calculated inequality portfolio benchmarking and regional office property investment in the uk the paper explores the reasons for the persistence in the uk of significant relative interregional variations in office property investment in the face of economic theory and empirical evidence that would support its more even spatial distribution the argument is made from a cultural economy perspective and involves the application to property of a concept drawn from the accountancy literature calculative practice uk investment decision making is distinguished by the primacy attributed to portfolio benchmarking as an influence on investment strategy the wider logic underpinning property benchmarking is subjected to critical appraisal then evidence is presented that suggests that benchmarking is a self referential practice which results in convergence and rigidity in fund structures and in the concentration of performance around a bounded range of sub optimal returns it is a barrier to the greater geographical diversification of office property investment

working for regional development the case of canadian labour sponsored investment funds lincoln a 2000 working for regional development the case of canadian labour sponsored investment funds reg studies 34 727 737 in today s global economy a number of challenges have been posed for workers and community members however despite being weakened by multinational capital and neo liberal policy agendas workers and trade unions remain capable of shaping the geography of capitalism while uk and us labour organizations have considered a range of strategies to protect their members an innovative and impressive attempt at tackling the politics of finance and capital has come from within the canadian labour movement in attempting to resist globalization certain canadian unions have actively engaged with the investment of their members pension fund money through the creation of labour sponsored investment funds in this paper i draw on empirical material collected in canada to explore the development of these labour sponsored funds through investing in these provincial funds

closing the regional equity gap a critique of the department of trade and industry s regional venture capital funds initiative mason c m and harrison r t 2003 closing the regional equity gap a critique of the department of trade and industry s regional venture capital funds initiative reg studies 37 855 868 the uk labour government has provided support for the establishment of regional venture capital funds in each of the english regions as part of its drive to create an entrepreneurially led knowledge based economy this initiative is a response to persistent gaps in the provision of start up and early stage venture capital in this paper we question the likely effectiveness of the initiative on four counts first there is a lack of early stage venture capital skills available to manage the funds second the small size of the funds will make it difficult for them to achieve financial viability third the funds are targeting the wrong problem the maximum investment that they are allowed to make is 250 000 they may subsequently provide up to an additional 250 000 in follow on financing however the main fundin

environmental policy and international trade when governments and producers act strategically some environmentalists express concern that trade liberalization may damage the environment by giving governments incentives to relax environmental policies to give domestic producers a competitive advantage support for such concern may be given by models of imperfectly competitive trade where there may be rent shifting incentives for governments to relax environmental policies but there are also incentives for producers to act strategically e g through their investment in rd ii allowing governments to act strategically increases the incentive for producers to act strategically iii welfare is lower when both parties act strategically and iv strategic behavior by producers and governments is greater when governments use emission taxes than when they use emission standards

progress along the path evolving issues in the measurement of genuine saving more than 10 years since a practical linkage between sustainable development and a measure of national wealth expanded to include natural and environmental resources was first posited the empirical estimation of adjusted net savings dubbed genuine saving has evolved considerably in this paper we take stock of both progress achieved and the challenges that remain we begin by recalling the key points made in pearce and atkinson 1993 ecol econ 8 103 which presented the first cross country estimates of savings rates adjusted to reflect depletion and degradation of the environment we then briefly summarise the evolution of the theoretical argument linking savings and sustainability however the main focus of this paper is an aspect that concerned david pearce greatly namely the evolution of the measurement of genuine savings we identify and consider the empirical evidence with regard to two particular measurement issues the valuation of exhaustible resources and environmental degradation common to the both issues are concerns about measuring changes in national wealth in real world economies

closing the regional equity capital gap the role of informal venture capital there is evidence from a number of countries that small firms encounter a shortage of long term investment finance particularly at start up and initial growth expansion of the institutional venture capital industry has done little to fill this equity gap on account of its preference for making large investments in established companies and management leveraged buyouts moreover the supply of venture capital exhibits a high level of spatial concentration initiatives by state provincial and local governments most notably in economically lagging regions to increase the supply of risk capital for start ups and early stage businesses have at best provided a very partial and often costly solution a more appropriate approach to increasing the supply of start up and early stage finance is to facilitate the more efficient operation of theinformal venture capital market informal investors or business angels are private investors who provide risk capital directly to new and growing businesses in which they have no family connection most business angels are unable to find sufficient investment opportunities and so have substantial uncommitted funds available there is also considerable scope for expanding the population of business angels the most cost effective means of closing the equity gap is therefore for the public sector to underwrite the operating costs of business introduction services whose objective is to overcome the two main sources of inefficiency in the informal venture capital market namely the invisibility of business angels and the high search costs of angels seeking investment opportunities and entrepreneurs seeking investors by the provision of a channel of communication between informal investors and entrepreneurs seeking finance

development of financial intermediation and the dynamics of urban rural disparity in china 1978 1998 chen y p liu m and zhang q development of financial intermediation and the dynamics of urban rural disparity in china 1978 1998 regional studies this paper focuses on the impacts of financial intermediation development on the urban rural income disparity urid in china using a twenty year province level panel data set from 1978 to 1998 it is found that the change of urid may be explained by fiscal policy during the early reform period 1978 1989 and financial intermediates during the later reform period 1990 1998 in addition it is shown that the direction the kuznets effect an inverted u shaped relationship between per capita gross domestic product and urid is sensitive to changes in government development policies this study adds to the spatial economic inequality literature by clarifying the effects of urban biased financial intermediation policy on the underlying dynamics of convergent and divergent effects on urban rural inequality chen y p liu m et zhang q le developpement

the regional financial sector a scottish case study dow s c 1992 the regional financial sector a scottish case study reg studies 26 619 631 the regional finance literature suggests that financial market segmentation may affect regional economic activity but that the uk financial sector is sufficiently integrated to rule out this effect this paper attempts to broaden the scope of the debate by considering the credit creating behaviour of the banking sector together with the interdependent financial behaviour of all other sectors in a region it is concluded that financial behaviour in this broad sense affects regional activity even in an integrated national financial market in particular financial integration may adversely affect the allocation of new credit to a peripheral region the argument is assessed by considering the scottish case dow s c 1992 le secteur financier regional cas d etude de l ecosse reg studies 26 619 631 la documentation relative au secteur financier regional laisse supposer que la segmentation du marche finan

