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on Economic Geography |
| By: | Lang, Valentin |
| Abstract: | This chapter examines the distributional effects of place-based policies in the EU. In a first step, it characterizes existing income inequalities in the EU and distinguishes between their interregional and intraregional dimensions. A key result is that inequalities within European regions make an important contribution to overall inequality in the EU. Against this background, the chapter then reviews the economic literature on the effectiveness and distributional effects of place-based policies in general and EU regional policy in particular. The evidence from this literature suggests that while place-based policies can reduce inequalities between regions, they tend to increase inequalities within regions. The chapter concludes with a discussion of policy recommendations for EU regional policy that can be derived from these findings. |
| Keywords: | place-based policies, regional inequality, intraregional inequality, European Union (EU) |
| JEL: | D31 E24 H72 R11 R23 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:300264 |
| By: | Pierre-Alex Balland; Ron Boschma; ; ; |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes an evolutionary take on regional development traps. Our definition of regional traps centers around the structural inability of regions to develop new complex activities. We distinguish between several different traps. Using industry data, we follow European regions over time and provide evidence on which regions in the EU are trapped, and what kinds of traps they have fallen into. Our econometric analysis shows that being trapped has a negative impact on employment and wage growth in regions. We also find evidence that our development trap indicator explains well whether regions are stuck in a regional development trap, as defined by Iammarino et al. (2020). |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2420 |
| By: | Pierre Cotterlaz; Arthur Guillouzouic |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that the negative effect of geographical distance on knowledge flows stems from how firms gain sources of knowledge through their existing network. We start by documenting two stylized facts. First, in aggregate, the distance elasticity of patent citations flows has remained constant since the 1980s, despite the rise of the internet. Second, at the micro level, firms disproportionately cite existing knowledge sources, and patents cited by their sources. We introduce a framework featuring the latter phenomenon, and generating a negative distance elasticity in aggregate. The model predicts Pareto-distributed innovator sizes, and citation distances increasing with innovator size. These predictions hold well empirically. We investigate changes of the underlying parameters and geographical composition effects over the period. While the distance effect should have decreased with constant country composition, the rise of East Asian economies, associated to large distance elasticities, compensated lower frictions in other countries. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge Diffusion;Innovation Networks;Spatial Frictions;Patent Citation |
| JEL: | L14 O33 R12 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2024-08 |
| By: | von Ehrlich, Maximilian |
| Abstract: | This chapter discusses factors that contributed to different economic dynamics across European regions and the prevailing disparities. The impact of EU Cohesion Policy in reducing disparities is studied based on the empirical evidence on the effects of EU regional policy. With more than thirty years of experience, several important conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness and efficiency of place-based transfers in Europe. While EU regional policy has not completely countered market-driven processes that lead to regional disparities, it appears to have modestly alleviated them. To enhance the effectiveness of EU Cohesion Policy, this chapter advocates for an improved policy design and a shift in emphasis towards local institutions and governments in recipient regions, emphasizing that merely increasing the volume of transfers cannot compensate for these improvements. |
| Keywords: | EU Structural Policy, Place-based policies, regional inequality, economic geography |
| JEL: | R10 R50 H20 F20 D70 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:300266 |
| By: | Stephan Heblich; David Krisztian Nagy; Alex Trew; Yanos Zylberberg |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how cities’ industrial structure shapes their life and death. Our analys is exploits the large heterogeneity in the early composition of English and Welsh cities. We extract built-up clusters from early historical maps, identify settlements at the on set of the nineteenth century, and isolate exogenous variation in the nature of their rise during the transformation of the economy by the end of the nineteenth century. We then estimate the causal impact of cities’ population and industrial specialization on their later dynamics. We find that cities specializing in a small number of industries decline in the long run. We develop a dynamic spatial model of cities to isolate the forces which govern their life and death.Intratemporally, the model captures the role of amenities, land, local productivity and trade in explaining the distribution of economic activity across industries and cities. Intertemporally, the model can disentangle the role of aggregate industry dynamics from city-specific externalities. We find that the long-run dynamics of English and Welsh cities is explained to a large extent by such dynamic externalities `a la Jacobs. |
| Keywords: | specialization; cities over time; quantitative economic geography. |
| JEL: | F63 N93 O14 R13 |
| Date: | 2023–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gla:glaewp:2023_09 |
| By: | Hornbeck, Richard; Michaels, Guy; Rauch, Ferdinand |
| Abstract: | We examine "agglomeration shadows" that emerge around large cities, which discourage some economic activities in nearby areas. Identifying agglomeration shadows is complicated, however, by endogenous city formation and "wave interference" that we show in simulations. We use the locations of ancient ports near the Mediterranean, which seeded modern cities, to estimate agglomeration shadows cast on nearby areas. We find that empirically, as in the simulations, detectable agglomeration shadows emerge for large cities around ancient ports. These patterns extend to modern city locations more generally, and illustrate how encouraging growth in particular places can discourage growth of nearby areas. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration shadow; urban hierarchy; new economic geography |
| Date: | 2024–08–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:awi:wpaper:0752 |
| By: | Pedro Elosegui (Banco Central de la República Argentina); Gabriel Michelena (MESi-Universidad de Buenos Aires); Marcos Herrera Gómez (CIANECO-CONICET/Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto) |
| Abstract: | Multi-regional input-output (MRIO) matrices are an important tool for regional economic analysis, but compiling the data for them remains challenging, especially in developing countries like Argentina. There is no consistent, up-to-date, official national I-O table available for Argentina, and data at the provincial level is limited and fragmented across different sources. This paper develops a premier (limited information) multi-regional input-output matrix for Argentina 2019 making a dual contribution: (i) constructing the first MRIO table for Argentina using official and customized sources, and (ii) evaluating I-O multipliers, providing insights for future applications. The MRIO table includes 5 regions aggregating the 24 Argentinean provinces and 20 economic sectors. While only basic multipliers are presented the table provides a foundation for more in-depth input-output modeling and analysis of production, consumption, and trade linkages between regions and sectors in Argentina. We found a high concentration in the provinces of the Pampeana region in gross output, value added and regional internal inputs, although less in external inputs, confirming the asymmetric structure of the country. In addition, the analysis of multipliers allows us to detect some relevant links in the peripheral regions reflecting the interaction of spatial location and sector specialization in a federal and heterogeneous open developing economy. |
| Keywords: | MRIO tables; input–output analysis, regional trade |
| JEL: | C67 D57 R15 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aoz:wpaper:332 |
| By: | Emanuele Bacchiocchi (Department of Economics, University of Bologna); Andrea Bastianin (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods, University of Milan); Graziano Moramarco (Department of Economics, University of Bologna) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the short-run effects of severe weather shocks on local economic activity and assess cross-border spillovers operating through economic linkages between U.S. States. We measure weather shocks using a detailed county-level database on emergency declarations triggered by natural disasters and estimate their impacts with a monthly Global Vector Autoregressive (GVAR) model for the U.S. States. Impulse responses highlight significant country-wide macroeconomic effects of weather shocks hitting individual regions. We also show that (i) taking into account economic interconnections between states allows capturing much stronger spillover effects than those associated with mere spatial adjacency, (ii) geographical heterogeneity is critical for assessing country-wide effects of weather shocks, and (iii) network effects amplify the local impacts of these shocks. |
| Keywords: | Global VAR, natural disasters, spillovers, weather shocks, United States, climate change |
| JEL: | C32 R11 Q51 Q54 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2024.09 |
| By: | Kensuke Ohtake |
| Abstract: | A new economic geography model is proposed in which the migration of mobile workers is proximate and perturbed by non-economic factors. The model consists of a tractable core-periphery model assuming a quasi-linear log utility function of consumers and an advection-diffusion equation governing the time evolution of a population distribution. The stability of a spatially homogeneous stationary solution and the large time behavior of solutions to the model on a one-dimensional periodic space are investigated. When the spatially homogeneous stationary solution is unstable, solutions starting around it are found to eventually form spatial patterns with several urban areas in which mobile workers agglomerate. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2407.05804 |
| By: | Eder, Christoph; Halla, Martin; Hilmbauer-Hofmarcher, Philipp |
