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Under its Fit for the Future reform programme, in May 2016 the New South Wales (NSW) government forcibly merged a number of municipalities, including the Armidale Dumaresq Council and the Guyra Shire Council in the New England region of northern NSW. Whilst scholarly attention has focused on the likely impact of municipal mergers on council performance at the system‐wide level (Bell, Dollery & Drew 2016; Economic Papers: A journal of applied economics and policy, 35, 99), much less effort has been devoted to the analysis of the perspectives of council managers and employees involved in forced consolidation. In order to address this gap in the literature, in this paper we present a case study of compulsory council consolidation of the Armidale and Guyra councils based on interviews with senior managers as well as a survey of council workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intuitive connections between global cities of finance and global cities of art have been repeatedly asserted. However, systematic analyses of how both geographies conjoin in major cities remain thin on the ground. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the geographical intersections between renderings of global cities as key sites for the coordination and accumulation of global capital and visions of these cities as international art hubs. To this end, we develop a 'global arts centre' ( GAC) index in which cities are assessed in terms of their centrality in 'field-configuring events', such as festivals, biennials and fairs. This GAC ranking and a number of art sector-specific disaggregations are then compared with the 'global financial centre' ( GFC) index established by Z/Yen Group by means of correlation analysis. Cities featuring in both rankings are labelled 'global cultural cities' ( GCCs). We find that the parallels between both indices within the top-tier rank positions are considerable. The rank correlation between the art and finance indices suggests a clear positive association between both. Most GCCs are located in Europe, Pacific Asia and Northern America. The most notable geographical pattern is the prominent presence of GCCs in Pacific Asia, suggesting the rapidly changing economic environment in this region has complemented interest and investments in high-end art. We conclude the paper by singling out some key research agendas that may further inform the empirical analysis presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The rapid urbanisation of China has received growing attention regarding its urban residential environments. In this article, we model the spatial heterogeneity of housing prices and explore the spatial discrepancy of landscape effects on property values in Shenzhen, a large Chinese city. In contrast to previous studies, this paper integrates the official housing transaction records and housing attributes from open data along with field surveys. Then, the results using the hedonic price model (HPM), geographically weighted regression (GWR) without landscape metrics and GWR with landscape metrics are compared. The results show that GWR with landscape metrics outperforms the other two models. In summary, this research provides new insights into landscape metrics in real estate studies and can guide decision‐makers plan and design cities while also providing guidance to regulate and control urban property values based on local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing immigrant diversity, both in the number of immigrants and the diversity of sending countries, is helping reshape the economic landscape in many countries, most notably in their urban regions. This paper provides a succinct introduction to the existing research on the economic effects, particularly productivity, of immigrant diversity, focusing on a recent wave of empirical work. It identifies outstanding questions in the research, offering several ways to push current lines of inquiry ahead and suggesting areas as yet underexplored. To motivate these new directions for geographers to pursue, it presents empirical results that raise more questions than they answer. In doing so, it sets the stage for future work that can generate a deeper understanding of the role of immigrant diversity in shaping economic welfare in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's impressive growth has been accompanied by high inequality and a wide rural-urban divide. This paper identifies and examines some of the major dimensions of this divide: income, consumption, education, employment, health care, pensions, access to public services, and the environment. The paper attributes the main causes of the divide to China's urban-biased development strategies and the resulting lack of social provision of public goods in rural areas. It also highlights the severe and multidimensional constraints on the Chinese peasantry and argues that increased equality and efficiency can now be pursued simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After three decades of market development, the problem in China is no longer how to achieve growth but how to manage its consequences and how to sustain it. One of the most important consequences is the growing inequality – between skilled and unskilled workers, between the genders, between rural and urban areas, and between inland and coastal regions. The papers in this symposium shed light on the important issue of inequality during rapid market development in China. Analysis based on ground level empirical studies can help us to understand better the sources of the rising inequality and to illuminate the nature of the future challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between economic growth and industrial pollution emissions in China using data for 112 major cities between 2001 and 