Date of Award
2002
Degree Type
Dissertation
First Advisor
Timothy J. Tyrrell
Abstract
States, regions and communities are concerned with economic development, as well as population growth and the quality of life. The economic expansion in the last two decades created new standards of living, but also new concerns on the effects that development has on the environment. A scattered version of regional growth with carelessly spreading pattern of suburban development is recognized as "sprawl" and carries with it the notions of inefficient use of irreplaceable natural resources and redundant public facilities and infrastructure. This dissertation investigates spatial economic relationships and analyzes the spatial regional growth process in Southern New England in the last two decades (1980-2000). The dissertation includes four manuscripts. Manuscript one inquires on the existence of a linkage between the spatial interaction model and the spatial lag model and its implications in analyzing economic spatial behavior. A spatial lag model with an exogenous weight matrix cannot be derived from underlying economic spatial interactions between origin and destination regions, except under very restrictive and unrealistic conditions. The second and third manuscripts explore the spatial organization of manufacturing and services industrial clusters, as well as of households' agglomerations in clusters of cities using spatial exploratory techniques. Also, they test a series of hypotheses about the effect of cluster patterns on regional economic growth using simple spatial models. There is empirical evidence that industrial and cities clusters, as well as industrial isolated cities create spillover growth effects on bordering towns. New industrial and residential centers are born in the shadow of industrial and residential agglomerations and at the periphery of isolated cities. The fourth manuscript develops a complex simultaneous spatial model for understanding regional economic growth. There is a slow population exodus from urban, low quality of life areas. Export-based jobs quickly follow the population outmigration as firms capitalize on economies of scale of newly populated towns. Less mobile service-oriented jobs follow export-based jobs at a lower speed. Local governments can provide incentives as low tax rates, good quality schools, and low crime rates for the households to stay.
Recommended Citation
Pacheco, Andrada Ioana, "Papers in spatial analysis of regional economic growth" (2002). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 1859.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/1859
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