Spatial Fix and Spatial Substitutability Practices Among Canada's Largest Office Development Firms

Among agents that reflect and shape urban space, prominent property developers are powerful players. This paper examines the spatial practices of Canada's largest office development firms. These firms constantly explore new frontiers for investment, but at the same time well-established nodes are rigorously maintained and protected. Larger urban areas are preferred locations for investment; yet among them only a few cities attract the vast majority of investment. Once an investment channel is initiated and a threshold is reached, existing assets act as magnets, attracting more investment and strengthening the allure of particular places. Within a particular place (a city or a metropolitan area) the mix of properties held by a firm is likely to change over time. Core properties are considered strategic assets and therefore are retained as long-standing investments; peripheral assets have to meet corporate requirements and are thus subject to trade and replacement. Findings confirm the key position of Toronto within the Canadian urban system but also indicate that the scale of property investment does not fully correlate with urban hierarchy. On the intraurban scale, the framework of core-periphery properties helps to explain the spatial patterns of office development and the primary role of traditional nodes.     

Patterns of Growth and Change: Depicting the Impacts of Restructuring in Idaho

Geographers and other social scientists investigating the impact of economic and demographic restructuring have tended to focus on urban metropolitan areas. There has been much less exploration of the local impacts of such change in largely nonmetropolitan locales. Many of these nonmetropolitan regions, however, are some of the fastest growing in the U.S. This article addresses this issue by examining, at the county level, economic and population trends in the state of Idaho. Generally recognized for its agricultural outputs (such as potatoes), Idaho experienced a population growth rate of 18.1 percent during the 1990s, making it one of the fastest growing states in the U.S. However, population growth and the associated changes in the local economy were unevenly distributed across the state. This article develops a typology of growth and change, indicating patterns of growth related to two predominant trends: high–tech footloose capital investment and amenity– and tourism–related residential development. Implications of this analysis for future research are discussed.     

A GEOGRAPHY OF THE VENTURE CAPITAL INDUSTRY IN THE U. S.*

The venture capital industry in the U.S. has important implications for the growth of “high tech”industries and the viability of the small firm sector. Venture capital is provided largely through independent firms, quasi-public Small Business Investment Corporations (SBICs) and corporate subsidiaries. The regional distribution of VC firms has changed over time but New York, Massachusetts, and California account for one-half of the current firms. An analysis of regional flows of VC investment reveals that California, Massachusetts and Texas were the leading recipient states while the Plains region receives the least amount of capital. Given the concentrations of VC activity, a regional mismatch in the supply of and demand for such funds may exist. The investment needs of small firms, the employment impacts of the VC industry, and the matching of VC supply and demand are seen as useful research directions.     

ATLANTA IN THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AGE: THE FIBER-OPTIC INFORMATION NETWORK

This paper addresses the role of the Atlanta metropolitan area as a telecommunications center based on the use of fiber optics. The major focus is on the intrametropolitan layout of this network, including fiber-optic access points, downtown and suburban fiber loops, and the location of data service and teleservice centers. The aim is to identify congruence between high-technology firms and fiber-optic lines that produce clustering within the metropolitan region. Atlanta has a dense fiber-optic infrastructure in place in the CBD-Midtown area and in several corporate clusters in the suburbs. A number of fiber-optic carriers compete in the Atlanta market—including BellSouth, with approximately 400,000 miles of fiber-optic cable—giving Atlanta more miles of optic fiber than any other metropolitan area in the United States. This extensive fiber network bestows fresh advantages to old downtown property and businesses and creates burgeoning opportunities in the suburbs as it literally undergirds the growth of edge cities at such locations as Perimeter Center and Cumberland-Galleria. Long-established Atlanta firms such as Coca-Cola have drawn fiber sites to themselves, whereas sites on fiber-optic loops attract new businesses seeking ready backbone and broadband access to other metropolitan areas in the United States and cities around the globe. This study also focuses on Atlanta's position within the U.S. intermetropolitan telecommunications hierarchy, where the metropolitan area ranks sixth in total number of backbone connections with other U.S. Metropolitan areas. [Key words: Atlanta, fiber optics, telecommunications.]     

