This article develops a comprehensive framework for understanding labor markets’ spatial configuration and development dynamics, across multiple spatial scales. It applies to the Greek Labor Market Network and delineates five geographical zones of topological similarity, proposing a “status-polus” model capturing the coexistence between spatial development patterns, structural units, administrative scale, intermodality, and their underlying economic geography theories, by distance. The analysis reveals hierarchical structural variations, a transformation from continuous to point spatial patterns; a reduction and escalation of structural units; a U-shaped rule describing the hubs participation; and the challenges faced by insular regions to integrate this labor market.
{"title":"Unveiling geographical patterns of hierarchy in the Greek labor market network: toward a multilayer “status-polus” model","authors":"Dimitrios Tsiotas, Dimitris Kallioras","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae052","url":null,"abstract":"This article develops a comprehensive framework for understanding labor markets’ spatial configuration and development dynamics, across multiple spatial scales. It applies to the Greek Labor Market Network and delineates five geographical zones of topological similarity, proposing a “status-polus” model capturing the coexistence between spatial development patterns, structural units, administrative scale, intermodality, and their underlying economic geography theories, by distance. The analysis reveals hierarchical structural variations, a transformation from continuous to point spatial patterns; a reduction and escalation of structural units; a U-shaped rule describing the hubs participation; and the challenges faced by insular regions to integrate this labor market.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"76 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142962803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article investigates the relationship between local income inequality and firms’ location and product choices. Using detailed information on income at a regionally disaggregated level and individual data on Austrian restaurants, we show that product variety crucially depends on the distribution (in addition to the level) of income. Local markets with higher income inequality are characterized by a larger number of firms, offering a wider range of products and less common product variants. These findings suggest that local demand is substantially influenced by the heterogeneity of consumers’ income endowments, resulting in large differences in product variety.
{"title":"Local income inequality and product variety: empirical evidence","authors":"Dieter Pennerstorfer, Nora Schindler, Biliana Yontcheva","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae050","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates the relationship between local income inequality and firms’ location and product choices. Using detailed information on income at a regionally disaggregated level and individual data on Austrian restaurants, we show that product variety crucially depends on the distribution (in addition to the level) of income. Local markets with higher income inequality are characterized by a larger number of firms, offering a wider range of products and less common product variants. These findings suggest that local demand is substantially influenced by the heterogeneity of consumers’ income endowments, resulting in large differences in product variety.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142961654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Debates on labor regimes situate worker outcomes at the intersection of globalized production and specific social formations, but they do not specify how and why labor regimes change over time. This article presents a new approach to explaining how labor regimes change in the global apparel industry, the labor-led profit squeeze approach, combining insights from global production networks (GPN), development economics and labor studies. This approach argues that workers’ bargaining power is largely conditional upon processes of structural transformation. The article demonstrates this conceptual approach through a comparative analysis of the apparel export industries in Madagascar, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
{"title":"Why do labor regimes change? Worker power, the supplier squeeze, and structural transformation in the global apparel industry","authors":"Kristoffer Marslev, Lindsay Whitfield","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae049","url":null,"abstract":"Debates on labor regimes situate worker outcomes at the intersection of globalized production and specific social formations, but they do not specify how and why labor regimes change over time. This article presents a new approach to explaining how labor regimes change in the global apparel industry, the labor-led profit squeeze approach, combining insights from global production networks (GPN), development economics and labor studies. This approach argues that workers’ bargaining power is largely conditional upon processes of structural transformation. The article demonstrates this conceptual approach through a comparative analysis of the apparel export industries in Madagascar, Cambodia, and Vietnam.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142935039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We develop and deploy a business politics lens to examine the mechanisms and processes of negotiation through which multinational enterprises (MNEs) and various host country actors interact, leading to different regional trajectories of economic development. We assess two contrasting lead firms from differing home country contexts investing in the automotive industry in Romania, operating in two regions with distinct historical-spatial industrial organization and economic development. We advance a contribution on business politics as dynamic, relational, multi-scalar, and influenced by varied conjunctural factors—historical, geographical, political, institutional, and firm-driven—exposing how MNEs and territorial actors co-shape distinct processes of international economic (dis)integration.
