Volker Nitsch (p)

In April 2010, the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano led to a week-long closure of European airspace. Some 100,000 flights were cancelled, and the journeys of 10 million passengers were grounded. This paper examines patterns of trade adjustment when transport networks are (temporarily) disrupted. Analyzing monthly trade of European countries at highly disaggregated product level, I empirically characterize the responsiveness of trade along the intensive and the extensive margin as well as the speed of trade adjustment.

Maya Safira (p), Makoto Chikaraishi

Facility location is one of the crucial aspects of urban planning, determining the accessibility to urban services in combination with the provision of transportation service. Thus, facility location models usually deal with a trade-off between transportation costs to facilities and the costs of opening and operating facilities. Another important factor that needs to be considered in developing facility location models is spatial externalities. There would be two different types of spatial externalities. First one is intra-sector externalities (economies of localization), and the second is inter-sector externalities (economies of variety). In both cases, the geographical proximity of facilities causes spatial externalities contributing to the increase in the number of visitors to the area, while the externalities can be both negative (competition) and positive (cooperation).
The main focus of this study is inter-sector externalities from the interaction between public facilities (medical and education facilities) and commercial facilities (groceries and non-groceries shopping facilities). While there are a number of existing studies exploring inter-sector externalities with a particular focus on the increase in productivity in the field of economics, to the authors’ knowledge, little study has been made on whether public facilities generate externalities for surrounding commercial facilities. If the existence of public facilities affects the spatial agglomeration of commercial facilities, the location of public facilities would be an important policy tool to achieve compact city. This study empirically explores inter-sector externalities between public facilities and commercial facilities by using microdata from the Census of Commerce collected by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry in Japan. The survey was conducted on all stores wholesale and retail trade in Japan once every two to three years, and in this study, we use the data collected in 2014. The method we used is based on Duranton and Overman’s (2005, Review of Economic Studies, 72, 1077–1106) K-density approach (also called as a distance-based approach). In this approach, the distribution of bilateral distances between every pair of commercial facilities is first calculated by using a kernel density function, and then, compare the distribution with the counterfactual distributions where facilities are located randomly across space. This approach is further extended by Duranton and Overman’s in 2008, where inter-sector externalities are identified. We use this method to confirm the impacts of the existence of public facilities on commercial facilities agglomeration.

Hiroshi Sakamoto (p)

In recent economic activities, there are increasing cases of utilizing ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to enhance competitiveness and productivity. Research and development for that purpose has been actively carried out. Analyzing the impact on other industries and other regions when demand for the ICT industry expands is an important issue. Therefore, in this study, we analyze the economic effect by using the interregional input-output table of Fukuoka prefecture of Japan as a case study.
Fukuoka prefecture (Fukuoka-ken) is a prefecture of Japan located on Kyushu Island. It faces the sea on three sides, bordering on Saga, Oita, and Kumamoto prefectures and facing Yamaguchi Prefecture across the Kanmon Straits. It is also located near the Korean peninsula. Fukuoka prefecture, like other metropolitan regions, is active in utilizing the ICT industry. Support for ICT industry related founding is also active. In this study, we analyze how the economic activity of Fukuoka prefecture produces spillover effect in other regions (the rest of Japan) and other industries.
Since it is easy to measure economic effects from existing tables, we introduce some new assumptions. One is an assumption that input coefficients fluctuate stochastically. This is a measure to compensate for this as there is a problem that the input-output table is created based on economic activity at a specific time, so it lacks universality. The other is an assumption that ICT development results are stochastically performed. This means that improvement in productivity occurs suddenly. In this study, Monte Carlo experiments are performed by adding these two stochastic factors to the input-output model.

Aleksandr Shendrik (p), Dmitry Zhitin

Authors analyze the influence of 2014-2016 economic crisis in Russia on economic performance and population dynamics in cities and towns of Leningrad region and particularly the area of Saint Petersburg city agglomeration.
Since the beginning of 1990-s and up to present time, population trends in cities and towns of Leningrad region have preserved mainly the same. Most of the towns continued their existing long-term trend of consistent population decline, stagnation or growth. However, the rate of population growth and decline (largely driven by migration processes) vary significantly depending on the current situation in the country’s economy. Local economic performance in these towns in general has the similar pattern.
Analyzing population and economic dynamics in the towns of Leningrad region during 2011–2017 we managed to distinguish several groups of cities and towns based on their response to crisis phenomena of 2014-2016.
As a result of the study, it was found that the switch in the trend or rate of population dynamics amid rapid changes in the rate of economic growth is not common to all towns. Based on an analysis of spatial features of town locations, we have proposed an explanation for the differences in their persistence to crisis events in the Russian economy.

*The study was supported by the Russian Foundation For Basic Research (RFBR) (Scientific direction: Humanities and Social Sciences), project no. 17-02-00069