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This paper extends a methodology proposed by Nissanov and Silber (2009) who decomposed the coefficient β used in convergence analysis into three components checking respectively whether there was σ-convergence, whether ‘pure mobility’ (upward or downward income mobility) was lower among the poor and what the extent of ‘residual mobility’ (the third component) was.

The present paper extends this analysis by applying it to the analysis of regional per capita income levels but also to that of within regions inequality and regional welfare levels. The empirical illustration uses Portuguese data on average earnings at the level of NUTS3.

This chapter is aimed at reflecting technologies as the key resources of modern regions, identifying the essence and modelling the digital inequality of Russian regions, as well as forming the methodological foundation for the consistent resolution of conflicts in the regional economy of Russia. Through the example of the regional economy of modern Russia, the method of the variation analysis is used for the analysis of differences between regions that are individually investigated in relation to the level of digitalization, and their regression dependence on the level of technological development is determined. As a result, it has been found that Russian regions are characterized by a number of conflicts due to their multi-aspect inequality; these include innovation conflicts, investment conflicts and quality of life conflicts. The abovementioned conflicts are mainly caused by differences in the provision of technological resources to regions (in their digitalization). The novelty and fundamental significance of this chapter consist in the clarification of the cause of spatial inequality through differences in the provision of technological resources to regions. The unique character of this chapter consists in justification of the technology factor of the emergence of inequality and conflicts of regions. This chapter proves that technological inequality exacerbates other aspects of inequality and conflicts of regions. Originality and practical relevance of this chapter consist in the evaluation of the prospects and development of recommendations for conflict management in Russian regions through overcoming differences in their technological support and accelerating the pace of their digitalization.

This chapter examines the experience of Russia's cities in the implementation of smart solutions. Previous theoretical and empirical studies cover a variety of dimensions, involved in the concept of a smart city, and practical issues concerning technologies, urban management, business models which improve urban residents' quality of life through digital technologies, artificial intellect under the conditions of creating appropriate infrastructure. In this chapter, we present the results of the analysis of some significant information about smart solutions deployed in Russian cities nowadays. We show how smart solutions get allocated among Russian cities and among different domains of this kind of solutions. Unlike most of other countries, smart solutions in Russia are less concentrated in such domains such as sustainable development or transport. Instead, a large number of relevant projects in Russia are concentrated in the field of informatization of urban life and energy efficiency. This feature is associated with budget centralization, the implementation of national programs by the Russian Federal Government. Consequently, in general, the Russian model of a smart city is less focused on demand, but to a greater extent it can be classified as supply-driven.

We examine the joint demand for components of a household’s diet diversity and its relationship with household and regional characteristics that embody diverse food access and utilization constraints within the framework of the dietary patterns of rice producers in Peru.

We use multivariate probit regression to account for the simultaneous nature of the choice of different dietary group components.

There are diverse food intake patterns for households, depending on their wealth, education, demographic structure, market access and geographic location, as well as past shocks. There are also several obesogenic foods that are complements to consumption, with milk being a strong substitute for some of them. Of particular concern is the high vulnerability of female-headed households to low consumption of micronutrient-rich foods as well as the high vulnerability of households with children to high consumption of beverages with added sugars. Climate shocks are also highly associated with poor diet quality.

Results show the important influence of trade on household nutrition and food security. They indicate that policy and program recommendations should focus on nutrition information (such as labeling requirements) and education so that consumers can make informed decisions. They also suggest that policy makers should focus on how to make healthy foods available during crises to prevent health issues after economic and climatic shocks.

Due to greater returns to high skill and desirable amenities, high-skilled workers are increasingly agglomerating in metropolitan areas and form path dependence. This chapter explores whether the land supply policy of China constraining big cities' urban construction land quota strengthens the spatial divergence of human capital. Using city-level land supply data, population census data, and land transaction micro data, we find that the higher the degree of a city's land supply lagging behind land demand, the greater the enlargement effect of the initial share of population with college degrees on the increase in share of population with college degrees. Further research reveals that the main mechanism causing this phenomenon is the rapidly rising housing prices hindering low-skill labor flows to big cities.

