Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Iparterületek elhelyezkedése Budapesten

Iparterületek elhelyezkedése Budapesten

Írta: Göndör László, Hann András, Juhász Boldizsár                                                  


Egy korábbi posztban (Thünen) már megmutattuk, hogyan néz ki Budapest környéke mezőgazdasági termelés szempontjából, most pedig azt vizsgáljuk, hogy hol találhatók Budapesten iparterületek. Rövid történeti bevezetés után az expressz.hu adatai alapján következtetünk a jelenleg tapasztalható helyzetre. 

Dereher serfőzdéi


Az „Első Magyar Részvény-serfőzöde” 

A budapesti ipar kifejlődése a kiegyezés és az első világháború vége közötti évtizedekre tehető. Az akkor kialakult, illetve kialakított ipari területek nagyrészt ma is léteznek, ma is befolyásolják a város szerkezetét (Bajnay & Kopcsay, 1998). Az akkori város szélén kialakult nagy ipari körzetek ma a város közbülső kerületeiben találhatók. A városközponton kívüli Duna menti területekre sok iparágat (pl. nehézipar számos ága, bőripar, hajógyártás és téglagyártás) vonzhatott a folyó közelsége. A IX. kerület külső részeit és a X. kerületet pedig a huszadik század elején jelölték ki ipari övezetnek. A korabeli szakemberek az uralkodó északnyugati szélirány miatt javasolták, hogy az ún. “zavaró vagy bűzös üzemek” elsősorban ide települjenek (Preisich, 1973). A már működő “bűzös üzemek”, például az újpesti bőrgyárak azonban nem szűntek meg. A két világháború között alapvetően a meglévő területek fejlődtek, jelentős fejlesztések a csepeli szabadkikötő körzetében történtek. Az ötvenes és hatvanas években több új ipari körzet is kialakult (Óbuda, Rákospalota, Pestújhely, Rákosvölgy, Soroksár, Nagytétény). A hetvenes években ismerték fel az előre kijelölt és közművesített iparterületek, az ún. ipari parkok előnyeit, ezek közül többet az előző két évtizedben létrejött ipari körzetekben alakítottak ki. Ezek jelentős része 1990-re beépült (Bajnay & Kopcsay, 1998), jelentős részük logisztikai funkciót kapott. A rendszerváltás óta tovább nőtt a szolgáltató szektor súlya, a régi ipartelepek egy része rozsdaövezetté vált. Ezek közül sikeresen újjászületett területként említhető a Millenáris Park a budai Ganz-gyár helyén, a Graphisoft Park az óbudai gázgyár és a Kopaszi gát a kelenföldi hőerőmű szomszédságában.

Ipari területek anno


Budapest meglévő és tervezett ipari területei (Preisich, 1973)

A városban jelenleg található ipari területeket az ipari ingatlanok elhelyezkedésével ragadjuk meg. Hivatalos statisztikák hiányában úgy döntöttünk, hirdetések alapján megpróbálunk létrehozni egy saját adatbázist. Választásunk az expressz.hu oldalra esett, mert itt viszonylag sok ipari ingatlant kínáltak (1411 db az adatfelvétel idején, március 1-jén), valamint könnyen elérhető volt ezek megoszlása a kerületek között, sőt az ingatlanok öt méretcsoport közötti megoszlása is kerületenként. Ez utóbbi segítségével becslést adtunk az egyes kerületekben található összes ipari alapterületre (a kategóriák felső határával szoroztuk meg a létszámot, a legnagyobb, 450m2-rel kezdődő kategória esetén pedig – önkényesen – 700m2-rel). Végül a becsült összes alapterületet leosztottuk a kerületek területével, így megkaptuk az ipari alapterület „sűrűségét” kerületenként. Egy kerületet tehát három adat jellemzett: ipari ingatlanok száma, becsült összes ipari alapterület és ipari alapterület becsült sűrűsége.



