Tues., Sept. 6, 2022: AGI Seminar “The role that geography plays in regional economic growth: Income convergence of Chinese provinces and the effect of free trade agreements on the development of triborders areas.” (online) [finished]

We invite researchers who are engaged in research on Asia and hold AGI Seminars.

Your participation is more than welcome! In order to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, this seminar will be held online.
*Please refer to the following for details.

Date and Time

Tuesday, September 6, 2022 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
*A question-and-answer session is scheduled at the end of the presentation.

Participation Fee

Free

Language

English presentation and material(s)

Presenter

Dr. Felipe Santos-Marquez, Research Associate, Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden), Germany

Title

The role that geography plays in regional economic growth: Income convergence of Chinese provinces and the effect of free trade agreements on the development of triborders areas.

Abstract

In this talk, I would like to present the results of two projects I have worked on in the last two years. A commonality between both papers is the focus on regional economics, economic growth, and economic geography.
In the first paper, we study income per capita convergence across Chinese provinces over the 1998-2010 period. We report the systematic reduction of inter-regional disparities. Using a convergence accounting framework, we find that over 70% of the convergence in income can be explained by the reduction of disparities in the rate of technological progress. In comparison, the other 30% can be explained by the convergence of capital inputs. In addition, we propose a way to study the impact of spatial effects in the convergence process by using a spatial filter – the Getis filter. Utilizing this framework, we find that 3.5% of the overall convergence can be attributed to spatial dependence. These results highlight that accounting for the interaction of neighbouring regions is pivotal for understanding the factors that impact provincial income dynamics.
The second paper takes a worldwide view of the development of subnational regions that are adjacent to multiple countries. This paper analyses the effect of free trade agreements on the location of economic activity close to international borders. We exploit the variation of free trade agreements on the distribution of night light emissions at tri-border areas (also called tripoints, trijunctions, triple points), i.e. the exact locations where the borders of three countries touch. We run difference-in-difference estimations where we compare the bordering regions of two countries treated by a trade agreement versus the adjacent third country as control. These regions are defined as buffers from the triborder points. Our results show that regional trade agreements increase economic activity in regions near the international land frontiers. We also report that the positive effects decay for distances further away from the border. Moreover, running event study estimations, we show that the impact of trade agreements is only robust for the cities within those regions and not for the regions overall, as measured by light intensities. In addition, the parallel trends assumption appears only valid for the cities-within-buffer specification and not for the buffers specification.

To Participate

Please send an E-mail to office@agi.or.jp with your name, affiliation and phone number clearly stated.
(We will send you a Zoom link for participation via E-mail by Monday, September 5.)

Deadline for Participation Request

Your E-mail must be sent to us by the morning of Monday, September 5.

Leaflet

AGI SEMINAR ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 [in PDF Format]

TO PARTICIPATE ONLINE (REQUESTS FROM AGI)

You can either download the Zoom application in advance (1) or participate via a browser without downloading the Zoom application (2).
Please choose one of the above two methods.
*If you are using a Smartphone, please choose (1).

(1) TO PARTICIPATE BY DOWNLOADING THE ZOOM APPLICATION
① Please download an online distribution application “Zoom” (free of charge) onto your computer or Smartphone.
*Click Here for How to Download the Application

You can download the application onto your computer by clicking the 【ダウンロード】 button.

You can also download the application from these pages.
・For iPhones and iPads
» Download Zoom Application

・For Android phones
» Download Zoom Application

② We will send you a Zoom link to the E-mail address provided in your participation request E-mail by the day before the seminar.

③ Please click and open the Zoom link between 1:45 pm and 2:00 pm on Tuesday, September 6. ⇒ You will be asked to wait in a “Waiting Room.”

④ When it is time to start the seminar (2:00 pm), we will let all participants in at once.

⑤ A question-and-answer session is scheduled at the end of the presentation. If you would like to ask any questions, please either “raise your hand” or unmute your microphone and start talking. *You can also ask questions by sending chat messages.

(2) TO PARTICIPATE VIA A BROWSER WITHOUT DOWNLOADING THE ZOOM APPLICATION (ONLY FOR COMPUTERS)

① We will send you a Zoom link to the E-mail address provided in your participation request E-mail by the day before the seminar.

② Please click and open the Zoom link between 1:45 pm and 2:00 pm on Tuesday, September 6.

③ Please click 『ブラウザから参加』 at the bottom portion of your screen (if not displayed, please click 『ここをクリック』). ⇒ You will be asked to wait in a “Waiting Room.”

④ When it is time to start the seminar (2:00 pm), we will let all participants in at once.

⑤ A question-and-answer session is scheduled at the end of the presentation. If you would like to ask any questions, please either “raise your hand” or unmute your microphone and start talking. *You can also ask questions by sending chat messages.

【NOTE】

◇ Participants’ microphones will be turned on at the beginning. Please make sure to mute your microphone during the presentation. During a question-and-answer session scheduled at the end of the presentation, please unmute your microphone.
◇ If you would like to turn off your audio (microphone) and image (video), please click the microphone icon and video icon at the bottom left portion of your screen. The icons will be crossed by a red diagonal line.
◇ Depending on your computer or Wi-Fi signal strength, there could be a case where you will not be able to participate in the seminar or you will lose an internet connection in the middle of the seminar. However, we are unable to deal with those cases individually. Your understanding is greatly appreciated.

date：2022.08.25
Category：Seminars