This paper presents the findings of discourse analysis of the transcripts of ten focus groups dis... more This paper presents the findings of discourse analysis of the transcripts of ten focus groups discussing bus and car travel. It finds that the modes are talked about in different ways: bus travel being referred to as a series of episodes mostly focussing on worst-case scenarios while car travel is represented as a more consistent commodity. Both modes exhibit different characteristics depending on whether the speaker is talking as a user or an observer. Buses are seen as benign from outside, beneficial to the area and potential congestion-busters but as vulnerable spaces for users. Nothing good was said about cars from outside, but they provided protective spaces supplying flexible travel and allowing social commitments to be met by users. This paper discusses how the insights gained could help improve the perception of bus travel and contribute to more sustainable travel choices.
This paper presents the findings of discourse analysis of the transcripts of ten focus groups dis... more This paper presents the findings of discourse analysis of the transcripts of ten focus groups discussing bus and car travel. It finds that the modes are talked about in different ways: bus travel being referred to as a series of episodes mostly focussing on worst-case scenarios while car travel is represented as a more consistent commodity. Both modes exhibit different characteristics depending on whether the speaker is talking as a user or an observer. Buses are seen as benign from outside, beneficial to the area and potential congestion-busters but as vulnerable spaces for users. Nothing good was said about cars from outside, but they provided protective spaces supplying flexible travel and allowing social commitments to be met by users. This paper discusses how the insights gained could help improve the perception of bus travel and contribute to more sustainable travel choices.
Learning English is a potentially profitable investment for immigrants in the U.S.: while there a... more Learning English is a potentially profitable investment for immigrants in the U.S.: while there are initial costs, the subsequent benefits include the ability to communicate with the majority of the population, potentially leading to better paying jobs and economic success in the new country. These payoffs are lessened if immigrants choose to live and work in ethnic enclaves where the necessity to communicate in English is weak. Ethnic enclaves are widespread and persistent in the U.S. This study uses data from the 2010 American Community Survey to examine the impact of residential and occupational segregation on immigrants' ability to speak English. We allow for heterogeneity in the relationship between segregation and English language proficiency across ethnic groups and focus specifically on Mexican and Chinese immigrants. Our results show that immigrants in the U.S. who live and work among high concentrations of their countrymen are less likely to be proficient in English than those who are less residentially and occupationally segregated. The magnitude of the effect of segregation on language proficiency varies across immigrants' birthplaces and other salient characteristics defining the immigration context. JEL Classification:
The Willingness-to-pay for Facilities at the Amsterdam Zuidas
Nonlinear spatial patterns in spatial regression models : Findings from a general misspecification test
Living and Working in Ethnic Enclaves: Language Proficiency of Immigrants in U.S. Metropolitan Areas
Learning English is a potentially profitable investment for immigrants in the U.S.: while there a... more Learning English is a potentially profitable investment for immigrants in the U.S.: while there are initial costs, the subsequent benefits include the ability to communicate with the majority of the population, potentially leading to better paying jobs and economic success in the new country. These payoffs are lessened if immigrants choose to live and work in ethnic enclaves where the
Spatial Effects and Non-Linearity in Spatial Regression Models: Simulation Results for Several Misspecification Tests
Spatial Dynamics, Networks and Modelling, 2006
In research on non-linear phenomena, two distinct approaches can be distinguished. The first appr... more In research on non-linear phenomena, two distinct approaches can be distinguished. The first approach is geared towards the improvement of model specifications in order to find convincing economic illustrations of the presence of non-linear features in real-world ...
The Performance of Diagnostic Tests for Spatial Dependence in Linear Regression Models: A Meta-Analysis of Simulation Studies
Advances in Spatial Science, 2004
ABSTRACT One of the reasons for A.D. Cliff and J.K. Ord’s 1973 book “Spatial Autocorrelation” ach... more ABSTRACT One of the reasons for A.D. Cliff and J.K. Ord’s 1973 book “Spatial Autocorrelation” achieving the status of a seminal work on spatial statistics and econometrics lies in their careful and lucid treatment of the autocorrelation problem in spatial data series. Cliff and Ord present test statistics for univariate spatial series of categorical (nominal and ordinal) and continuous (interval or ratio scale) data. They extend the use of autocorrelation statistics, specifically Moran’s I (Moran, 1948), to the analysis of regression residuals (see also Cliff and Ord, 1972). The detection of spatial autocorrelation among regression residuals implies either a nonlinear relationship between the dependent and independent variables, the omission of one or more spatially correlated regressors, or the appropriateness of an autoregressive error structure. Ignoring the presence of spatial autocorrelation among the population errors causes ordinary least squares (OLS) to be a biased variance estimator and an inefficient regression coefficient estimator. Anselin (1988b) shows that erroneously omitting the spatially lagged dependent variable from the set of explanatory variables causes the OLS estimator to be biased and inconsistent. Cliff and Ord (1981, p. 197) therefore urge the applied researcher to always apply “some check for autocorrelation,” and take remedial action when necessary.
The Impact of Accessibility on the Value of Offices
Transitions Towards Sustainable Mobility, 2011
ABSTRACT Accessibility is becoming an increasingly important issue in the Netherlands, not only f... more ABSTRACT Accessibility is becoming an increasingly important issue in the Netherlands, not only for policymakers but also for daily workers on the road and employers, who have to deal with a growing uncertainty of their staff being on time. Not only the access via roads is important; but also the unreliability of public transport (as experienced by passengers), and the lack of parking areas in many places contribute to the importance of accessibility in society.
Migration decisions have often been studied as -interregional or international -residential or em... more Migration decisions have often been studied as -interregional or international -residential or employment moves without due regard of the underlying socio-economic structure. Especially the spatial clustering of migrants, the establishment of socio-economic networks between immigrants from the same country or origin and the observed herd behaviour of migrants are processes that were difficult to explain until a few years ago, but that have increasingly gained attention in the recent years. In this paper we aim to give a concise overview of the latest literature with respect to the endogenous behaviour of migration processes and we consider a dynamic model for migration processes to explain the characteristics and consequences of migration behaviour for the accumulation of human capital by using concepts from economic (labor) market behaviour.
The concept of resilience has received a great deal of attention in the past decades. Starting fr... more The concept of resilience has received a great deal of attention in the past decades. Starting from the first fundamental definitions offered by Holling, Pimms and Perrings in an economic-ecological modeling context, the present paper explores the 'evolution' of the resilience concept -as well as related different measures -in both a continuous and discrete time setting.
Social Interactions and Crime Revisited: An Investigation Using Individual Offender Data in Dutch Neighborhoods
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
ABSTRACT Using data on the age, sex, ethnicity and criminal involvement of 14.3 million residents... more ABSTRACT Using data on the age, sex, ethnicity and criminal involvement of 14.3 million residents aged 10-89 residing in 4,007 neighborhoods in the Netherlands, this article tests if an individual’s criminal involvement is affected by the proportion of criminals living in their neighborhood of residence. We develop a binomial discrete choice model for criminal involvement and estimate it on individual data. We control for the endogeneity that may be related to the unobserved neighborhood characteristics and take into account possible biases that may result from sorting behavior. We find strongly significant social interaction effects and explore their implications for the presence of multiple equilibria and social multipliers.
Homeownership, Social Renting, and Labour Mobility across Europe
Homeownership and the Labour Market in Europe, 2009
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Papers by Thomas Graaff