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on Economic Geography |
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Issue of 2026–05–18
nine papers chosen by Andreas Koch, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung |
| By: | Balestra, Mattia; Cainelli, Giulio; Ganau, Roberto; Matsiuk, Nadiia; Pasquato, Mario; Pierdicca, Roberto |
| Abstract: | We combine history with economic geography to shed light on the long-run determinants of territorial development differentials in Italy. Specifically, we study the effects of historical sovereignty change on current local economic development. We measure historical sovereignty change as the yearly number of changes of sovereignty that occurred in the period 1000–1861—that is, until the unification of Italy—and assess its effects on labor productivity in 2018. We estimate a negative effect of historical sovereignty change on current local economic development, and identify—both theoretically and empirically—civic capital as a plausible underlying mechanism. |
| Keywords: | historical sovereignty change; civic capital; Italy; local economic development |
| JEL: | R11 N00 |
| Date: | 2026–05–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:138356 |
| By: | Compano Ramon (European Commission - JRC); Johanyak Csaba; Testa Giuseppina; Zhen Ni; Testa Giuseppina; Tuebke Alexander (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether, and under which conditions, regional entrepreneurial ecosystems mitigate spatial frictions in cross-regional venture capital (VC) investments. Using a dyadic panel of VC flows across 267 European NUTS-2 regions over 2008-2022, we estimate gravity-style regressions with high-dimensional fixed effects, distinguishing investments by stage and investor origin. Our results show that spatial frictions, particularly geographic and economic distance, remain important determinants of VC allocation. At the same time, regions with stronger entrepreneurial ecosystems attract higher VC inflows and exhibit lower sensitivity to institutional and structural differences. Differences across investor origins suggest that ecosystem legibility is most valuable when institutional uncertainty is high, such as for cross-border investors. |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:202601 |
| By: | Lisa Chauvet; Abel Francois; Jean Lacroix |
| Abstract: | How do conflicts shape territories in the long run? To answer this question, this paper dissects population dynamics within Normandy throughout the 20th century. Despite the destruction caused by the 1944 Allied Landings, Normandy reversed the demographic decline it had experienced until 1940 — a dynamic at odds with previous literature showing a negative or neutral effect of conflicts. Using a difference-in-differences estimator, we confirm that within Normandy, combat duration dampened population growth in the short run. In the medium run, areas exposed to combat recovered and later overshot the population levels implied by their initial trend. An analysis of a comprehensive inventory of all dwelling units 25 years after WWII suggests that the post-war reconstruction effort explains this counterintuitive pattern. These results evidence the importance of reconstruction policies after conflicts. Beyond geographic fundamentals and random factors, they carve the spatial distribution of economic activities. |
| Keywords: | conflict, World War II, reconstruction, economic geography |
| JEL: | N44 N94 R12 J10 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12658 |
| By: | Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy; James Allan Jones |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of rapid transit (RT) within a monocentric city model that features agglomeration efficiencies and congestion frictions. While RT increases wages and city size, its effect on road vehicle use is ambiguous. Vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) can increase when either agglomeration or congestion effects are sufficiently large. Policies to reduce VKT by developing RT should therefore provide additional (dis)incentives to public (private) transportation. Calibrating the model to Auckland, New Zealand, substantial improvements in RT capacity generate negligible changes in VKT. However, combining improvements with a congestion charge generates meaningful reductions in VKT while maintaining increases in wages. |
| Keywords: | Agglomeration; Congestion; Mode Choice; Rapid Transit; Public Transport; Commuting Costs |
| JEL: | R12 R15 R41 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cyc:wpaper:007 |
| By: | Filippo Boeri; Olmo Silva |
| Abstract: | In the late nineteenth century, Alfred Marshall identified three micro-foundations of agglomeration economies: labour pooling (LP), input sharing (IO), and knowledge spillovers (KS). An extensive literature has tested the existence of the three Marshallian forces in modern economies. However, there is limited quantitative evidence on the existence of such forces at the times of Marshall. To shed light on these issues, we exploit novel geo-localised census-level data on entrepreneurs and business proprietors retrieved from six consecutive UK Censuses (1851-1911), coupled with census-level workers' data, information on historical patents and historical IO tables. We estimate co-agglomeration models to assess the relative importance of LP, IO, and KS in explaining industrial clustering during Britain's industrialisation. Our results point to a strong role for KS and LP, but only limited evidence for IO. We also show that the strength of the three forces increased over time, and that there is considerable heterogeneity across industries with different characteristics. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration economies, Alfred Marshall, economic history, historical censuses |
