Kingsley E. Haynes

Toward a theory of public sector entrepreneurship

Existing theories of public sector entrepreneurship lack a sense of entrepreneurial discovery ubiquitous in human action. Instead, existing theories emphasise rational calculation in a public sector setting. Existing theories of public sector entrepreneurship, therefore, are inadequate to account for the observed entrepreneurial behaviour in political and bureaucratic settings. The purpose of this paper is to redress the limited theories of public sector entrepreneurship by integrating Kirznerian and Schumpeterian theories of entrepreneurship with Buchanan and Tullocks constitutional political economy to move toward a theory of public sector entrepreneurship. The following analytic definition is offered: public sector entrepreneurship occurs whenever a political or governmental actor is alert to, and acts on, potential political profit opportunities, thus equilibrating the policy subsystem in which the actor is embedded and moving it toward a new equilibrium.

Geographic and Network Neighbors: Spillover Effects of Telecommunications Infrastructure

This paper tests for spatial spillover effects of state-level telecommunications infrastructure investment on state output, using panel data for 48 U.S. states from 1970 through 1997. As information and communication technologies support more industrial locational freedom, states may use telecommunications infrastructure investment as a competitive tool for attracting factors of production. In a production-function framework, this effect would manifest itself as a negative output spillover effect from telecommunications infrastructure investment. Findings indicate that a state benefits from its own telecommunications infrastructure, but telecommunications investment by other states has a negative impact on its output growth path, and proximity amplifies this negative spillover effect.

University productivity in Sweden: a demonstration and explanatory analysis for economics and business programs

This explanatory study was stimulated by an initiative of the Swedish National Board of Universities and Colleges (SNBUC) which had a twofold purpose. The first was to demonstrate a formalised assessment methodology with quantitative and qualitative measures for research. The second was to utilise standardised data integrating online input-output education/research information for periodic updating use by SNBUC in the future. Although this analysis demonstrates the methodology, the data set is small and narrow in scope and the conclusions are, therefore, tentative particularly with respect to regional issues.

Environmental decision models : U.S. experience and a new approach to pollution management

The paper reviews the U.S. experience in using decision models to support environmental policy making. Cost benefit and cost effectiveness are examined in the context of efficiency and equity considerations. Risk assessment and risk benefit analysis is then reviewed in the same framework. A mathematical programming approach to environmental management and industrial efficiency is outlined as a possible alternative to proposed decision support procedures related to monitoring of the pollution reduction progress.

Incubation Push or Business Pull? Investigating the Geography of U.S. Business Incubators

The primary purposes of this article are to present new data on the geographic distribution of U.S. business incubators and to explore the geographically bounded factors that influence the location of business incubators. The authors’ data show that U.S. business incubators are unevenly distributed across urban/rural divisions, states, and counties. Factor analysis identifies three common factors from 28 demographic, social, and economic variables drawn from publicly available data at the county level. These factors include agglomeration, welfare, and business/entrepreneurship. The results of binomial logistic regressions suggest that incubators are more likely to be found in counties with high levels of agglomeration but low levels of existing business development. Our findings suggest support for the incubation push hypothesis over the business pull hypothesis on the location of business incubators based on the regional configuration of incubator presence.

The impact of high-speed rail investment on economic and environmental change in China: A dynamic CGE analysis

This study investigates the impact of high-speed rail investment on the economy and environment in China using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The analysis is implemented in a dynamic recursive framework capturing long-run capital accumulation and labor market equilibrium. A national level impact was simulated through direct impact drivers including land use conversion, output expansion, cost reduction, productivity increase, transport demand substitution and induced demand. The results suggest that rail investment in China over the past decade has been a positive stimulus to the economy, while the effect on CO2 emissions generation has been large. Overall, the economic impacts of rail investment are achieved primarily through induced demand and output expansion, whereas the contribution from a reduction of rail transportation costs and rail productivity increases were modest. In addition, negligible negative impacts were found from land use for rail development and the substitution effect among other modes. Emissions reduction from substitution of rail for other modes was small and offset by output expansion due to lowered rail transport costs and induced demand.

(New York: Vintage) pp. 45--55

Over the past generation seaports have undergone a transformation from traditional cargo handling to logistical support centers and changed from bulk shipping and processing to high value-added management centers in an increasingly competitive global environment. Many have reorganized to become leaders of their regions economic development strategies. This paper reviews these changing roles and their impact on organizational issues. This organizational assessment is applied to the port of Kaohsiung and its envisioned role as a commercial hub and operations centre on the Pacific Rim. Issues such as split lines of responsibility, authority and jurisdiction across different levels of government are considered. Competing goals such as economic development, urban waterfront development, metropolitan urban structure, logistical integration, and infrastructure investment are discussed in this context.

Economic Structure and Regional Disparity in China: Beyond the Kuznets Transition

The literature on regional change in post-reform China suggests a consistent pattern of increasing regional disparity during 1990s. This paper explains disparity through the lens of industrial transition as reflected in the three major economic sectors, agriculture, manufacturing, and services from 1995 to 2004. Increased economic output in China has been accompanied by dramatic changes in employment structure at both the national and regional level. Changes at the provincial level have been driven by national trends and changes of industry mix as well as regional characteristics. The importance of industry mix and regional competitive advantage varies across sectors and has different impacts on employment and output. This analysis indicates that employment loss in agriculture in the western and central regions has not been made up by the increases in other sectors. The differential rate of transition in economic structure toward the secondary and tertiary sectors has contributed to the widening gap between the coastal areas and the other parts of the country. Our exploratory spatial analysis with regard to the extended shift-share components indicates significant spatial autocorrelation both at the sectoral and provincial level. The necessity of integrating spillover effects into any policy intervention is demonstrated. Then sensitivity analysis is carried out to examine how the selection of two spatial weight matrices will influence the decomposition results.

The entropies: Some roots of ambiguity

Abstract Entropy concepts have developed in four general contexts—thermodynamics, communication theory, statistical information theory and social and life sciences. These concepts have five distinct mathematical forms. Ambiguity and complexity in utilization of the concept has been heightened by this multi-faceted heritage. Effective utilization may be strengthened by a sharper articulation of entropy through combinations of literal, mathematical and graphical modes of expression. Geography and planning as user disciplines have important responsibilities in enhancing cross-disciplinary communication of this important adisciplinary concept. Implications of these arguments for the social sciences include the need for caution in drawing social analogies from the ambiguous entropy concepts of statistical mechanics; and an indication of the potential benefits of social science models based on the unambiguous entropic constructs of statistical information theory.

Innovation diffusion: A deterministic model of space-time integration with physical analog

Abstract This paper extends a fundamental temporal diffusion model to integrate space and time dimensions of the diffusion of innovation. The analogous developments in physical sciences are compared and it is demonstrated that the proposed model may be the first step in linking the concept of catalysts in physical science diffusion processes to the role of change agents in social science systems.