Lars Westin (p)

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will increase cross-border integration among the ASEAN countries in order to reduce administrative barriers to trade and increase internal accessibility through investments in infrastructure. Although some internal barriers will be reduced, AEC will initially maintain existing national border controls and will thus not create a, for all common, labour market with completely free internal migration. Barriers on flows of labour in between the AEC countries and between each of those and the rest of the world thus will vary, as will barriers on flows of information and capital. Anyhow, the improved possibilities for trade will surely change competitive advantages of nations. Due to external forces, such changes would prevail even without the formation of the AEC, but AEC may speed up those processes, and the relative as well as absolute outcomes for countries may differ with the AEC compared with a situation without AEC. The ongoing development will surely put pressure on remaining barriers on flows of labour, capital and other movable endowments. In this paper, the ASEAN integration is discussed in relation to the formulation of models of international and interregional trade for simulation and analysis of impacts of investments in infrastructure or other ways to reduce barriers to trade and movements of various endowments. Models have to be related to appropriate theory as well as available empirics and historical experience. This makes us consider how the urban areas of ASEAN nations will develop, and what processes of change they will face in a more integrated surrounding. Moreover, and besides our suggestions for modelling and analysis, our policy conclusions relate to how leaders at the ASEAN, national, urban, and countryside levels should manage in order to secure a positive overall development of their endowments and wealth.

Cathrine Ulla Jensen (p)

Lars Westin

Peri-urban nature areas with public access, such as forests, lakes and meadows located between an urban area and a rural landscape generates a range of services to the people living in their vicinity. Living close to a nature area provides recreational value through a low cost per visit ( in terms of both time and money) of visiting a nature area and for those who live closest also amenity value through a scenic view (Cavailhès et al., 2009; Sander & Polasky, 2009).
This paper contributes to the literature on, who locally benefits from increasing the provision of peri urban nature. I investigate the distributional profile of peri-urban nature as an economic good in the suburbs of the Danish capital Copenhagen. I estimate several hedonic pricing functions, conditional on the price of the home relative to all other in the area. I use these results to estimate income elasticity of WTP for the nature household’s purchase as a part of their home’s surroundings.
Within the case area, high-income households buy homes situated in areas with more peri-urban nature than the average household. There is a strong positive correlation between income, nature and house-price. In line with existing literature, I find a positive price-premium for homes situated in areas with a high level of peri-urban nature.
I also find a positive income elasticity of WTP, but it less than unity. This means that higher income households have a larger WTP than lower income households, but lower income households are willing to allocate a larger share of their budget to pay for peri urban nature. In conclusion, higher income households live in areas with a high level of peri-urban nature, because they are less constrained by their budget.