Journal of Regional Science最新文献

This paper focuses on the impact of EU structural funds (SFs) on the GDP per capita of 183 European NUTS-2 regions throughout the 1990–2018 period. To allow for the endogeneity of funds allocation to regions, we estimate a bivariate structural panel VAR model, including a rich menu of control variables. Our main identifying restriction is based on the widely documented long lags affecting the implementation of EU's cohesion policy. Through a spatial VAR specification, we also estimate spillovers from local SF expenditure on other areas. We find highly significant multipliers measuring the local response of GDP to an exogenous shock in local SF expenditure, with a long-run value settling at 2.7. Spillovers for GDP from an exogenous shock to SFs are also positive and significant, but much smaller (about one-fifth of the within-region responses). When partitioning our sample according to features suggested by the literature (stage of development, EU funding regimes, size), we find that within-region multipliers are higher in lagging regions, especially if located in countries supported by the Cohesion Fund, and in regions with a larger population. Spillovers are also heterogeneous across different groups of regions, turning out to be negative in regions belonging to countries not supported by the Cohesion Fund. This evidence is largely validated in qualitative terms by refinements of the analysis concerned with the choice of proximity matrices.

Innovation intermediaries are instrumental in enhancing the efficacy of the innovation process, yet their accessibility tends to be geographically restricted, particularly in underdeveloped regions. This study examines whether the development of transportation infrastructure can alleviate these spatial frictions, promoting cross-regional utilization of intermediary services and subsequently improving innovation outcomes. Leveraging a unique database on patent agency utilization for all invention patents in China from 2003 to 2019, and employing high-speed rail (HSR) as a natural experiment, we estimate a staggered difference-in-difference model at the city-pair level. Our findings suggest that reductions in transportation costs lead to a substantial increase in cross-city PAU after HSR connection, especially in sectors with higher technology sophistication requiring more face-to-face interactions between inventors and agents. This research uncovers a novel mechanism through which HSR influences innovation and provides policy implications for optimizing innovation intermediaries through infrastructure development.

This study enhances the expanding but still limited body of evidence concerning the influence of natural hazards on tourism. We augment prior scholarly investigations by scrutinizing the repercussions of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake on incoming tourism, thereby addressing an existing void in the literature regarding the ramifications of extreme events on high-income nations such as Italy. Moreover, our contribution is novel in its application of the quasi-experimental Synthetic Control Method within the realm of tourism research. Our findings underscore the enduringly deleterious consequences of the L'Aquila hazard on tourism, persisting over a protracted temporal horizon. In particular, the analysis shows a drop in overnight stays with a pronounced effect on hotel accommodations.

This paper shows that local officials' personal preferences formed through early-life experience affects Chinese housing sector development. We exploit a county-level panel between 2000 and 2007 and use the Great Famine in 1959–1961 in China as a natural experiment. Our specification exploits the spatial variation in the early-life exposure to the famine, and shows that local officials' early-life exposure to more severe famine leads to significantly less development in the housing sector in their jurisdictions. Our findings remain robust to alternative specifications, placebo tests, and competing hypotheses. Furthermore, we employ satellite nightlight data to show that the early-life famine experience of local officials is negatively correlated with the extent of statistical data manipulation, indicating changing risk attitudes due to early-life famine experiences.

This paper examines geographic differences in the effect of immigration on the wage distribution of native Italian workers. The results suggest an insignificant effect across the wage distribution in northern provinces, but large and significant effects in the lower and middle parts of the distribution in the south. This is entirely because immigration pushed up wages at the lower end of the female wage distribution in southern local areas. This result is consistent with increases in labor market participation of native women that went hand in hand with improvements of women's skills at the bottom of the wage distribution.