Összes ipari alapterület Budapest kerületeiben (saját készítésű)




A módszer természetesen problematikus. Az alapvető gond az, hogy semmilyen garancia nincs mintánk reprezentativitására. Az éppen kínált ipari ingatlanok, különösen az egy konkrét felületen hirdetettek egyáltalán nem biztos, hogy jól reprezentálják a város összes ipari ingatlanját. Ezek ellenére ez tekinthető a lehető legjobb megoldásnak.
Az eredmények nagyjából megfeleltek várakozásainknak. Mindhárom mutató szerint szinte teljesen hiányoznak az ipari ingatlanok az I., II., V. és XII. kerületből. A pesti belváros többi kerülete, a VI., VII. és VIII. (különösen Erzsébetváros) viszont a sűrűség szerint a nagyobbak közé tartoznak, itt tehát a kis darabszám és alapterület jelentős részben ezen kerületek kis méretéből fakadt. Buda három még nem tárgyalt kerülete, a III., XI. és XXII. mindhárom mutató szerint nagyjából átlagosnak mondható. Az ipar nagy része Pest nem belvárosi kerületeiben helyezkedik el, ezen belül is néhány kerületben. A legnagyobb értéket az összes mutató esetében Kőbánya (X.), Újpest (IV.) és Angyalföld (XIII.) mutatja, ezek tehát meggyőző eredménynek tekinthetők. Pest legkevésbé ipari kerületei a XVI. és a XIX., itt feltehetően a lakófunkció dominál.

Ipari ingatlanok sűrűsége (saját készítésű)


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Felhasznált irodalom
Bajnay László & Kopcsay Gábor (1998). Az ipar fejlődése – ipari területek, ipari üzemek. Megjelent: Preisich Gábor (szerk.), Budapest városépítésének története 1945-1990 (157-170. old.). Budapest: Műszaki Könyvkiadó.
Preisich Gábor (1973). Az ipar fejlesztése és az ipari területek. Megjelent: Presich Gábor (szerk.), Budapest jövője (100-107. old.). Budapest: Műszaki Könyvkiadó.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Rise and evolution in film making – the Nollywood story

Rise and evolution in film making – the Nollywood story

by Péter Pölöskei

Film production has peculiarities in every continent – most readers would be familiar with the globally renowned Hollywood and Bollywood industries, and of course with the state-subsidized European ones. But you might be surprised that in the last ten years, the top 3 in number of movies produced in a country always included a contestant not mentioned in the first sentence – and this is Nigeria, the home of Nollywood, producing more than 1000 movies per year, thus only rivaled by India.


Of course you should not be shamed if you have not seen the latest Nigerian hit or artsy feature in your local multiplex – because these movies have to do with the technology that they actually have at their disposal, which means that distribution is done directly on CDs, DVDs (and yes, occasionally still on VHS!). But why is this important to us now? Because it is a great example of how a historical accident and agglomeration effects can define a continent-wide industry.
In the 1990’s technology was ready for a democratizing shift in film making in Africa, as video devices, cheap but reliable cameras - and people with a taste for cheap entertainment - was already available. While before mostly francophone countries – encouraged by France – were forerunners (more like slumping at the time) in making African films, a hit came from Nigeria titled Living in Bondage. Unlike the francophones, the movie was shot straight-to-video, and became a real blockbuster, that showed that there could be profit to made for Africans in this industry.
This was a start signal, and the few filmmakers already living in Lagos sensed the opportunity. The most populous city in the country was not only providing a readily available market, but other features as well. In a place with some experience available in filmmaking, with people ready to take a shot at African superstardom, selection of talented film crews could go easily. Since Lagos was a destination for migrants from different regions, the use of English was necessary, so most applicants had some of the necessary skills as well. The city also offered distribution connections to the new industry, as a significant share of the igbo tribe lived in Lagos – who were influential in trading activities all over the country. This only just increased the size of market available on top of the local demand. So all in all, after the initial opportunity came, the city provided the unique connections of the igbo, a significant amount of talented and skilled enough people willing to be either filmmakers or part of film crews, plus the scene soon created competition between the emerging little studies.


