A sound empirical and quantitative analysis on the relationship between different patterns of urban expansion and the environmental or social costs of mobility is rare, and the few studies available provide at best a qualitative discussion of these issues. Some recent tentative studies on the...

The widespread use of pesticides in agriculture provides a particularly complex pattern of multidimensionalnegative side-effects, ranging from food safety related effects to the deterioratian of farmland ecosystems.The assessment of the economic implications of such negative processes is fraught...

This paper addresses the timing of a location's historical transition from rural to urban activity. We test whether urbanization occurs sooner in places with higher agricultural potential and comparatively lower transport costs, using worldwide data that divide the earth's surface at half-degree...

In consumer cities, the presence and location of immigrants impacts house prices through two channels, which both can be valued positively as well as negatively: (i) their presence and contribution to population diversity and (ii) the creation of immigrant-induced consumer amenities like those...

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the impact of inequality on economic growth. Both theoretical and empirical approaches have produced ambiguous results on sign and size of this relationship. Although there is a considerable part of the literature that considers inequality...

In this paper we perform a meta-analysis on empirical estimates of the impact between investment and uncertainty. Since the outcomes of primary studies are largely incomparable with respect to the magnitude of the effect, our analysis focuses on the direction and statistical significance of the...

This paper introduces and surveys ecological-economic analysis ofbiodiversity. It seeks to identify the complex linkages betweeneconomic and ecological systems with a view to a solid exploration ofvaluation issues in biodiversity. Against this background the studyoffers a review of key...

The evidence on the implications of transport for regionaleconomic and political integration is mixed. This is not surprisingsince transport is one element of a complex web of factors thatdetermine the extent to which spatial areas become integrated.There are also good reasons to expect the...

In this paper, we investigate the impact on aggregate regional utility as a result of both exogenous growth and endogenous growth in a spatial system. We will first analyze the case of two closed regions, followed by the case of two open regions. The main instrument used in our approach to study...

The rapidly increasing dissemination of scientific results exhibits features of complex systems and brings also to light (seemingly) inconsistencies among research findings. At the same time, there is a fast growing interest in comparative studies and related research tools such as meta-analysis...