Modelling leadership and institutional factors in endogenous regional development.

Theories and approaches to endogenous growth and regional development tend to neglect or at best underplay the role of leadership and the way institutional factors are considered is usually simplistic. This paper builds on work the authors have been developing over the last year or so to develop a model framework of regional economic development that explicitly incorporates leadership and institutional factors along with the consideration of resource endowments and market fit and of entrepreneurship. An approach to operationalizing the model is proposed.

Measuring "small-world" connectivity in international trade: a shift-share and ANOVA approach

Improvements in telecommunications and transportation appear to be bringing the world closer making physical location less of a factor in determining interaction between nations. The formation of regional and global trading pacts and arrangements seem to be further contribution to this interaction. Some would argue that what is evolving, as a result of these developments, is a 'small world' network. This type of network has a high degree of cliquishness, or local connectivity, and a relatively short average minimum path, or strong overall network connectivity. 'Small-world networks' is a new concept that is receiving a lot of attention. Introduced by Watts and Strogatz (1998), a 'small-world network' is based on 'six degrees of separation' or the notion that everyone in the world is related to everyone else through at most six acquaintances. 'Six degrees of separation' arises from the existence of cliques and a few popular individuals who provide connections between these cliques. The huge appeal of 'small-world networks' lies in the impact they are said to have on dynamical systems. According to Watts and Strogatz(1998), for example, models of dynamical systems with small-world coupling display enhanced signal propagation speed, computational power, and synchronizability. Furthermore, contagious diseases tend to spread more freely in 'small-world networks'. These findings have profound implications for many manmade and natural systems. In a trading network, 'small-world' topology might contribute to the regional and global economic spillover effects. This paper introduces a method, based on shift-share analysis and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), which can be used to measure the extent of 'small-world' connectivity is evolving in a network. The shift-share model is basically a rule of thumb/empirical method and is used in identifying the "small world" activity. ANOVA is used as a theoretical explanation of the shift-share results and an alternate way to measure "small world". The model is applied to two distinct time periods, the first from 1996 to 1998 and the second from 1989 to 1992. The first time period is representative of the trading network topology that was present in the 1980's, in particular a lot of local trading arrangements (cliques) and very few multilateral alliances and agreements between nations of different cliques, while the latter time period reflects stronger local trading arrangements (cliques) and the introduction of multilateral and bilateral agreements between nations of different cliques. Results are summarized using a geographic information system.

Spatial-Structural Relations among Technology Industrial Clusters: A Comparative Analysis of Metropolitan Regions in the U.S

Technical industrial clusters are defined and analyzed for a sample of U.S. metropolitan regions. Economic structure, spatial proximity and shape of the clusters are examined across the metropolitan regions through various economic and spatial measures and statistics. The data for this research are used to test the hypothesis that close spatial proximity results in stronger economic functional interdependence. This hypothesis is examined and the implications of the test are explored.

The contribution of fatigue and sleepiness to depression in patients attending the sleep laboratory for evaluation of obstructive sleep apnea

Purpose: A high prevalence of depressive symptomatology has been reported amongst sufferers of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), but it remains unclear as to whether this is due to their OSA or other factors associated with the disorder. The current study aimed to assess the incidence and aetiology of depression in a community sample of individuals presenting to the sleep laboratory for diagnostic assessment of OSA. Methods: Forty-five consecutive individuals who presented to the sleep laboratory were recruited; of those, 34 were diagnosed with OSA, and 11 were primary snorers with no clinical or laboratory features of OSA. Nineteen control subjects were also recruited. Patients and controls completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the Profile of Mood States (POMS), and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale to assess their mood and sleepiness, prior to their polysomnography. Results: All patients reported significantly more depressive symptoms compared with healthy controls, regardless of their degree of OSA. There were no significant differences between OSA patients and primary snorers on any of the mood and self-rated sleepiness measures. Depression scores were not significantly associated with any of the nocturnal variables. Regression analysis revealed that the POMS fatigue subscale explained the majority of the variance in subjects' depression scores. Conclusions: Fatigue was the primary predictor of the level of depressive symptoms in patients who attended the sleep laboratory, regardless of the level of severity of sleep disordered breathing. When considering treatment options, practitioners should be aware of the concomitant occurrence of depressive symptoms and fatigue in patients presenting with sleep complaints, which may not be due to a sleep disorder

Congestion Charging at Airports: Dealing with an Inherent Complexity

Air transport delays have increased during the past decade both in Europe and US. The main reasons have been continuously growing air transport demand, constrained capacity of the system infrastructure, and disruption of services caused by bad weather, failures of the infrastructure components, facilities and equipment, and industrial action of the aviation staff. Growing demand combined with constrained infrastructure capacity and frequently disrupted by a bad weather have been identified as the most frequent causes of congestion and delays at large airports. Potential remedies have shown to be improvement of utilisation of the existing infrastructure capacity by introducing technological and operational innovations, physical expansion of this capacity, and management of access to the scarce infrastructure capacity. The first option has shown to have the very limited effect. In many cases, the second option has been impossible to be implemented due to the various political and environmental constraints in terms of land take in both the airport airside and landside area. The solution of management of access to the existing scarce infrastructure capacity (i.e., ?demand management) has recently been considered as an additional viable option to relief the congestion problem. This paper deals with modelling of management of access to a congested airport by using congestion charging. The complexity of setting up a relevant congestion charge (toll) based on the system delays imposed by an additional aircraft on itself and on the others during peak-periods has been particularly elaborated. For such a purpose, queuing model of a congested airport, as an essential tool for estimating the aircraft delays, particularly in cases of changes of the airport capacity caused by disruptions, is developed. The existing theory of congestion pricing is upgraded by an explicit introduction of the differences between particular customers - the aircraft - requesting service during peaks in terms of the arrival time, type (seat capacity, operational cost), type of flight (short, medium, long-haul), and actual number of passengers on board. These all are also the most important factors expected to influence a tool, which, if consequently applied, is expected to change in line with changes of these factors. This also illustrates controversy and complexity of implementing such tool, the process, which is under consideration (i.e., in a rudimentary phase) at some airports in the U.S. and Europe. KEY WORDS: air transport, airport, queuing theory, congestion pricin

Institutions, Regulations and Sustainable Transport: A Cross-national Perspective

This paper examines institutional and regulatory aspects of sustainable transport from a cross-national perspective. While institutions appear to play an important role in the economic success of many countries, it is not so clear that they also support sustainable development. A number of examples of the role of institutions in transport are discussed. Particular attention is focused among others on the themes of institutions and technological change, institutions and the organization of production, and territorial aspects of institutions. Regulatory trends are also reviewed including devolution patterns and the growing importance of supra-national organizations. © 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd