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on Economic Geography |
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Issue of 2020‒10‒19
eight papers chosen by Andreas Koch Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung |
| By: | Ehrlich, Maximilian V.; Overman, Henry G. |
| Abstract: | Spatial disparities in income levels and worklessness in the European Union are profound, persistent and may be widening. We describe disparities across metropolitan regions and discuss theories and empirical evidence that help us understand what causes these disparities. Increases in the productivity benefits of cities, the clustering of highly educated workers and increases in their wage premium all play a role. Europe has a long-standing tradition of using capital subsidies, enterprise zones, transport investments and other place-based policies to address these disparities. The evidence suggests these policies may have partially offset increasing disparities but are not sufficient to fully offset the economic forces at work. |
| JEL: | J1 R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2020–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:105168&r=all |
| By: | Rahman, Jasmeen; Dimand, Robert; Assistant, JHET |
| Abstract: | We explore disciplinary boundary-making in geographical economics or “the new economic geography” with attention to the approaches taken by, and attempts at communication between, scholars with primary affiliations in economics, geography and regional science. The Dixit-Stiglitz general equilibrium approach to monopolistic competition and increasing returns was applied to agglomeration and location by Paul Krugman, who had previously pioneered the “new trade theory” building on the Dixit-Stiglitz model, and, independently and slightly earlier, by Masahisa Fujita and his student Heshem Abdel-Rahman starting from regional science, a tradition with its own departments, doctorates, conferences and journals distinct from economics and geography. Economic geography, as studied by geographers, had already taken a quantitative and theoretical turn in the 1960s, reviving an earlier tradition of German location theory overshadowed within geography after World War II by areal differentiation. Another strand of economic geography pursued by geographers was influenced by economic theory, but by non-neoclassical Marxian and Sraffian economics. Debates between these scholars raised questions whether these analyses were multidisciplinary, drawing on distinct disciplines, or crossed disciplinary boundaries (as when geographical economics in the style of economists is undertaken in geography departments) or transcends disciplinary boundaries, or involved the emergence of a new discipline. |
| Date: | 2020–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:xg5m9&r=all |
| By: | Artz, Georgeanne M.; Kim, Younjun; Orazem, Peter F.; Han, Peter J. |
| Abstract: | Using data on a sample of small Iowa towns consistently collected over two decades, we investigate how agglomeration economies, social capital, human capital, local fiscal policy, and natural amenities affect new firm entry. We find that human capital and agglomeration are more conducive to new firm entry than are natural amenities, local fiscal policy, or social capital. The impact of local fiscal policy is too small to overcome the locational disadvantages from insufficient endowment of human capital and agglomeration. A rural development approach that encourages firm entry in rural towns with the largest endowments of human capital and market agglomeration would be more successful than trying to raise firm entry in every town. |
| Date: | 2020–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genstf:202001010800001765&r=all |
| By: | Alexandra Tsvetkova; Simone Grabner; Wessel Vermeulen |
| Abstract: | This paper explores patterns of short-term labour demand weakening in Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) of the United States and the associated regional factors. The paper considers online job vacancy postings in February-June 2020. The data show that in larger MSAs, online job postings contracted more and the recovery was slower compared to smaller MSAs. Non-tradable service occupations, particularly those involving face-to-face interactions, contracted the most. The regression analysis reveals that different metropolitan characteristics were associated with the initial drop (February-April) and the recovery (May-June) in online job posting. The associations of online job postings with regional characteristics also differed between teleworkable (with high feasibility of performing work duties remotely) and non-teleworkable jobs. Cities with higher share of teleworkable employment had more online vacancy announcements during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| JEL: | J23 J21 L16 R11 |
| Date: | 2020–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:cfeaaa:2020/06-en&r=all |
