Henri L.F. de Groot

• Prof. dr.
• Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

E-commerce has gained importance over the last years and the COVID-19 pandemic has further strengthened this development. With the increasing opportunities that novel transport technologies such as cargo drones offer, e-commerce is likely to even become more attractive in up-coming years. This paper therefore analyses the long-run effects of increa...

Adverse impacts of climate and environmental hazards are unevenly distributed between socioeconomic groups due to differences in exposure, vulnerability and resilience. This study examines the distribution of vulnerability and resilience to drought and salt intrusion impacts among rice farmers in the rural Mekong Delta in Vietnam. By defining both...

Adverse impacts of climate and environmental hazards are unevenly distributed between socioeconomic groups due to differences in exposure, vulnerability and resilience. This study examines the distribution of vulnerability and resilience to drought and salt intrusion impacts among rice farmers in the rural Mekong Deltain Vietnam. By defining both a...

Intensive agriculture is increasingly associated with environmental degradation that may jeopardise long-term environmental and economic sustainability. The high-dike system in the upper Mekong delta that has enabled intensive rice cultivation represents a prime example of these potential negative feedbacks. The lack of seasonal flooding and the as...

A large body of empirical literature considers the productive advantages of cities, or “agglomeration economies.” We present a meta‐analysis of this literature that draws on 6684 agglomeration elasticities from 294 studies spanning 54 countries and six decades. We find that elasticities are likely to lie in the range 0.015–0.039 and, like earlier r...

We consider whether external urban economic advantages (agglomeration economies) vary with time and space using detailed micro-data on 134 locations in New Zealand for the period 1976–2018. We find subtle temporal variation, with estimates of agglomeration economies peaking in 1991 and then falling by approximately 1 percentage point in the subsequ...

In consumer cities, the presence and location of immigrants impacts house prices through two channels, which both can be valued positively as well as negatively: (i) their presence and contribution to population diversity and (ii) the creation of immigrant-induced consumer amenities like those associated with ethnic restaurants in terms of both the...

This research aims to assess the broader impact of electric mobility in urban settlements, paying attention to both electrified ground and air transport. Considering electric cars as well as electric passenger drones, often referred to as UAM (urban air mobility), we use an urban spatial computable general equilibrium model to assess the welfare an...

Disaster microinsurance has been argued to enhance people’s resilience toward natural hazards. In developing countries, however, the uptake of this insurance scheme has been limited. This paper investigates the influence of the perception of disaster risks on the probability of local people participating in a hypothetical disaster microinsurance sc...

The equity risk premium is a crucial parameter in financial decision making. The body of literature on this topic suggests different equity risk premia, as there are significant spatial and temporal differences. We conduct a meta-analysis of the ex post equity risk premium. In that respect we systematically screen the literature and summarize the e...

Recent technological developments open up possibilities for introducing a vast number of novel mobility concepts in urban environments. One of these new concepts is urban air mobility (UAM). It makes use of passenger drones for on-demand transport in urban settings, promising high travel speeds for those willing and able to pay. This research aims...

This paper studies the determinants of technological catch-up considering spatial and sectoral aggregation of industries. We investigate how geographical and/or technological proximity to the technology leader impact regional employment growth. We model technological progress by means of a hierarchical process of catch-up to the technology leader....

Cultural heritage is a potentially important determinant of international tourism flows. Apart from being an enrichment for both individuals and communities and an opportunity for different cultures to meet, tourism also represents a significant industry for European economies. We empirically investigate the impact of the endowment of tangible cult...

Across all of Asia, urban road traffic is dominated by motorcycles. We analyze how urban form influences preferences for motorcycles usage, using a multinomial logistic regression model and data from a recent field study conducted in the metropolitan area of Yogyakarta in Indonesia. We find that urban form explains about 20% of the observed varianc...

This paper employs a unique set of micro-data covering almost one-third of the Dutch labor force, to estimate the heterogeneity of agglomeration externalities across education levels. This paper shows that there is substantial heterogeneity in the relationship between agglomeration and productivity of workers (proxied by their hourly wage) with dif...

