Lata Chatterjee

Impacts of growth and structural change on CO2 emissions of developing countries

Abstract Carbon dioxide emissions, the most significant greenhouse gas, are growing at more rapid rates in developing economies relative to advanced economies. This paper estimates the effects of the growth of GDP, changes in industrial structure, fuel mixes and energy efficiency on the carbon dioxide emissions of nine developing countries using a decomposition model. Policy implications for reducing emissions, in the light of the findings, are discussed.

Housing Consumption and Level of Development: A Cross-National Comparison

While housing issues in developing countries, after years of benign neglect, have become major items of public policy, the design and analysis of appropriate development plans are handicapped by the state of current knowledge of housing consumption patterns and their variations among countries and over time. This paper presents the notion that changes in housing consumption in a country reflect its level of development. Evidence has been found to support this hypothesis that income elasticities are low in early development, increase rapidly during middle levels of development, and begin to decline at very high levels of development.

The entrepreneurial city in the global marketplace

Contemporary globalisation differs from earlier versions in context, underlying processes and manifest forms. Activities of global corporations, aimed at economies of scale in knowledge, economies of scope in corporate networks and favourable factor prices, drive a globally organised production system. This is initiating worldwide urban economic competition. Global network corporations use cities and urban regions as organisational structures to maximise returns on capital. This paper highlights the rise and role of the entrepreneurial city with redefined concepts of urban public goods provision. It discusses the emergence of the American entrepreneurial city and the spatial restructuring of urban activities and land use, which increase efficiency but also widen inequality and polarisation.

New governance institutions in the entrepreneurial urban region

The ability of the entrepreneurial urban region to function and thrive in the contemporary economy depends on the acquisition and maintenance of new political and economic capacities and new institutions and practices, which will enable that urban region to be structurally competitive in the global economy. This urban dynamic competitiveness is socially produced by the joint entrepreneurial activities of economic, political and social actors, while each sector, having different motivations, resources, networks and activities, exploits their complementarities to create a competitive urban milieu. The central argument of this article is that this joint creation of urban competitiveness is made possible by new governance models, which build workable consensus or obtain consent in a context where many interests are in play and strategic change is critical. These ideas are illustrated from the recent experiences of American cities.

Technical change and metropolitan adjustments Some Policy and Analytical Implications

Abstract The objective of this paper is to highlight important elements of models of metropolitan evolution in developed countries and thus outline the emerging agenda of metropolitan modeling. The advent of the mature metropolis is analyzed in a historical context of technical change, structural adjustments, and rigidities in change management. Four classes of issues are addressed: (i) dynamic adjustment processes, (ii) distributional issues, (iii) links of the urban system to the nation, and (iv) the modeler-decision maker system.

Effective Targeting for Basic Shelter Provision

In the context of the inegalitarian distribution of income and political power in many developing countries, prudent planning of basic shelter provision requires a careful targeting of housing strategies for the poor. To support such targeting, the paper presents a housing affordability model that analyzes the dynamic relationships among income and income distribution, changes in family size, urbanization, housing, consumption, and cost of and access to credit. The resultant estimates of affordable housing by the poor shifts the polity focus to the appropriate means of supply. The model application in Nigeria highlights the importance of geographic aspects of effective targeting.

The Fashioning of Dynamic Competitive Advantage of Entrepreneurial Cities: Role of Social and Political Entrepreneurship

There has been a major change, over the last three decades, in the functions, policy mechanisms, and the spatial forms of many urban regions in the highly industrialized countries in North America and Europe. These transformations reflect these cities’ roles as key actors and sites of change in the contemporaneous process of globalization, and the constituent economic, social and spatial restructuring. The term “Entrepreneurial City” pertains to this emerging urban entity.

Public Construction in the United States: An Analysis of Expenditure Patterns

This paper analyses the patterns of public sector construction expenditure in the United States for the 1957–1985 period. Expenditure trends of six categories of public works are analysed at three regional scales. Demand and supply factors influencing capital expenditures are briefly interpreted.

Technical Change, Employment and Metropolitan Adjustment

A remarkable restructuring of metropolitan space is underway in the industrialised countries. After two decades of rapid overall growth and peripheral expansion, the metropolitan areas are undergoing a transformation usually described as the onset of maturity. The characteristics of maturity include reversal of spatial concentration of economic activities in metropolitan areas, with stagnation or decline in metropolitan population growth. The geographical restructuring of population and economic activity reflected deepseated changes in the broader socioeconomic context.

Housing requirements and national resources: Implications of the U.N. world model

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses housing requirements and national resources. A major dimension of the quality of life in urban areas to which the worlds population is increasingly gravitating is the housing environment. The urban areas of developing societies offer a range of housing options from spacious well-serviced homes accessible to a range of jobs and community services to inaccessible crowded slum dwellings. The conditions of housing vary widely among the developing countries. While the reasons are many and complex, the dominant factor governing the quality of housing is the income level of the populace. The United Nations World Model is a model of the world economy developed for the United Nations by a team headed by Professor Wassily Leontief to help member states assess the impacts of environmental issues and policies on international economic development.