Special Issue on Regional Economic Development

Abstract

An irony of globalization is that its impact is felt most on regional rather than national economies. Over the last few decades, it has been widely recognized that competitiveness is regionally rather than nationally based, and policies designed to enhance competitiveness should be regional rather than national in scope (Scott and Storper 2003). However, research and policy agendas at this scale are challenging because they require tailored local and regional strategies that demonstrate an understanding of the unique role and impact of cities and regions on global economic trends. Researchers and policy makers are responding to this challenge by approaching development questions from an explicitly regional perspective. This special issue of the International Regional Science Review is comprised of six articles that evaluate issues critical to the growth and development of competitive regions. These articles address a variety of interrelated regional issues ranging from human and social capital, to technological change, to place-based policies and innovation policies. The first article in this special issue, by Betz and Partridge (2013), examines the role that job creation plays in driving migration between regions. Place-based economic development policies that aim to create new jobs have been touted as helping the original residents of a region. However, if outsiders migrate into the region to take the new jobs, then the original residents will not benefit. Using data for net migration between pairs of US counties, they compare the results for Appalachia, a peripheral, lagging region, with the rest of the United States. They find that, over time, net migration is becoming less responsive to employment growth, and this is