Search

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.)

This paper examines city growth patterns and the corresponding city size distribution evolution over long periods of time using a simple New Economic Geography (NEG) model and urban population data from Canada. The main findings are twofold. First, there is a transition from sequential to parallel growth of cities over long periods of time: city growth shows a sequential mode in the stage of rapid urbanization, i.e., the cities with the best development conditions will take the lead in growth, after which the cities with higher ranks will become the fastest-growing cities; in the late stage of urbanization, city growth converges according to Gibrat′s law, and exhibits a parallel growth pattern. Second, city size distribution is found to have persistent structural characteristics: the city system is self-organized into multiple discrete size groups; city growth shows club convergence characteristics, and the cities with similar development conditions eventually converge to a similar size. The results will not only enhance our understanding of urbanization process, but will also provide a timely and clear policy reference for promoting the healthy urbanization of developing countries. [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.)

Carbon pricing systems have emerged in Canada at provincial and federal levels to reduce CO2 emissions. However, cross-border electricity trade with the U.S. is already extensive, and although Canada is currently a net exporter, policy changes could alter these trade dynamics. Since CO2 emissions are currently unregulated in many U.S. states, there is a concern that this incomplete regulatory coverage will lead to emissions leakage, as electric generation and emissions shift toward these unregulated regions. This paper examines potential power sector emissions leakage and distributional implications across provinces from Canadian carbon pricing. Using an integrated model of electric sector investments and operations with detailed spatial and temporal resolutions, the analysis demonstrates how emissions leakage through trade adjustments can be non-trivial fractions of the intended emissions reductions even in the presence of leakage containment measures. Magnitudes of long-run leakage rates from Canadian carbon pricing depend on market and policy assumptions (e.g., natural gas prices, projected load growth, long-run demand elasticities, timing of future U.S. CO2 policy), ranging from 13% (high gas price scenario with border carbon adjustments) to 76% (lower gas price scenario without antileakage measures), which are higher than reported literature values for national policies. When leakage containment measures are implemented, net emissions and leakage rates decrease, but gross emissions in Canada and policy costs increase. Leakage persists in alternate scenarios with constrained transmission expansion, higher natural gas prices, lower load growth, higher price elasticities of demand, and U.S. adoption of carbon pricing, but leakage rates decrease under these conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature on internationalization, in relation to the absence of objective and measurable performance indicators for the process of how firms sequentially enter external markets. To that end, this research develops a quantitative tool for use as a performance indicator of gradualness for firms entering external markets at a sectoral level. The performance indicator is based on firms’ export volumes, number of years operating in the export market, geographic areas targeted for export and when exports began to each area. The indicator is tested empirically in the wine sector. The main contribution of this study is the creation of a reliable international priority index, which can serve more widely as a valuable tool because of its potential use in other industry sectors and geographic areas, and which would allow the analysis of how geographically differentiated internationalization strategies develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge 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 this paper I address two issues of general relevance to contemporary debates in economic geography: first, the organisational and spatial implications of new information technologies for the economic landscape; and, second, the enduring role of place to digital capitalism. Specifically, I examine the organisational evolution of mnltichannel retailing in Toronto from a geographical perspective. Bricks-and-mortar retailers are increasingly pursuing a multichannel strategy by operating an lnternet-based web store alongside the existing network of physical retail outlets. I therefore evaluate the organisational implications of the adoption of business-to-consumer ecommerce (e-tailing) technology for six Canadian bricks-and-mortar retailers based in Toronto and assess how the associated changes in business structure have been inscribed upon the urban landscape. The argument is developed in three sections. First, I discuss how the formula for competitive advantage in the new (r)etail markets of the developed world has shifted from a pure play to a multichannel organisational paradigm. Second, I provide a background to the development of Canadian e-commerce and an overview of the empirical methodologies employed during the research. Third, the focus of the paper moves 'behind the web store' to spatialise the physical places that constitute the fulfilment infrastructure of e-tailing as sequentially linked stages in Internet commodity chains. I evaluate the impact of the Internet commodity chain upon the geographical organisation of each retailer, and, in particular, consider whether the unique logistical requirements of e-tailing have stimulated spatial processes of disintermediation and reintermediation. It is argued that, when read through the lens of Toronto, e-tailing has incurred limited organisational disruption and is characterised by a distinctive geography of integration between online and offline retailing services within the urban space of the city. I... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the recent urban literature on suburban employment centres has neglected the role of high-order services, perhaps the principal component of 'edge cities', in the creation of the evolving multinucleated metropolitan structure. This paper specifically explores the role of high-order services in this process. We use employment by place-of-work data at the census-tract level to examine the changing intrametropolitan geography of employment in four finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) services and eight business services in the Montreal area over the period 1981–96. We find evidence of central business district (CBD) decline in relative, but not absolute, terms. The resulting decentralisation has clearly assumed the form of polycentricity rather than of generalised dispersion. In spite of recent advances in telecommunications technologies, agglomeration economies continue to exert an important impact upon intrametropolitan location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dramatic decrease in international trade costs in the second half of the nineteenth century led to a global trade boom. In this paper, we examine the consequences of greater openness to international trade for regional economic activity in a small, open economy during the first era of globalization. Specifically, we provide a quantitative assessment of the role that exposure to globalization played in industrialization in Canada between 1871 and 1891. Greater exposure to globalization leads to faster growth of manufacturing and the greater concentration of industry around entrepôts of trade between Canada and the rest of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in economic geography has focused on the shift away from the standard employment relationship in the West; yet within these debates, non‐standard work is an amorphous stand‐in for many kinds of labour. Our aim is to account for absences and ambiguities within one form of non‐standard work – freelancing – to make the contours of this work more visible and to understand why a growing sector of the labour market is not well measured, protected or understood. Working from a Canadian case study, we first examine the conflicting ways freelancing is statistically measured, using an umbrella of intersecting terms that refer to labour or workers. Second, we critically review how freelancing is (not) legislated, organised and protected, areas of mediation which often still presume a standard employment relationship. Finally, we consider how the identity of 'freelancer' is lived, through freelancers' complex yet partial definitions that embrace flexibility and constraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence of bilateral trade costs is calculated here using neglected properties of the structural gravity model, disaggregated by commodity and region, and re-aggregated into forms useful for economic geography. For Canada's provinces, 1992-2003, sellers' incidence is on average some five times higher than buyers' incidence. Sellers' incidence falls over time due to specialization, despite constant gravity coefficients. This previously unrecognized globalizing force drives big reductions in 'constructed home bias,' the disproportionate predicted share of local trade; and large but varying gains in real GDP. (JEL F11, F14, R12) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the location quotient, a common measurement from economic geography and regional economics, to capture the specialization of criminal activity in Vancouver, Canada. Location quotients have barely been introduced into criminological research, yet they provide additional insight into crime analysis not available using crime counts and crime rates. The location quotients for automotive theft, break and enter, and violent crimes are mapped for Vancouver, Canada, and tested using social disorganization and routine activity theory as a theoretical framework. Strong support is found for these theories to predict specialization in criminal activity by interpreting their expectations in the context of crime-specific attractors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transport-geographical and transport-economic continentality of the resource-extraction industries of Canada is considered. A study of the distribution of extraction and export of raw materials according to the zones of remoteness from the sea routes showed that the example of Canada does not fit in with a global pattern. A change in the territorial structure of Canada's extractive complex most dramatically shows a shift of the resource-producing sectors far inland, whereas the main trend worldwide has been the movement from the landlocked areas to the sea. The intracontinental functioning predetermines an increase in specific transportation costs and enhances the negative influence upon the finance and economic indicators of the operation of producers and exporters of raw materials. For offsetting the costs connected with the intracontinental location of its resource-extraction facilities Canada, first, is using to advantage its border location, and, second, a relatively inexpensive pipeline and railroad transport is being used in transporting raw materials. On the other hand, it is the economic sea transport that serves as the main vehicle in decreasing the transportation costs of Canadian raw materials delivered to the world market. The cost of shipping via sea routes justifies and offsets the transportation costs incurred in the event of using land transport between the place of extraction of raw materials and the ports of exportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the factors that shape the evolving geographic distribution of business headquarters (HQ) activity. We address an understudied influence on HQ geographies: metropolitan HQ changes driven by the process of small, rapidly expanding businesses growing into mature companies. This investigation focuses on the developmental paths followed by fast-growing firms (FGFs) and the geographic distinctions that can be observed in a FGF tracking study of Canada's metropolitan regions from 1987 to 2005. Our research findings indicate that geography plays an important role in this development, as FGF tracking records throughout Canada's metropolitan areas diverge sharply. We find that most FGFs that emerged in Vancouver and Toronto continued as ongoing businesses following their rapid growth phase, while a high proportion of FGFs based in Montreal and Calgary did not. These results contribute to a greater understanding of metropolitan economies, business development, and HQ location in Canada [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.)

