2004
A., Fleischer, and Felsenstein D. 2004.
“Face-to-Face or Cyberspace? Choosing the Internet as an Intermediary in the Israeli Travel Market”.
Tourism Economics 10(3):345-359. Retrieved ().
Publisher's VersionAbstractExisting studies of the trend towards electronic provision of travel services tend to be highly bifurcated. They focus either on the supply-side characteristics of this change (new technologies and mediation platforms) or on the demand-side attributes, such as the socio-economic profile of the Internet user and attitudes towards electronic purchasing in the travel market. The latter approach, however, can lead to sample selectivity bias and misleading parameter estimates. It fails to recognize that actual Internet travel purchases are observable only for individuals who have made the prior decision to use the Internet as a market intermediary. This paper addresses this drawback by modelling the decision to purchase travel products on the Internet in a bivariate probit framework. The choice of travel service intermediary, travel agent (face-to-face) or Internet (cyberspace), is determined by the joint probabilities of general Internet purchasing and specific Internet travel purchasing. Using unique survey evidence of actual Internet transactions, the discrepancies between preferences for Internet travel purchasing and actual travel purchases are highlighted. The results suggest that demand for the latter is more closely related to previous Internet purchasing experience than to the socio-economic attributes of the purchaser.
J., Persky, Felsenstein D., and Carlson V. 2004.
Does 'Trickle-Down' Work? Economic Development Strategies and Job Chains in Local Labor Markets. Kalamazoo, MI: Upjohn Institute of Employment Research Retrieved ().
Publisher's VersionAbstract
These are basic questions that, because of difficulties in evaluating the effects of state and local economic incentives, are often left unanswered. This book, however, offers a solution to this problem. Persky, Felsenstein, and Carlson explore a new framework for evaluating state and local economic development efforts. They propose a method, referred to as the ""job-chains approach,"" that they say clarifies the potential justifications for economic development subsidies as well as the limitations surrounding these efforts. This innovative approach addresses not only the number of job vacancies created as a result of a subsidized business investment or expansion, but also the extent to which gains are achieved by the unemployed and the underemployed, whether skilled or unskilled.
Application of the authors' job-chains model leads to novel insights into local economic development evaluation and strategy. First, where standard employment multipliers focus exclusively on horizontal multipliers—increasing demand for locally produced products and services—the job-chains model identifies the existence of vertical multipliers, or links that work through job vacancies created by job changers. Second, using the job-chains model allows the authors to develop a technique for evaluating the welfare value of employment creation. The mechanics of job chains result in this value spreading more broadly across the local population than the original new jobs that created the chains. And third, the job chains perspective affords new insights into labor market dynamics by introducing individual preferences and behavioral probabilities into job choice.
J., Persky, and Felsenstein D. 2004.
“Evaluating the Welfare Outcomes of Local Economic Development: A Job Chains Approach”. Pp. 130-144 in
Reese L. and Fasenfest D. (eds), Critical Perspectives in Local Economic Development. Detroit MI: Wayne State University Press.
2002
D., Felsenstein, and Fleischer A. 2002.
“Small-Scale Entrepreneurship and Access to Capital in Peripheral Locations: An Empirical Analysis”.
Growth and Change 33(2):196-215. Retrieved ().
Publisher's VersionAbstractThis paper presents an analysis of a public assistance program for small–scale entrepreneurship in peripheral areas. Public assistance compensates for market inefficiencies where the decision rules of financial institutions discriminate against otherwise viable small firms in capital markets. Lending institutions perceive high risk in providing debt capital when little information is present. Using empirical data from Israel, the determinants of this risk are estimated and the role of location in creating this information asymmetry is stressed. These results empirically establish that (1) location matters in determining the risk profile of the firm, (2) locationally targeted programs can reduce the information asymmetries that make peripheral firms unattractive to lenders, and (3) these programs can also generate positive welfare effects. Finally, there is speculation on the potential role of ICT (information and communications technology) in increasing the visibility of small firms in remote locations and creating a more symmetrical flow of information.
D., Felsenstein . 2002.
“Do High Technology Agglomerations Encourage Urban Sprawl?”.
Annals of Regional Science 36(4):663-682. Retrieved ().
Publisher's VersionAbstractThis paper looks at the impact of high technology employment concentrations on urban sprawl. A methodology for translating spatial employment patterns, into place of residence patterns, is presented. On this basis, the consumption of land at the urban fringe due to both residential and non-residential uses, is estimated. The method is tested empirically using data relating to the two main outer suburban agglomerations of high technology activity in the Chicago metropolitan area. Two counter-factual situations are simulated. The first relates to a spatial counter-factual whereby the high tech concentrations develop in the city of Chicago or within the inner suburbs. The second presents an industry counter-factual that estimates the land consumption impacts arising from the development of an alternative industrial concentration in the same location. The results of the actual and hypothetical cases are compared. They point to a considerable saving in acreage in all alternative scenarios. Some policy implications are highlighted.