In a matter of years the features that started making Nollywood successful also made it capable of leaving the country. Since distribution channels are constrained by state borders, but are helped by border-crossing older trade patterns and modern technology, soon the industry was capable of supplying the many English speaking countries of the continent.
But the story of Nollywood is not simply a rise of a monocentric movie empire – just as Hollywood also helped creating Hollywood North (Vancouver), or re-shaping New York to add cinema to theatre. While Lagos is the centre of production, where all big Nigerian producers have their offices, after a while, there were other factors to consider. Lagos location-wise was not perfect, as it turned out after the first decade, that some parts of the production process – like many parts of shooting – are not ideal to take place there. To put it simply, it just became too crowded, as companies were vying for resources, like locations for shooting, which were hampering production, thus driving up prices. So came the rise of Enugu, a city that already had some shootings going on, offering vast areas for production processes. Thus in the latest years, producers moved a significant share of shooting activity to this more eastern Nigerian city, to control rising costs.

Justus Esiri, the posthumous winner of the 2013 African Movie Academy Award for Best Actor


 The case of Nollywood is a great story about how a shift in technological opportunities was seized after a historic accident, creating a new agglomeration of filmmakers in Lagos. The positive effects of agglomeration caused the industry to grow in unusually high proportions, giving Nollywood global recognition and eager consumers all over Africa. Then as the costs started shooting up, spreading to Enugu became a rational option that created a division of labour between the two.


Some further readings about Nollywood:

McCall, John C. (2004) ‘Nollywood Confidental – The Unlikely rise of Nigerian Video Film’; African American and African Diaspora Studies, Issue 95 (Vol. 13, No. 1), 2004

Saul, Mahir – Austen, Ralph A. (eds.) (2010) ‘Viewing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century’; Ohio University Press, Athens (OH), 2010

Budapest overwhelming sized city

Urban primacy: the case of Hungary in the twentieth century

by Robert Venyige 

One of the most important observations on the urban system of a country is that in lot of cases the size of a city is proportionate to its rank in the urban hierarchy. For example the second largest city has a population that is half of the largest city’s population, the third one has a population that is third of that of the largest one, and so on. This is called the rank size rule or Zipf’s law of city size distribution. However, in some cases the urban system does not follow this pattern, for instance the size of largest city is too small or too big. The second case is called urban primacy, when the largest city of a country represents disproportionately high share of the population and it has an extremely high economic importance.

One measure of the superiority of the largest city in a country is the so called primacy ratio. It is the ratio of the population of the largest city to the sum of the population of a bigger set of cities, like the five largest cities. (It is also possible to compare the size of the largest city to the total urban population.) One of the well-known example of urban primacy is the case of the United Kingdom, where London amounts to 70% of the population of the five largest cities. However it appears in countries with very different characteristics, for example France, Peru, Romania; but among the European countries, Hungary has one of the highest primacy ratio; 0.71 in. The capital of Hungary, Budapest indeed has a disproportionate size, its population (1.7 million in 2001) is approximately nine times larger than that of the second largest city, Debrecen.

What are the possible explanations for this unequal urban system?
There are different theories that may help us to understand the existence of this pattern in the case of Hungary. One of the possible explanation is historical; the change in the size of country after the World War I definitely affected its urban structure. The population of the country – that was the part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy at that time – was around 18 million, while after 1920 less than 8 million people lived inside the new borders. If we look at the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, then Budapest was only the second largest city after Vienna in an Empire with more than 52 million citizens. While the urban system of the Monarchy was balanced (without primate city), if we consider only Hungary the urbanization was so concentrated that we can find the same primacy ratio as later on.

Furthermore political processes can also affect the urban system of a country. Autocratic countries tend to have larger primate cities due to the advantages their citizens can enjoy close to the center of the regime. Hungary, during most of its history in the twentieth century did not have democratic political system. The political regimes of the Interwar period and Communist system of 1949-1989 are considered autocracy or limited democracy and non-democratic, respectively. If we look at the primacy ratio of Budapest through the twentieth century we see that it remained fairly stable during this period, reaching its highest value around 1940 and the lowest in 2001. During the interval period the concentration increased, while after 1949 it started to decrease, but it is still high by international comparison. During the Communist regime one cannot attribute the changes in the urban systems to market forces. The state intensely got involved in the formation of the urban system, for instance by forced industrialization, establishing new cities or its partial restriction on labor mobility.