从全球生产网络到全球金融网络：理解全球-地方经济联系的新框架

全球化带来的新国际劳动分工使全球生产网络(Global Production Network, GPN)成为研究全球经济与区域发展的重要框架。与此同时,金融在现代社会经济运行中的地位日益提升,经济金融化在全球不同尺度下深刻影响着经济活动的空间分布和网络。因此,金融已经成为GPN研究不能忽略的重要环节。更重要的是,金融化带来的逻辑也日益深刻地影响到GPN的演化和运行。尽管GPN研究日益重视金融的作用,并开始研究金融业的全球生产网络,但是随着越来越多的企业通过获得国际股权投资或者在境外资本市场上市等方式融入全球资本市场,主要从生产角度理解地方经济融入全球过程的GPN难以对该现象深入分析。全球金融网络(Global Financial Network, GFN)为刻画和分析这个过程提供了新的框架。在这个分析框架中,地方经济体通过高级商业服务业(Advanced Business Service, ABS)企业与世界城市(国际金融中心)和离岸管辖区产生联系,从而融入GFN。论文介绍了GFN的基本结构,探讨了地方经济融入GFN的主要方式及其产生的影响。最后,提出GFN未来在理论和实证方面可继续深入研究的方向。     

URBAN LIVEABILITY: A COMMENTARY

The paper compares density patterns of the three largest Canadian metropolitan regions with those of a sample of 12 U.S. urban areas with comparable populations. It verifies if such patterns support claims of Canadian urban distinctiveness prevalent within this country's research literature. Findings indicate that regional differences among U.S. cities are as important as cross-national distinctions. Measures of centrality and overall density place observed Canadian metropolitan areas within the same category as older U.S. East Coast metropolitan areas. Inter-city comparisons of historically and geographically defined zones suggest a period of cross-national convergence before World War II, when the inner city was developed, followed by a period of divergence from the 1940s to the 1970s, when the inner suburb was built. The development of the outer suburb, which began in the early 1970s, marks a return to cross-national convergence. These results question the continued relevance of the literature on the distinctiveness of Canadian urbanization.     

The economic geography of institutional investment in the United States, 2010

The economic geography of United States’ institutional investments as of December 2010 is presented. With a self-declared value of almost $13 trillion, it is the largest class of equity investors. Included are all investors who file Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) form 13f, meaning they manage at least $100 million. Analysis is undertaken at both the firm and metropolitan levels. The largest firms and targets of investment are determined. Geographic concentrations of both investors and their major stock holdings occur in a small subset (the top 10 largest metropolitan areas). The rates of returns on investments are shown to differ by metropolitan area of investment and by urban rank in the urban hierarchy. Intra-metropolitan investment provides worse rates of returns, countering suggestions of informational advantages for local investment. The network of interurban investments shows a clear hierarchical structure, with New York City being the dominant investment centre.     

China's urban transition

This article describes recent changes in urban patterns in Shanghai-Nanjing, Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan, Canton-Hong Kong, and Dalian-Shenyang. The urban patterns in these metropolitan areas are viewed as part of an urban transition that is responding to population growth, a structural shift in employment, relaxed rules on migration and household registration, and foreign investment and trade. It is argued that these metropolitan coastal areas will form the key growth centers and will lead China's economic development. Urban transition is defined as the shift from rural to urban and from agricultural employment to industrial, commercial, or service employment. China's large cities always dominated as important centers of politics and trade. The recent shift is from interior to coastal cities due to a new world view and a movement away from the isolationism of prior centuries. It is assumed that cities are formed to take advantage of economies of scale in production, consumption, and distribution and to conform to regional specialization. Governments can intervene in growth processes. China's development of cities reflects state controls and market forces. The size and scale of China's population influenced the development process, which resulted in differences in the shape and process of the urban transition. It was under Chinese communism that cities became more than a set of discrete regional urban systems. Reference is made to Oshima's model of change that is specific to monsoon countries. Oshima argues that monsoon agricultural conditions require a distinct strategy based on full employment in order to achieve industrial transition. Rice cultivation requires a large and disciplined labor force. The discussion focuses on other models as well, such as the McGee's model of the extended metropolis and its extension by Zhou Yixing to China. China's changes may not follow Skeldon's models of urbanization in developing countries, because of state control of migration. However, the longer migrants remain in cities the more likely Skeldon's models of early European transitions apply to China's urban transition.     

