Department of Land Economyhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/2217902024-03-28T21:23:00Z2024-03-28T21:23:00Z2871From Relatedness to Complexity in Regional Industrial EvolutionQiu, Yiwenhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3659782024-03-21T01:48:49Zdc.title: From Relatedness to Complexity in Regional Industrial Evolution
dc.contributor.author: Qiu, Yiwen
dc.description.abstract: If division is the starting point to understand regional industrial structure, complexity may be a stage in its evolutionary trajectory. ‘Regional’ emphasises the geographical context for economic activities, while ‘industrial’ is defined as a meso level compared with a micro firm level or a macro aggregate level. ‘Complexity’ provides a quality measure of regional industrial structure, while ‘evolution’ stands for a dynamic dimension to view ups and downs. The goal is to understand the role of complexity in economic performance within an evolutionary framework. An underlying mechanism through which complexity matters is a path-dependent evolutionary trajectory underpinned by relatedness. The Chinese case is used for the empirical work. Three studies are intended to shed light on different aspects of this topic: (i) multiplicity of mechanisms for evolution, (ii) the role of complexity in times of crisis, and (iii) the role of relatedness in relation to local market conditions.
The first study explores how productivity is associated with sources of regional industrial path development. A conceptual framework for the heterogeneity of path development in a qualitative sense is transformed to a quantitative one to empirically test the existence of sources of path development and their association with productivity. The second study turns its attention to the economic shock with an attempt to explore the patterns, mechanisms, and necessities of regional resilience through a ‘complexity’ lens. A difference-in-difference framework is adopted to examine how the global financial crisis influenced economic growth in Chinese cities differently depending on their complexity. The third study investigates the extent to which regional industrial relatedness accounts for spatial disparities in state-granted land prices in China and the relevance of local market-orientedness for the role of relatedness. A co-occurrence measure of relatedness is used, whereas local market-orientedness is captured as a city’s innovation and entrepreneurship.
The Effect of Construction Operations on Interests in LandSawtell, Davidhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3652832024-03-06T01:44:20Zdc.title: The Effect of Construction Operations on Interests in Land
dc.contributor.author: Sawtell, David
dc.description.abstract: As construction materials are fixed to land or the structure of an existing building, they lose their identity as personal property and become part of the land itself. This basic proposition threatens to elevate the interest of the ultimate owner of the land, the freeholder, above the proprietors of temporally shorter estates in land, as the freeholder will ultimately stand to benefit from the works. English law has therefore developed a series of doctrinal rules in order to balance the different interests of freeholders, leaseholders, those with a security interest in the land, and the interests of participants in the construction project itself. Despite its doctrinal and practical significance, however, there is no unitary academic study analysing how construction operations affect different legal interests in the land. The thesis identifies the extent to which English law has a doctrinal framework that is consistent, with an identifiable doctrinal rationale, and formally certain and ascertainable, when it sets the balance between different interests in construction operations and legal interests in the land. It first considers the effect on interests in real property at the point of physical affixation of materials to the land. It then considers the effect of transfers of value on interests in land both in a contractual and extra-contractual framework. It finally looks at the impact on legal interests in occupation in the post-construction phase. The thesis concludes that English land law has arrived at a number of balances between the different interests in the land comprising the site which are capable of being formally ascertained and which have, for the most part, an identifiable rationale. There are, however, considerable doctrinal tensions between freehold and leasehold interests in the occupation phase of a building which require re-examination.
Evaluating subsidy programmes for ecological conservation: insights from quasi-experimental and experimental evidenceLiu, Qihttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3633532024-01-17T01:43:19Zdc.title: Evaluating subsidy programmes for ecological conservation: insights from quasi-experimental and experimental evidence
dc.contributor.author: Liu, Qi
dc.description.abstract: Given the increasing global concern surrounding ecological conservation, primarily attributed to significant biodiversity declines, the importance of protecting natural ecosystems and endangered species protection has become increasingly evident. This is crucial for ensuring regional ecological security and sustainable development. Due to the intricate relationship between farmers’ activities and their surrounding environment, they emerge as key stakeholders and implementers in long-term ecological conservation achievements. The engagement of rural villagers and farmers is essential in achieving ecological conservation and environmental protection goals.
