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on Economic Geography |
| By: | Coll Martínez, Eva; Moreno Monroy, Ana Isabel; Arauzo Carod, Josep Maria |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to analyse the spatial patterns of agglomeration and coagglomeration of Creative Industries (CIs) in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (MAB). We compare agglomeration patterns of CIs to non-creative ones (Non-CIs) in order to identify specificities in their location patterns at an intra-metropolitan level. We use firms’ geo-located data for 2012 to calculate the distance-based M and m cumulative and density functions of agglomeration and coagglomeration. Our main results show that CIs and Non-CIs have different agglomeration patterns. Concretely, whilst CIs tend to cluster at very small distances, Non-CIs have a more dispersed pattern. Concerning the results of coagglomeration, these reveal that micro CIs and Non-CIs seem to be coagglomerated. Regarding agglomeration patterns of subgroups of CIs, we find that these sectors display high levels of agglomeration individually, and that there is a clear coagglomeration among them in the MAB. Finally, our results emphasise Barcelona’s centre as a magnet for Cultural and CIs. Keywords: creative industries, agglomeration, M function, intra-metropolitan analysis, Barcelona |
| Keywords: | Creativitat en els negocis -- Barcelona, Economia del coneixement -- Barcelona, Barcelona (Catalunya : Àrea metropolitana) -- Condicions econòmiques, 332 - Economia regional i territorial. Economia del sòl i de la vivenda, |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/266575&r=geo |
| By: | Alex Bara; Gift Mugano; Pierre Le Roux |
| Abstract: | This study empirically evaluates spatial externalities in financial development in SADC in line with spatial proximity theory, which asserts that externalities increase with proximity. Precisely, the study tests if financially less developed economies in SADC benefit from linkages with and proximity to South Africa, a financially developed economy. The Spatial Durbin Model estimated using GMM and Dynamic Panel Estimations, establishes that financial development in the SADC region is sensitive to space and hence not immune to spatial externalities. Results indicate that monetary measures are highly sensitive to geography than credit and that allowing for spatiality, credit from South Africa crowds-out domestic and private credit of other SADC countries. Precisely, proximity to South Africa brings negative externalities in credit but positive externalities in money markets. Implicitly, the spatial variable has a substitution effect in the local credit market and a complementary effect in the money market. Estimations that controlled for effects of monetary union in the model also confirms that financial development is affected by spatiality in the money market and is not responsive to spatial effects in credit. The results also indicated that financial openness is a necessary condition for financial development to take place in the SADC region. |
| Keywords: | Spatial Externalities, Spatiality, financial development, SADC |
| JEL: | R12 H13 R15 O16 G20 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:628&r=geo |
| By: | Ubarevičienė, Rūta (Lithuanian Social Research Centre); van Ham, Maarten (Delft University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Since the 1990s, Lithuania lost almost a quarter of its population, and some regions within the country lost more than 50% of their residents. Such a sharp population decline poses major challenges to politicians, policy makers and planners. This study aims to get more insight into the recent processes of socio-spatial change and the role of selective migration in Lithuania. The main focus is on understanding who lives in those regions which are rapidly losing population, and who is most likely to leave these regions. This is one of the first studies to use individual level Lithuanian census data from 2001 and 2011. We found that low socio-economic status residents and older residents dominate the population of shrinking regions, and unsurprisingly we found that the most "successful" people are the most likely to leave such regions. This process of selective migration reinforces the negative downward spiral of declining regions. As a result, socio-spatial polarisation is growing within the country, where people with higher socio-economic status are increasingly overrepresented in the largest city-regions, while the elderly and residents with a lower socioeconomic status are overrepresented in declining rural regions. This paper provides empirical evidence of selective migration and increasing regional disparities in Lithuania. While the socio-spatial changes are obvious in Lithuania, there is no clear strategy on how to cope with extreme population decline and increasing regional inequalities within the country. |
| Keywords: | population decline, shrinking regions, internal migration, socio-spatial polarisation, Lithuania |
| JEL: | R23 O15 J11 P20 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10160&r=geo |
| By: | Marta Bisztray (Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | I estimate the impact of foreign-owned large plant closures on local firms. I identify 41 such events in Hungary and assign comparable control cities with foreign-owned large plants operating in the same industry and not closing. I use a firm-level panel database of Hungarian firms between 1992 and 2012. I do a difference-in-differences estimation comparing outcomes of firms in the treated and control areas, before and after the plant closure. I find that after the foreign-owned large plant closures sales of nearby firms decreased by 6 percentage points and employment decreased by 3 percentage points on average. Firms operating in local services were hurt even more, suggesting that reduced local purchasing power due to the layoffs is a significant channel of the local plant closure effect. Firms operating in the supplier industry of the closing plant also decreased employment more than average, suggesting that input-output linkages play an important role in the propagation of negative shocks. In contrast, firms in the industry of the closing plant increased their employment, suggesting that they could benefit from the increased local labor supply. I also find that low-productivity firms were hurt more by the plant closures than high-productivity firms. |
| Keywords: | plant closure, agglomeration, local labor market, demand effect, input-output links, propagation of shocks, FDI |
| JEL: | F23 R12 R23 R58 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:discpr:1623&r=geo |
| By: | Andrés Rodríguez-Pose; Daniel Hardy |
| Abstract: | Recent decades have seen the rural areas of developing and emerging countries undergo significant structural changes. They are the source of several pertinent international concerns, including extreme poverty and hunger, and rising spatial and interpersonal disparities, challenges that national governments and the international community have made limited headway in alleviating to date. By analysing the range of rural development approaches implemented in recent decades, we develop a picture in which territorial approaches have become more mainstream. Since the turn of the century in particular they have gradually supplanted more traditional place-neutral approaches, which, we argue, have served to increase rural-urban disparities and exasperate the incidence of poverty in rural areas. Rural territorial development approaches, where able to mobilise sufficient participation and coordination between local stakeholders, civil society, and various multi-level actors, offer the most favourable means of gaining a better understanding of the many social, economic, institutional assets within a region. They can be harnessed to drive brands of regional development that are not only sustainable, but also more equitable and inclusive across different segments of the population and territories. |