An economic explanation suggests that open countries (in terms of international trade) tend to have smaller primate cities.  While Hungary considered open in terms of its exports to GDP ratio, it does not necessary mean that it should have a more even urban population distribution. First, there is a high persistence in the urban structure of a country and it can change only gradually. In historical term, the economy of Hungary was closed under the 40 years of the Communist regime, even if in the last 20 years it has become an open economy. Second, if the primate city has a disproportionately better access to the export market (through for example higher accessibility, airport or highways) then an increase of the importance of trade can even aggravate the uneven structure. Still, as an effect of international trade, one can expect that the cities in the Western part of Hungary, which are closer to its main export partners may grow faster in the future compared to other cities in the country.

However one have to take into account that the definition of city is not straightforward and administrative borders can change, cities can merge or split. It is also misleading if we consider only the administrative boundaries of the city. As suburbanizatio has become more pronounced one should take into account its effect as well. While the population of Budapest itself is around 1.7 million, the size of its agglomeration is 2.4 million. The status of the capital as the primate city in this case is even more obvious (the primacy ratio is around 0.74), because suburbanization and the agglomeration processes are more advanced around the capital.



Source: Hungarian Statistical Office, KSH




Nantucket - an Island with million dollar homes

Nantucket - an Island with million dollar homes: the extremes of spatial equilibrium

by Iva Todorova

Nantucket is an island around 50km off from Massachusetts. The permanent population is just over 10 000 people. Its gray, up to two-storey high wooden houses look more like haunted shacks than like the American dream home. Walking down the narrow, cobblestone streets one might occasionally encounter an elderly couple, and rarely any cars. There are two grocery stores, a few family restaurants, several tiny-tiny shops on the main street, two banks, and… that’s about it. No mass-production factories, giant malls, crowded clubs, McDonalds or Burger King, not even Starbucks. Yet, in 2011 Nantucket had the highest housing prices among US counties, the only place where a typical home sold for over $1 million.  There also is no trend for a decline in prices , despite the crisis.



What explanation can economic geography provide? According to the spatial equilibrium theory, house prices are determined in the labor and housing market. The major factors explaining rental-rate differences among regions are wage differentials, region-specific amenities, and peoples’ mobility.
Nantucket hosts two types of economic agents: the incredibly rich and the workers providing services for them. The preferences of the incredibly rich are shaped by first geography and cumulative causation. Nantucket rose to prominence in the 19th century as a port midway between New York and Boston. It was also a major whaling spot, bringing vast incomes to whaling ship owners. Ever since, ocean transport has declined, and the spread of electricity rendered whale-oil candles redundant. Yet, the centrality of the island did not wane. One explanation, given by a Nantucket resident, is that the rich simply enjoy being around other rich people. Thus, the flow of successful families has followed a non-linear growth, where ever more of the wealthy are attracted to the island.

Furthermore, the concentration of high-income families led to the development of services catering to their needs. Today, Nantucket has two yacht clubs, several golf clubs and an airport where private jets drop off their owners. It offers a number of high-end restaurants, gourmet food stores, boutique designer shops and quality jewelries. Thus, site-specific amenities, in the form of concentration of rich people and services for them, have boosted the demand for housing, and bid up rents.

Other explanatory factors are mobility and the wage levels. Most island inhabitants do not earn their income there – they are either summer residents or retirees. Therefore, people’s mobility is less limited: they are either there temporarily, or do not work any longer, thus have a lower opportunity cost of relocating. Second, the local wage is irrelevant for them; what matters is their mainland income or savings. Money is likely to be increasingly concentrated in the hands of the very same Nantucket residents, given the rising US wealth and inequality.

Similar reasoning applies to local workers servicing the rich. For them, first and foremost, relative wages have increased substantially, due to the limited local labor supply, the high-value added of services, the high willingness to pay by the rich, and the specific skills required.  Moreover, due to the good quality indivisible public goods supplied to the rich, workers benefit as an externality. Finally, given that many workers are low-skilled tourist sector laborers and immigrants, they are quite mobile.
Thus, housing demand has been progressively increasing. Supply, on the other hand, is severely limited. On the one hand, there is a natural limit of construction in an enclosed space. On the other hand, the island authorities put strong restrictions on the initiation of new construction, extensions, building size, height and design.