2004. Using disaggregated data, we separate foreign direct investment inflows from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan from those of other foreign economies. We examine two industrial water pollution indicators (wastewater and petroleum-like matter) and four industrial air pollution indicators (waste gas, sulfur dioxide, soot, and dust). Our results suggest that most air and water emissions rise with increases in economic growth at current income levels. The share of output of domestic- and foreign-owned firms increases several pollutants in a statistically significant manner while output of firms from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan either reduces pollution or is statistically insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, the importance of the Randstad agglomeration is often discussed in terms of the economic coherence between its four largest cities. This is remarkable when several leading authors argue that the economic importance of cities is strongly determined by economic networks between cities worldwide. This discrepancy stems from the fact that limited empirical research exists on corporate networks. Furthermore, the relative importance of cities within various studies is based on different functional types and spatial scales of data, making the results incomparable. Therefore, in this paper, the relative importance of the four largest Randstad cities is explored within three independent, comparative networks (top 100 global firms, top 100 European firms, and top 100 Dutch firms). Employing network analysis techniques, this paper evaluates the local, supra-regional and global importance of the four Randstad cities within the three independent networks. The results show that the relative importance and network structures of these four cities are highly dependent on the economic size and locality of the initial headquarters and that Amsterdam proves to be the most important Randstad city in all three scales of corporate networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market-oriented economic reforms have substantially changed the Chinese economy. A policy of “allowing some to get rich earlier” clearly has benefited some regions of the country more than others. The purpose of this paper is to investigate changes in regional urban poverty during this period of policy transition. Our approach is based on survey responses to minimum needs (i.e., the “subjective method”). For the richest (Coast) and poorest regions (North West) we find unambiguous declines in poverty between 1988 and 1995 for the registered population. For the Central and South West regions we find that changes in poverty over time are sensitive to both the poverty line selected and the poverty index employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial distribution of economic activity is determined by a balancing of increasing and decreasing returns to scale activities. The Henry George Theorem states roughly that, if economic activity is efficiently organized over a“large” space, aggregate land rents equal the aggregate losses from the decreasing returns to scale activities. Kanemoto, Ohkawara, and Suzuki have tentatively applied the Henry George Theorem to investigate whether Tokyo has too large a population. This paper has two aims. The first is to explore the Theorem and its generality; the second is to examine whether it provides a promising conceptual foundation for estimating whether particular cities are over- or underpopulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at possible problems concerning the economic effects of the introduction of an compulsory competitive tendering for general economic interest services at the local level. It examines the framework in Austria and some fundamental problems of competitive tendering. An obligation binding local authorities to put general economic interest services up for competitive tender, as currently intended by the European Commission (i.e. service concessions), would have considerable medium- and long-term effects on both the process of municipal service provision and the economic position of municipal (public) enterprises. The paper concludes that, from an economic point of view, procurement through competitive tendering does not appear to be effective or tenable for all general economic interest services in (all) different areas. The introduction of compulsory competitive tendering for service concessions in all areas of public services is therefore something best forgotten. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including Dutch cities and political economy, gentrification, and liberalization.

By the mid-twentieth century the population and economic resources in many developing economies had become concentrated in the capital city. Planned industrial cities became an important mechanism to encourage more balanced urban systems as well as development in peripheralized regions. Venezuela boasts one of the most impressive planned industrial cities, Ciudad Guayana, constructed in 1959 in the resource rich but inaccessible Bolivar state in the southeast. This paper summarizes the lifetime migration to and from Bolivar state for the years 1950, 1971 and 2001. Whereas the majority of lifetime migrants originated from the neighbouring northeast region in 1950 and 1971, by 2001 more migrants arrived from the capital region. For lifetime outmigrants, the destination states became more diverse and less focused on the capital region. Gender ratios of lifetime migrants to and from Bolivar became more equitable as women became more prominent in migration flows. The level of urban primacy in Venezuela declined substantially after 1971 as the country became more internally integrated, although this more equitable distribution of the country's population may not have been solely a result of