Evangelos Rasvanis (p), Vassilis Tselios

FDIs constitute one of the main outlets for economic and social welfare of Greece as well as one of the main solutions in facing the financial and social problems created by the prolonged economic and financial crisis, in the post-memorandum era. The effects of FDIs differ by the socioeconomic and geographical characteristics of the regions where FDIs are located. But, what drives FDIs to some cities and regions and not to others? According to Dunning’s eclectic paradigm, location advantages play an important role in firms’ decision to internationalise, referring not only to the natural and geographical endowments of the host country, but also to the quality of institutions, infrastructures and human resources. A key location advantage of Greece to attract FDIs is its natural endowments. These geographical characteristics, which are known as ‘first nature’ of geography, may give Greece a comparative advantage over other European countries, especially in the attractiveness of FDIs in the tourism and transport sector.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of the ‘first nature' of geography factors in the location of tourism- and transport-FDIs in Greece and to compare these factors with the 'second nature' of geography factors – which refer to the proximity between economic agents – after controlling for some regional and national characteristics, such as the quality of institutions and public infrastructures. This paper also explores the differences in these location factors between and within the tourism- and the transport-sector. Using data based on a questionnaire survey which has been sent to the main domestic and subsidiaries of multinational firms in Greece, this paper finds that the ‘first nature’ of geography factors, which are more important than the ‘second nature’ of geography factors, matter for the location of both tourism- and transport-FDIs. However, they are more important for tourism-FDIs than for transport-FDIs. The importance of each geographical factor differs by sector: climate, cultural resources, morphology, location’s natural environment and access to sea are more important in attracting tourism investments than investments in the other sectors, while access to sea is more important for the transport sector than for the other sectors. Finally, there is no evidence that there are differences in the ‘first-nature’ of geography factors within the tourism sector (i.e. domestic investments vs FDIs), while there is some evidence that a country’s geographical position is more important for transport-FDIs than for domestic investments in the same sector.

Mariann Szabó (p), János Péter Kiss

The race for urban places, as we face the increasing importance of city regions nowadays, the location choice of enterprises as well as their embeddedness, effects on their surroundings are focal points analysing regional development circumstances. Differences in the standard of living (or well-being of inhabitants), income inequalities or any others represent particular interest, especially from the perspective of regional economic theory. Nowadays we face the ascending importance of large enterprises (multinational and transnational companies) in enhancing local/ regional development. Their distribution, spatial structure and the level of how they enhance local economies varies to high extent among regions. A common characteristic of the current economies, that the average productivity level of large enterprises exceeds the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) twice or thrice, contributing to the emergence of ‘dual economy’ resulting the uneven distribution of economic performance. After the shift to market economy in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) the main driver of economic development has become the foreign direct investment forming even higher level of inequalities than in the European average. In Hungary, after the collapse of the Soviet system the structure of the economy concerning the distribution of different sized enterprises has totally changed, too. Large enterprises (the range of TOP 500 companies by revenue) are in charge for half of the gross domestic product, while they employ around 20% of the active population. Parallel to this they operate in various industrial branches frequently dominating them, defining the spatial structure, income generation characteristics of regional economies. During the last years less efforts have been made to analyse the effect of their distribution on local/regional level. Moreover, there are methodological barriers to exploring their role in local economies as registers tend to consider exclusively their seats. On one hand, in order to provide more accurate comprehension on their significance in forming regional economic base our study is dedicated to determine their spatial distribution regarding not just seats but all locations. Demonstrating their distribution, assessing the sectoral diversity of the NUTS-3 regions and income inequality patterns we will provide an in-depth analysis of economic development in Hungary.

Takatoshi Tabuchi (p)

The regional distribution of population is considered to be in proportion to the distribution of amount of food in preindustrial society of Japan. In fact, the correlation coefficient between the population and the amount of rice over 66 regions in 1834 is 0.845, implying that 71.4% of the population distribution is explained only by the distribution of rice.
In modern society after the Industrial Revolution, however, agricultural goods have been getting dominated by manufacturing goods and services. The former goods are normally produced in farmlands, whereas the latter in cities due to the existence of agglomeration economies in production. That is, the determinant of the population distribution is not only the distribution of farmlands, but also the distribution of economic activities of manufacturing and services.
The manufacturing and service production is an agglomeration force, while agricultural one is a dispersion force. The dispersion force is due to land. It is not only land for agricultural production (Krugman, 1991), but also land for housing (Helpman, 1998). The dispersion force is exogenous First Nature such as land fertility, flat land, and pleasant temperature. On the other hand, the agglomeration force is endogenous Second Nature because they are determined by the distribution of economic activities such as market access and supplier access (Redding and Venables, 2004).
Hence, we may simply hypothesize that the distribution of firms and households is determined by exogenous interregional distances and endogenous distributions of economic activities. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to explain the Second Nature by the First Nature. Specifically, the historical population distribution in Japan may be explained by the First Nature of geographical variables such as the intraregional and interregional distances and the distribution of arable land and inhabitable areas.
For this purpose, we develop a multiregional NEG model based on Behrens, Lamorgese, Ottaviano, and Tabuchi (2007) by introducing the housing sector. Linearizing the spatial equilibrium conditions, we derive a closed form solution of the conditions, which is empirically testable. Using historical data of population and geography attributes by prefecture in Japan, we show that the interplay between agglomeration and dispersion forces can be expressed by a single key parameter that describes the transition of historical distribution of regional population from 1884 to 2017.

Xueying Wu (p), Takuya Urakami, Kazutaka Komiya, Woon-Ho Kim, Junji Inoguchi

This study highlights the strategic decision undertaken by apparel manufacturers in Japan and South Korea. The logit regression analysis was employed to identify factors affecting the own brand strategies adopted by Japanese and Korean apparel manufacturers, then the differences in strategy were clarified. The main findings are as follows; (1) Apparel manufacturers headquartered in urban areas have added benefits associated with launching their own brands both in Japan and South Korea; (2) The size of the company behind the brand development is significant both in Japan and South Korea. However, the results are quite the opposite. Large-scale apparel manufacturers in South Korea tend to have their own brands. To the contrary, own brand strategy has become an important strategy for relatively small-scale apparel manufacturers in Japan.