consumer response to commodity specific and broad based promotion programs for fruits and vegetables generic promotion activities have traditionally been used for individual agricultural commodities yet there is renewed interest in implementing a mandatory broad based promotion program for all fruits and vegetables here we use data from an experiment that introduce subjects to various promotional efforts for fruits and vegetables to estimate the shift and rotational effects of advertising econometric results indicate that commodity specific promotional efforts may not be effective at increasing demand for fruits and vegetables after controlling for various demographic differences among treatments our results show that consumers valuation of fruits and vegetables was highest among subjects exposed to broad based advertisements copyright 2011 oxford university press

global warming irreversibility and learning a number of economists have argued that the literature on the irreversibility effect implies that current abatement of greenhouse gas emissions should be greater when there is the possibility of obtaining better information in the future about the potential damages from global warming than when there is no possibility of obtaining better information in this paper we show that even the simplest model of global warming does not satisfy either of epstein s 1980 sufficient conditions so it is not possible to use epstein s analysis to tell whether the irreversibility effect applies to models of global warming we derive an alternative sufficient condition for the irreversibility effect to hold

financialisation the valuation of investment property and the urban built environment in the uk the financialisation literature has been criticised for its limited empirical base and its failure adequately to link the everyday world with that of high finance the paper addresses these shortcomings by examining the calculative practice of property valuation the way that valuations are performed affects their results and therefore the operation of the property market the paper traces the evolving influence of finance capital on the valuation of commercial property in the uk by constructing a historiography of investment valuation since 1960 traditional approaches to valuation have been increasingly challenged by those derived from financial economics however the former remains the dominant method for undertaking market valuation its grounding in comparison a centring and standardising process offers an explanation for some of the changes in the urban built environment that are ascribed to financialisation this suggests that a more detailed and historically sensitive interpretation of financialisation is required

banking activities and local output growth does distance from centre matter ozyildirim s and onder z banking activities and local output growth does distance from centre matter regional studies in this paper the relation between local banking activities and local output growth is empirically studied in turkey during the period 1991 2000 although there is no legal restriction against regional banking the banking sector is spatially concentrated in turkey in this institutional structure the distance between headquarters and the local branches is argued to affect the role of financial intermediation in the development of provincial prosperity empirical findings suggest that banking activities have a significant positive impact on the per capita local output growth of regions especially on those that are distant from the financial centre however when bank loans are adjusted to the size of the local economy provincial gross domestic product gdp the relation between banking activities and the output per capita is found to be negative suggesting that these loans are us

climate change mitigation with technology spillovers we explore the implications of an increase in clean technology spillovers between developed and developing countries we build a game of abatements in which players are linked with technology spillovers determined by an initial choice of absorptive capacities by developing countries we show that within a non cooperative framework the response of clean technology investments in developed countries to an increase in cross country technology spillovers is ambiguous if the marginal benefits of these additional abatements are not sufficiently high developed countries have a strategic incentive to decrease investments such a strategic response jeopardizes the initial effects of an increase in technology spillovers on climate change mitigation and decreases the incentives for developing countries to enhance their absorptive capacities

regional taxing and spending the search for balance the financial settlement has been described as the key to devolution public spending above tax in scotland and wales has been criticized public spending is above tax in seven uk regions including four english regions if we treat equal citizens equally public spending will be above tax in poorer regions there is nothing extraordinary about spending above tax but there are important questions with regard to regional levels of expenditure in four regions london south east scotland and northern ireland public expenditure is well above the level expected for their degree of prosperity this article provides possible explanations

venture capital the regions and public policy the united kingdom since the post 2000 technology crash mason c and pierrakis y venture capital the regions and public policy the united kingdom since the post 2000 technology crash regional studies the geography of venture capital in the united kingdom has been shaped since the year 2000 by a significant increase in public sector venture capital funds venture capital investments are now less concentrated in the south east however investment activity in the midlands and north is dominated by the public sector deal sizes in these regions are small venture capital measured by the total amount invested remains over concentrated in london and the south east where private sector investors continue to dominate this paper concludes by questioning whether this increased dependence of northern regions on public sector venture capital matters mason c and pierrakis y 2000 2000

the aggregation of climate change damages a welfare theoretic approach the economic value of environmental goods is commonly determined using the concepts of willingness to pay wtp or willingness to accept wta however the wtp wta observed in different countries or between individuals will differ according to socio economic characteristics in particular income this notion of differentiated values for otherwise identical goods say a given reduction in mortality risk has been criticized as unethical most recently in the context of the social cost chapter of the ipcc second assessment report these critics argue that being a function of income wtp wta estimates reflect the unfairness in the current income distribution and for equity reasons uniform per unit values should therefore be applied across individuals and countries this paper analyses the role of equity in the aggregation of climate change damage estimates using basic tools of welfare economics it shows one way of how wtp wta estimates can be corrected in aggregation if the underlying income distribution is considered unfair it proposes that in the aggregation process individual estimates be weighted with an equity factor derived from the social welfare and utility functions equity weighting can significantly increase aggregate global damage figures although some specifications of weighting functions also imply reduced estimates the paper also shows that while the postulate of uniform per unit values is compatible with a wide range of reasonable utility and welfare specifications there are also cases where the common value notion is not compatible with defensible welfare concepts

rich regions poor regions and bank branch deregulation in spain abstractrich regions poor regions and bank branch deregulation in spain regional studies the links between financial deregulation and economic performance are evaluated in a european context specifically the study analyses the relaxation of bank branching restrictions in spain which triggered a remarkable interregional expansion of savings banks that coincided with an unprecedented period of sustained economic expansion although related questions have been widely investigated for the united states experiences in europe have received far less research attention an additional contribution of the paper lies in its use of quantile regression which enables the investigation of the possibility of economic effects taking into account the degree of regional development the potential endogeneity of some of the regressors is also explicitly considered results do not support the case for a positive effect of bank branch deregulation in spain out of region entry in particular does not seem to have had

