ZIPF’S LAW APPEARANCE IN THE RUSSIAN CITIES

Svetlana RASTVORTSEVA

World Economy Chair – Belgorod State National Research University, Russia, http://www.bsu.edu.ru
SRastvortseva@gmail.com

Inna MANAEVA

World Economy Chair – Belgorod State National Research University, Russia, http://www.bsu.edu.ru
in.manaeva@yandex.ru

Abstract

The understanding of concentration processes about resources, population, enterprises in some regions and in the cities is very significant for economists and policy-makers. It’s caused by the worldwide urbanization trend and local trend of economic activity agglomeration that increase the regional development differentiation within the country. Issues of economic activity locations and space distribution are solved by scientists over the past two centuries. Recent works show the increasing interest of economists to the Zipf’s law testing in the regional system and the rank-size distribution of the cities. Research aims are to test the Zipf’s law in the Russian cities and to test the hypothesis that the Russian Zipf coefficients depends on the size of the geographical territory of the Federal District.Methodology. In the paper it’s used least square method for tasting the Zipf’s law in Russian cities in general and separately for the federal districts. There is 1,123 Russian cities panel (cities with over 1,000 people population in 2014).Results. The Zipf’s law is confirmed in the territory of Russia in general. According to the Federal Districts the Zipf coefficients range from -0.65 (Far Eastern Federal District) to -0.9 (the Urals and the North Caucasian Federal Districts). Equitability of cities hierarchy in the Ural and the North Caucasus Federal Districts dues to the fact that there are 139 cities located in the 1,789 thous. km2 in the Urals and 56 cities in the 170 thous. km2 in the Caucasus. In the Far East the city location is very disperse – 66 cities in the area of 6000 thous. km2 (Zipf coefficient – 0.65). Conclusions. Testing of the Zipf’s law for the Russian cities in general shows that it’s valid for the small (8,600 – 15,300 peoples) and large cities (66,700 – 331,000 peoples). For cities panel with population exceeds 100 thous. people. The Zipf’s law is not valid for cities of more than 1 million people. (exception – the city of St. Petersburg). The result of the study is the confirmation of the hypothesis that the Zipf coefficient depends on the size of the Federal District.

Keywords: location theories, the Zipf’s law, the city, the rank-size distribution, the cities of Russia

JEL classification: R12
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DOES HUMAN CAPITAL INVESTMENT MATTER FOR GROWTH? EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA DURING THE FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION ERA

Losina PURNASTUTI

Faculty of Economics
Yogyakarta State University Kampus Karangmalang Yogyakarta 55281 Indonesia
losina_purnastuti@uny.ac.id
(Corresponding author)

Bambang SUPRAYITNO

Faculty of Economics
Yogyakarta State University Kampus Karangmalang Yogyakarta 55281 Indonesia
bambang_s@uny.ac.id

SUGIHARSONO

Faculty of Economics
Yogyakarta State University Kampus Karangmalang Yogyakarta 55281 Indonesia
sugiharsono@uny.ac.id

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of regional government expenditure, workers’ education level, and government expenditure for health and education sector in economic growth by using secondary data published by National Bureau of Statistics Indonesia. Panel data estimation approach was adopted to analyze the data. The result of the study shows that education contributes significantly to the improvement of labor productivity. Other findings indicate that the population has positive impacts on various aspects of human development and labor productivity while the total area owned by the local goverment has no effect on both of the two aspects aforementioned. It implies that human resource is an essential component for economic growth and for human development itself.

Keywords: Human Capital Investment, Government Expenditure, Fiscal Decentralization.

JEL classification: H51, H52, H72, H75
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PLANNING SETTLEMENTS IN THE GREEK ISLANDS

Despina P. DIMELLI

School of Architecture, Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece
dimelli@arch.tuc.gr

Abstract
The reason for the current paper was the concern about the way spatial planning confronts the settlements in Greece. As spatial policies mainly focus in the urban centers and the problems that these present, the question that was placed was how planning of all spatial levels faces the settlements, which assemble an important percentage of population and also face problems as abandonment, accessibility difficulties, and many others. The current paper attempts initially a recording of the spatial, demographic and productive characteristics of the Islander Greek settlements. In the second phase it examines the tools for the Greek islander settlements Regional and Urban Planning with the use of case studies, in order to evaluate planning’s ability to solve the problems these areas face. Through the research it is concluded the need for the creation of a “Settlements observatory” that will record all natural and anthropogenic characteristics which can lead to the formulation of specialized policies, adjusted on the settlements dynamics and the trends of their future development. The paper concludes that a specialized approach based on the use of specialized indicators is necessary; in order to plan areal units that require specified policies.
Keywords: islander settlements, spatial planning, Greek settlements
JEL classification:
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