This thesis confronts a primary challenge in ecological conservation: the insufficient long-term impact valuation of ecosystem services, especially those influenced by farmers. China has spearheaded many significant initiatives in this direction, with its forest conservation policies standing out as a paradigm in advanced conservation efforts. In the first Chapter, I estimate the environmental effectiveness of Natural Forest Protection Program, one of the world’s most influential conservation programs due to its substantial investment magnitude and extensive geographical coverage. Using the spatial Regression discontinuity approach, I address both observed and unobserved heterogeneity in estimating the impact of the NFPP on forest cover. Further, the NFPP includes different provisions across property right regimes; therefore, I empirically test whether the state property regime (SOFEs) outperforms the private property regime (village forests) under the NFPP, which provides highly relevant empirical evidence for the debate surrounding the property right reform of China’s state-owned forests and natural resource governance in developing countries.
Subsequent chapters address the challenges in current conservation efforts, focusing on Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) as an emerging policy tool for incentivizing environmental service provision. Despite some biodiversity gains, current conservation initiatives have occasionally fallen short in curbing ecological degradation effectively. One inherent characteristic of PES schemes lies in its payment structure. There is a growing emphasis on ‘Outcome-Based Payments’ (also known as results-based schemes) within PES schemes due to their potential for cost-effectiveness and enhanced environmental efficiency. In this Chapter, I examine farmers’ preferences towards participating in an outcome-based tree planting scheme through a choice experiment conducted in Yunnan, China. I incorporate uncertainty affecting environmental outcomes, which affects farmers’ payments, into the choice experiment design. Moreover, I introduce a measure of farmers’ risk perceptions using real-money lottery games in the field, and then investigate its influence on participation in outcome-based PES programs and the associated minimum willingness to accept (WTA) estimates. In all, I want to investigate the role of uncertainty and risk perceptions in shaping farmers’ decision-making processes in outcome-based PES.
Furthermore, the integration of an auction mechanism within the PES, aimed at optimizing the allocation of conservation contracts, has the potential to enable cost-effective delivery of environmental services and goods. Additionally, enhancing spatial coordination in farmers’ participations can improve environmental outcomes for a range of important environmental targets, including species conservation, nutrient pollution reduction and habitat restoration. In the third chapter, I investigate a spatially coordinated auction mechanism for allocating agri- environmental contracts in China. This mechanism incentivizes farmers to change their agricultural practices for environmental benefits. This chapter examines the effectiveness of introducing agglomeration bonuses and joint bidding mechanisms to improve auction performance. Agglomeration Bonus (AB) payments are awarded to neighboring farmers who, although bidding individually, receive contracts simultaneously. The joint bidding (JB) mechanism enables collaborative bids with additional rewards for successful joint bids. The empirical study presented in the third chapter involved 432 Chinese farmers, who were randomly assigned to one of four different treatment groups in a comprehensive two-by-two factorial experimental design, aimed at determining the efficacy of these mechanisms.
