Browsing by Subject "Economic growth"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Economic growth and urban metamorphosis: A quarter century of transformations within the metropolitan area of Bucharest
    (Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2018) Toșa, Cristian; Mitrea, Andrei; Sato, Hitomi; Miwa, Tomio; Morikawa, Takayuki
    This paper concentrates explicitly on examining the structural and functional transformations occurring within the metropolitan area of Bucharest, resulting from sustained economic growth during the past quarter century, by conducting a time analysis, spanning the entire period since the fall of the communist regime in late 1989. Cities in developed countries of Western Europe and Asia experienced rapid economic growth during the second half of the 20th century and exhibited novel patterns of evolution in terms of urban form and associated functional characteristics. Lately, these patterns have become manifest in Bucharest as well. However, transformations in human, social, residential, and transportation supply capital are difficult to observe directly. Hence, our methodology concentrates on studying interactions between several proxies connected to economic development within the metropolitan area of Bucharest. This paper should be read as an exploratory study that buttresses the assumption that improved economic well-being, when accompanied by the transition between a centrally planned economy to a market economy, increases motorization rates, while at the same time triggering a sharp decline in the use of public transport and contributing to aggressive urban sprawl processes. Moreover, hopefully it will guide future research dedicated to forecasting urban expansion paths and their determinants. Hopefully, it also informs policy design intended to promote sustainable urban mobility and accessibility.
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    Essays in public Economics
    (2013-07) Pouokam, Nathalie Cabrele
    This dissertation consists of two essays of public economics. In the first essay, I build a new and rich quantitative model of unsecured and secured debt to study the impact of the 2005 bankruptcy reform law on the foreclosure crisis during the great recession. I find that the bankruptcy reform did not significantly affect the foreclosure rate, but it moderately lowered the foreclosure rate by raising the opportunity cost of a bad credit record, thereby making households less likely to default simultaneously on mortgage contracts and on unsecured credit contracts. In the second essay, I use a game theoretical model to show how political institutions shape prospects of economic growth. The study predicts that everything else equal, economies that are the most likely to grow are those with the strongest political institutions: the lowest probabilities of occurrence of a coup d'etat and the lowest probabilities of falling in an absorbing state of dictatorship. Consistently with empirical facts on growth, the relationship predicted between dictatorship and economic growth by the model is a non-linear one: given a probability of falling in the state of dictatorship, the occurrence of growth depends on the discount factor of citizens. The essay also shows that even when the economy is already growing as a dictatorship, a one-shot transition to democracy is still desirable to citizens as it reduces the payoffs that are necessary to provide dynamic incentives to politicians in power.
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    How Do Complete Streets Matter for Communities? The Case of Richfield, Minnesota
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2020-07) Phinney, Robin; Fonseca, Camila; Bean, Nathan; Zhao, Jerry Zhirong
    Municipalities across Minnesota have turned to Complete Streets in an attempt to develop more usable roads for their residents. This report investigates how Complete Streets are reshaping one Minnesota community. In 2013, Richfield, a suburb of Minneapolis, enacted a particularly innovative Complete Streets policy. Known locally as "Richfield Sweet Streets," the program has led to the reconstruction of several major roads across the city. Richfield's Sweet Streets program is unique in that it incorporates a modal hierarchy in which users are prioritized differently in road redesign and reconstruction. It relies on extensive community engagement, aiming to improve outcomes for individuals and the community as a whole. This research presents a baseline analysis of how Richfield's Sweet Streets projects are affecting the local community, while identifying a set of methods and measures for future research. The analysis draws on multiple sources of data to better understand the nature and consequences of Richfield's Sweet Streets for user experience and livability, economic vitality, transportation and safety, and individual and community health. The research aims to illustrate Richfield's innovative approach to transforming its transportation infrastructure while providing a roadmap for future analyses of the impacts of Richfield's Sweet Streets.
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    The Impacts Entrepreneurship has on Economic Growth in Georgia, New Mexico, Kentucky Counties
    (2016) Zhang, Qianyu; Nene, Gibson
    The study is primary analyzing the impacts that entrepreneurship have on economic growth in Georgia, New Mexico and Kentucky counties between 2010 and 2012. The three states form 313 counties altogether. Economic growth in a given county can be measured by looking at the growth rate of personal per capita income, and the eight control variables include education, government spending, per capita income, unemployment, white population, rural dummy and farm dummy variable. The variables of interest are firm, establishments and employment at all sizes less than 500, which composed 15 models in terms of different firm, establishment and employment sizes. The results of this study present clear relationships between the control variables and economic growth. Farm-based counties and personal per capita income are positively related to economic growth; while government spending and population density are inversely related to economic growth. These coefficients of the variables are statistically significant and robust to all models. The coefficients for rest of the variables are not statistically significant, which means that they cannot be used to explain the economic growth in the specific period of this study.
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    The Impacts of Transportation Investment on Economic Growth in the Twin Cities
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2016-06) Cao, Jason; Iacono, Michael; Levinson, David; Cui, Mengying
    The transportation system plays a critical role in fostering economic growth. Although previous studies have shed light on the impacts of transportation investments, their results are not readily adapted to predicting economic impacts of individual transportation projects. This study aimed to (1) investigate the impacts of transportation investments on economic growth (wages and employment) in the Twin Cities and (2) develop a method that practitioners can apply to predict economic growth resulting from investments in individual projects (as well as disinvestments). The capacity of such predictions is critical for the economy of the Twin Cities because transportation infrastructure lasts for decades once built. The method is expected to be used by practitioners of planning, programming, and finance at MnDOT and DEED, as well as at the Metropolitan Council. This study contributes to the base of knowledge by offering new empirical evidence on intra-urban patterns of agglomeration based on small-scale geographic data on job density from the Twin Cities. Our findings indicate that in general urbanization effects tend to dominate localization effects across a range of industries.