| Abstract: | How does military occupation affect long-term economic development? We use the post-World War II occupation of Austria as a laboratory setting. Austria was divided into different occupation zones for ten years. The Soviet occupation was exploitative, while the Western Allied occupation was more supportive. After ten years of different occupation regimes, the regions returned to a single nation-state. We estimate the impact of different occupation regimes on long-term economic development. Methodologically, we combine a spatial regression discontinuity design with a difference-in-differences approach. We find that areas in the former Soviet zone are still less economically developed today. These areas are less populated, host fewer and lower paying jobs, and their residents are more likely to commute outside the former Soviet zone. The most plausible mechanism for these long-lasting effects are agglomeration effects triggered by a large migration shock from East to West as the population fled the advancing Soviet army. |
| Keywords: | military occupation; migration; economic development; World War II; Austria; agglomeration effects |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus005:65558588 |
| By: | Fabian Eckert; Sharat Ganapati; Conor Walsh |
| Abstract: | After 1980, larger US cities experienced substantially faster wage growth than smaller ones. We show that this urban bias mainly reflected wage growth at large Business Services firms. These firms stand out through their high per-worker expenditure on information technology and disproportionate presence in big cities. We introduce a spatial model of investment-specific technical change that can rationalize these patterns. Using the model as an accounting framework, we find that the observed decline in the investment price of information technology capital explains most urban-biased growth by raising the profits of large Business Services firms in big cities. |
| Keywords: | Urban Growth, High-skill Services, Technological Change |
| JEL: | J31 O33 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:24-33 |
| By: | Taylor, Karl (University of Sheffield); Bhadury, Soumya (2Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)); Binner, Jane (University of Birmingham); Mandal, Anandadeep (University of Birmingham) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we consider the predictors of the business cycle in Great Britain, where the claimant count and unemployment rate are found to be key indicators associated with turning points. Next, we consider at a micro-economic level, using disaggregated local authority level data, a number of local labour market issues: (i) the determinants of the claimant count and unemployment rate (both highly correlated with the cycle); (ii) local level economic resilience; and (iii) the likelihood of different states of regional vulnerability. Benefit generosity, unit labour costs and state dependence (hysteresis) are key drivers of local labour market performance. |
| Keywords: | business cycle dating, local labour markets, resilience, regional vulnerability |
| JEL: | E24 E32 J20 R10 R23 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17153 |
| By: | Duygu Buyukyazici; Eva Coll-Martinez; ; ; |
| Abstract: | Despite the growing literature on the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) within the last decades, the understanding of the actual human capital that characterises these industries is still limited. The need for a framework to unfold the CCIs’ human capital increases when considering their long-attributed role in knowledge spillovers, cross-fertilisation, and innovation processes in the larger economy. In this regard, the present study provides the first conceptual and empirical framework to identify and evaluate the CCIs’ skill compositions by utilising the revealed skill requirements method based on the relative skill advantage, relatedness and complexity measures. Based on this framework, essential and complementary skills for the CCIs are identified and discussed in terms of the implications for regional specialisation. |
| Keywords: | cultural and creative industries, skill relatedness, skill complexity, regional specialisation. |
| JEL: | R39 Z10 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2421 |
| By: | Robert Calvert Jump; Adam Scavette |
| Abstract: | Using synthetic differences-in-differences models, we study whether U.S. counties containing state flagship universities experienced resiliency via lower unemployment rates during the past three U.S. recessions. We find an insignificant effect for the 2001 recession and a large resiliency effect for the 2008-2009 recession. However, counties with flagship universities faced higher unemployment rates during the 2020 recession, and were therefore less resilient to the Covid-19 recession than other counties. These results support the hypothesis that stable consumption demand for non-tradables drives resiliency, which was absent during the 2020 recession when most university campuses were closed to students due to Covid-19 restrictions. |
| Keywords: | Regional Business Cycles; Unemployment; Research Universities; Regional Resilience |
| JEL: | R11 R23 R53 |
| Date: | 2024–06–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedrwp:98523 |
| By: | Reher, Leonie; Runst, Petrik; Thomä, Jörg; Bizer, Kilian |