Analysis of Environmental Treaty Design: A Data Science ApproachKunz, Martinahttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3625452023-12-22T14:45:57Zdc.title: Analysis of Environmental Treaty Design: A Data Science Approach
dc.contributor.author: Kunz, Martina
dc.description.abstract: There are hundreds if not thousands of international agreements governing all sorts of environmental problems, from endangered species and pollution to stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change. Analysing and describing the provisions of all these treaties using the traditional `reading and writing' approach has become all but impossible. The main proposals for solving this epistemic challenge involve either time-consuming manual approaches to building datasets, or use statistical natural language processing (NLP) for a different kind of content analysis. This thesis proposes an intermediate approach, leveraging rule-based NLP for dataset construction and employing statistics and machine learning only for downstream analysis. Traditional legal research can thus be supported and complemented while taking advantage of data science and automation. The approach is developed with a set of about 120 open multilateral environmental agreements and about 50 treaty design variables. Regular expression pattern matching is found to be well suited for accurate and precise extraction of information from common treaty provisions such as those on entry into force, amendment, supplementary agreements, treaty organs, withdrawal, termination and dispute settlement. Implementation-related provisions, including national reporting, international verification of compliance, treaty progress review, non-compliance procedures and sanctions are more difficult to capture and compare across treaties, but this difficulty itself is of interest for the analysis of treaty design. The variables, their distribution and associations are described and the speed of entry into force is predicted using various techniques including linear regression and neural networks.
Regarding the larger epistemic challenge, the scalability of the approach is assessed and limitations of existing treaty databases and research practices are identified. Drawing from achievements of the bioinformatics and linked open data communities, I argue that a collaborative, incrementally expanding database, or findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) datasets would make the approach scalable. This relies on a standardised vocabulary or formal ontology for data integration. Accordingly, the thesis builds a proof-of-concept Public International Law Ontology and an NLP pipeline to populate the ontology with data gathered from treaty texts and participation records. Output formats and interfaces are designed for wide accessibility, without requiring programming skills. All software and data accompanying this thesis are available under a free and open source licence.
Examining the Dynamics of Urban Form, Flow, and Accessibility Using Geo-Computational Methods: A Case Study of DelhiMarwal, Aviralhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3619292023-12-22T14:59:13Zdc.title: Examining the Dynamics of Urban Form, Flow, and Accessibility Using Geo-Computational Methods: A Case Study of Delhi
dc.contributor.author: Marwal, Aviral
dc.description.abstract: The adoration for cities is widespread across the globe. However, as urbanization escalates in the cities of the global south, concerns regarding unsustainable living have become increasingly prominent. Consequently, there is a pressing need to delve deeper into comprehending the essence of cities and their mechanisms. While understanding cities in terms of their physical configurations and the patterns of human spatial interaction has been a subject of multidisciplinary research over the past few centuries, significant advancements in the field of urban science have emerged in the last three decades. Complexity science and geo-computational models have enabled the study of cities as dynamic entities using a bottom-up approach.
This thesis constructs a conceptual framework encompassing urban form, flow, and human behaviour, which is then applied to the city of Delhi to investigate critical urban phenomena. Specifically, it examines commuting behaviour, the spatial distribution of services, typologies of built-up forms, residential location choice, and built-up expansion. In this endeavour, the study aims to provide insights into pivotal questions within urban science. These include understanding why individuals travel longer distances to their workplaces and the factors that influence their choice of travel mode. Additionally, it investigates the spatial distribution of various services throughout the city for different socio-economic neighbourhoods. The impact of urbanization on unsustainable built-up forms is also explored, along with the relationship between density patterns, and city affordability. Moreover, the study explores how urban planning can be made more efficient by incorporating the decision-making processes of planners into simulation models.
To undertake this research, diverse and novel datasets, including primary and secondary sources, were utilized for the city of Delhi. These encompassed field survey data on commuting behaviour; a spatial database containing population, income, and caste information for all residential locations in Delhi; street map data; and land satellite imageries. The study also employed various machine learning methods and spatial-statistical techniques, such as geographically weighted regression, k-means clustering, SHAP method, agent-based model, and neural network model.
The empirical findings presented in the different chapters of this thesis demonstrate that in Delhi, both urban form and flow are interconnected and influenced by human behaviour. The spatial location of households and neighbourhoods within the city plays a significant role, as does the socioeconomic makeup of these areas, in determining commuting behaviour and the spatial distribution of services. From an urban planning perspective, the city exhibits spatial heterogeneity in neighbourhood design, with the majority of neighbourhoods characterized by unsustainable built-up forms. Consequently, monitoring future built-up expansion should be a priority for Delhi's planners. Using an agent-based and neural network model, this study constructs a prioritised growth model that has the potential to showcase how planning interventions can influence future spatial growth and built-up expansion within the city.