| Date: | 2026–04–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp2174 |
| By: | Yunhan Zheng; Jinhua Zhao |
| Abstract: | Geographic constraints have long structured access to high-growth career opportunities, concentrating upward mobility within a limited set of cities and organizations. The expansion of remote work potentially alters this opportunity structure by decoupling job matching from physical proximity, yet its implications for career mobility remain unclear. Using 48 million U.S. job transitions between 2020 and 2024 linked to employer-level measures of remote eligibility, we estimate how entering remote-eligible jobs shapes career outcomes at job transitions. Workers entering remote-eligible jobs experience significantly higher wage growth and higher rates of upward seniority mobility than comparable workers entering fully on-site roles. These transitions are also associated with greater cross-metropolitan job mobility and moves toward smaller, less prestigious employers. Importantly, effects are largest among lower-income workers and those originating from regions with limited high-skill opportunity density. Together, the findings indicate that remote work relaxes geographic constraints in job matching, reshaping the distribution of upward mobility across places and workers. |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2605.01268 |
| By: | Daiwei Chen; Pierre-Alexandre Balland |
| Abstract: | China’s high-speed rail (HSR) network, initiated in 2008, now covers nearly all regionsof the country. This paper analyzes the effect of HSR connection on inter-city scientific collaboration and examines whether this e!ect varies systematically with the complexity of scientific fields. Combining the universe of HSR openings between 2008 and 2020 with OpenAlex publication records, we construct a panel spanning 33, 793 Chinese city pairs. Using a staggered difference-in-differences estimator, we find that HSR increases co-publications among city-pairs with existing collaborative ties by 35.2 percent at the city-pair level. Disaggregating across twenty scientific fields, we show that this effect is quite heterogeneous. Field-level treatment e!ects range from 19.8 to 45.1 percent, and their magnitude is positively and significantly correlated with average team size -a proxy of the fields’ complexity. These results are consistent with the view that face-to-face interaction is still important for knowledge production requiring deep divisions of cognitive labour, and they carry direct implications for the design of transportation and innovation policy. |
| Keywords: | High-Speed Rail (HSR), Scientific Collaboration, Knowledge Complexity, Face-to-Face Interaction |
| JEL: | O33 O38 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2605 |
| By: | Liang, Yuqi; Meyerhoff-Liang, Jan |
| Abstract: | Innovation research frequently relies on patent data to study technological change, yet empirical coverage of cities in the Global South remains limited. Sequence analysis has gained increasing attention as a method for analysing categorical trajectories in social sciences, but its application to regional innovation studies is constrained by the lack of sequence-ready urban datasets. Moreover, integration of sequence analysis with network analysis is underexplored, despite its potential to jointly capture relational structures and trajectory patterns in innovation processes. This paper introduces a database of sequential patent data for the innovation trajectories of 4, 125 Global South cities. Derived from existing geocoded patent data, the database includes general and technology-specific datasets (computing, environmental technology, and medicine), each available in sequence, network, sequence–network, and panel formats. Spanning from 1980 to 2014 and covering cities from seven countries (Brazil, Chile, China, India, Mexico, South Africa, and Turkey), the database supports analyses of innovation dynamics and helps increase the representation of Global South cities in economic geography, development studies and innovation research. |
| Date: | 2026–05–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:9w3ec_v1 |
| By: | Diego Dessi; Simona Iammarino; Stefano Usai |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the European Union (EU)’s strategy for securing Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) within the framework of Open Strategic Autonomy (OSA). As the green and digital transitions escalate global demand, the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) establishes ambitious 2030 targets for domestic extraction, processing, and recycling to reduce reliance on concentrated foreign suppliers. The study critically evaluates the EU’s main policy targets against the natural endowment of Strategic Raw Materials (SRMs) through global comparisons and subnational mapping at the NUTS-2 level. Findings indicate that European SRM resources are generally below global averages and highly concentrated in specific regions, predominantly in the Nordic countries and the Iberian Peninsula. We argue that CRMA’s top-down approach risks overlooking regional capabilities, geological constraints, and social responses from the communities involved. The paper suggests that without integrating place-based approaches and fostering equitable international interregional partnerships, the current strategy may undermine the EU’s pursuit of the targets of current industrial strategies for competitiveness and technological sovereignty. |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:2606 |