| Keywords: | poverty; inequality; rural development; territorial approach; place-based development |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:63257&r=geo |
| By: | Mike Coombes; Peter O'Brien; Andy Pike; John Tomaney |
| Abstract: | Contributing to interpretations of the governance geographies of austerity, the paper explains how, why and in what forms austerity states are constructed by actors in particular political-economic contexts and geographical and temporal settings, how and by whom they are articulated and pursued, and how they are worked through public policy and institutional and territorial architectures. Empirically, the focus is explaining the UK Government and its abolition and closure of the Regional Development Agencies in England. First, a more qualitative and plural conception of austerity states is developed to question singular and/or monolithic notions of state types and their transitions, and to better reflect the particularities of how state projects are configured and unfolded by actors within political-economic variegations of capitalism. Second, a more geographically sensitive approach and appreciation of (re)scaling are detailed to incorporate and extend beyond the predominantly national frame and decentralising narratives deployed in current accounts. Last, a historically literate interpretation of institutional dismantling is advanced better to explain the politics and restructuring of institutional landscapes by actors within austerity states. |
| Keywords: | austerity, institutions, the state, governance, economic development, Regional Development Agencies, England |
| JEL: | H70 O10 O20 R58 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0206&r=geo |
| By: | Marta Bisztray (Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | In 1993 Audi opened a new plant in Hungary. This paper examines the long-term effects of this large foreign direct investment on local firms operating in supplier industries. I use firm-level panel data with long time series. Using the method of triple difference-in-differences I compare outcomes of firms in supplier and control industries, close and far from the Audi plant, before and after the entry. My main findings are: (1) after the Audi entry the average annual growth rate of local firms increased by 3 percentage points for sales and 2 percentage points for employment. The effect is visible only five years after the entry of Audi. I find no positive effect on productivity. (2) Firms with foreign owners account for all the positive effect on sales and employment, suggesting a foreign-to-foreign complementarity in investments. Firms with higher productivity gained more. Consequently, the low initial productivity of domestic firms may explain the lack of an effect in this group. (3) New entrants in the supplier industry locating close to Audi are larger and grow faster, suggesting that Audi also had an effect on the extensive margin. |
| Keywords: | foreign direct investment, vertical spillovers, agglomeration |
| JEL: | F23 R12 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:has:discpr:1622&r=geo |
| By: | Francesco Vona (OFCE-SciencesPo, Sophia Antipolis); Giovanni Marin (IRCrES-CNR, Milan); Davide Consoli (INGENIO CSIC-UPV, Valencia) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the nature and the key empirical regularities of green employment in US local labor markets between 2006 and 2014. We construct a new measure of green employment based on the task content of occupations. Descriptive analysis reveals the following: 1. the share of green employment oscillates between 2 and 3 percent, and its trend is strongly pro-cyclical; 2. green jobs yield a 4 percent wage premium; 3. despite moderate catching-up across areas, green jobs remain more geographically concentrated than similar non-green jobs; and 4. the top green areas are mostly high-tech. As regards the drivers, changes in environmental regulation are a secondary force compared to the local endowment of green knowledge and resilience in the face of the great recession. To assess the impact of moving to greener activities, we estimate that one additional green job is associated with 4.2 (2.4 in the crisis period) new jobs in non-tradable activities in the local economies. |
| Keywords: | Green Employment, Local Labor Markets, Environmental Regulation, Environmental Technologies, Local Multipliers |
| JEL: | J23 O33 Q52 R23 |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2016.48&r=geo |
| By: | Valero, Anna; Van Reenen, John |
| Abstract: | We develop a new dataset using UNESCO source materials on the location of nearly 15,000 universities in about 1,500 regions across 78 countries, some dating back to the 11th Century. We estimate fixed effects models at the sub-national level between 1950 and 2010 and find that increases in the number of universities are positively associated with future growth of GDP per capita (and this relationship is robust to controlling for a host of observables, as well as unobserved regional trends). Our estimates imply that doubling the number of universities per capita is associated with 4% higher future GDP per capita. Furthermore, there appear to be positive spillover effects from universities to geographically close neighboring regions. We show that the relationship between growth and universities is not simply driven by the direct expenditures of the university, its staff and students. Part of the effect of universities on growth is mediated through an increased supply of human capital and greater innovation (although the magnitudes are not large). We find that within countries, higher historical university presence is associated with stronger pro-democratic attitudes. |
| Keywords: | growth; Human Capital; innovation; Universities |
| JEL: | I23 I25 J24 O10 O31 |
| Date: | 2016–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11462&r=geo |
| By: | Bertschek, Irene; Briglauer, Wolfgang; Hüschelrath, Kai; Kauf, Benedikt; Niebel, Thomas |
| Abstract: | We provide a structured overview of the quantitative literature on the economic impacts of telecommunications networks and broadband internet. Differentiating between wireline and wireless technologies as well as broadband availability and broadband adoption, respectively, we review studies investigating the impacts on economic growth, employment and regional development as well as productivity and firm performance. Eventually, the survey does not only allow the identification of main research gaps but also provides useful information for policy makers on the significance and importance of communication networks for social welfare. |
| Keywords: | Telecommunications,Broadband,Economic Growth,Employment,Regional Development,Productivity |
| JEL: | D24 J23 J24 L96 O33 O47 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:16056&r=geo |