Based on the findings of this study, we recommend that future planning interventions in Delhi consider the enhancement of accessibility for low-income groups alongside environmental sustainability.
Reaching Net Zero: Three Essays on Energy Conservation in Commercial Real EstateAtkinson, Yanahttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3615412023-12-22T14:40:52Zdc.title: Reaching Net Zero: Three Essays on Energy Conservation in Commercial Real Estate
dc.contributor.author: Atkinson, Yana
dc.description.abstract: Today, the building sector is one of the largest contributors to global emissions, making it a key priority in the race towards net zero. The climate agenda is also beginning to play a major role in driving the value of commercial assets, incentivising businesses that occupy, manage and own real
estate to engage in energy conservation. In three papers, this work assesses the effectiveness of a suite
of voluntary and regulatory strategies in steering the market towards increased energy efficiency and
lower energy demand. The first article explores the effect of the UK’s Minimum Energy Efficiency
Standards (MEES) regulation on rental premiums of the London office market. The findings suggest that this policy has led to a significant decline in the rental value of office spaces directly affected by the regulation, as well as units with an energy performance certificate band closest to the compliance threshold. The second article examines the impact of energy management and productivity enhancing measures embedded in a green certification label that assesses sustainable operations and maintenance practices of existing buildings. Using data on four major US markets, the results indicate
that while there are energy management features that decrease energy consumption, savings emerging from these measures are more than offset by certain indoor environment features. The third paper analyses the effectiveness of sub-metering in eradicating energy losses due to the split incentive problem by applying data on office buildings from seven US markets. The findings suggest that this feedback technology reduces inefficiencies arising from usage split incentives, while pointing to adverse energy consumption outcomes in contractual agreements where the tenant is responsible for energy payments. Nevertheless, a reduction in the variability of energy consumption and an increase in the rent premium are uncovered for this type of lease arrangement, suggesting that sub-metering may offer significant risk-reduction benefits in the eyes of the tenant.
Credit Default Risk and Market Risk Premium of Chinese Corporate BondsZhang, Sixiahttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3577792023-12-22T14:19:17Zdc.title: Credit Default Risk and Market Risk Premium of Chinese Corporate Bonds
dc.contributor.author: Zhang, Sixia
dc.description.abstract: This thesis presents a comprehensive analysis of credit risk in China's corporate bond market. Utilising data on all Chinese corporate bonds issued by publicly traded companies before September 2020 and actual default cases, the research investigates credit risk from the perspectives of forecasting corporate bond defaults, measuring credit default risk, measuring credit default risk, and exploring the determinants of bond risk premiums at the individual level and excess bond premium at the market level.
To measure credit default risk and forecast corporate bond defaults in China, this research applies three types of models: accounting-based Altman models, the Merton distance-to-default (DD) model, and the default hazard model. Our findings confirm the robustness of three original Altman models in predicting Chinese corporate bond defaults within a one-year horizon. Re-estimating and revising these models significantly enhance predictive power and extend the forecasting horizon to three years. The three Altman models are robust across estimation methods, with the Z'-score model being most effective in China's bond market. Additionally, our results show the DD as the solution of the Merton model is not a sufficient statistic for measuring default risk, and its discriminatory power is sensitive to the solution's derivation approach. The structural form of the Merton model offers more information for default forecast than DD. Building on these findings, the research develops a hybrid default hazard model that combines financial ratios from the Altman models with variables derived from the Merton-DD model, outperforming the other models in predictive accuracy. Lastly, determinants of the market price of corporate bond risk premium are investigated using a dual-level credit spread modelling approach and credit spread decomposition technique, accounting for China's corporate bond market's unique characteristics. Credit spread magnitudes are determined by bond and firm-specific factors, and the implicit government guarantee for state-owned enterprises significantly reduces credit risk premiums for these companies. In the meantime, dynamics of the monetary policy tools, Treasury term structure and economic growth are significant determinants of excess bond premium at the market level.
