Current interest in small manufacturing firms is great because they are an important source of job growth. Consequently, many planners and policy makers have tried to strengthen the small manufacturing sector, hoping that this will bolster their regional economy as a whole. This piecemeal...

This paper explores the potential of using large administrative units for studies of population health within a country. The objective is to illustrate a new way of defining structural dimensions and to use them in examining variation in life expectancy rates. We use data from the 50 provinces...