business angel networks and the development of the informal venture capital market in the u k is there still a role for the public sector business angel networks bans provide a channel of communication between private venture capital investors business angels and entrepreneurs seeking risk capital most operate locally on a not for profit basis with their costs underwritten by the public sector however the recent establishment of bans by private sector organisations in the u k has led to a questioning of the government s continuing role in the financing of bans this paper demonstrates that there are significant differences between public sector and other not for profit bans and private sector commercially oriented bans in terms of the investments that they facilitate private sector bans are primarily involved with larger later stage deals whereas investments made through not for profit bans are generally smaller involve start ups and other early stage businesses and are local the emergence of private sector bans has therefore not eliminated the need for public sector support for locally oriented networks

the regional transmission of uk monetary policy dow s c and montagnoli a 2007 the regional transmission of uk monetary policy regional studies 41 797 808 concerns have been raised in the media about a one size fits all monetary policy for the uk if there are diverse economic conditions in different regions then a unitary monetary policy cannot suit all the purpose of this paper is to explore this issue further by breaking it down into two separate issues first there is the more conventional way of considering the question in terms of the effect of a particular interest rate change on regions experiencing different economic conditions this requires a consideration of the nature and causes of regional economic disparities in the uk and how these might be affected by particular interest rate changes but there is further the question of how monetary policy is transmitted to the different regions the possibility is considered that there may be regional differences in how a particular monetary policy is translated into different financial

labor adjustment and gradual reform when is commitment important we analyze a model in which a government uses a second best policy to affect the reallocation of labor following a change in relative prices we consider two extreme cases in which the government has either unlimited or negligible ability to commit to future actions we discuss the factors that determine the importance of commitment ability and provide numerical examples the degree of commitment ability can alter the equilibrium policy both quantitatively and qualitatively in both extreme cases the dying sector is protected during the transition to a free market in order to decrease the amount of unemployment

financial hierarchy and banking strategies a regional analysis for the brazilian case the aim of this paper is to investigate whether brazil s financial system has a differentiated strategy in space the analysis is based on the theory of liquidity preference regionally differentiated in addition it assumes that the banking strategies are associated with centrality as defined in christaller s central place theory the analysis used indicators of 2 924 cities grouped according to the type of financial services they provide in addition the paper presents an estimation using a dynamic panel data econometric model for the period 2000 08 in order to test if the banking strategies are related to the centrality of the cities

price information and bidding behavior in repeated second price auctions examining panel data on bidding behavior in over forty second price auction markets with repeated trials we observe that i posted prices influence the behavior of the median naive bidder ii posted prices do not affect the behavior of the median experienced bidder or the bidder for familiar goods and iii anticipated strategic behavior wanes after two trials the results suggest that while affiliation might exist in auctions for new goods the repeated trial design with nonprice information removes the correlation of values and provides the experience that bidders need to understand the market mechanism

policy review section in this policy review section gerry stoker of the institute of local government studies presents a critical review of the role of urban development corporations udcs in comparing the experience of the udcs consideration is given to the varying nature of the land and property market in each udc area to the relationship with local authorities and other local bodies and the regeneration strategies pursued by the udcs this is followed by an assessment of the impact of the udcs in economic social and political terms in the second article john britton of the university of toronto examines the theoretical case for interventionist public policies to assist the innovation process in small and medium sized enterprises these arguments are supported by a review of the experience of various national support programmes introduced in the uk in particular the manufacturing advisory service introduced in 1978 and the design advisory service launched in 1982

convergence and difference in regional office development cycles in this paper data and analytical techniques not hitherto employed for the purpose have been used to explore the particularities of the role played by finance capital in influencing the spatio tem

the social cost of carbon and its policy implications the shadow price or social cost of carbon is an important indicator of the global incremental damage done by emitting greenhouse gases today cost benefit analysis would set the optimal amount of greenhouse gas emission reduction at the point where this social cost just equals the incremental cost of controlling emissions the higher the value for the social cost of carbon the more control is warranted this comparison assumes that cost benefit analysis is the correct way of determining climate change policy and many believe this is not the case because of the very long term irreversible and potentially catastrophic nature of global warming but in the short run at least a comparison of cost and benefits is required and in any event all decisions imply costs and benefits but what is the right figure for the social cost of carbon this paper reviews the uk government s assessment of the cost and concludes that it has been set far too high because of a misreading of the integrated assessment models used to balance costs and benefits moreover adoption of the uk government s shadow price would have formidable implications for energy policy in the uk and for policies on afforestation copyright 2003 oxford university press

does local labeling complement or compete with other sustainable labels a conjoint analysis of direct and joint values for fresh produce claim as a way to explore the increasing use of sustainability labels in the marketplace this study analyzes the differential values and interactive effects of sustainable production claims organic fair trade and carbon footprint and location claims through a conjoint choice experiment included in a 2008 u s survey locally grown is the highest valued claim and its value is further enhanced with fair trade certification but carbon intensive local products are discounted more severely than those sourced from other locations some negatively valued claims imports and carbon footprint can be mitigated by combining them with other claims organic and fair trade copyright 2011 oxford university press

toward a new conception of the environment competitiveness relationship accepting a fixed trade off between environmental regulation and competitiveness unnecessarily raises costs and slows down environmental progress studies finding high environmental compliance costs have traditionally focused on static cost impacts ignoring any offsetting productivity benefits from innovation they typically overestimated compliance costs neglected innovation offsets and disregarded the affected industry s initial competitiveness rather than simply adding to cost properly crafted environmental standards can trigger innovation offsets allowing companies to improve their resource productivity shifting the debate from pollution control to pollution prevention was a step forward it is now necessary to make the next step and focus on resource productivity

collective learning effective demand loss of work and loss of direction the growing regional divide within the uk mackay r r and davies r collective learning effective demand loss of work and loss of direction the growing regional divide within the uk regional studies the local economy relies on a division of labour that develops highly specialized skills in searching for an understanding of the growing work gap within the united kingdom emphasis is placed on recessions that connect to loss and redundancy of physical and human capital high levels of regional unemployment following deindustrialization convert into high levels of regional non work in later years the loss of an economic base leaves a gap in the community and economy that people struggle to bridge market forces work strongly against certain groups in society including those at some disadvantage in the labour market mackay r r and davies r