the creation of the growth pole, but a result of wider economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase of global integration, the peri-urban area (PUA) of megacities in Asia has become a favourite destination for foreign direct investment (FDI). This paper uses the PUA of Shanghai as a case study to investigate the impact of global forces on the urban expansion of the city, and the link between urban growth and sustainable development in this mega-urban context. Shanghai has grown impressively during the past two decades in terms of economic and physical transformation. Much of this transformation has rested on the unbridled exploitation of land and other environmental resources in its peri-urban area. This is characterised by the designation of development zones and the concentration of manufacturing FDI, resulting in dispersed growth and environmental degradation. The disruption of the physical environment, combined with the concentration of the urban poor in these areas (in particular ‘temporary migrants’), has turned the PUA into a potential crisis point threatening the social and economic development of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the recent literature on spatial agglomeration models, substantial progress has been made in modeling urban structures in terms of number and size of cities, but the question where cities arise remains unanswered. This paper illustrates that if a spatial agglomeration model is extended with a true geographical dimension, the location of cities can also be endogenized. A geographical agglomeration model for Europe shows that the size and place of cities can be simultaneously determined. The empirical results suggest that elementary economic forces such as agglomeration economies and transportation costs might be able to explain place and size of cities in the long run to a substantial degree. In addition, some new statistical measures of fit are discussed that are needed to evaluate simulations results of this kind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Geographer is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We need a more nuanced way of looking at the relationship between globalisation and the city; a framework that can accommodate substantial differences as well as growing similarities among world metropolises and give both global integration and local distinctiveness their rightful due. I propose and illustrate one such framework in this paper, based upon the principle of nested hierarchy. In the view espoused here, cities are lodged within an interdependent world order divided among differently organised regional formations and national systems. The economic base, spatial organisation and social structure of the world's major cities are determined by the entire multi-level configuration– global niche, regional formation, national development model, and local historical context– in which each city participates. Growing interdependence in the global whole is perfectly consistent with differentiationwithin and amongregional, national, and city levels of the system. As constituent elements of the global order, cities both facilitate the globalisation process and follow their own, relatively autonomous trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we attempt to describe both the data sources and organizational methods that allow for effective and easily created SAMs and regional computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. Small cities of around 100,000 people will face very different constraints than a town of 2000 people. Unfortunately, most CGE models typically describe relatively large geographical areas and are therefore not able to capture the uniqueness of individual cities within the region. An illustrative example using these methods demonstrates that the economic impacts vary substantially over different municipalities to the same economic shock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on demographic changes and dynamics of reurbanisation observed in the rise of inner cities in Europe after a period of decline. It defines reurbanisation as a diversification process of inner cities by people coming from different socio-economic backgrounds. It also states that urban resurgence and city revival have affected the development of new cities in Europe. Moreover, it presents typologies relative to resurgent conditions of urban areas.

Flanders is a densely populated, strongly urbanised region in Northwest Europe, but with still recognisable peri-urban rural territories. These territories have a distinct economic profile that is far from being marginal, but which has a diminishing role for agriculturally related economic activities. From a regionally-based economic approach, the authors argue that these rural areas act as flanking areas for the nearby urban areas, with mutual benefits. Therefore a model representing local economic development in these flanking rural territories can only be relevant if it takes into account this urban-rural partnership, in respect to the territorial identity and cultural features of both these types of areas. The rural-urban partnership should also be an important basis for a rural renewal policy. This policy will undoubtedly contain traditional rural elements stemming from traditional agricultural activities. However, it must also consider economic activities, in particular those of manufacturing and service industries in the countryside. It should also foster those characteristics of the rural environment which can play a decisive role in creating the new opportunities offered by the new localisation factors which are intrinsic to the rise of the new knowledge-based economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Urban & Regional Research is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Author-supplied Abstracts.)

