Part III: Policy Issues 14. Has the Financial Economy Increased Regional Disparities in Switzerland over the Last Three Decades? 251 JOSÉCORPATAUXandOLIVIERCREVOISIER 15. Regional Policy Lessons from Finland 267 HANNUTERVO 16. The Globalisation of Austrian Regions: New Policy Challenges and Opportunities 283 MICHAELSTEINER 17. Innovation Policy: An Effective Way of Reducing Spatial Disparities in Small Nations? 297 STEPHENROPER Figures 313 Tables 317 Author Index 319 Subject Index 325 Contributors 331 1 Introduction Daniel Felsenstein1 and Boris A. Portnov2 1 Department of Geography, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel 2 Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Haifa, Israel During the Candiot War of 1645-1669, the Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim I ordered his chief admiral to attack Malta. Fearing imminent defeat by the superior Venetian forces stationed on the island, the admiral decided to trick the sultan out of the idea. As the story goes, he placed a candle on his naval map, allowing the wax to drip on the tiny island until it was completelycovered. Then he exclaimed in false surprise, “Malta Yok!” (There is no Malta!), and convinced the sultan to sail his fleet to the Island of Crete instead. Although Malta is not featured in this volume, most of the countries it covers are of “wax drip” size. Intuitively, it may be expected that everything in small countries is diminutive: distances, population, economies, and even regional inequalities. Thus, at a symposium on “The Challenge of Development” convened in Israel in 1957 to mark the inauguration of a new building for the Department of Economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the eminent US economist Simon Kuznets stated that “developed small states seem to have succeeded in spreading the fruits of economic growth more widely among their populations than the larger states at comparable levels of income per capita”. While noting that he did not really have any empirical evidence to bolster this claim, he continued that “it is my belief that income is distributed more equally among the populations in the Scandinavian countries and Switzerland than say in France, Germany or even the United States…. These smaller countries have no proportionately large regions like our South with a per capita income distinctly lower than the rest of the country” (Kuznets 1960, p. 30). Similar sentiments also appear in discussions of the impacts of country size on economic development. For example, Streeten (1993) has claimed that ‘large countries show, of course, larger inequalities by region than small countries (p. 199). Perkins and Syrquin (1989) state similarly that “if inequality between regions in a country is a major source of inequality between households, then one would expect large countries to have greater regional diversity and hence higher 1 levels of inequality” (p. 1694) . This book revisits these common conceptions. The motivation for the volume is to examine both conceptually and empirically the “belief” that small countries (which are often not much larger than regions in a large country), do not exhibit 1 This expectation is not supported in their subsequent empirical analysis. 2 Daniel Felsenstein and Boris A. Portnov significant regional differences. While we are not sure whether the empirical data would have supported Kuznets’ contention when it was stated nearly 50 years ago, half a century later we are able to garner evidence to test whether his intuitive feeling has stood the test of time. Neo-classical growth theory, as developed in the context of international trade and applied to regions, and Schumpeter’s (1934) theory of economic expansion, assert that competitive forces and interregional migration of labour and capital equalize differences and factor prices across regions and lead to more even regional development (Hirschman 1958; Siebert 1969; Richardson 1977). In contrast, the so-called “new economic geography” asserts the opposite: the uneven concentration of production that manifests itself, inter alia, in a “core-periphery geography”, is sustained by circular production linkages and may become increasingly entrenched over time (Krugman 1991, Brakman et al. 2001, Fujita et al. 2001). However much of the evidence, in both directions, is based on large countries such as US states or areas within a supra-national economy such as the EU (Armstrong 1995, Le Gallo and Ertur 2003, Tsionas 2000). Do any of these theories hold for small countries generally characterized by small land area and small population size? These two determining attributes lead to a slew of implications with respect to regional disparities. If distances are shorter, access costs are lower, the number of regions (and therefore inter-regional variance) is smaller, government structures more centralized and population more homogenous, ostensibly, this should point to narrower disparities across regions in small countries. On the other hand it can be argued that certain unique features of small countries may mitigate any regional convergence. For example, even in small countries physical distance between central cities, which are main centres of employment, and hinterland regions may surpass those practicable for daily commuting. Therefore, any interregional income equalization in such countries or spillover effects cannot but be limited in scope. Furthermore, small countries are, most often, densely populated. This leads to the emergence of considerable diseconomies of agglomeration, not only in their central areas but also in their hinterlands. Whereas in large countries, such diseconomies may be concentrated at major metropolitan areas, in small countries, they may spread over the entire national territory, resulting in considerable gradients of transport outlays and general production costs. In addition, small countries are characterized by a dependence on external markets, international trade and the global economy (Poot 2004). These activities are invariably conducted from the major population centres, leaving peripheral areas at a distinct disadvantage and further entrenching any agglomerative tendencies. In other respects, the characteristics of small countries may give rise to regional outcomes very different to those in large countries. For example, the measurement of spatial disparities in small countries may lead to very different results to those obtained for large countries due to very different spatial scales of analysis. In large countries, such units are often restricted to regions, which are internally heterogeneous. Since either aggregates or averages are compared, the results may often be misleading. In contrast, inequalities among municipalities and even Introduction 3 individual localities in small countries may be analysed, leading (presumably) to more realistic estimates. Internal migration in small countries and its equalizing effects on interregional disparities may also be distinctively different from those found elsewhere. Smaller land areas mean that long-distance commuting can often substitute for internal migration. In addition it can be claimed that in small countries, the efficacy of public policy in closing regional gaps may be higher, compared to that in large countries with diverse economic, environmental and governance structures. How does this deductive reasoning hold up empirically? This volume attempts to come to terms with the empirical questions and with the attendant issues of conceptualisation, theory, measurement and policy that they presuppose. Primarily this is a book about regional disparities. Small country size and the unique features that stem from this attribute, form the context. Despite the intuition, the book seeks to examine whether there is any a-priori case to expect more regional convergence in small countries than in large ones. Counter to the contemporary trend in edited volumes, the motivation for this book is a real-world regional issue looking for a set of papers and not a set of (invariably, conference) papers looking for an issue. As such, the editors commissioned all the papers in this volume from authors with a publishing interest in the topic areas of small countries and the process of regional convergence therein. The result is a focussed series of theoretical, methodological, empirical and policy-oriented essays grounded heavily in the traditional nexus of regional science and calling on the research competencies of applied economists, urban/ regional economists, economic geographers, business economists and regional planners. We adopt a broad approach to the definition of “regional disparities”. While the common indicators of regional income, product and value added are all examined here, they do not form the exclusive focus. Regional employment and productivity are equally legitimate yardsticks and are also addressed. In addition, we further widen the focus to incorporate regional differences in technological innovation and R&D and responsiveness to global challenges and opportunities as indirect indicators of regional economic welfare. 1.1 Scope of the Book We are ecumenical as to what constitutes a “small country”. While there is a tendency to distinguish between small “economies” based on level of GDP and economic diversification and small “nations” based on territory sometimes combined with population, we opt for the more nebulous small “countries” terminology. While inherently intuitive, this term suggests some logical combination of national territory, population and wealth (Alesina and Spolaore 2003, Crowards 2002). In this volume, while we do not overtly favour one criterion over another, the common denominator that emerges for defining “small countries” is the spatial (land area) factor. The result is a reasonably coherent set

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