This paper examines the dynamics of socio‐economic inequalities in Indonesia over the last four decades. We apply a club convergence test to provincial panel data on four socio‐economic indicators: per capita gross regional product, the Gini coefficient, the school enrolment rate, and the fertility rate. We find that there is no single equilibrium...

This paper focuses on the local economic growth impacts of a specific natural disaster, viz. the Yogyakarta earthquake in 2006 employing data at the sub-national level in two provinces in Java, Indonesia. Specifically, we are concerned with the heterogeneity in the response of the various economic sectors to the earthquake, the spatial economic spi...

The survival of firms under changes in the business environment caused by exogenous shocks can be explained using economic Darwinism. Exogenous shocks can cause ‘cleansing effects’. Shocks clean out unproductive firms so that available resources are allocated to the remaining more productive firms. However, shocks may also force out young firms tha...

We show that investments in public goods change the optimal land use in their vicinity, leading to additional welfare benefits. This occurs through two sorting mechanisms. First, availability of public goods leads to higher population densities. Second, population groups sort according to their preferences for public goods. We develop a structural...

This article adds to the empirical evidence on the impact of agglomeration externalities on regional growth along three main dimensions. On the basis of data on 259 Europe NUTS2 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) regions and 15 NACE (Nomenclature statistique des Activités économiques dans la Communauté Européenne) 1.1 2-digit indust...

Human migration is increasingly seen as a promising climate change adaptation and flood risk reduction strategy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how spatial differences in flood risk, due to differences in flood protection, reduce the mobility of vulnerable households through a credit constraint mechanism. Using an equilibrium model wit...

With more than 50 percent of the European population (EU-24) living in rural areas and a renewed focus on stimulating smart, sustainable and socially inclusive growth, Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) are an important instrument for economic, social and environmental policies. Evaluating the impact of rural development programmes is, however, co...

After a long period of suburbanisation, cities have been in vogue again since the 1980s. But why are people prepared to spend far more money on a small house in the city than on a large house in the countryside - and why doesn't this apply to all cities? This book shows that the appeal of the city in the 21st century is not only determined by the p...

This paper revisits the ongoing discussion on the importance of agglomeration externalities – specifically specialization, diversity and competition effects – that may contribute to innovation, productivity and urban employment growth. Previous meta-analyses suggested that the evidence on agglomeration externalities is strongly context-specific. Ex...

Agricultural land use in Europe has changed considerably in the last decades. However, our understanding of agricultural land use changes, especially changes in land use intensity, is limited because the evidence is fragmented. This paper presents a systematic review of case study evidence on manifestations and underlying drivers for agricultural l...

A good transport connection can increase regional differences. A new connection between the economic center and the periphery leads to a loss of jobs in the latter. At the same time periphery becomes an attractive location for living, especially for high educated.

This paper investigates the effect of culture on trade using measures of cultural distance based on various dimensions of national culture from Hofstede (Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values, 1980; Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations across nations, 2001). Previous...

In the organization of production, a distinction can be made between production through the market and through the hierarchy. Transaction costs are decisive for the choice between these two forms of organization. When the transaction costs through the market are higher than through the hierarchy, it is best to organize production within the firm. T...

House prices are routinely used for the valuation of local public goods. However, two selection issues play a role. First, higher house prices lead to higher population densities. Second, population groups may differ in their valuation of public goods and people will sort according to these preferences. Both processes lead to a more efficient use o...

We present a detailed analysis of energy intensity developments across 23 service sectors in 18 OECD countries over the period 1980–2005. We find that the shift towards a service economy has contributed to lower overall energy intensity levels in the OECD, but this contribution would have been considerably larger if the service sector had realized...

After the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, Northern Sumatra experienced three shocks: a negative shock from the tsunami itself and the Nias earthquake that followed in 2005; a positive shock from the massive allocation of recovery funds; and another positive shock from the peace deal between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement, also i...