| Abstract: | In order to better capture non-R&D based processes related to Learning by Doing, Using and Interacting (DUI) as a basis for policy advice, this paper empirically identifies DUI mode drivers of SME innovation. For the first time, a large set of conceptually derived indicators is used in a self-conducted survey. Using lasso regression as a data-driven selection technique capable of handling such a large number of potential predictors, we find that DUI learning involves a wide range of elements beyond interaction with external actors. Moreover, our results suggest that the relevance of DUI learning for predicting SME innovation depends on both the region and the type of innovation output. SME innovation in lagging regions is strongly related to the DUI mode, which is particularly pronounced in the case of intra-firm learning processes. These results suggest that R&D capacity is not the only main driver of SME innovation, especially in lagging regions, and therefore provide an indication of how firms can compensate for unfavourable conditions in their regional innovation environment. This in turn implies going beyond innovation policy in the narrow sense to a more holistic approach that may include links with other policy areas. |
| Abstract: | Um die nicht auf formaler Forschung und Entwicklung (FuE) basierenden Prozesse im Zusammenhang mit dem handwerksnahen Innovationsmodus des "Learning by Doing, Using and Interacting (DUI)" als Grundlage für die Gestaltung innovationspolitischer Maßnahmen besser zu erfassen, werden in diesem Forschungspapier die DUI-Treiber von Innovationen in kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen (KMU) empirisch ermittelt. Erstmals wird ein umfangreiches Set konzeptionell hergeleiteter DUI-Indikatoren in einer eigenen Erhebung erhoben und ausgewertet. Unter Verwendung der Lasso-Regression als datengetriebene Selektionsmethode, die in der Lage ist, mit einer so großen Anzahl potenzieller Prädiktoren umzugehen, zeigt sich, dass DUI-Lernen in KMU eine breite Palette von Elementen umfasst, die über die Interaktion mit externen Akteuren hinausgehen. Darüber hinaus deuten unsere Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass die Relevanz des DUI-Lernens als Treiber von Innovationen in KMU sowohl von der Region als auch von der Art des Innovationsoutputs abhängt. So hängt die Innovationstätigkeit von KMU in strukturschwachen Regionen besonders stark mit dem DUI-Modus zusammen, was im Fall von unternehmensinternen Lernprozessen besonders ausgeprägt ist. Diese und andere Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass die FuE-Kapazität insbesondere in strukturschwachen Regionen nicht der einzige Treiber für Innovationen in KMU ist, und geben damit einen Hinweis darauf, wie Unternehmen ungünstige Bedingungen in ihrem regionalen Innovationsumfeld zumindest teilweise kompensieren können. Dies wiederum setzt voraus, dass man über die Innovationspolitik im engeren Sinne hinausgeht und einen ganzheitlicheren Ansatz verfolgt, der auch Verbindungen zu anderen Politikbereichen wie Arbeitsmarkt oder Bildung beinhaltet. |
| Keywords: | innovation measurement, innovation indicator, modes of innovation, SME innovation, regional innovation, lagging regions, lasso regression, variable selection, group lasso, ordinal predictors |
| JEL: | C50 C81 O3 O31 R11 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifhwps:300235 |
| By: | Edenhofer, Jacob (University of Oxford); Fetzer, Thiemo (University of Warwick & Bonn and affiliated with CEPR, CAGE, NIESR, ECONtribute, Grantham Institute); Garg, Prashant (Imperial College London) |
| Abstract: | Support for right-wing populist parties is characterised by considerable regional heterogeneity and especially concentrated in regions that have experienced economic decline. It remains unclear, however, whether the spatial externalities of local decline, including homelessness and crime, boost support for populist parties, even among those not directly affected by such decline. In this paper, we contribute to filling this gap in two ways. First, we gather novel data on a particularly visible form of local decline, high-street vacancies, that comprise 83, 000 premises in England and Wales. Second, we investigate the influence of local decline on support for the right-wing populist UK Independence Party (UKIP) between 2009 and 2019. We find a significant positive association between high-street vacancy rates and UKIP support. These results enhance our understanding of how changes in the lived environment shape political preferences and behaviour, particularly in relation to right-wing populism. |
| Keywords: | Local Economic Conditions ; Populism ; High-street Vacancies ; Unemployment ; Urban Transformation JEL Codes: D72 ; R11 ; R12 ; R23 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1508 |
| By: | Dekkera, Thekla; Jantos, Louisa |
| Abstract: | Sustainability transformation needs regional engagement of the entirety of actors within. One central actor is the university with its mission and activities to transfer knowledge. This paper provides a first approach to identifying best practice regions for sustainability transformation within Europe and addresses potential literature gaps. By composite indexing of systemic sustainability indices and knowledge transfer metrics on a regional level as well as a subsequent systematic literature review, this work aims at (1) providing best practice regions for sustainability transformation and actor collaboration as well as (2) future research avenues. The study selects Copenhagen, Zurich, Stockholm, and Helsinki as regions of interest. It advocates exploring the dynamics within entire regions, emphasizing the interplay of actors in Regional Innovation Systems (RIS). |