This paper assesses the effect of property titling on child labor. Our main contribution is to investigate the potential impact of property rights on child labor supply by analyzing household response regarding the child labor force to exogenous changes in property ownership status. The causal role of legal ownership is isolated by comparing the effect of land titling using data from a unique study in two geographically close and demographically similar communities in Osasco, a town of 654,000 people in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area. Survey data were collected from households in both communities before and after the granting of land titles, with neither type knowing ex ante whether it would receive land titles. The econometric estimates, applying the Difference-in-Difference (DD) methodology and propensity score matching, suggest that land titling decreases child labor.

Informatization of all human activities is reflected in areas of the Republic of Belarus economy. And although the concept of “smart” cities is not formulated as a standard or regulation for any city of Belarus, the main indicators of urban services and the quality of life indicate a high degree of territories development in the direction of automating the urban environment management, energy saving, and improving social services quality for the population. Due to high proportion of the population living in the cities of the Republic of Belarus the development and implementation of the smart city concept both for the city of Minsk and other cities will improve the quality of life of almost 80% population. All the prerequisites at the level of technology development and the availability of information resources and specialists, the smart city concept has already been created from the government bodies and the population point of view.

It is recognised that environmental air pollution is one of the global problems and is a common problem for both developing as well as developed countries. In the era of globalisation, it is the most important global environmental issue. In general, urban air quality is becoming vulnerable especially in the developing countries due to adopting various developmental schemes. Air pollution problem in Kolkata, capital city of West Bengal, is under serious for a long day. As per guidelines of World Health Organization, for residential areas, air pollution level in Kolkata is considerably higher than the standard enumerated. There are several types of air pollutants which are continuously exposing the air of Kolkata. West Bengal pollution control board (WBPCB) has been monitoring ambient air quality (AAQ) for the parameters viz. suspected particulate matters (SPM), respiratory particulate matters (RPM), sulphur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and lead (Pb) in Kolkata throughout the years. Present study has been designed to determine the vertical floor-wise air quality status of the city of Kolkata and the seasonal variation of the pollutants over the consecutive years from 2011 to 2017. It is demonstrated that the air pollution is the highest in the winter due to dry weather, second is festive season followed by winter due to heavy movement of vehicles and pedestrians for festival shoppings as well as pandel hoppings and then next is summer. But coming to the point of rainy season, this is the lowest due to wetted air or wind of monsoon. This chapter attempts to understand the long-run trend of air pollution as the periodical average value suggests.

This chapter does three things. First, it estimates regional gross domestic product (GDP) for three different geographical levels in Switzerland (97 micro regions, 16 labor market basins, and 3 large regions). Second, it analyzes the evolution of regional inequality relying on a heuristic model inspired by Williamson (1965), which features an initial growth impulse in one or several core regions and subsequent diffusion. Third, it uses index number theory to decompose regional inequality into three different effects: sectoral structure, productivity, and comparative advantage.

The results can be summarized as follows: As a consequence of the existence of multiple core regions, Swiss regional inequality has been comparatively low at higher geographical levels. Spatial diffusion of economic growth occurred across different parts of the country and within different labor market regions. This resulted in a bell-shaped evolution of regional inequality at the micro regional level and convergence at higher geographical levels. In early and in late stages of the development process, productivity differentials were the main drivers of inequality, whereas economic structure was determinant between 1888 and 1941. The poorest regions suffered from comparative disadvantage, that is, they were specialized in the vary sector (agriculture), where their relative productivity was comparatively lowest.

Airports and urban developments in their vicinity constitute a highly specialized type of agglomeration based on air connectivity that epitomizes the importance of mobility in the modern service economy. However, in a frictionless world of backyard capitalism and perfect competition, such agglomeration of civil aviation services would not have been necessary. Thus, concepts such as imperfect markets, path dependence, and cumulative causation may be alternatively used to explain the spatial aspects of airport developments. Focusing on “second-nature” concentration, the “new geographical economics” (NGE) literature offers a potential theoretical framework that organizes these concepts into a coherent economic framework. This chapter aims to highlight the unique relevance of the NGE approach in developing an economics-based understanding of the spatial distribution of airports. Drawing from the existing NGE knowledge-base, this conceptual chapter explains that the NGE approach can be adopted as a micro-foundation to show how the spatial aspects of airport development, including core-periphery dynamics of regional disparity and parity, can emerge from economic mechanisms. The chapter concludes with potential implications for airport economics and regional policy, along with the discussion of some of the main critiques of the theory.