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on Economic Geography |
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Issue of 2025–01–13
seven papers chosen by Andreas Koch, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung |
| By: | Losacker, Sebastian (Justus Liebig University Giessen); Befort, Nicolas (NEOMA Business School); Kriesch, Lukas (Justus Liebig University Giessen); Lhuillery , Stephane (NEOMA Business School) |
| Abstract: | National governments worldwide have implemented strategies to transition towards biobased economies, primarily driven by technological progress. However, how this transition unfolds at the regional level remains under-researched. This paper aims to uncover regional trajectories towards a bioeconomy with a focus on bio-based technologies. We build on the geography of innovation literature and show that potential pathways towards regional bioeconomies are very heterogeneous, thus requiring place-based policy strategies to advance the bioeconomy and its innovations. Empirically, the paper combines two unique patent datasets to reveal how the bioeconomy patent portfolio of 617 regions from 27 OECD countries has changed from 1982 to 2014. We utilize geographical sequence analysis, a novel tool recently introduced to geographical research, and shift-share techniques to categorize and better understand the regional trajectories. |
| Keywords: | Bioeconomy; Sequence Analysis; Geography of Innovation; Sustainability Transitions |
| JEL: | O31 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2024–12–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2024_021 |
| By: | Grillitsch, Markus (CIRCLE, Lund University); Nilsen, Trond (Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Recent studies provide insights about local agency in regional development. While acknowledging non-local actors and drivers, these studies have not systematically discussed the link between extra-regional relations and local agency. This paper first discusses three key arguments in the literature on extra-regional relations covering context-specific dependencies, strategic coupling, and open innovation. It then proposes a theoretically informed typology linking extra-regional relations and local agency. The typology considers whether local actors can influence the extra-regional relation, and whether global actors are engaged locally. The discussion shows that the resulting four types relations enable or constrain local agency in different ways, which call for tailored regional development work to build local agency and widen regional opportunity spaces. |
| Keywords: | Local agency; regional development; extra-regional relations; multi-scalar perspectives |
| JEL: | F60 R10 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2024–11–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2024_019 |
| By: | Baumgartinger-Seiringer, Simon (HEC Montréal); Shearmur, Richard (McGill University); Doloreux, David (HEC Montréal); Gauthier, Amélie (HEC Montréal) |
| Abstract: | Amid growing geopolitical tensions and supply chain fragilities, many countries adopt new industrial policies aimed at reshoring strategic industries. Simultaneously, rising awareness of the link between feelings of disenfranchisement and regional development levels underscores the strategic importance of intra-national industrial location. Within this context, we propose the concept of Strategic Regional Path Development, understood as a mechanism for (supra-) national industrial capacity-building based on top-down government interventions. Testing the framework using a semiconductor innovation zone in Québec as a case study, we conclude that success depends on aligning expectations and reconciling perspectives on its purpose across policymaking levels and involved actors. |
| Keywords: | new path development; new industrial policies; geo-politics; reshoring; regional inequality; left-behind places |
| JEL: | L52 O33 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2024–11–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2024_020 |
| By: | Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. (Humboldt University Berlin); Bald, Fabian (European University Viadrina, Frankfurt / Oder); Roth, Duncan H.W. (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Seidel, Tobias (University of Duisburg-Essen) |
| Abstract: | Using a quantitative spatial model as a data-generating process, we explore how spatial frictions affect the measurement of quality of life. We find that under a canonical parameterization, mobility frictions - generated by idiosyncratic tastes and local ties - dominate trade frictions - generated by trade costs and non-tradable services - as a source of measurement error in the Rosen-Roback framework. This non-classical measurement error leads to a downward bias in estimates of the urban quality-of-life premium. Our application to Germany reveals that accounting for spatial frictions results in larger quality-of-life differences, different quality-of-life rankings, and an urban quality-of-life premium that exceeds the urban wage premium. |