A., Fleischer, and Felsenstein D. 2002.
“Cost-Benefit Analysis Using Economic Surpluses: A Case Study of a Televised Event”.
Journal of Cultural Economics 26(2):139-156. Retrieved ().
Publisher's VersionAbstractEconomic impact studies based on short-run spending injections and multipliers lack conceptual ties to measures of economic surplus, fail to capture intangible benefits and generally fail to measure costs. In this case study of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) held in Israel in 1999, national benefits from the government-financed televising of the ESC are measured as producer surplus (approximated by private sector incremental profits), consumer surplus (measured as the incremental willingness to pay for an event staged at home) and government surplus (linked to national implicit benefits in the form of promotional advertising cost savings). The opportunity costs of diverting resources to this particular televised event are expressly included as an offset to these gross surplus benefits. Despite the conservative approach, the results show moderate social justification for public support of this high profile televised spectacle and suggest that a cost-benefit approach to cultural events can have wider applications.
D., Felsenstein, Schamp E., and Shachar A. 2002.
Emerging Nodes in the Global Economy: Frankfurt and Tel Aviv Compared. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers Retrieved ().
Publisher's VersionAbstractCities form one of the principal arenas in which globalization processes are manifest. Much of the interest in the urban outcomes of globalization is focused on a limited number of iconic 'global' or 'world' cities. Most places however will never attain that status. They are more likely to play limited and specialized roles in a world economy increasingly dominated by flows. Emerging Nodes in a Global Network looks at the temporal and volatile ways in which two such cities, Frankfurt and Tel Aviv, engage the global economy. The central thesis of the book contends that the current round of globalization is characterized by places selectively functioning as nodes within global networks. Drawing on a combination of qualitative and quantitative empirical studies of leading sectors in Frankfurt and Tel Aviv (financial and business services, high technology, air transportation, tourism and cultural industries), the process of network formation is systematically analyzed and the role of national and regional policy is highlighted.
Audience: This book will be of major interest to academics, researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the areas of urban and economic geography, public policy and economic development. It also provides valuable material for government officials and regional and national agencies involved in metropolitan planning and development.
D., Felsenstein, and Ergas Y. 2002.
“Tel Aviv as a Global High Tech ‘Hot Spot’: Does Location Really Matter?”. Pp. 109-130 in
Felsenstein D., Schamp E. and Shachar A. (2002) (eds), Emerging Nodes in the Global Economy: Frankfurt and Tel Aviv Compared. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers Retrieved ().
Publisher's VersionAbstractOne of the most salient features of technological development and progress is its tendency to agglomeration in space. Popular accounts glorify the emergence of these new global high tech ‘hot-spots’ (Business Week, 1998; Newsweek, 1998) and academic studies debate their uniqueness (Bania, Eberts and Fogarty, 1993; Castells and Hall, 1994, Pouder and St. John, 1996). However, one feature that seems to have been over-looked relates to the extent to which these agglomerations are concretely linked into their regional and national economies. If they act as integral components in their regional contexts, then we would expect some form of unique linkages to exist between them and their environs, linkages which could not exist if the concentration was located elsewhere. On the other hand, if they function purely as nodes in global networks, then the local context within which they perform will act purely as a back-drop. In this kind of abstract environment, little uniqueness is related to a specific location. The external economies of the agglomeration could have developed in similar fashion somewhere else. As Krugman notes with respect to the Los Angeles economy:
(the people of L.A.) are there because of each other: if one could uproot the whole city and move it 500 miles, the economic base would hardly be affected (Krugman 1996, p. 209).
D., Felsenstein, and Ergas Y. 2002.
“Investing in an Emerging Node: Foreign-Owned Companies in the Tel Aviv Economy”. Pp. 57-80 in
Felsenstein D., Schamp E. and Shachar A. (2002) (eds), Emerging Nodes in the Global Economy: Frankfurt and Tel Aviv Compared. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers Retrieved ().
Publisher's VersionAbstractThis chapter investigates Israel’s role as an `emerging node’ in the global economy through the prism of foreign direct investment (FDI). Empirically, we investigate the probability that a foreign-owned firm will locate in Tel Aviv. Foreign ownership is taken here as representing one facet of globalization. While we are aware that globalization processes encompass much more than the presence of foreign investors in the domestic economy and should also include some investigation of Israeli firms operating abroad, this topic will be touched on, inter-alia, through the analysis of patterns of FDI. As will be noted, much of this latter process is bound up with FDI in that many Israeli, technologically advanced, firms that try to break into global markets do so through by being incorporated or traded abroad (see chapter 6 and also Haaretz, 2000; Red Herring, 2000). A presence abroad is therefore linked to some form of foreign control over local firms and thus the two facets of globalization are inter-linked.
D., Felsenstein, and Barkai H. 2002.