How should we understand the recent rapid spread of eco‐urbanism around the world and its move into the mainstream? This understanding has become increasingly dominated by narratives of the urban sustainability fix, which stresses the logic of capital accumulation. Within the broader structural processes of ecological modernization, such as transitioning to low‐carbon growth, consideration of—let alone interest in—the diversity of local politics that shapes the practice and forms of contestation of eco‐urbanism has often been relegated to a position of secondary importance. Meanwhile, investigations of the relationship between the growth of climate governance and grassroots environmental activism often ignore space production as an underlying process of political‐economic transformation. Drawing on a detailed case study of the prevalence of zero‐waste neighborhood experiments in many Chinese cities, which have recently become obsessed with low‐carbon growth, this article underscores the potential of grassroots activism to change the nature, dynamics and landscape of eco‐urbanism significantly. On the basis of the intriguing evidence presented here, it calls for a new understanding of eco‐urbanism: one which is more attentive to the diversity, heterogeneity and contextual sensitivity of urban change at the grassroots level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Our study shows that high‐speed railroads (HSR) can either polarize or diffuse economic geography based on the sector and distance between cities. Economic activities could agglomerate from distant to core areas, while disperse from core toward its periphery at the same time. Empirical evidence from the 1982 introduction of two major HSRs in Japan, which halved intercity transit time, support this. Noncore areas lost 3–6 percent population; service employment declined 7 percent, whereas manufacturing employment increased by 21 percent. Municipalities within approximately 150 km of Tokyo expanded, while the distant ones contracted. The net result is that the Tokyo metropolitan area agglomerates because of HSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Canadian municipalities face a significant challenge when setting council remuneration. The inherent conflict-of-interest that arises when councillors vote on their remuneration requires the process to be as unbiased as possible. This article identifies four themes in municipal remuneration reports: composition of review committees, use of tax-free remunerations, methodology of reviews, and identification of common key criteria for reviews. Using the identified criteria, the article recommends a four-stage process for remuneration. Focusing the reviews on the stated criteria of municipalities may increase acceptance of the results and attract the best possible candidates. Sommaire Les municipalités canadiennes font face à un défi de taille lorsqu'elles doivent fixer la rémunération des conseillers. Le conflit d'intérêts inhérent, qui surgit lorsque les conseillers votent au sujet de leur rémunération, exige que le processus soit aussi impartial que possible. Cet article identifie quatre thèmes dans les rapports municipaux sur la rémunération : composition des comités d'examen, recours à des rémunérations non imposables, méthodologie des examens, et identification de critères clés communs pour les examens. À l'aide des critères identifiés, l'article recommande un processus de rémunération en quatre étapes. En axant les examens sur les critères stipulés par les municipalités, on pourrait accroître l'acceptation des résultats et attirer les meilleurs candidats possibles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When working-class localities in developed countries are in question, social fragmentation is often analyzed along ethnic lines. Instead, this article claims that it is more critically fruitful to explore fragmentation in terms of people's relations with the state and different forms of capital. It does this by considering housing in Spain as a key resource that connects state policies both with the forms of reproduction and (dis)organization of the disadvantaged, and with the development of real estate and finance capital. First, it unfolds the historical formation of the Spanish 'homeownership culture' and the construction-finance complex. Second, starting from an in-depth ethnography of a peripheral neighborhood in Barcelona, it emphasizes the embeddedness of recent financialization in the livelihood strategies of poor households. Finally, it shows how the process led to a commodification and erosion of those social relations on which it partially depended, thereby exposing problems for class reproduction and fracture lines among the urban poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Place marketing is increasingly being used as a governance strategy for managing perceptions about regions, cities, and towns. What are the most important obstacles to implementing place marketing? Based on a survey of 274 public managers involved in place marketing in the Netherlands, this article analyzes the main obstacles as perceived by public managers. It also analyzes the effects of obstacles on perceived results of place marketing in terms of attracting target groups. A factor analysis of a variety of obstacles investigated in the survey shows three clearly demarcated obstacles: administrative obstacles within municipalities, obstacles in developing the substance of marketing campaigns, and political obstacles. Obstacles in developing the substance of the marketing campaigns have significant effects on the results of place marketing in terms of attracting stakeholders, whereas the two other obstacles have no significant influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growth is stimulated through learning. In ‘the learning economies’ of those European regions that chose to develop their human and intellectual capital wisely, benefits have been visible. But this is a one-dimensional outlook in a multi-dimensional world. A ‘Learning Region’ is an entirely different entity, pooling and mobilising its resources from the community, its institutions, culture and heritage, and industry, to mention just a few, for the common, social, economic and ecological good. This article examines and critiques recent ideas and perceptions behind the concept of the learning region and suggests why, in the Italian context, they have not been successful so far in entering the consciousness of regional leaders. It argues that