Urbanisation of Rural-Urban Migrants: A Case Study of Shiminhua in The Greater Bay Area of ChinaZhao, Hongshenghttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3576742023-12-22T14:15:47Zdc.title: Urbanisation of Rural-Urban Migrants: A Case Study of Shiminhua in The Greater Bay Area of China
dc.contributor.author: Zhao, Hongsheng
dc.description.abstract: This thesis on “The Urbanisation of Rural-urban Migrants: A Case Study of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China” is designed to answer the research question of "How does the phenomenon of *shiminhua* (urbanisation of rural-urban migrants) unfold in Chinese cities?". It is articulated by two sub-research questions: " What are suitable indicators for measuring the level of *shiminhua*?" and “What are the features that facilitate or prevent the process of *shiminhua*?” with a case study on the Chinese GBA region.
To answer the questions, a mixed-method approach was adopted using Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) to construct *shiminhua* indicators from migrants, completing survey questionnaires to test the indicators and to identify the impact factors, and conducting semi-structured interviews with exploring the dynamics in the process. First-hand qualitative and quantitative data collected from fieldwork in GBA were first analysed separately and subsequently triangulated and corroborated with previous literature.
This research found that the rural-urban migrant’s perception on *shiminhua* is sharply in contrast with the discourse of *shiminhua* by the government. From the migrants’ view, *shiminhua* is an incremental process accompanied by the development of a compromised place attachment and an internalised urban identity. Therefore, place attachment and urban identity are the two most effective alternative indicators for measuring *shiminhua* with settlement intention as a supplementary indicator. In GBA, homeownership in the city, and social circle with a majority of urban natives are associated with high level of *shiminhua*, while a local hukou, ability in Cantonese and children’s education are of potential impacts. Successful *shiminhua* can be achieved by combining personal striving, supportive urban governance in reducing local barriers and continuing institutional reforms in hukou at the regional and national level.
Findings of this study imply that government’s interpretation of *shiminhua* need to reconcile with the migrants’ perception on *shiminhua*, by incorporating the above-mentioned impact factors. Moreover, cultural-psychological indicators of place attachment and urban identity can be adopted by the studies of the acculturation process which are similar to the *shiminhua* process. Finally, this thesis indicates that more research drawing onto interdisciplinary theories and mixed-method can be applied to investigate the interaction of people and the built-environment in the process of urbanisation.
Land, history, and housing: Colonial legacies and land tenure in Greater Kuala LumpurMustapha, Nur Farezahttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3576152023-12-22T14:15:47Zdc.title: Land, history, and housing: Colonial legacies and land tenure in Greater Kuala Lumpur
dc.contributor.author: Mustapha, Nur Fareza
dc.description.abstract: What land is available for the development of non-market housing in Greater Kuala Lumpur (KL) and how do housing providers attain the rights to them? In Malaysia, the power relations that underlie the relationship between land, housing, and society are entrenched in historically path dependent processes that were instigated at specific critical junctures in the country’s colonial history. This research utilizes historical institutionalist concepts and analytical approaches to reconceptualize existing constraints in the land and housing markets in Greater KL. Findings from the research highlight the role of existing land institutions in structuring the capacity of critical actors to produce non-market housing. This study bridges the analysis of contemporary findings with their historical underpinnings. Data were collected over a 16-month period of fieldwork, from 2019 to 2020, using a two-part data strategy that combines qualitative data from in depth interviews with elite participants alongside archival data from repositories as well as secondary sources to illustrate this relationship.
