This paper investigates the effects of focus versus diversification on bank performance using data on Chinese banks during the 1996-2006 period. We construct a new measure, economies of diversification, and compare the results to those of the more conventional focus index, which is based on the sum of squares of shares in different products or regions. Diversification is captured in four dimens...

The consumer response to changing gasoline prices has long interested economists and policymakers, for it has important implications for the effects of gasoline taxation and vehicle energy efficiency policies. This study examines both the elasticity of driving with respect to changing gasoline prices and heterogeneity in this elasticity by geography, the fuel economy of the vehicle, and the age...

There are two independent strands of literature on the geographic distribution of economic activities. One is the new economic geography that emphasizes product diversity, and the other is probabilistic migration that stresses taste heterogeneity in residential location. This article incorporates these two characteristics into a single framework, and analyzes how they affect the number and stab...

The Tiebout hypothesis (residential choice depends solely on local public goods) is extensively applied to explain geographic segregation, and the related literature finds that residents are segregated according to their heterogeneous preferences for public goods. This paper further examines the heterogeneous preferences for private goods in a spatial economy without public goods. Specifically,...

In this paper we explore the relationship between the size of a country, the size of its cities, and the economic performance of the country. In order to do this we integrate three different literature, namely the literature on optimal country size, literature on historical processes of urbanisation and the performance of cities, and literature on the role of multinational firms in the global e...

We analyze the internal spatial wage and employment structures of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia, using regional data for 1996-2000. A new economic geography model predicts wage gradients and specialization patterns that are smoothly related to regions’ relative market access. As an alternative, we formulate a “Comecon hypothesis”, according to which wages and sector...

Community Effects on Elderly Health: Evidence from CHARLS National Baseline There is increasing interest in neighborhood or area effects on health and individual development. China, due to its vast regional variations in health infrastructure and geography and relative immobility of older residents, provides a rare opportunity to study such effects. Utilizing China Health and Retirement Longitu...

This paper investigates the impact of geography on technological diffusion via international trade and proposes to re-examine the contribution of Coe, Helpman and Hoffmaister to the knowledge spillovers literature. Using a gravitational model, we first confirm the negative effect of physical distance on imports. We also show that geographic proximity contributes to more technological diffusion ...

This paper shows bank mergers that enhance value upon announcement can be distinguished from those that do not create value. I classify mergers of banking firms according to activity and geographic similarity (focus) or dissimilarity (diversification), and examine the abnormal returns to each group as a result of the merger announcement. Mergers that focus both activity and geography enhance st...