banks and regional development an empirical analysis on the determinants of credit availability in brazilian regions crocco m faria silva f paulo rezende l and rodriguez fuentes c j banks and regional development an empirical analysis on the determinants of credit availability in brazilian regions regional studies this paper studies the influence that liquidity preference and bank lending strategies might have played in the determination of bank credit availability in brazilian regions during the period 1999 2008 it puts forward the argument that in remoter and less developed regions the liquidity preference of agents is higher and fluctuates along business cycles reducing regional credit availability in downturns due to both a contraction in supply and the demand for credit in remoter regions and producing a more unstable pattern for credit availability alongside business cycles empirical evidence for the brazilian regions during the period 1999 2008 is provided to support this view

familiarity and the determination of yields for regional office property investments in the uk henneberry j and mouzakis f familiarity and the determination of yields for regional office property investments in the uk regional studies this paper examines how effectively investment yields incorporate spatial variations in risks and returns into property prices it is hypothesized that the pricing of property investments in non core uk regions is affected by a pure familiarity heuristic adopted by investors based in london consequently the determination of office yields is based not on the intrinsic investment characteristics of regional markets but on a core market benchmark combined with a regional premium this results in very long term mispricing patterns with implications not just for the office property investment market but also for the regions especially those outside the core

the application of development economics general principles and context specificity the purpose of this paper is to consider the application of development economics at the methodological level in particular given the shortcomings of both the modernist and postmodernist approaches to development policy we consider an alternative approach drawing on critical realism which combines the benefits of generality with the benefits of attention to specificity of context the approach is illustrated by showing how principles in development economics addressing issues of globalisation and peripherality can serve to illuminate some of the causal tendencies at work in a developed economy such as scotland copyright 2005 oxford university press

an analysis of the financing requirements of small and medium sized firms in northern ireland mckillop d g and barton l p 1995 an analysis of the financing requirements of small and medium sized firms in northern ireland reg studies 29 241 249 this paper investigates the financing relationship between small and medium sized firms and their loan institutions in northern ireland the study based on survey data suggests that firms in northern ireland are reasonably satisfied with the financial and support services on offer from their banks this is evidenced by the fact that few firms shop around between banks and also by the fact that 75 of firms viewed their bank to be supportive of their business the analysis also reveals that the northern ireland clearing banks occupy a monopoly position in the supply of loan finance to small and medium sized firms this monopoly position does not however result in a positive interest differential at regional level but rather the analysis indicates that firms in northern ireland are subject to lower costs of debt finance than similar sized firms

development cultures and urban regeneration the importance of levering private finance and investment into urban regeneration is a central consideration of policy attention has focused on institutional investors motives for holding regeneration investments and on how they might be encouraged to put more money into inner city areas the paper argues that while helpful the impact of such an approach upon urban regeneration will be limited this is because by definition institutional investors are only interested in institutional property and buildings which do not conform to this frame of reference will not be of interest to them however other actors see things differently independent developers embrace the challenge presented by fringe locations mixed uses and the local urban culture and aesthetic and translate these characteristics into development values urban policy needs to address the contrasting ways in which the nature construction and application of investors strategic rationality intercept with local development conditions in particular greater emphasis should be given to encouraging independent locally based forms of property investment and development

r d and abatement under environmental liability law comparing incentives under strict liability and negligence if compensation differs from harm abstract this paper analyzes equilibrium r d in pollution control and equilibrium pollution abatement by polluters who are subject to environmental liability law when the level of compensation differs from the level of environmental harm we contrast the performance of strict liability with that of the negligence rule privately optimal levels necessarily deviate from socially optimal ones under strict liability whereas private decisions are first best under negligence unless compensation is much smaller than harm it is established that the way in which privately optimal r d deviates from the first best level depends on the kind of technical change in pollution abatement counterintuitively polluters might overinvest into r d in pollution control if compensation falls short of harm and may underinvest if compensation exceeds harm

experimental auction procedure impact on valuation of quality differentiated goods despite increased use of experimental auctions a myriad of different procedures are being employed without formal consideration of how the procedures might affect results this study investigates the effect of several procedural issues on valuation estimates from experimental auctions results indicate the second price auction generates higher valuations than english becker degroot marschak bdm and random nth price auctions especially in latter bidding rounds and that random nth price auction yields lower valuations than english and bdm auctions we find that endowing subjects with a good prior to eliciting bids can have an impact on valuations but the effect varies across auction mechanism

consumer behaviour with environmental and social externalities implications for analysis and policy in this paper we summarise some of our recent work on consumer behaviour drawing on recent developments in behavioural economics particularly linked to sociol ogy as much as psychology in which consumers are embedded in a social context so their behaviour is shaped by their interactions with other consumers for the purpose of this paper we also allow consumption to cause environmental damage analysing the social context of consumption naturally lends itself to the use of game theoretic tools we shall be con cernedwithtwowaysinwhichsocialinteractionsaffectconsumerpreferencesandbehaviour socially embeddedpreferences wherethebehaviourofotherconsumersaffectanindividual s preferences and hence consumption we consider two examples conspicuous consumption and consumption norms and socially directed preferences where people display altruistic behaviour our aim is to show that building links between sociological and behavioural eco nomic approaches to the study of consumer behaviour can lead to significant and surprising implications for conventional economic analysis and policy prescriptions especially with respect to environmental policy

interest rates and convergence across italian regions dow s montagnoli a and napolitano o interest rates and convergence across italian regions regional studies the purpose of this paper is to investigate the evidence for economic convergence across italian regions using trends in interest rate spreads and premia as indicators of regional credit conditions the results indicate the presence of persistent interest rate differentials and thus an absence of convergence across the twenty political regions but a high degree of convergence is observed within the four macroeconomic areas dow s montagnoli a and napolitano o 20 dow s montagnoli a et napolitano o les taux d interet et la convergence a travers les regions italiennes regional studies a partir des tendances des marges d interet sur les credits et des primes sur les taux d interet comme indicateurs des conditions de credit regionales cet article cherch

buying your way into a healthier lifestyle a latent class analysis of healthy food purchases abstracta nonhypothetical second price vickrey auction was conducted to elicit consumer preferences and willingness to pay wtp for vegetable attributes including production technique origin taste and health benefits using a latent class analysis lca we segmented participants based on health driven motivations wtp estimates and socio economic characteristics two latent classes were found and characterized as health conscious and health redeemers in particular the health conscious consumers presented healthy lifestyle habits expressed price premiums for domestic and local specialty food products after a blind tasting treatment but they did not have price premiums for health benefits of the products on the contrary the health redeemers presented unhealthy lifestyles but they were willing to pay more for healthy food products perhaps in an attempt to make up for their unhealthy habits