The findings show that the corresponding rights to land in Malaysia can be held and controlled by a complex constellation of actors depending on how these rights are allocated, which may differ depending on whether these claims are assessed through the legislative framework or in practice. More specifically, differences in claimants over the right of disposal, use, and dealings may lead to friction during the land procurement process when the interests of these claimants are not aligned. This study further finds that differences in power exist among critical actors within the non-market housing sector and remains an important factor in determining housing outcomes. The research specifies two development pathways along which negotiations for the procurement of land transpire, i.e., the constitutional and the operational, based on the different levels of power entrenchment that guide the actions of critical actors and influence their bargaining positions.
iv
This study further identifies three critical junctures that altered the way land is governed in Malaysia in significant ways. The first introduced the concept of allodial rights into the existing Malay tenure system, the second installed separate spheres of government within the Federated Malay States, and the third ratified allodial rights to its rights holder within a newly minted national constitution. This study illustrates that the emergence of critical junctures was contingent on both the capacity of actors to capitalize on and benefit from the external shifts that jolted their prevailing social systems as well as the propensity of the external shock to successfully generate a tangible impact onto the agency of the critical actors. These transformations were shown to catalyse institutional innovations that promoted an intended advancement in the land tenure system of the country. Inherent to this process, the findings suggest that the institutional innovations acted as a medium to allocate and transfer power between critical actors in a causal cycle that allows those to benefit from this innovation to solidify their positions.
This study contributes to knowledge with its empirical and conceptual findings as well as methodology. The empirical and conceptual findings generate understanding on the role of institutional structures in determining land and housing outcomes in Greater Kuala Lumpur. It considers how rights to land and property are allocated, distributed, and negotiated within the housing system and see power as the driving force in shaping housing outcomes in non-market housing developments. The use of the critical juncture framework as well as the historical institutional approach provide new insights into how land and housing constraints are conceptualized. It highlights the need to consider the contextual dynamism (both spatial and temporal) of the site of intervention when policy reforms are instituted. Lastly, the methodology used in this research introduces a new approach for amalgamating contemporary and historical data within housing studies.
The evolution of land and housing markets in informal settlements in Zambia: Analysis of formal and informal institutions.Musa, Chilombohttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3544822023-12-22T14:11:39Zdc.title: The evolution of land and housing markets in informal settlements in Zambia: Analysis of formal and informal institutions.
dc.contributor.author: Musa, Chilombo
dc.description.abstract: ABSTRACT
This thesis traces the development of land and housing markets in an informal
settlement, Kanyama, in Zambia to determine the institutional structure that
characterises their operation. Taking a new institutionalist approach, the thesis uses
historical, rational choice, and sociological institutionalism concepts to reveal a
complex and multi-layered process of institutional interactions in market processes.
The study shows that informal land and housing markets are structured at the micro,
meso, and macro levels and reveals an entanglement of institutional arrangements in
facilitating access to land, housing construction, and market transactions. The thesis
also shows that informal institutions are intricately tied to formal institutions, and
constant interactions have structured market processes since Kanyama emerged in
the colonial period. New institutions arise from existing institutions and adapt to
changing socioeconomic environments. However, the exogenous changes from
political and economic reforms were not as abrupt as critical juncture theory holds.
Instead, subtle and gradual shifts that arose through everyday interactions between
residents of Kanyama, local leaders, and the government culminated in significant
change years and even decades later. These changes led to the structural
transformation of the social networks that guided initial settlement in Kanyama and
subsequently influenced the housing market to evolve from predominant owner-occupation to a primarily rental market. Although social networks remain strong in the
community, they exist mainly at the family level, and the clan structure that exists in
rural areas from which Kanyama’s residents initially emigrated is no longer prominent.
The thesis concludes that markets are processes, malleable to changes in the
physical, social, economic, and political environments and responsive to the needs of
actors who exert power at different stages of market development. The institutional
process tracing undertaken here was informed by a mixed-methods approach that
involved primary and secondary data collection through in-depth interviews,
observation, focus group discussions, a survey, and archival research.