Thus, via the combined force of history, concentration, mobility and natural limits to expansion, the spatial equilibrium model provides insight as to why Nantucket offers the most expensive houses in the United States. 

Luce In Veneto - clusters in the Third Italy

The role of clusters in the rise of the Third Italy – Luce In Veneto 

by Klára Gurzó

When we talk about clusters and the forces that created them Silicon Valley is used as the most obvious example. The role of newly established networks and social capital are emphasized in the process of cluster creation. However, the very similar forms of firm cooperation and economic activity can evolve through the networks of traditional families and industries. The industrial districts (distretti industriali) of Northeast Italy are very good examples of the latter type of connections.



The traditional economic center of Italy is the Northwest regions of the country (region of Lombardy, Piemont, Ligune, etc). While the other parts of the country struggled in the 1960’s, the Central and Northeast regions started to use their advantages. The region has high market potential because it is close to the developed part of Europe and Italy, and it is close to the sea that supports lower transportation costs. The rapid industrialization process started that time made the “Third Italy” (Tuscany, Umbria, Marche, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Friuli, and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol) the most prosperous part of the country. Agglomeration processes supported the growth of the region through the connection and cooperation of the densely located small and medium sized companies and the knowledge accumulation based on the universities in the region. The industrial districts clustered by labor intensive, manufacturing industries.  These districts are territorial agglomeration of firms, specialized by product type and interpersonal links which circulates information and facilitate diffusion of innovation. The covered small firms could respond flexibly to the changes of economic environment and specialize on certain parts of the production process. The economic development of small companies was not independent entirely. From 1965 the Sabatini Law financed companies to buy machines, tools and other equipments. The object of the law was individual companies.



Veneto region has the third highest total GDP among Italian regions. It is one of the two regions where the most industrial districts can be found. The population of the region is around 4.8 million people and almost 10 percent of them are immigrants. Today, the percent of immigrants is one of the highest in the country while before the World War II high out-migration characterized it. The city’s population is still increasing today due to the large number of immigrants. The economy was largely based upon farming. In the 1960’s and 1970’s rapid industrialization started and since the mid 1980’s the labor market is characterized by almost full employment and a positive rate of job creation. The districts cover the traditional economic sectors such as food products, wood and furniture, leather and footwear, textiles and clothing, gold jewelry, but also chemistry, metal-mechanics and electronics.
The government realized the economic power of districts therefore they decided to support the launch and operation of them. For the first time, in 1989 country level rule helped the local clusters, especially export-oriented ones. After this one many other policies were introduced to support clusters locally. However, Veneto emphasized the role of interregional connections therefore they launched a regional level policy that financed project based cooperation between firms.



These policies drove the emergence of numerous forms of tight cooperation across firms for example the LUCE IN VENETO SCARL Consortium. The region involves 500 companies that operate in the lightening industry and they have 5000 employees. The Consortium involves 50 companies that have close to 700 workers. This is a typical production cluster that integrates the participant firms vertically. The Consortium has one or two larger member but most of the firms are small, family owned firms. These are typically handcraft firms that design and produce special, individual lights. The main aim of the consortium is to help firms to compete with multinational, low priced products. There are three main common activity of the consortium. They use common transportation and sales channels and packaging technology to decline their transport costs. Moreover, they cooperate with universities (for example with Padova University) and make common research and development activities. The design of the lightening, the safety packaging and the strong and impact resistance glass are all essential parts of the competitiveness of these firms. Therefore technological innovation is gradually determines the success of the firms. Finally, they organize training sessions  to inform the members from the latest rules and technology, fashions and so on.


The rise of Third Italy is very good example of the forces of New Economic Geography because the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities determined the economic development of the territory basically. We saw that clusters of traditional, family owned small firms can be the basic of agglomeration. However, recent times it seems that the order of agglomeration forces (high wages vs high productivity) tends to change places and high wages cause serious problems in the region. Some actors outsourced their production to low wages countries already. If the production labor intensive industries tend to leave the region, other activities have to be strengthened locally. 

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