“Globalization Trends in the Cultural Industries of tel Aviv”. Pp. 237-256 in
Felsenstein D., Schamp E. and Shachar A. (2002) (eds), Emerging Nodes in the Global Economy: Frankfurt and Tel Aviv Compared. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers Retrieved ().
Publisher's VersionAbstractThis study focuses on globalization trends in the cultural industries of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is well known that global centers are often cultural service centers as well. London, New York, Paris and Moscow are all economic hubs in the global system but are also cultural centers. The centrality of a cultural node can be measured (like the centrality of any node in a system) through observing the flows into and out of that center (see above Chapters 1 and 6). The identification of flows gives a more dynamic view of the relations between nodes than do static rankings (Beaverstock et al., 2000). In addition, attribute-based characterizations are particularly likely to under-identify ‘emerging’ nodes and the activities that take place within them. As such, a flows-based approach seems more appropriate for yielding insights into the way emerging nodes attempt to break into global networks using cultural activity as a vehicle of entry.
A., Shachar, and Felsenstein D. 2002.
“Globalization Processes and their Impact on the Structure of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area”. Pp. 35-56 in
Felsenstein D., Schamp E. and Shachar A. (2002) (eds), Emerging Nodes in the Global Economy: Frankfurt and Tel Aviv Compared. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers Retrieved ().
Publisher's VersionAbstractThe chapter deals with processes of change in the functional structure of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area (TAMA) in the wake of economic globalization processes of the 1980s and 1990s. Of all the components making up the spatial organization of the TAMA, the chapter focuses on the development of two Central Business Districts (CBD) in metropolitan Tel Aviv: the traditional central city business arena and a new emerging center. Rather than heralding the formation of a polycentric urban structure, the new Tel Aviv CBD represents a real-estate led response at generating a new center of gravity for economic activity in Tel Aviv. The new center therefore competes vigorously with the established center. A further unique feature of the developing metropolitan structure is the ex nihilo nature of the new development. Instead of following the well-known pattern of incremental CBD expansion via new building at the margins of the established center, the new Tel Aviv business district represents an attempt at re-directing growth to a new location altogether.
2001
D., Felsenstein, and Freeman D. 2001.
“Estimating the Impacts of Cross-Border Competition: The Case of Gambling in Israel and Egypt”.
Tourism Management 22(5):511-521. Retrieved ().
Publisher's VersionAbstractThis paper presents an empirical estimation of crossborder competition in the casino gambling sector. Informed by the ‘prisoners dilemma’ hypothesis, the paper proceeds to examine various competitive situations likely to arise with the introduction of casino gambling at two tourist locations on opposite sides of the Israeli–Egyptian border. Numerical estimations of the outcomes of three different situations are presented and the impact analysis method is described. The results point to small positive impacts and the volatility of this form of tourism development. The implications of the results point to the limited role of casino gambling in tourism development and the weighty monetary impact of social costs.
D., Felsenstein, McQuaid R., McCann P., and Shefer D. 2001.
Public Investment and Regional Economic Development. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Retrieved ().
Publisher's VersionAbstractThe relationship between public investment and regional econimic development is of perennial interest. It is particularly topical now as issues of infrastructre and innovation are high on policy agendas in may countries. Public investment is often viewed as possible method for 'jump-starting' lagging regional economics and also as a requirement for the continued development of more prosperous regions. Public investment and Regional Economic Development provides systematic analysis of the complex relationship betweem public investment and regional economic development.
The authors offer new insights into the key issues of regional growth, and present a broad variety of perspectives ranging from transport and housing infrastructure through to human capital and innovation.
With contributions from leading regional scientists, and each themed section of the book prefaced with an editorial introduction to ensure coherence, this illumination book is sure to offer policymakers new research insights in key issues of regional growth. Academics and researchers of urban and regional planning, geography and economic development will also find the book of great interest.
D., Felsenstein, and Taylor M. 2001.
Promoting Local Growth: Process, Practice and Policy. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Retrieved ().
Publisher's VersionAbstractAs globalisation increases, much of the economic growth is found at local and regional levels. This monograph features a collection of papers by an international selection of writers which examine the factors promoting this sub-national economic growth. The collection focuses on the new industries that drive this growth, how policy is implemented to facilitate it, and the new forms of governance emerging as a means of regulating this economic activity. Issues considered include: the role of these new industries; income, employment, job creation and training; relationships between global and local forces; and the importance of sub-national governance
D., Felsenstein . 2001.
“National and Regional Economic Impacts of the Silicon Valley”. in
idgoli H. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Information Systems. San Diego CA: Academic Press Retrieved ().
Publisher's Version J., Persky, and Felsenstein D. 2001.
“A ‘Job Chains’ Model for Assessing Employment Creation in Local Labor Markets”. Pp. 173-190 in
Felsenstein D., McQuaid R., McCann P. and Shefer D. (2001) (eds), Public Investment and Regional Economic Development. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Retrieved ().
Publisher's Version 
