This paper examines the relationship between economic growth and the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector for a panel of 503 Brazilian micro-regions for the period 1980-2004 using panel spatial econometrics. It investigates the importance of the SME sector size measured by the share of the...

The traditional approach to estimate spatial models bases on a preconceived spatial weights matrix to measure spatial interaction among locations. The a priori assumptions used to define this matrix are supposed to be in line with the "true" spatial relationships among the locations of the...

The aim of this study is to examine the determinants of international banking. In doing so, it utilizes data from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). In particular, the primal variable of interest is drawn from BIS Consolidated Statistics and refers to banks' foreign claims. is defined...

Multinational firms transfer to their foreign affiliates superior technology, leading to higher productivity of their workers and therefore to higher wages, or so the often cited rent-sharing theory of multinational firms explains. But studies have shown that oftentimes, this results not from...

A wide urban-rural disparity is observed in employment growth in the United States. For example, employment growth averaged 2.1 percent in urban counties during 1998-2007, compared with just 1 percent in rural counties. In this study, we examine the sources of U.S. employment growth using the...

The well-known rise in the geographical concentration of hog production suggests the presence of agglomeration economies related to spatial spillovers and inter-dependencies among industries. In this paper, we examine whether manure management regulation restricting manure application per acre...

This study analyses the relationship between social capital accumulation and the amount of rural credit market contracts of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The most important definitions of social capital found on literature and the main ways of creation and measure this variable were reported....

Does an individual's housing situation affect community social capital and influence regional development through this channel? A body of literature which followed the seminal work of DiPasquale and Glaeser suggests that homeownership is positively related to social capital formation due to both...

The aim of the study is to analyze the representative variables of the stock of social capital available in the São Paulo State's counties, Brazil, according to the theory and methodology proposed by Robert Putnam. It describes some representative elements of social capital in the counties of...

This paper intends to contribute to an on-going change of perspective in territorial policies, more focused on a place-based integrative development strategy, which can be enhanced by social capital. This includes organizational and institutional learning for knowledge and skills' transfer and...