Regional Economics / Regional Science
Paper Session
Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022 3:45 PM - 5:45 PM (EST)
- Chair: Sandy Dall'erba, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
Assessing the Economic Impacts of Florida’s 2018 Red Tide Event: A Multi-Regional Input-Output Analysis of Impacts to Peer-to-Peer Accommodations
Abstract
Disaster or hazard events can significantly reduce the attractiveness of a place and reduce tourism demand. The Red Tide event that began in October of 2017 and ended in January of 2019 limited access to marine and coastal recreational activities along the Gulf Coast of Florida and heavily impacted tourism demand for this area. Using microdata on Airbnb properties and water sample records from the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, this work combines econometric methods and multi-regional input-output techniques to estimate the effects of this harmful algal bloom on the peer-to-peer accommodation market. We conclude that for each test detecting a significant concentration of the organism that causes the Red Tide events, the average price and the number of reservation days in Airbnb properties both decline. These declines represented a direct loss of approximately $70 million in the Airbnb market in Florida for 2018. In addition, many other activities are indirectly affected as tourist revenues decline. A multi-regional input-output model for Florida is employed to analyze the interdependencies between the tourism sectors and the broader regional economy. After combining micro- and macro-level modeling, our work concludes that the total economic impacts of the 2018 Red Tide event observed via the Airbnb market correspond to declines of $317 million in sales revenues, $197 in Gross Value Added and nearly 3,000 jobs. Due to interregional spillovers, 81% of the impacts on sales were felt in the Southwest Gulf Area and 19% in the rest of Florida.Who’s Right, Weber or Glaeser?
Abstract
Most empirical work on agglomeration economies has been devoted to the analysis of pure density mechanisms, which actually subsume two possible amenity effects. On the one hand, vast empirical evidence suggests the importance of productivity-enhancing features of spatially concentrated settlement structures, which attract profit-maximizing firms despite the costs associated to large population concentrations. On the other hand, cities also function as major market areas, concentrated in space and thereby offering within a limited area a large number of consumption possibilities. The relative importance of these sources of agglomeration benefits is not yet clear. In this paper we address this gap. We exploit two large data bases comprising (i.) 70 per cent of all house transactions in the Netherlands in the period 2005-2011, and (ii.) ORBIS data covering balance sheets of Dutch firms in the period 2005-2011. We also merge these two main data sources with Statistics Netherlands neighborhood data from the Wijk- en Buurtkaart, data on monuments from the Cultural Heritage Agency, and, lastly, LISA data of all registered firms in the Netherlands. The paper provides two main contributions: (i.) We measure the intensity of the productivity effect of consumption and production-related advantages for the Dutch case, and (ii.) We observe whether the relative intensity of the two effects change over the observed time span. Findings suggest that both consumption and production externalities are reflected in house prices, firm productivity, and wages.Foreign Direct Investments and Gender Pay Gap in China
Abstract
The pattern of male-female wage disparities in China has changed considerably since the economic liberalization of 1978 indicating that globalization is a key factor influencing gender pay gap. A major participant and driver of the world economy, China has been the second largest recipient of foreign direct investments (FDI) for the past four decades. Studies of the globalization impact on gender wage inequality in post-reform China, however, suggest conflicting evidence at different spatial scales. This paper investigates the emerging spatial-temporal pattern of relationship between gender wage inequality and foreign direct investments (FDI) in China. Using longitudinal data from two waves of the China Family Panel Studies survey, we employ methods of spatial analysis to detect regional clusters of gender wage inequality. Panel model estimation suggests foreign firms has a statistically-significant and positive effect on female wages, indicating that capital liberalization in the early 2000s has contributed to a narrowing gender pay gap. Specifically, women employed by foreign-owned firms earn more than men with similar qualifications, implying that the shift from labor-intensive activities to capital- and knowledge-intensive activities has favored female workers in China. The findings reveal the role of globalization in reducing gender wage inequality through its effects on industrial structure and the gender composition of employment in foreign-owned firms. Policies designed to promote production efficiency and innovation through FDI flows are thus expected to further narrow the wage gap between male and female workers with similar qualifications.Health Interventions in a Poor Region and Resilience in the Presence of a Pandemic
Abstract
We focus on a poor region and analyze the connections between health interventions undertaken by a regional authority (RA) and this region’s resilience in the presence of a pandemic such as Covid-19. First, we show how a health intervention by the RA stochastically impacts an appropriately defined health indicator for this region. Second, we compute the probability that the health status of this region’s population falls below a minimum acceptable level in the presence of the health intervention. Third we solve an optimization problem in which the RA maximizes the likelihood that the health status of this region’s population stays above a minimum acceptable level at a given economic cost. Finally, we discuss the nexus between a health intervention, our region’s health status, and its resilience by presenting two applications of our theoretical framework.Discussant(s)
Yuri Mansury
,
Illinois Institute of Technology
Amitrajeet A. Batabyal
,
Rochester Institute of Technology
William Ridley
,
University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
Andrea Caragliu
,
Polytechnic University of Milan
Christa Court
,
University of Florida
JEL Classifications
- R0 - General
- C0 - General