| Abstract: | Die Transformation in Richtung Nachhaltigkeit erfordert ein regionales Engagement der Gesamtheit der Akteure. Ein zentraler Akteur ist die Universität mit ihrem Auftrag und ihren Aktivitäten des Wissenstransfers. Diese Studie bietet einen ersten Ansatz zur Identifizierung von Best-Practice-Regionen für die Nachhaltigkeitstransformation in Europa und geht auf mögliche Literaturlücken ein. Durch eine zusammengesetzte Indexierung von systemischen Nachhaltigkeitsindizes und Wissenstransfer-Metriken auf regionaler Ebene sowie eine anschließende systematische Literaturrecherche zielt diese Arbeit darauf ab, (1) Best-Practice-Regionen für die Nachhaltigkeitstransformation und die Zusammenarbeit von Akteuren zu identifizieren sowie (2) zukünftige Forschungsansätze zu identifizieren. Die Studie wählt Kopenhagen, Zürich, Stockholm und Helsinki als Regionen von Interesse aus. Sie plädiert dafür, die ganzheitliche Dynamik innerhalb der Regionen zu untersuchen und dabei das Zusammenspiel der Akteure in regionalen Innovationssystemen (RIS) zu betonen. |
| Keywords: | Regional Innovation System, Knowledge Transfer, best practice, Europe, University |
| JEL: | I23 O31 O35 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifhwps:300696 |
| By: | Italo Colantone; Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano; Tom Schmitz |
| Abstract: | This paper shows how to combine microeconometric evidence on the effects of environmental policy with a macroeconomic model, accounting for general equilibrium spillovers that have mostly been ignored in the literature. To this end, we study the effects of a recent US air pollution policy. We use regression evidence on the policy's impact across industries and local labor markets to calibrate a quantitative spatial model allowing for general equilibrium spillovers. Our model implies that the policy lowered emissions by 11.1%, but destroyed approximately 250'000 jobs. Ignoring spillovers overestimates job losses in polluting industries, but underestimates job losses in clean industries. |
| Keywords: | environmental policy, employment, trade, clean air act |
| Date: | 2024–07–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp2016 |
| By: | Michal Burzynski |
| Abstract: | Automation of labor tasks is one of the most dynamic aspects of recent technological progress. This paper aims at improving our understanding of the way that automation affects labor markets, analyzing the example of European countries. The quantitative theoretical methodology proposed in this paper allows to focus on automation-induced migration of workers, occupation switching and income inequality. The key findings include that automation in the first two decades of the 21st century had a significant impact on job upgrading of native workers and generated gains in many local labor markets. Even though net migration of workers was attenuated due to convergence in incomes across European regions, mobility at occupation levels had a sizeable impact on transmitting welfare effects of automation. |
| Keywords: | automation; migration; technological progress; inequality |
| JEL: | J24 O33 R12 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2024-04 |
| By: | Hyoji Choi; Jonghyun Kim; Donghyeon Yu; Bogang Jun; |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the impact of the 2018 summer heat wave on urban mobility in Seoul and the role of economic complexity in the region’s resilience. Findings from subway and mobile phone data indicate a significant decrease in the floating population during extreme heat wave, underscoring the thermal vulnerability of urban areas. However, urban regions with higher complexity demonstrate resilience, attracting more visitors despite high temperatures. Our results suggest the centrality of economic complexity in urban resilience against climate-induced stressors. Additionally, it implies that high-complexity small businesses’ clusters can serve as focal points for sustaining urban vitality in the face of thermal shocks within city. In the long run perspective, our results imply the possibility that people are more concentrated in high complexity region in the era of global warming. |
| Keywords: | EconomicComplexity, Resilience, Heatwave, Mobility |
| JEL: | O18 R12 R30 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2423 |
| By: | Thöne, Michael |
| Abstract: | In its current setup, the European Union is often characterised as slow, decision-impeding, inefficient and therefore not really ready for enlargement. The pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and the increasingly uncertain role in the global economy have further increased the high pressure on the EU to undergo modernisation. In this context, structural and Cohesion Policy is of double interest. With 30 per cent of the regular EU budget, it is one of its most important fields of action - one that has historically grown into a complex and opaque maze of objectives and instruments - and is therefore "part of the problem". At the same time, regional policy is traditionally a "part of the solution" whenever the need arises to pave the way for the enlargement and/or deepening of the EU through financial compensation. The paper sheds light on this dual function of Cohesion Policy by examining its fiscal architecture, which forms the underlying framework for convergence and cohesion policies. In several steps, Cohesion Policy is examined in its function as a European financial equalisation system. The history of regional policy is reconstructed as a development in which the equalisation motive always came first, before Cohesion Policy justifications were applied to instrumental or financial expansions of this policy field. The "Mezzogiorno test" shows that the function of financial equalisation - albeit hidden - continues to dominate; alongside the promotional Cohesion Policy, the equalising Cohesion Policy