| Keywords: | housing, spatial frictions, rents, prices, productivity, quality of life, spatial equilibrium, wages |
| JEL: | J2 J3 R2 R3 R5 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17549 |
| By: | Glenn Magerman (ULB, CEPR and CESIfo); Alberto Palazzolo (Economics and Research Department, National Bank of Belgium and ULB) |
| Abstract: | After decades of globalization, many countries are now considering various measures to reduce their dependence on third countries and to incentivize domestic production. This paper analyzes a policy toolbox encompassing trade, industrial, and public policies and their effects on the EU and its geographical regions. We develop a multi-sector, multi-region general equilibrium framework with imperfect competition, input-output linkages, and external economies of scale. Regional and supranational governments set policies and raise taxes and provide subsidies to fund these. We calibrate our framework using detailed data on 235 EU NUTS2 regions and 25 Rest of the World aggregates, with 55 sectors and input-output linkages both within and across regions. Our results show that raising trade barriers reduces EU welfare, with substantial variation across regions. Industrial policy generates positive welfare effects. Public policy results are ambiguous. Across all policies, input-output linkages significantly amplify positive and negative welfare changes, dominating other channels such as classical gains from trade or economies of scale channels. Even common policies, like trade policy, can generate significant winners and losers across regions within the same country. Moreover, the same region can gain under one policy but lose under another. These results highlight that one policy objective can be implemented through multiple instruments, generating positive or negative aggregate welfare effects under each instrument, while obfuscating massive heterogeneity in regional outcomes, even within countries. |
| Keywords: | Deglobalization, Regional Inequalities, Trade policy, Industrial Policy, Public Policy, Supply Chains, General Equilibrium |
| JEL: | F10 R12 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:202410-464 |
| By: | David Autor; David Dorn; Gordon Hanson; Maggie R. Jones; Bradley Setzler |
| Abstract: | We analyze the distinct adjustment paths of U.S. labor markets (places) and U.S. workers (people) to increased Chinese import competition during the 2000s. Using comprehensive register data for 2000–2019, we document that employment levels more than fully rebound in trade-exposed places after 2010, while employment-to-population ratios remain depressed and manufacturing employment further atrophies. The adjustment of places to trade shocks is generational: affected areas recover primarily by adding workers to non-manufacturing who were below working age when the shock occurred. Entrants are disproportionately native-born Hispanics, foreign-born immigrants, women, and the college-educated, who find employment in relatively low-wage service sectors like medical services, education, retail, and hospitality. Using the panel structure of the employer-employee data, we decompose changes in the employment composition of places into trade-induced shifts in the gross flows of people across sectors, locations, and non-employment status. Contrary to standard models, trade shocks reduce geographic mobility, with both in- and out-migration remaining depressed through 2019. The employment recovery instead stems almost entirely from young adults and foreign-born immigrants taking their first U.S. jobs in affected areas, with minimal contributions from cross-sector transitions of former manufacturing workers. Although worker inflows into non-manufacturing more than fully offset manufacturing employment losses in trade-exposed locations after 2010, incumbent workers neither fully recover earnings losses nor predominately exit the labor market, but rather age in place as communities undergo rapid demographic and industrial transitions. |
| JEL: | F16 J23 J31 J62 L6 R12 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:24-78 |
| By: | Carlos A. Piccioni; Saulo B. Bastos; Daniel O. Cajueiro |
| Abstract: | We measure municipal-level inequality based on electronic payment data, specifically credit card and Pix payments, which we consider as a proxy for consumption. Our consumption inequality measure is correlated with income inequality calculated using census data, and it exhibits similar regional behavior, although it indicates higher inequality on average, given the nature of the data used. As an application, we assess the relationship between our inequality measure and the Economic Complexity Index (ECI) at the municipal level. We find a negative relationship, indicating that higher economic complexity is associated with lower consumption inequality. Additionally, the relationship is non-linear: with increasing ECI, the influence on consumption inequality becomes more significant. |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bcb:wpaper:608 |