the growth and geographical anatomy of venture capitalism in the united kingdom martin r l 1989 the growth and geographical anatomy of venture capitalism in the united kingdom reg studies 23 389 403 the 1980s have seen the emergence and rapid growth of venture capitalism in the uk this paper examines this growth both in terms of the spatial organization of the venture capital industry and the regional distribution of venture capital investment the picture that emerges is of an industry which is over centralized in the london area and which in the course of its recent development has tended to concentrate investment in the already more prosperous southeastern and adjacent parts of the country while local venture capital markets are beginning to become established in northern britain it will be some time before the existing regional imbalance is likely to be redressed martin r l 1989 la croissance et la distribution geographique du capital risque au royaume uni reg studies 23 389 403 les annees 1980 ont temoigne de la naissance et de l essor du capital risque au

the la nder are the building blocks of the german capital market data on major voting blocks in the german officially listed companies for the end of 1997 and may 2001 are used in order to explore the spatial dimensions of the system of corporate control listed companies are very unevenly distributed and their institutional and geographical concentration has not decreased holdings of voting blocks in companies are in turn getting more and more dispersed but the majority of corporate control is still intraregional with the holders of voting rights coming from the same lander as the controlled corporations gravity equations show that distance is a very strong determinant of corporate control links and its role applies to all types of companies and holders though to a varying degree from the perspective of corporate control the german capital market is very regionalized considering that the study spans a short period of time however the pace of integration is pronounced a partir des donnees sur les principaux regroupements de votes dans les societes allema

tariffs and environmental taxes in the presence of environmental r d it is generally held that trade liberalization results in less stringent environmental regulations which suggests that policies regulating trade and the environment are positively correlated this paper examines whether this monotonic relationship still holds true when pollution reducing environmental research and development erd ii an environmental tax instrument only and iii both regulatory instruments to correct for distortions relating to trade and the environment we find that if it is not possible to abate pollution completely through er d then the monotonic relationship between tariffs and environmental taxes is sustained however if it is possible to fully abate pollution through er d then the optimal tariff environmental tax may not increase monotonically with taxes tariffs when both environmental taxes and tariffs are employed these two policies may be strategic substitutes a positive relationship between tariffs and environmental taxes may not be applicable

what is it about organic milk an experimental analysis auction experiments were used to examine demand relationships and willingness to pay wtp for organic rbst free no antibiotics used and conventional milk elasticities showed strong substitute and complement relationships between organic rbst free and no antibiotics varieties the sum of the latter two s premiums were not significantly different than the organic premium suggesting diminishing marginal utility for added attributes results from a two stage heteroskedastic tobit model demonstrated that wtp premiums for the varieties differ significantly by demographics and beliefs regarding the conventional version these suggest market segments for rbst free and no antibiotics versions could succeed alongside organic benefiting consumers and producers copyright 2007 oxford university press

regional interest rate pass through in italy this paper estimates the pass through and speed of adjustment of italian regional interest rates to changes in the money market rate for the period 1998q1 2009q4 our main findings suggest that the markup for the lending rates that banks charge are generally higher in the south than in the north moreover our results indicate that the pass through tends to be longer in southern regions we find little evidence supporting the hypothesis of asymmetric adjustment in the lending rates but detect some evidence supporting upward rigidity in the regional deposit rates

undermining the financial basis of regions the spatial structure and implications of the uk pension fund system martin r and minns r 1995 undermining the financial basis of regions the spatial structure and implications of the uk pension fund system reg studies 29 125 144 regional growth theory and regional policy traditionally focus on the process of industrial development relatively little is known about the flows of money and financial capital that shape that development this paper examines the spatial organization and implications of the uk pension fund system one of the principal circuits of financial capital in the national economy it is shown how the great bulk of pension fund contributions that originate right across the various regions of the uk are channelled into and controlled by financial institutions in the south east of the country moreover those funds are then invested primarily back into companies and organizations located or headquartered in the south east this spatially centralized system pursues liquidity rather than productive investment and little of the money trickles down to

regional finance a survey the role of money and nancial markets in the regional matters 1 economy has been attracting increasing attention in we start with a review of the treatment of money recent years it has been a topic of interest for longer in regional economics and then turn to the much

climate change environmental and technology policies in a strategic context there are a number of features of climate change which make it one of the most challenging problems confronting policy makers and policy analysts in this paper we consider three such features i climate change is a global pollutant so there are strategic interactions between governments over climate policy ii cutting greenhouse gas emissions can have significant cost effects across a number of sectors of the economy raising concerns about the implications of climate change policy on competitive advantage iii the long time scales on which climate change operates means that an important dimension of climate change policy is policy towards r d to cut the costs of dealing with climate change in ulph and ulph 1996 ulph a ulph d 1996 in carraro c katsoulacos y xepapadeas a eds environmental policy and market structure kluwer dordrecht pp 181 208 we presented a model to analyse these issues but considered only environmental policies in this paper we extend that analysis to allow for both a richer set of policy instruments environmental and technology policies and a richer strategic context

finance business property and urban and regional development halbert l henneberry j and mouzakis f finance business property and urban and regional development regional studies compared with other factors of production the supply of business property and its role in urban and regional development has received comparatively little attention traditional analyses assume that the supply of such property responds to demand in a relatively unproblematic way however there is evidence that institutional structures and processes in the property and capital markets have produced regional imbalances in the quantity quality and price of business accommodation benefiting some places and handicapping others such imbalances are present to different degrees internationally and their characteristics and causes are similarly varied the special issue addresses this gap in knowledge

financial innovations in banking impact on regional growth carbo valverde s lopez del paso r and rodriguez fernandez f 2007 financial innovations in banking impact on regional growth regional studies 41 311 326 this paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between finance and growth by analysing the relationships between financial intermediation and economic growth within the regions of one country rather than with different countries the focus on regions is relevant since regional information is more homogeneous the legal and institutional factors are similar and the relevant financial market is more accurately defined the study also incorporates the effects of a set of banking innovations the analysis is undertaken for the spanish regions the results show that product and service delivery innovations contribute positively to regional gross domestic product investment and gross savings growth carbo valverde s lopez del paso r et rodriguez fernandez f 2007 les innovations financieres dans le secteur bancaire l impact sur l