基于城市尺度的中国区域经济 增长差异及其因素分解

区域经济差异一直是地理学与经济学的重要研究领域。文章以中国地级及以上城市为区域分析单元对1999~2004年间中国区域经济增长及其差异进行了考察。首先基于GDP及其变化与人均GDP水平,对各城市区域经济增长类型进行划分并分析了不同类型城市的区域差异性;其次,对中国各城市GDP增长进行了空间和因素分解。研究发现,一些经济相对衰落的省区中仍然存在经济相对崛起的城市,且一个城市的经济规模在所属省区的序位变化在很大程度上能够反映其在全国的经济规模序位的变化;资本要素对于中国各城市第二产业GDP增长产生了广泛而重要的影响,但是城市在实现资本拉动驱动下的经济增长的同时,资本的产出效率并没有提高。我国十五期间,各城市第二产业专业化程度的普遍降低,表明劳动力要素对第二产业经济增长的作用是有限的。     

俄罗斯吸引外资评述

俄罗斯联邦独立以来,出现社会、经济、金融总危机,其投资环境欠佳。欧盟和美国等西方发达国家对俄罗斯进行了大量投资,对俄罗斯经济产生双重影响。本文对俄罗斯引进和利用外资的现状特征及其影响、投资环境以及吸引外资的新举措等问题进行了探讨和评述。     

Urban Infrastructure Financing and Economic Performance in China

Research points to a strong association between infrastructure investment and economic performance. Despite China's great strides in providing basic services, there is increasing disparity among cities of different regions in their ability and performance to finance infrastructure development. Such unevenness has a long-term effect on urban economic growth. This study explores patterns and the expanding range of mechanisms for urban infrastructure financing in general and across the country's regions. It also investigates whether and how infrastructure investment is related to urban economic performance, using lagged variables to demonstrate both short- and medium-term effects. It is clear that such investment has responded to past unmet demands and paved the way for future growth.     

SHIFTS IN THE WHOLESALE TRADE STATUS OF U.S. METROPOLITAN AREAS*

Considerable instability exists among large U.S. metropolitan areas in their status as wholesale trade centers. Differences in wholesale trade growth rates, changes in national shares, and shifts in rank position reflect not only population growth patterns, but also structural changes in the national economy. In the latter instance, the wholesale product mix of SMSAs is an important factor in explaining their differential fortunes within the wholesaling hierarchy.     

Population Change in U.S. Cities: Estimating and Explaining the Extent of Decline and Level of Resurgence

The revalorization of the U.S. metropolis and restructuring of the U.S. economy are leading to increasingly complex patterns of population growth and decline. In this article we provide an empirical context for understanding the embodied nature of these changes by analyzing the long-term, demographic changes for the 100 largest cities. In terms of population change we identify four model urban types: steady decline, continuous increase, growth interrupted, and slowly resurgent. We consider, in detail, cities where population decline has halted and others where there are indications of population resurgence. The article focuses on these resurgent cities, provides some causal explanations, discusses the role of gentrification, and explores policy implications.     

Visualising 30 Years of Population Density Change in Australia’s Major Capital Cities

ABSTRACT

This study uses a novel spatial approach to compare population density change across cities and over time. It examines spatio-temporal change in Australia’s five most populated capital cities from 1981 to 2011, and documents the established and emerging patterns of population distribution. The settlement patterns of Australian cities have changed substantially in the last 30 years. From the doughnut cities of the 1980s, programs of consolidation, renewal and densification have changed and concentrated population in our cities. Australian cities in the 1980s were characterised by sparsely populated, low density centres with growth concentrated to the suburban fringes. ‘Smart Growth’ and the ‘New Urbanism’ movements in the 1990s advocated higher dwelling density living and the inner cities re-emerged, inner areas were redeveloped, and the population distribution shifted towards increased inner city population densities. Policies aimed at re-populating the inner city dominated and the resultant changes are now visible in Australia’s five most populated capital cities. While this pattern has been reported in a number of studies, questions remain regarding the extent of these changes and how to analyse and visualise them across urban space. This paper reports on a spatial method which addresses the limitations of changing statistical boundaries to identify the changing patterns in Australian cities over time and space.     