plays de facto a very important role. This is also illustrated quantitatively and with an in-depth look at the little-analysed mechanism that ensures the allocation of EU funds across the Member States and their regions. Not least with regard to this fiscal equalisation formula, known as the Berlin method, the paper formulates several recommendations for the modernisation of structural policy, which are based on the premise that the purpose of Cohesion Policy to act as a financial equalisation is openly recognised and used productively for the further development of this policy area. The character of vertical fiscal equalisation with a horizontal effect and a strong investment focus should be retained, but further developed in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity. In the course of this, the "luxury fiscal equalisation" can also be reduced, which is currently carried out by allocating cohesion funds even to the richest regions of the EU and which costs 27 billion euros per year. A stronger focus on subsidiarity in cohesion policy would also support Member States in implementing modern, place-based policies, which will also make it easier and more efficient to achieve climate change and broader transformation goals. |
| Keywords: | cohesion policy, European structural and investment funds, EU fiscal equalisation |
| JEL: | H70 H77 R11 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:300246 |
| By: | Abe Dunn; Eric English; Kyle Hood; Lowell Mason; Brian Quistorff |
| Abstract: | Big data offers potentially enormous benefits for improving economic measurement, but it also presents challenges (e.g., lack of representativeness and instability), implying that their value is not always clear. We propose a framework for quantifying the usefulness of these data sources for specific applications, relative to existing official sources. We specifically weigh the potential benefits of additional granularity and timeliness, while examining the accuracy associated with any new or improved estimates, relative to comparable accuracy produced in existing official statistics. We apply the methodology to employment estimates using data from a payroll processor, considering both the improvement of existing state-level estimates, but also the production of new, more timely, county-level estimates. We find that incorporating payroll data can improve existing state-level estimates by 11% based on out-of-sample mean absolute error, although the improvement is considerably higher for smaller state-industry cells. We also produce new county-level estimates that could provide more timely granular estimates than previously available. We develop a novel test to determine if these new county-level estimates have errors consistent with official series. Given the level of granularity, we cannot reject the hypothesis that the new county estimates have an accuracy in line with official measures, implying an expansion of the existing frontier. We demonstrate the practical importance of these experimental estimates by investigating a hypothetical application during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period in which more timely and granular information could have assisted in implementing effective policies. Relative to existing estimates, we find that the alternative payroll data series could help identify areas of the country where employment was lagging. Moreover, we also demonstrate the value of a more timely series. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:24-37 |
| By: | Campbell, Malcolm |
| Abstract: | This commentary primarily discusses new data sources featuring fine grained spatio-temporal data that have emerged in recent years from a variety of sources that previously did not exist or that were not easily accessible either from public or commercial entities. The focus here is on mobile phone location data (MPLD) as one avenue for potential new directions that have emerged and become increasingly relevant to a constellation of thematic areas across population research. I also discuss how new data sources, principally MPLD, aid in addressing some of the longstanding challenges and limitations of existing secondary data sources, while simultaneously creating both opportunities and limitations for researchers. Furthermore, a discussion of some salient potential applications and pitfalls of big geospatial data are articulated when these are applied to population research internationally, but also in Aotearoa New Zealand. It could be argued that there is an explicit challenge to the longstanding conceptualisation of static residence-based measures applied to a range of thematic areas across population research, such as understanding movement or migration. We further posit that it is timely to (re)consider the role that big geospatial data, specifically MPLD, plays in understanding central questions in both geography and demography, such as where, when and why do people move? It can be demonstrated that there is a wealth of big geospatial data that now can be exploited leading to opportunities for better understanding of the dynamic processes related to people and places. It could be argued that it is time for a more fulsome engagement with MPLD and other big geospatial data sets and techniques to grapple with both the opportunities and challenges for understanding population dynamics, as well as the patterns and processes that give rise to inequalities and inequities between people and places in Aotearoa New Zealand and further afield. |
| Date: | 2024–07–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:x6c2z |