greater individualisation, privatisation and the ascendancy of the market approach to learning are, perhaps paradoxically, barriers to establishing the regional structures that would implement lifelong learning for all and enhance economic and social progress. Cooperation, partnership, sharing and the integration of stakeholders in respecting a common goal are far more difficult to achieve in today's climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's urbanization is undergoing profound neoliberal shifts, within which urban redevelopment has emerged in the forefront of neoliberalization. This study aims to understand China's emerging neoliberal urbanism by examining the association between urban redevelopment and neoliberalism. Rather than a deliberate design, neoliberalization in China is a response to multiple difficulties/crises and the desire for rapid development. The neoliberalization process is full of controversies and inconsistencies, which involve conflicts between neoliberal practices and social resistance, and tensions between central and local states. Nevertheless, China's neoliberal urbanism has a responsive and resilient system to cope with the contradictions and imbalances inherent in neoliberalism. Meanwhile, neoliberal urbanism is more tangible at the sub-national scale, since the local state can most effectively assist neoliberal experiments and manage crises. This study not only contributes to the understanding of China's neoliberal urbanism, but also has multiple implications for neoliberalism studies in general. First, in examining the interrelationship between the state and market, it is the actual effect of legitimizing and facilitating market operation rather than the presence (or absence) of the state that matters. Second, a new nexus of governance has formed in the neoliberalization process. Not only the nation state but also the local state is of great significance in assisting and managing neoliberal projects. Third, this study further validates the importance and necessity of scrutinizing neoliberal practices, in particular the controversies and inconsistencies within the neoliberalization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Megalopolis 50 years after Gottmann’s seminal study of the most urbanized region of the US Eastern Seaboard. His study provides an invaluable datum point, and we use it as a benchmark for reexamining the socio-spatial transformations of a city region. After redefining Megalopolis and showing major aggregate trends since 1950, we analyze 39 selected variables for place level census data for 2,353 places to perform a principal components analysis (PCA). Our analysis shows that Megalopolis remains a significant center for the nation’s population and economic activity. A half century of urban restructuring demonstrates that the forces of urban decentralization have made the region a more fully suburbanized agglomeration. We reveal a complex socioeconomic pattern of a vast urban area structured by class, education, housing tenure, housing age, and race and ethnicity. The cluster analysis reveals five distinct clusters of urban places identified by our PCA: ‘affluent places’, ‘places of poverty’, ‘Black middle class places’, ‘immigrant gateway places’ and ‘middle America places’. Résumé Il s’agit ici de revenir sur Mégalopolis 50 ans après l’étude majeure de Gottmann sur la région la plus urbanisée du littoral Est des Etats-Unis. Son étude procure un point de départ inestimable utilisé ici comme référence à partir de laquelle rééxaminer les transformations socio-spatiales d’une région métropolitaine. Dans un premier temps, ce travail redéfinit Mégalopolis et présente les grandes tendances à la concentration depuis 1950. Il analyse ensuite 39 variables choisies, portant sur les données de recensement des lieux par niveau (2.353 lieux traités), afin d’effectuer une analyse en composantes principales (PCA). Celle-ci montre que Mégalopolis demeure un nœud important pour la population et l’activitééconomique nationales. Un demi-siècle de restructuration urbaine met en évidence que, à cause des forces de décentralisation urbaine, la région est devenue une agglomération aux banlieues plus étendues. Il se dégage un schéma socioéconomique complexe propre à une vaste zone urbaine structurée par classe, niveau d’éducation, type de jouissance du logement, ancienneté des habitations, ainsi que par race et ethnicité. Une analyse des pôles (clusters) révèlent cinq pôles de lieux urbains repérés par l’analyse PCA: ‘lieux aisés’, ‘lieux pauvres’, ‘lieux pour classes moyennes noires’, ‘lieux d’entrée des immigrants’, et ‘lieux pour Américains moyens’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the tensions between economic and environmental priorities through attempts to reconfigure urban governance arrangements in a world city. We examine these tensions through the development of the hydrogen energy economy in London and through attempts to cultivate new techniques of governance in realizing this vision. Through case study material, we develop two representations of the negotiation of new forms of governance. First, we outline the representation of ‘London as world leader in progressive urban governance’. Second, we develop a characterization of ‘the politics of the world city in CO2 reduction’... stratégique’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article carries out an asset-pricing analysis of the U.S. metropolitan housing market. We use ZIP code–level housing data to study the cross-sectional role of volatility, price level, stock market risk and idiosyncratic volatility in explaining housing returns. While the related literature tends to focus on the dynamic role of volatility and housing returns within submarkets over time, our risk–return analysis is cross-sectional and covers the national U.S. metropolitan housing market. The study provides a number of important findings on the asset-pricing features of the U.S. housing market. Specifically, we find (i) a positive relation between housing returns and volatility, with returns rising by 2.48% annually for a 10% rise in volatility, (ii) a positive but diminishing price effect on returns and (iii) that stock market risk is priced directionally in the housing market. Our results on the return-volatility-price relation are robust to (i) metropolitan statistical area clustering effects and (ii) differences in socioeconomic characteristics among submarkets related to income, employment rate, managerial employment, owner-occupied