venture capital high technology and regional development florida r l and kenney m 1988 venture capital high technology and regional development reg studies 22 33 48 this paper explores the role of venture capital in technological innovation and regional development both aggregate data and a unique firm level data base are employed to determine the location of major centres of venture capital flows of venture capital investments and patterns of investment syndication or coinvestment among venture capital firms three major centres of venture capital are identified california san francisco silicon valley new york and new england massachusetts connecticut as well as three minor venture capital centres illinois chicago texas and minnesota venture capital firms are found to cluster in areas with high concentrations of financial institutions and those with high concentrations of technology intensive enterprises venture capital firms which are based in financial centres are typically export oriented while those in technology centres tend t

on the timing of climate agreements a central issue in climate policy is the question whether long term targets for greenhouse gas emissions should be adopted this paper analyzes strategic effects related to the timing of such commitments using a two country model we identify a redistributive effect that undermines long term cooperation when countries are asymmetric and side payments are unavailable the effect enables countries to shift rents strategically via their r d efforts under delayed cooperation in contrast a complementarity effect stabilizes long term cooperation because early commitments in abatement induce countries to invest more in low carbon technologies and create additional knowledge spillovers contrasting both effects we endogenize the timing of climate agreements

climate treaties and breakthrough technologies an effective climate change treaty must promote the joint supply of two global public goods climate change mitigation and knowledge of new technologies that can lower mitigation costs r d is especially needed to bring about substantial long term reductions in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases for this will require the development and diffusion of revolutionary breakthrough technologies martin i hoffert et al 2002 in principle such an outcome could be realized by the kyoto protocol approach if that agreement were strengthened over time however that response may be inadequate kyoto makes no provision for r d and as i shall demonstrate unlikely to succeed can a treaty system relying directly on targeted r d and the adoption of breakthrough technologies perform better in this same setting of anarchic international relations i will show that as a general rule the answer is no essentially the same forces that undermine kyoto also challenge the r d and technology approach there is one exception to this rule r d leading to breakthrough technologies exhibiting increasing returns can improve dramatically on the kyoto approach even when these technologies are otherwise inferior to the alternatives available this suggests that our approach to treaty design should be strategic

market definition of the uk deposit savings account market this study examines the definition of the uk deposit savings account market a testing procedure is used to ascertain if the law of one price and the assumption of a unified national market may or may not be rejected the existing uk and european literature on the definition of financial services markets is developed by using both product specific interest rate data and by incorporating non price characteristics of financial services products in the testing procedure this study indicates that a unified uk market may be rejected for deposit saving accounts

venture finance small firms and public policy in the uk abstract during the tenure of the current conservative administration public policy in britain has very much favoured the smaller firm this policy emphasis appears to be based on a belief in the superior job creating potential and innovatory capacity of smaller firms over their larger counterparts evidence presented in the paper shows that small firms have indeed made an important contribution to innovation in the uk and that their share of significant british innovations has increased significantly since the mid 1970s an important aspect of small firm policy in the uk has been the introduction of several schemes designed to increase the flow of capital into the small firm sector with special emphasis being placed on venture capital the first of these schemes the loan guarantee scheme has directed capital from the banks into over 14 000 small firms the second scheme the business expansion scheme has increased significantly the overall flow of venture capital and has biased investments towards start up and early stage financing these two schemes together with the establishment of an unlisted securities market have provided some impetus to the development of private sector venture capital in britain which is growing apace essentially the public sector schemes have underwritten the costs of entry to the venture capital market of both individual and institutional investors in other words they have had an important catalytic effect in stimulating the growth of private sector venture capital industry which is now the largest in europe

regional financial sector models an application to the northern ireland financial sector hutchinson r w and mckillop d g 1990 regional financial sector models an application to the northern ireland financial sector reg studies 24 421 431 this paper presents an analysis of recent theoretical developments in the treatment of regional financial markets it starts from a position where regional financial markets are fully integrated in a national system with regional financial institutions having a neutral effect on their regional economy it then indicates how interregional differences in information costs can result in a degree of inter regional financial market segmentation creating conditions under which regional interest rates can diverge from national rates the theoretical analysis also demonstrates how market segmentation resulting from financial institutions with elements of regional autonomy can impact upon a region s ability to undertake profitable investment the applicability of these models is then tested employing the northern ireland financial sector as the control

the components of talent company size and financial centres in the european investment management industry clark g l the components of talent company size and financial centres in the european investment management industry regional studies as the centre for advanced financial services and having the complex array of services needed to invest beyond europe s borders london dominates the european financial services industry as in other global financial centres there is a premium on talented investment managers identified in the media as star performers investment companies rely on such employees for risk adjusted rates of return on the basis of asset and or style specific investment strategies while protecting their clients against the risks occasioned by market uncertainty drawing upon frameworks from organizational ecology this paper integrates the size of companies with the market for talent sectorally and geographically

historical perspectives and the interpretation of unemployment jn the last decade the levels of unemployment in industrialized countries have risen dramatically rates now are typically two and in some cases three and four times those prevailing in the 1950s and 1960s the fact that these new higher levels are widely tolerated suggests that our thinking about the meaning and significance of unemployment has changed enormously over the period such a change is certainly present in the thinking among professional economists in the 1960s the standard view was that the unemployed represented unutilized resources their existence in an economy where the vast majority of people had unsatisifed wants was seen as a major social paradox and the most important unsolved intellectual puzzle of the capitalist economic system this fed the rationale for keynesian countercyclical fiscal policy and government deficit spending the government could reasonably print money in order to hire the unemployed because the resources absorbed in the process were essentially free goods today a good number of professional economists certainly in the united states but to a lesser extent throughout the world have come to view measured unemployment in industrial economies as an artifact in at least three senses it is a statistical artifact of a measurement process that classifies as unemployed people who are not really available for work it is an institutional artifact of a system of social insurance and public welfare that encourages an extension of the process of job search and it is an artifact of the language that uses a term which in everyday parlance means forced idleness for activities that have important productive functions akin to the functions of inventories information processing and investment associated with the utilization of capital goods these interpretations to be sure hardly constitute a consensus about the meaning of unemployment but they are no more diverse than the range of views that underlay the older orthodoxy and for policy makers and economic researchers they carry a single message there are many more serious problems toward which to direct attention these new views about unemployment were developed out of a set of ideas originally associated with the chicago school of economics where the emphasis at once positive and normative was placed on the competitive market as the gover a review of alexander keyssar out of work the first century of unemployment in massachusetts cambridge cambridge university press 1986 and robert salais nicolas baverez and b6nedicte reynaud l invention du chomage histoire et transformations d une categorie en france des annees 1890 aux annees 1980 paris presses universitaires de france 1986