In the midst of the widespread, long-term economic downturn throughout the Canadian manufacturing landscape, the contract (or office) furniture sector has demonstrated resilience and vibrancy. The study reported here investigated the institutional foundations of innovation and competitive advantage in this dynamic, design-led, export-oriented manufacturing sector. It connects to ongoing work in economic geography and the social sciences to enhance economic geographers' understanding of the role of institutions in shaping the practices of firms and competitive outcomes and seeks to advance a more agency-centered institutionalist economic geography. The study focused on three dimensions of industrial practices: (1) the use of training and investments in technology, (2) the nature of employment relations, and (3) the use of design. The analysis reveals that the most globally competitive firms operating in a Canadian institutional context prosper by learning a set of production practices and the value of design-intensive products from the embodied knowledge of their founders, who have lived, studied and worked in high-wage, coordinated market economies of continental Europe. The ability of these entrepreneurs to transfer industrial knowledge from continental Europe to Canada has had direct benefits for learning and innovation processes that are critical to the synthetic knowledge base of this sector. The empirical analysis entails a sector wide survey questionnaire ( N = 220) as well as 55 in-depth interviews with senior managers, production workers, and designers from a subset of leading firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paul Krugman has become one of the most influential economists of our time. Here we offer a leading trade economist's appreciation of the academic work that won him his Nobel Prize and that is central to mainstream economics today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After September 11, 2001, the U.S. and Canadian federal governments increased restrictions on materials and people crossing the border. Antiterrorism regulations have introduced costly compliance requirements, clearance delays, and unpredictable border wait times for companies conducting business across the international border. A recent study suggests that many Canadian and U.S.-based exporters intend to counteract these costs by implementing strategies including geographic supply chain reconfiguration. Strategic adjustments of this nature could have profound effects on the geography of North American supply chains, the structure and volume of bilateral trade, and the management of just-in-time delivery systems. This project follows up on the previous study via personal interviews with 35 businesses that had indicated an interest in geographic strategies. Preliminary findings suggest that firms are quickly adjusting to new security requirements and are improving communication channels throughout their cross-border supply chains to stay abreast of new developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource peripheries that are geographically remote from “core economies” are also peripheral to contemporary theorizing in economic geography, and requires higher profile within economic geography's research agenda. The restructuring qua remapping of resource peripheries is collectively shaped by institutional forces unleashed by post-Fordism and globalization that are fundamentally different from the restructuring of cores. As industrial regions, resource peripheries must negotiate the imperatives of flexibility and neoliberalism from vulnerable, dependent positions on geographic margins. For many resource peripheries, neoliberalism has been perversely associated with trade protectionism. As resource regions, the restructuring of resource peripheries has been further complicated by resource-cycle dynamics and radically new social attitudes toward the exploitation of resources that have helped spawn the politics of environmentalism and aboriginalism. Trade, environmental, and aboriginal politics have clashed around the world to contest vested industrial interests and remap resource peripheries in terms of their value systems. British Columbia's forest economy illustrates this contested remapping. For two decades, the powerful forces of neoliberalism, environmentalism, and aboriginalism have institutionalized a “war in the woods” of British Columbia that is sustained by shared criticism of provincial policy and disagreement over how remapping should proceed. The authority of the provincial government, which controls British Columbia's forests, has been undermined, but it remains vital to socially acceptable remapping. Meanwhile, the enduring war in the woods testifies that geography matters on the periphery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of the relationship between urban governance restructuring, and global, national, and local action through a case study of the Toronto city-region. The Toronto city-region recently underwent a massive reorganization of its governance structures, functions, and jurisdictional boundaries. This restructuring raises questions about why these changes occurred at this particular juncture in the region's history. Why did the city that had always been known in the academic and political discourse as the "city that works" stop "working"? What global and national forces might have accounted for such a radical restructuring? And what did local action contribute? These questions are explored in both historical and contemporary contexts by drawing on insights from regulation theory, urban regime theory, and an analysis of Canada's changing fiscal federalism. This approach informs the role that institutions—regardless of their origin or territorial scope—play in sustaining a local accumulation system, and how this "local" accumulation grounds a national regulatory mode and regime of accumulation. The approach also explores the relationship between regime and regulation theories in the context of policy formation and institution building. The study concludes that the current policy set is incapable of resolving the region's crisis tendencies. Notwithstanding external forces, the current policy set is not inevitable. Globalization does not predetermine all spatialeconomic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the diversity of course contents in economic geography subjects taught in English-language universities in Canada. Contents with positive student response; Areas of misunderstanding in students identified by higher education teachers; Prevalence of syllabus overload.