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    Land market integration, structural change, and smallholder farming in Zambia
    (2014-08) Larson, Andrew Mark
    As developing economies grow, structural transformation affects not only sector shares of labor, value added, and consumption, but also intrasector marketing channels. One of the most dramatic examples of this transformation is in the evolution of food marketing channels in countries such as Zambia. Reardon's supermarket revolution research shows how supermarkets enter and transform food marketing channels in historically short periods of time compared to the earlier experience of developed nations. This study employs a dynamic general equilibrium model to examine the effect of this structural transformation story on smallholder farmers in Zambia. Two policy experiments are carried out against the baseline case.In the first experiment, the bifurcation of Zambia's agricultural land markets prevents smallholder farmers from participating in modern food marketing channels. High transaction costs in terms of time and financial resources make conversion of customary land into commercial land title prohibitively expensive for smallholder farmers. The simulated conversion of land title, without changing ownership, instigates a reallocation of capital and labor resources in the modeled economy that benefits smallholders in their roles as producers and household owners of factors of production. With the increase in commercial land area, labor becomes scarce and farm production becomes more capital intensive, thus increasing labor productivity and smallholder household income. This analysis highlights the importance of integrating land markets and giving smallholders an effective increase in the range of their resource allocation decisions.In the second experiment, constraints to smallholder participation in modern food marketing channels are relaxed in order to understand the effects on not only smallholder farmers, but also on Zambia's factor and output markets. Participation in modern marketing channels allows smallholders to supply not only greater downstream value-added processors, but also the world wholesale market. The results show that policies to open modern channels to smallholders benefit smallholders as households and producers.
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    Measuring the Effect of Small Business Employment on the Growth in Mississippi and Louisiana Communities
    (2016) Gao, Zhengzheng
    We want to take a closer look at how these jobs provided by small businesses to the local communities affecting economic growth of Mississippi and Louisiana counties. The objective of this study is to measure the effect of small business employment on the economic growth of Mississippi and Louisiana communities, where economic growth is measured by the growth rate of per capita personal income between 2010 and 2012 after adjusting for inflation. Empirical tests involving a Solow-type growth model will be estimated. Small business employment is measured by the total employment of enterprise with 0 to 19, and 20 to 99 employees. Small business ownership is measured by the number of firms and establishments that employ 0 to 19, and 20 to 99employees. These variables are designed to measure the economic impacts of small business employment, and combing small business employment with small business ownership on economic growth in Mississippi and Louisiana counties. A positive effect of small business employment factors on economic growth shows that pro- economic development small business policies are associated with an improvement in the economic well-being of Mississippi and Louisiana communities. This result would suggest that policies tailored to promote small business formation, which provide jobs to local communities have been beneficial to these communities. On the other hand, a negative impact would suggest changes in the policies tailored in enhancing small business formation as these may not be benefiting the poor by providing jobs. The findings of this study will provide much needed input to policy makers and community leaders from an economic perspective which may help them make timely adjustments to their current policies to achieve the desired economic development objectives.
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    On economic growth and capital flows
    (2013-03) Raimondo Franco, Osvaldo Jose A.
    Trade and output in small open economies are more volatile than in larger economies. The study focuses on how country risk shocks and capital flow volatility affect growth of a small open economy under free trade and imperfect capital mobility. Main effects are in physical capital, in households' consumption and trade and output. In contrast with traditional dynamic models, the economy faces idiosyncratic country risk shocks. I present an open Solow model and a Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans growth model for a small open economy with country risk shocks to households' domestic mobile capital and foreign asset portfolio, using an application of the Modigliani's life-cycle hypothesis on household's savings-stock decisions. This study attempts to show the behavior of households saving under stable and volatile environment. Solow's rule on the saving rate, the Friedman's theory of permanent income and Modigliani's hypothesis help to explain households' behavior on saving. To model capital flows, models include a foreign risk-free asset that households have free access to trade internationally. Models show incomplete market for assets as there a single asset available for households' trade. Then, models are calibrated to quantify the short-run fluctuations from shocks and the long run. Models replicate the empirical regularities well for periods of little capital flow volatility. In periods with greater volatility of capital flows, the Solow model fits data well, and the Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans model well fits physical capital stock and trade. However, the Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans model does not fit consumption and output as actual households do not, or cannot, smooth consumption in periods of greater volatility. I find that country risk shocks constrain investment in physical capital and consumption; output growth co-moves with capital flow changes after 1970s when GDP is pro-cyclical with capital flows. In this environment, trade reversals are associated with sudden stops of capital flows. This study aims to attempt a strong link between empirical and theoretical work, which show robust evidence of the empirical regularities associated to capital flow volatility.Calibrated models simulate impulse responses to transient country risk shocks to an economy that runs a trade-balance deficit or surplus. They lessen physical capital and output in the short and the long terms while improving exports and trade. Further, capital flow scenarios are compared with a counter example where capital mobility is not allowed, and there is free trade. Main results include advantages and disadvantages of economies that either run a trade-balance surplus or a deficit when facing country risk shocks. Finally, the study suggests enforcing public policies to incentive larger saving rates to lessen country risk shocks impacts.