regulatory change corporate restructuring and the spatial development of the british financial sector marshall j n gentle c j s raybould s and coombes m 1992 regulatory change corporate restructuring and the spatial development of the british financial sector reg studies 26 453 467 the paper explores the dynamics of employment growth and change in the financial sector in the regions of britain during the 1980s complementing other work which has focused on international and corporate finance it focuses on personal financial markets the paper demonstrates the way in which regulatory change has initiated corporate diversification into new markets this reorganization has also included a round of innovation in new financial services and intensified competition in established personal sector markets restructuring has both intensified the concentration of the industry in the south and east of the country and promoted decentralization from london professional and managerial staff associated with the development of new services have been concentrated in the greater south east the rationaliza

milk by any other name consumer benefits from labeled milk this article uses revealed preferences of consumers to study the consumer benefits from rbst free and organic labeled milk the article specifies and estimates a quadratic aids demand system model for different milk types using u s supermarket scanner data the introduction of rbst free and organic milk is used to estimate consumer benefits that are decomposed into two components competitive and variety effects results show significant consumer benefits from organic milk and to a lesser extent from rbst free milk based on the findings we explore implications for present u s labeling standards th eu s food sector is going through rapid transformations in terms of new product introduction and innovations organic and genetically modified gm food products are leading the way in changing the landscape of available choices to consumers this rapid expansion of product space has taken place concomitantly with an increase in public policy concerns on issues of standardization labeling health risks and associated consumer welfare in this paper we explore these broader issues in the context of a specific product introduction the introduction of recombinant bovine somatotropin rbst free and organic milk in the u s market from a policy perspective understanding the market for organics and the various components of that demand i e what portion is for gm free and what is for other attributes of organics can help determine the value of creating a national standard and the potential welfare losses to consumers of weakening such a standard are consumers willing to pay extra for organic and rbst free milk if so how

emu and the regional impact of monetary policy rodriguez fuentes c j and dow s c 2003 emu and the regional impact of monetary policy reg studies 37 969 980 in this paper we focus on a topic which has been attracting renewed interest because of monetary unification in europe the regional dimension of national monetary policies most of the debate over the regional implications of the euro has been developed within the optimum currency area framework according to this theory european monetary policy would have regional effects when the countries of the euro zone had such structural differences as to produce asymmetric shocks these asymmetrical effects could only be offset by labour mobility and wage price flexibility however we argue here that in addition european monetary policy may have more general regional effects including in particular by producing a higher instability in the pattern of credit availability for some peripheral regions this latter possibility and the forces underlying it are explored here both at the theoreti

decomposing local a conjoint analysis of locally produced foods increasingly foods are marketed as locally grown we use stated preference data from a choice based conjoint instrument to address two issues surrounding consumer demand for locally produced goods 1 what is the geographical extent of local and 2 is the value consumers place on local production distinct from other factors that are often confounded with locally produced foods such as farm size and product freshness we find our subjects place similar value on products produced in state and nearby and that consumers willingness to pay for local production is independent from values associated with product freshness and farm size copyright 2008 oxford university press

generalized progress of abatement technology incentives under environmental liability law this paper considers the incentives environmental liability creates to improve pollution abatement technology our analysis considers technical progress in end of pipe abatement and in the production technology used thereby generalizing the approach taken by endres et al environ resour econ 36 341 366 2007 we establish that this generalization has drastic repercussions on incentives under negligence liability while the performance of strict liability is not compromised furthermore it is demonstrated that the social desirability of investment in abatement or production technology or both decisively determines how ex ante and ex post regulation fare with respect to welfare maximization in the case of negligence liability

the regional impact of the small firms loan guarantee scheme in the united kingdom harrison r t and mason c m 1986 the regional impact of the small firms loan guarantee scheme in the united kingdom reg studies 20 535 550 the small business loan guarantee scheme was introduced in the uk in 1981 in response to long standing concern about the problems encountered by small businesses in raising external finance although the scheme was introduced nationally its impact has varied among regions not unexpectedly the south east and east anglia account for the largest proportion of guarantees both by number and by value of loans this lends superficial support to the argument that nationally oriented small firms policies may actually contradict the aims of regional policy however this conclusion must be qualified in the light of the evidence once each region s share of the total stock of businesses is taken into account certain peripheral regions notably the north west join the south east east anglia region as having more than their expected share of loan guarantees evidence p

1992 and its impact on local and regional banking markets molyneux p 1989 1992 and its impact on local and regional banking markets reg studies 23 523 533 the aim of this paper is to examine how the structure performance and ownership characteristics of ec banking markets will influence the expansion strategies of large ec banks up to 1992 we will also examine the implied effect this will have on local and regional banking markets within the ec the emphasis focuses on large bank acquisition opportunities available up to 1992 we find that the majority of potential big banks acquisition targets are based in the uk germany france spain italy and luxembourg the limited big bank takeover opportunities available to banks will probably encourage them to establish niche business branch networks overseas it will also accelerate the current move of large banks to acquire small and medium sized regional banks across borders as well as to form joint ventures with institutions in other ec countries molyneux p 1989 1992 et son impact sur les marches banc

harnessing the political economy of environmental policy david pearce s contribution to oecd during 34 years david pearce made major contribution to oecd work on environmental economic issues with a particular focus on cost benefit analysis economic instruments biodiversity and distributive issues this article provides a brief review of david pearce s contributions this work was particularly useful in enhancing the political economy of environmental policy which is at the core of oecd work

regional financial development and bank competition effects on firms growth fernandez de guevara j and maudos j regional financial development and bank competition effects on firms growth regional studies this paper analyses the effect of regional financial development and bank competition on firms growth using the spanish provinces as a testing ground the results show that firms in industries with a greater dependence on external finance grow faster in more financially developed provinces the results also show that bank monopoly power has an inverted u effect on firms growth suggesting that market power has its highest effect at intermediate values the effect is heterogeneous among firms according to the financial dependence of the industry to which they belong this result is consistent with the literature on relationship banking which argues that bank competition can have a negative effect on the availability of finance for more informationally opaque firms fernandez de guevara j et maudos j le developpement financier regional et la concurrence bancaire l imp

regional determinants of small firm loans under the u k loan guarantee scheme the loan guarantee scheme was initiated in 1981 in order to alleviate a perceived constraint in the ability of small firms to secure bank finance due to a lack of collateral this paper shows that a national small firms support scheme has at the point of delivery had quite different coverage across regions briefly the initial evidence suggests that the northern regions of england have been the major net beneficiaries of the scheme primarily at the expense of northern ireland and scotland further analysis identified house prices as the single most important determinant of loan size acting via a collateral effect on loan numbers and value fixed regional effects were dominant particularly in the south east and north west

making a difference how environmental economists can influence the policy process a case study of david w pearce can environmental economists influence policy if so how this paper addresses these two questions using the late david pearce s career as a case study influence can be exercised but pearce s career shows that certain conditions must be met the first is desire he wanted to influence policy and directed a high proportion of his efforts to doing so he focused particular attention on the power centres of his time the oecd world bank european commission un uk government his influence was aided by his status and location as a professor in a prestige university ucl in a major global city london his messages were consistent and clear theory is important and can be used to frame most environmental challenges as regards both explanation and solution externalities can be valued assessing benefits and costs of options is important market signals taxes etc and incentives generally are powerful shapers of behaviour stock of capital human built natural is a key measure of sustainability he communicated simply and clearly in words and phrases that ministers for finance and journalists could understand all of the broadsheet newspapers in england financial times guardian independent telegraph times were grist to pearce s mill of advocacy for environmental economics he provided the blueprint books that could be read on a commute and summaries to the media that they could fit into a 1 000 word piece he didn t seek out but neither did he shirk controversy he worked with various interest groups and politicians but never to the point were he was co opted he initiated and directed the msc in environmental and resource economics that created an ever widening and influential pool of advocates for his ideas finally he achieved a prodigious academic output that ensures a sort of immortality and provided the intellectual ballast the enabled his policy influence

endogenous spillovers and the performance of research joint ventures we present a model of r d with endogenous spillovers and demonstrate that noncooperation can produce maximal spillovers the only other noncooperative outcome is minimal spillovers when noncooperation achieves maximal spillovers so does an rjv whereas minimal noncooperative spillovers imply partial but not necessarily maximal spillovers by an rjv partial rjv spillovers are chosen for anti competitive reasons and an rjv may also close a lab for anti competitive reasons the possibility of anti competitive outcomes is precluded in the existing literature on rjvs which focuses on symmetric outcomes our model predicts when anti competitive behaviour by an rjv arises

assessing the performance of the uk emissions trading scheme the uk s climate change programme introduced an emissions trading scheme ets for greenhouse gases firms in over 40 industrial sectors which have negotiated climate change agreements setting quantitative energy efficiency targets can use the ets to trade over and under compliance with these targets in parallel a limited number of firms have become major participants in the ets as a result of an auction of subsidies for additional abatement commitments the paper describes the uk arrangements and assesses the economic efficiency and environmental effectiveness of the ets drawing on evidence of participants behaviour both in the incentive auction and in subsequent trading

international r d rivalry and industrial strategy this paper presents a theory of government intervention which provides an explanation for industrial strategy policies such as r d or export subsidies in imperfectly competitive international markets domestic net welfare is improved by the capture of a greater share of the output of rent earning industries although the subsidy ridden noncooperative international equilibrium is jointly suboptimal behaviour of governments and firms is modelled as a three stage subgame perfect nash equilibrium the assumption that the government is the first player in this game allows it to influence equilibrium outcomes by altering the set of credible actions open to firms

declining discount rates the long and the short of it the last few years have witnessed important advances in our understanding of time preference and social discounting in particular several rationales for the use of time varying social discount rates have emerged these rationales range from the ad hoc to the formal with some founded solely in economic theory while others reflect principles of intergenerational equity while these advances are to be applauded the practitioner is left with a confusing array of rationales and the sense that almost any discount rate can be justified this paper draws together these different strands and provides a critical review of past and present contributions to this literature in addition to this we highlight some of the problems with employing ddrs in the decision making process the most pressing of which may be time inconsistency we clarify their practical implications and potential pitfalls of the more credible rationales and argue that some approaches popular in environmental economics literature are ill conceived finally we illustrate the impact of different approaches by examining global warming and nuclear power investment this includes an application and extension of newell and pizer discounting the benefits of climate change mitigation how much do uncertain rates increase valuations journal of environmental economics and management 46 2003 52 to uk interest rate data

incentives to diffuse advanced abatement technology under the formation of international environmental agreements we analyse the incentives for polluting firms to diffuse and adopt advanced abatement technology in a framework in which governments negotiate an international environmental agreement these incentives crucially depend on whether the underlying environmental policy instrument is an emission tax or an emission quota the results for the international setting fundamentally differ from those for the national setting that have been elaborated upon in the earlier literature in particular equilibrium diffusion and adoption of advanced abatement technology are not necessarily optimal under the tax regime and may be even lower than those under the quota regime

developing indicators to inform local economic development in england based on a conceptual framework of 11 factors that are widely perceived to be the major determinants of local economic development led 29 indicators were identified to measure these factors pri

the role of investment in environmental lobbying contests this paper establishes that a lobbying stage following investment decisions regarding abatement technology may imply a positive strategic effect of investment pointing to relatively more investment in pollution abatement technologies than without lobbying the intuition is that polluting firms may choose to implement more advanced abatement technology as a credible commitment device in order to lower the investment of environmentalists in the lobbying contest that will ultimately determine whether or not an emissions tax is introduced