Equity Issues in the 'New Prosperity' of the 1990s: The case of Sydney

Equity issues associated with Sydney's engagement with prosperity, especially over the last decade, are examined. Sydney is positioned within the historic contexts of major national economic change and of globalisation, noting especially the rise in importance of the financial, property and business services sectors. These sectors are concentred in inner Sydney and have helped position Sydney as Australia's leading global city, thereby generating jobs and growth in incomes. At the same time, however, there have been major shifts in patterns of income distribution across the Sydney metropolitan area and between Sydney and other parts of Australia. In particular, we note the 'revitalisation' of Sydney's inner-urban areas and their association with new forms of Central Business District (CBD) workforce growth and a significant realignment of journey-to-work patterns. Using Australian Taxation Office income data, the dynamics and some of the equity outcomes of 1990s prosperity within the Sydney metropolitan area are examined, paying particular attention to the impact of change in and around the Sydney CBD and the City of Sydney local government area. We find that there has been a complex shift in the nature of inequality across the Sydney metropolitan area, including a widening in incomes in some instances and a major geographic shift in Sydney's income-divide axis. The paper concludes by arguing that ongoing economic prosperity in Sydney will depend on the extent to which social cleavage can be avoided by a more equitable sharing of the benefits of prosperity.     

中国城市土地财政扩张及对经济效率影响路径

土地财政对经济效率的影响过程具有系统性、复杂性特征。本文考虑效率提升的结构性特征,从规模经济效应、技术抑制效应等方面构建土地财政对全要素生产率影响机制,进而从投资挤占效应、成本拉动效应探索其传导路径,并基于2005—2015年中国285座地级以上城市面板数据集,运用固定效应模型对其影响过程机理与区域分异特征进行实证检验。结果表明：① 2005—2015年间,中国城市土地财政规模持续扩张,并由沿海城市向内陆城市扩散,但城市全要素生产率增长率却出现波动下降趋势。② 整体上,土地财政对城市全要素生产率产生显著的负向影响,且对西部、中部、东北等地区以及中小城市、Ⅰ型大城市、Ⅱ型大城市的影响依次增强,而东部地区与超特大城市并不显著。③ 土地财政对经济效率影响的技术抑制效应显著大于规模经济效应,中部地区、Ⅰ型、Ⅱ型及超特大城市尤其严重。④ 具体传导路径为,土地财政扩张主要通过房地产开发带来的投资挤占效应影响城市全要素生产率,其次是房价上涨的成本拉动效应,而工资水平上升主要在东部地区、Ⅰ型及以下规模城市发挥作用。以上结论在一系列稳健性检验后依然成立。最后提出明确土地出让收支范围、产业梯度转移与升级、宏观调控与因城施策并行等政策建议。     

城市土地利用变化中邻域相互作用的特征——日本三大都市圈的比较研究

Local spatial interaction between neighborhood land-use categories (i.e. neighborhood interaction) is an important factor which affects urban land-use change patterns. Therefore,it is a key component in cellular automata (CA)-based urban geosimulation models towards the simulation and forecast of urban land-use changes. Purpose of this paper is to interpret the similarities and differences of the characteristics of neighborhood interaction in urban land-use changes of different metropolitan areas in Japan for providing empirical materials to understand the mechanism of urban land-use changes and construct urban geosimulation models. Characteristics of neighborhood interaction in urban land-use changes of three metropolitan areas in Japan,i.e. Tokyo,Osaka,and Nagoya,were compared using such aids as the neighborhood interaction model and similarity measure function. As a result,urban land-use in the three metropolitan areas was found to have had similar structure and patterns during the study period. Characteristics of neighborhood interaction in urban land-use changes are quite different from land-use categories,meaning that the mechanism of urban land-use changes comparatively differs among land-use categories. Characteristics of neighborhood interaction reveal the effect of spatial autocorrelation in the spatial process of urban land-use changes in the three metropolitan areas,which correspond with the characteristics of agglomeration of urban land-use allocation in Japan. Neighborhood interaction amidst urban land-use changes between the three metropolitan areas generally showed similar characteristics. The regressed neighborhood interaction coefficients in the models may represent the general characteristics of neighborhood effect on urban land-use changes in the cities of Japan. The results provide very significant materials for exploring the mechanism of urban land-use changes and the construction of universal urban geosimulation models which may be applied to any city in Japan.     