| By: | Manson, Steven; An, Li; Clarke, Keith C.; Heppenstall, Alison; Koch, Jennifer; Krzyzanowski, Brittany; Morgan, Fraser; O'Sullivan, David; Runck, Bryan C.; Shook, Eric; Tesfatsion, Leigh |
| Abstract: | Agent based modeling (ABM) is a standard tool that is useful across many disciplines. Despite widespread and mounting interest in ABM, even broader adoption has been hindered by a set of methodological challenges that run from issues around basic tools to the need for a more complete conceptual foundation for the approach. After several decades of progress, ABMs remain difficult to develop and use for many students, scholars, and policy makers. This difficulty holds especially true for models designed to represent spatial patterns and processes across a broad range of human, natural, and human-environment systems. In this paper, we describe the methodological challenges facing further development and use of spatial ABM (SABM) and suggest some potential solutions from multiple disciplines. We first define SABM to narrow our object of inquiry, and then explore how spatiality is a source of both advantages and challenges. We examine how time interacts with space in models and delve into issues of model development in general and modeling frameworks and tools specifically. We draw on lessons and insights from fields with a history of ABM contributions, including economics, ecology, geography, ecology, anthropology, and spatial science with the goal of identifying promising ways forward for this powerful means of modeling. |
| Date: | 2020–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genstf:202001010800001690&r=all |
| By: | Calá, Carla Daniela; Niembro, Andrés; Belmartino, Andrea |
| Abstract: | Spatial location of economic activities is a central aspect for the analysis of a country's productive structure and the design of productive development policies. In developed countries there is a large number of investigations that describe regional specialization profiles within a single country and explain the observed patterns based on different factors, such as the existence of economies of scale, the endowment of natural resources or fiscal incentives. The specialization profile is also typically used as an input to explain the economic performance of the regions in terms of employment growth, productivity or value added (Frenken et al., 2007; Bishop and Gripaios, 2010; van Oort et al., 2015; Cortinovis and van Oort, 2015). Besides, the evolution of regional specialization profiles can be used to illustrate or describe processes of structural change. |
| Keywords: | Especialización de la Producción; Empleo; Distribución Territorial; |
| Date: | 2019–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nmp:nuland:3296&r=all |
| By: | Niembro, Andrés; Calá, Carla Daniela |
| Abstract: | In this article, we present a first exploratory analysis of the regional economic impact that COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures adopted in Argentina could have had during the last weeks of March and the month of April, the period of greatest economic impact, when restrictions were mainly raised at the sectoral level, without taking into account any regional criteria. To this end, we built an index of territorial economic impact by COVID-19 (ITEI-COVID), which takes into account, on the one hand, the regional production structure in terms of formal private employment, and on the other hand, the operational level of each sector. Results show that the regional impact of COVID-19 on private economic activity in Argentina was highly heterogeneous and that these unequal effects were largely related to the degree of productive diversity or the type of regional specialization. All these results are relatively stable and robust when comparing different geographical units of analysis, when changing the period chosen to define the private production structure, or when considering the informality and self-employment in addition to formal salaried employment. |
| Keywords: | Economía Regional; Impacto Económico; Aislamiento Social; Análisis Provincial; COVID-19; |
| Date: | 2020–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nmp:nuland:3376&r=all |
| By: | Keogan, Lucía; Calá, Carla Daniela; Belmartino, Andrea |
| Abstract: | En este trabajo estudiamos los patrones de especialización productiva regional en Argentina y su evolución entre 1996-2014. La metodología es descriptiva y se basa en el cálculo de indicadores de especialización relativos, a partir de datos del total del empleo asalariado registrado provincial. Los resultados indican que las especializaciones de las provincias centrales corresponden al sector industrial y se vinculan a la presencia de economías de aglomeración y capacidades tecnológicas, mientras que los perfiles de las provincias periféricas dependen de la dotación de recursos naturales y, en ciertos casos, de políticas de promoción industrial. |
| Keywords: | Análisis Provincial; Economía Regional; Especialización de la Producción; Cambio Estructural; |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nmp:nuland:3300&r=all |