This study investigates the short- and long-run impact on population dynamics of the major flood in the Netherlands in 1953. A dynamic difference-in-differences analysis reveals that the flood had an immediate negative impact on population growth, but limited long-term effects. In contrast, the resulting flood protection program (Deltaworks), had a...

This paper employs a unique set of micro-data covering almost one third of the Dutch labor force, to estimate the relationship between agglomeration externalities and the level of education. While the positive relationship between economic density and productivity and wages has long been established in the economic literature, less is known about t...

We investigate the impact of the Krakatau eruption in August 1883 on the spatial distribution of population across residencies in Java. The analysis is based on historical data of the indigenous population at residency level covering the period from 1880 to 1928. Based on our empirical analysis we conclude that the Krakatau eruption had no permanen...

As a developing country with high and quite stable economic growth, Indonesia is one of the greatest emission producers in the world. The aim of this paper is to study relationships among economic development, population and the CO2 emission which has the greatest share on GHGs and among economic development, population and CO2 emission intensity....

A two-country leader-follower model with a high-tech tradeables sector and a traditional non- tradeables sector is developed. The core of the model is an engine of endoge nous growth driven by intentional R&D in high-tech industries, and a capacity to imitate the leader in the follower country. The role of R&D investment both in the steady state an...

The potential welfare benefits from free movement of people are large. Especially in Europe, actual flows are lower than one would expect on the basis of economic differences between regions and countries. This paper empirically investigates the importance of cultural barriers in explaining the limited migration flows in Europe. We show that cultur...

A commonly expressed concern is that offshoring of jobs to less developed countries coupled with technological progress may lead to job and wage polarization in developed countries. We use matched firm worker data to assess the impact of globalization processes on labor market outcomes. Females, younger workers and foreign-born workers are more lik...

Endogenous growth models are built around the concept of a knowledge stock. This knowledge stock can also be interpreted as a localized stock that operates at the regional level, as is common in the regional innovation systems literature. We use data from the second, third and fourth Community Innovation Surveys (covering 1994–1996, 1998–2000 and 2...

This paper analyzes the impact of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 and the Nias earthquake in 2005 on population dynamic across regions in Aceh and North Sumatera. We find no evidence that the disasters affected the regularity of size-distribution of the regions. The estimates of a population growth model yield clear evidence that the disasters had...

This study analyses the relation between education and commuting behaviour of Dutch workers. Results show that, ceteris paribus, higher educated workers commute further, both in terms of distance and time. In addition, higher educated workers are more frequent users of public transport and of bicycles. Furthermore, we find that higher educated work...

This paper exploits micro firm level data to examine the impact of spatial clustering and links to foreign buyer networks on firm performance in the wood furniture industry in Central Java, Indonesia. The analysis is based on an annual manufacturing survey. We identify the impact of specialization of the cluster, diversification, and links to forei...

This paper explores the determinants of regional differences in interest rates based on a simple theoretical model of loan pricing. The model demonstrates how risks, costs, market concentration and scale economies jointly determine the bank's interest rates. Using recent data of the Indonesian local credit markets, we find that regional interest ra...

We empirically examine the heterogeneity in the effects of multiple dimensions of distance on trade across detailed product groups. Using finite mixture modeling on bilateral trade data at the 3-digit SITC level, we endogenously group product categories into an, a priori unknown, number of segments based on estimated coefficients of multiple dimens...

This paper makes use of a new dataset to investigate energy intensity developments in the Netherlands over the period 1987–2005, in comparison with 18 other OECD countries. A key feature of our analysis is that we combine this cross-country perspective with a high level of sector detail, covering 51 sectors.Particularly innovative is our evaluati...

This paper uses a new dataset derived from a consistent framework of national accounts to compute and evaluate energy intensity developments across 18 OECD countries and 50 sectors over the period 1970-2005. We find that across countries energy intensity levels tend to increase in a fairly wide range of Services subsectors, but decrease in most Man...