美国出口管制下中国外贸风险的省域地理差异

从总贸易、出口、进口、外资和人员5个视角构建对美风险系数，测度和比较各省区市对美外贸风险的地理差异。结果表明：上海、浙江和福建与美国的进出口贸易规模最大，对美国市场的依赖程度最高，面临的综合外贸风险最大；河南尤其需要防范对美国的出口风险；海南、新疆、天津和西藏等需要加强从美国进口的风险管理；重庆除了需要防范对美出口风险外，还因为实际利用美资最多且依赖程度最大，亟需加强外资风险管理。宁夏和山西虽然从美国的引资规模不大，但是对美资的依赖程度最高，亟需提升外资多元化水平。从人员跨境流动风险来看，上海、北京和浙江面临的风险最大。中国各省区市在应对美国出口管制时应该加强外贸风险的识别和管理，针对不同的风险采取差别化的防范和化解措施。     

Characteristics of neighborhood interaction in urban land-use changes: A comparative study between three metropolitan areas of Japan

Local spatial interaction between neighborhood land-use categories (i.e. neighborhood interaction) is an important factor which affects urban land-use change patterns. Therefore, it is a key component in cellular automata (CA)-based urban geosimulation models towards the simulation and forecast of urban land-use changes. Purpose of this paper is to interpret the similarities and differences of the characteristics of neighborhood interaction in urban land-use changes of different metropolitan areas in Japan for providing empirical materials to understand the mechanism of urban land-use changes and construct urban geosimulation models. Characteristics of neighborhood interaction in urban land-use changes of three metropolitan areas in Japan, i.e. Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, were compared using such aids as the neighborhood interaction model and similarity measure function. As a result, urban land-use in the three metropolitan areas was found to have had similar structure and patterns during the study period. Characteristics of neighborhood interaction in urban land-use changes are quite different from land-use categories, meaning that the mechanism of urban land-use changes comparatively differs among land-use categories. Characteristics of neighborhood interaction reveal the effect of spatial autocorrelation in the spatial process of urban land-use changes in the three metropolitan areas, which correspond with the characteristics of agglomeration of urban land-use allocation in Japan. Neighborhood interaction amidst urban land-use changes between the three metropolitan areas generally showed similar characteristics. The regressed neighborhood interaction coefficients in the models may represent the general characteristics of neighborhood effect on urban land-use changes in the cities of Japan. The results provide very significant materials for exploring the mechanism of urban land-use changes and the construction of universal urban geosimulation models which may be applied to any city in Japan.     

Wholesale funding and the increase in construction bank-owned real estate in the US financial crisis

The housing crisis left some metropolitan areas littered with partially constructed subdivisions and developments. Most of these failed developments were built by small construction firms reliant on small banks for finance. Failed construction projects became bank-owned real estate (REO), prolonging the crisis and contributing to an uneven recovery. But there is little research on the spatial distribution or financial processes driving construction REO. I use a finance-as-spatial fix theorization to describe increasing interrelation between construction lending and global capital markets through wholesale funding, and the subsequent buildup of construction REO. Wholesale funding allows small banks to access money markets. Controlling for economic growth, the home price bubble, and financial institutions, I use a national panel regression to identify key factors associated with high levels of construction REO in urban areas. Consistent with a finance-as-spatial-fix analysis, the strongest determinant of construction REO was the type of capital flows into small banks.