housing, gross rent and population density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the trends that are transforming Moscow into a new world city, manifested in its new role in global communication networks, economic restructuring, and in particular the rapid development of service economy and especially of banking and other business services. Like other world cities, the transformation of Moscow from a Soviet to a world city accelerates social polarisation and increases contrasts between the historical centre and most other parts of the urban space. The authors consider the contemporary strategies of urban management and the relationship between the interests of the state, municipal authorities, private capital, and the majority of Moscovites. Special attention is paid to an analysis of the location of new activities and to the patterns of their spatial combinations. They are explained by historical factors and the heritage of socialist urban planning in the capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a study of a binational community indicator program for the San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area (SDTMA). The key objective of the research was to produce a citizen-generated community indicator program (CIP). The study is closely based on the work of the two focus groups held in the two cities and offers a small program that has immediate practical potential for implementation. The program consists of a suite of thirty-five indicators for which data has been identified and provided. Fifteen of the indicators apply to Tijuana, twenty to San Diego. The program is built around principles of community well-being or quality of life (QOL). It is the first subregional attempt at the scale of the United States-Mexico Bi-National Region (BNR) to integrate existing environmental, social, and economic data into a single coherent program to inform community leaders about the condition of the SDTMA. The region covered by the CIP generally consists of the urbanized core of metropolitan Tijuana, the city of San Diego, and associated cities like Chula Vista and El Cajon within the southern part of San Diego County. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid urbanisation, the demand for office floor space also increases. Although high-rise buildings are very common in urban areas, study of the rent for different stories in such buildings is relatively rare. Liu (1988) and Grimaud (1989) separately applied agglomeration economies to study the density variation in urban areas. However, these studies assumed that the floor rent in the same building is the same for each story. Such an assumption about floor rent may not fully reflect actual floor rent and, from the perspectives of theoretical completeness and practical usefulness, formulation for different floor rents in high-rise buildings, and their effect on urban density variation should also be considered. This research note extends Ogawa and Fujita’s locational potential function (1980) into two dimensions: flat dimension and story dimension. The modification of the locational potential function is then applied to revise Liu’s model. Finally, the office distribution in a CBD (central business district) is then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major purpose of this article is to examine new dynamics in the economic spaces in the Pacific Rim with regard to the recent transition of the techno-economic paradigm. The logic of the new dynamics is related to the importance of regions or places in the space of flows and in the creation and transfer of knowledge in the Internet era. It is clear that most of the flows are directional and are grounded in physical places via material flows and social relations. Place becomes even more important in the era of the digital economy, due to the need for spatial proximity in the transfer of tacit knowledge. Three major patterns can be identified. First, innovation centers and knowledge-intensive service centers have been newly developed in the Asian Pacific Rim. Second, regional innovation systems are emerging in some of the major metropolitan areas of this part of the world, while diverse types of regional innovation systems have been developed with the restructuring of existing innovation centers and newly emerging innovation clusters. Third, diverse city regions have been developed and interactions between both sides of the Pacific Rim will be strengthened through business networks and innovation networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Urban & Regional Research is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Author-supplied Abstracts.)

Using a nationwide household income survey, different types of income in the People's Republic of China at the end of the 1980s is analysed. The results show that various income types play quite different roles in rural and urban areas. Subsistence income makes up about half of the total income in rural China. Money income makes up about two-thirds of total income in urban China and is the major contributor to inequality in the entire country. In kind income, of which highly subsidized housing is the single most important category, is highly concentrated in urban areas and contributes greatly to inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to examine the relation between the economic and the social dimensions of the community. Most of the data were derived from an earlier study to determine the critical dimensions of the community and its underlying structure. The county is the unit of observation employed because of the absence of data for the sociological community. This poses a problem, however, since of course counties often include more than one community. Nevertheless, the ever-changing boundaries of the sociological community render longitudinal studies almost impossible. Moreover, consensus is lacking among social scientists concerning the meaning of the concept of community. Several other rather compelling facts make the county a valuable unit for study. Use of the county by agricultural extension workers, city and regional planners testifies to its acceptance and value as a unit of observation. Perhaps the most cogent argument favoring use of the county is its permanency as a governmental unit. Use of the county presents a serious limitation, however, in that one is unable to deal with intracounty variations in the level of economic activity, despite the fact that typically substantial variations exist from community to community.