An appropriate analysis of the effects of globalization requires a careful analysis of the various ways in which different firms operate in international markets. Micro data at the level of individual firms and employees can enhance our empirical understanding of the relationships between internationalization, firms, jobs and employees. These micro...

Urban re-development projects generate various positive as well as negative spatial externalities to the existing population in a given area. This study aims to assess the order of magnitude of the expected net benefits for incumbent residents from a large-scale project in the southern part of Amsterdam (the Netherlands), which is planned to transf...

Reducing the emission of greenhouse gases to reduce climate change is high on the policy agenda. Discounted costs of reduction are estimated to be substantial. They depend on the employment of various flexibility mechanisms that affect these costs. One of these flexibility mechanisms is the so-called when-flexibility stressing the timing of policy...

In this paper, we study how regulators may improve upon the efficiency of their energy technology adoption programs by exploiting readily observable information to limit rent extraction by firms. Using panel data on 862 investment decisions in the Netherlands, we find that rent extraction is closely linked not only to technology characteristics, bu...

De Dominicis L., Arbia G. and De Groot H. L. F. Concentration of manufacturing and service sector activities in Italy: accounting for spatial dependence and firm size distribution, Regional Studies. Empirical analysis of the spatial distribution of economic activity on a discrete space is based on measures that suffer from a series of drawbacks. A...

This paper employs Vector Autoregression (VAR) models to measure the impact of monetary policy shocks on regional output in Indonesia. Having incorporated a possible structural break following the aftermath of the 1997-98 Asian Crisis, the impulse response functions derived from the estimated models reveal substantial cross-region variations in pol...

The impact of industrial sites on residential property values: a hedonic pricing analysis from the Netherlands, Regional Studies. Industrial sites cause several negative externalities. In order to quantify these negative effects, the impact of distance to industrial sites on residential property values is estimated. Data on houses sold in the Rands...

We investigate the impact of the recent global recession on European countries and regions. We first identify the heterogeneous impact of the global recession on individual European countries and regions. We then discuss three classes of explanations for spatial heterogeneity in the severity of the crisis: (i) the extent to which countries are inte...

Based on micro-data on individual workers for the period 2000-2005, we show that wage differentials in the Netherlands are small but present. A large part of these differentials can be attributed to individual characteristics of workers. Remaining effects are partially explained by variations in employment density, with an elasticity of about 3.8 p...

Finding proper policy instruments to promote productivity growth features prominently on the Lisbon agenda and is central in many national as well as European policy debates. In view of the increased mobility of high-skilled workers in Europe, ongoing globalization and increased interregional and international co-operation, location patterns of inn...

This article empirically investigates the contribution of different forms of diplomatic representation to the bilateral trade flows (both exports and imports) of a group of 63 countries. The authors report on the construction of a data set that covers 10,524 diplomatic representations. They use these representations as one of the explanatory variab...

Using detailed micro data on the entire wage distribution in the Netherlands, this paper examines trends in Dutch (real pre-tax) wage inequality between 2000 and 2008. For many years, the Netherlands has been considered an exception to the general trend of growing wage inequality that most OECD countries have experienced since the 1980s. This OECD...

This discussion paper resulted in a publication in 'Regional Studies' 45(5), 609-23. Industrial sites cause several negative externalities, such as traffic noise disturbance, congestion, and obstruction of view. In order to quantify the negative effects stemming from industrial sites, we estimate – using a hedonic pricing model – the impact of dist...

Discussion on the possibilities for and barriers to income convergence and catch-up growth is at the heart of the debate on European regional economic policy. This study presents an empirical analysis of the determinants of regional productivity growth in Europe, using the most recent Cambridge Econometrics regional database, EU KLEMS growth and pr...

This chapter addresses worldwide energy productivity developments over the period 1971– 2001 at the macroeconomic level as well as for the sectors Services, Industry and Agriculture. We outline the main historical trends in energy productivity dynamics across countries, as a way to further introducing the theme of this book. Next, we explore the ge...