Abstract
The economic prospects of a region are highly related to both production efficiency in industrial composition and the standard of living. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of social environment on regional population and the number of establishments as an indicator of regional vitality, based on dimensions of industrial technologies, communication expenditures and subjective utility. Empirical results, obtained by using panel data for 47 prefectures of Japan at 4 points of time during 1988 and 1999, show that variations in population and the number of establishments are significantly explained by social environment factors considering both of production and consumption facets.
