Month: June 2014

Mohammad Reza POURMOHAMMADI

Professor of Geography & Urban Planning Department, Geography Faculty, University of Tabriz, Tel: 0098-411-3348953. Fax: 0098-411-3348953.
Pourmohammadi@tabrizu.ac.ir.

Mojtaba VALIBEIGI

Ph.D. student of Geography & Urban Planning Department, Geography Faculty, University of Tabriz, Tel: 0098-411-3348953. Fax: 0098-411-3348953. Tel: 0989195288768
valibeigi@tabrizu.ac.ir. / mojtaba.valibeigi@gmail.com
(corresponding author)

Mir Sattar SADRMOUSAVI

Associate Professor of Geography & Urban Planning Department, Geography Faculty, University of Tabriz, Tel: 0098 – 411 – 3392297. Fax: 0098 -411-3356013
Email: ssadr@tabrizu.ac.ir

Abstract

Regional disparities are one of the main problems in developing countries and Iranian provinces suffer from such disparities. Balanced growth of all provinces of the country has been considered essential for sustainable development. By constructing Human Development Index (HDI) over the period 1996, 2006 and 2011 and four indicators included access to clean water, employment rate, economic participation and average urban income, the main purpose of this paper is to investigate the situation and tendencies in the field of quality of life in Iran based on comparison, convergence and investigates whether there exits convergence in human development indicators.
The results of this study reveal that, within the analyzed period, generally the order of provinces in terms of quality of life has not changed, but HDI, access to clean water and average income levels have been increased and the relative convergence with both in unconditional β-convergence and σ-convergence analyses has been occurred. Moreover, the results of this study imply that the convergence of economic indicators is most important issue and economic indicators than other indicators is more consistent.

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Elif Berna VAR

Landscape Architecture Department -Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey

Burcin YAZGI

Urban and Regional Planning Department – Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
yazgi@itu.edu.tr

Vedia DOKMECI

Urban and Regional Planning Department – Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract

This article investigates current age cohort effects on regional migration in Turkey and compares the results with the pattern for the period 1985-1990. The vast amount of migration from the economically backward east and southeast regions to the more developed regions in the west of the country has been continuing for the last half-century. Age cohort analysis of regional migration is given for the periods 1985-1990, 2007-2008 and 2010-2011. Comparison of the results for each period reveals that while migration propensity peaked between the ages of 25-29 for the 1985-1990 period, it peaked between the ages 20-24 during the 2007-2008 and 2010-2011 periods. This could be the result of increasing number of universities which attract younger migrants at the country level. In more recent periods, while the ratio of child migration decreased, the ratios for younger, working age, persons and those in later life increased. Moreover, while the in-migration ratios of the more developed regions increased, those of the less developed regions decreased. Thus, it is expected that inter-regional migration contributes to the transformation of urban structure and the resulting new settlement system will generate a new pattern of growth and interaction among the regions.
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Pródromos PRODROMÍDIS

Centre for Planning and Economic Research, and Athens University of Economics and Business KEPE, Amerikis 11, 10672 Athens, Greece.
Emails: pjprodr@kepe.gr, pjprodr@aueb.gr.
Tel. (+30) 210-3676412. Fax: (+30) 210-3630122 or 3611136.

Abstract
The paper attempts to empirically explain the vote shares received by political parties across municipalities in Greece during the national elections of 2000, in terms of demographic, educational, occupational and other factors under two territorial specifications: one based on the conventional sub-regional organization of the country, the other based on that spatial patterns of the residuals. It finds that by departing from the approach which relies on typical spatial dummies (a) the regression-fit improves considerably, and (b) a good number of spatial effects which might ordinarily be blurred within conventional partitions may be important and, at the very least, their distinct impact ought to be considered. The lesson is probably useful to readers interested in identifying through statistics, health, education, crime or other policy areas.
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