{"title":"Business politics as a causal mechanism shaping uneven regional development across Romania’s automotive industry","authors":"Ioana Jipa-Muşat, Liam Campling, Martha Prevezer","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae051","url":null,"abstract":"We develop and deploy a business politics lens to examine the mechanisms and processes of negotiation through which multinational enterprises (MNEs) and various host country actors interact, leading to different regional trajectories of economic development. We assess two contrasting lead firms from differing home country contexts investing in the automotive industry in Romania, operating in two regions with distinct historical-spatial industrial organization and economic development. We advance a contribution on business politics as dynamic, relational, multi-scalar, and influenced by varied conjunctural factors—historical, geographical, political, institutional, and firm-driven—exposing how MNEs and territorial actors co-shape distinct processes of international economic (dis)integration.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"71 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142908295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David Doloreux, Claudia De Fuentes, Jahan Ara Peerally, Stephen Quilley
This article analyses the case of the wine industry in rural Nova Scotia (Canada) and addresses the following question: what sparks a new wine industry path in rural regions that lack supportive preconditions and local assets? We examine this from the perspective of different actors and their agencies when creating the conditions and structures for shaping new path development. Our findings provide a novel, empirically based understanding of individual and system-level agency and a nuanced account of new industrial path development in rural regions, which is often missing in contemporary debates.
{"title":"New industrial path development in “less glamorized regions”: actors, agencies, and rural opportunities","authors":"David Doloreux, Claudia De Fuentes, Jahan Ara Peerally, Stephen Quilley","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae045","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the case of the wine industry in rural Nova Scotia (Canada) and addresses the following question: what sparks a new wine industry path in rural regions that lack supportive preconditions and local assets? We examine this from the perspective of different actors and their agencies when creating the conditions and structures for shaping new path development. Our findings provide a novel, empirically based understanding of individual and system-level agency and a nuanced account of new industrial path development in rural regions, which is often missing in contemporary debates.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142832638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Building on the differentiated analysis of India’s agrarian crisis, this article argues for centring ecology in understanding the crisis faced by agricultural labour. The empirical case is of landless Dalit women in Punjab, India, experiencing the shift from a cotton-dominated labour regime to a paddy-dominated one. It delineates the materiality(s) of commodity, workplace, and body associated with the two regimes and explores its contingent intersections with social reproduction, caste oppression, capital’s strategies, and the state. Overall, the article argues that labour’s agrarian crisis is both produced through ecology and manifests in/as ecology across different moments and levels of analysis.
{"title":"Shifting agrarian labour regimes, ecology, and the crisis for Dalit women’s work in India","authors":"Shreya Sinha","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae047","url":null,"abstract":"Building on the differentiated analysis of India’s agrarian crisis, this article argues for centring ecology in understanding the crisis faced by agricultural labour. The empirical case is of landless Dalit women in Punjab, India, experiencing the shift from a cotton-dominated labour regime to a paddy-dominated one. It delineates the materiality(s) of commodity, workplace, and body associated with the two regimes and explores its contingent intersections with social reproduction, caste oppression, capital’s strategies, and the state. Overall, the article argues that labour’s agrarian crisis is both produced through ecology and manifests in/as ecology across different moments and levels of analysis.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142815785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article studies how airports affect regional growth in population and employment, considering heterogeneity in the circumstances of an airport’s opening. We use synthetic controls with staggered adoption and data on the whole airport system in Norway for 1950–2019. We find positive overall effects of airports on population and employment growth. Addressing heterogeneity, we find relatively strong effects of airports opened in the 1950s, more distant from other airports, with longer runways, or with links to major cities. We also find stronger growth if an airport is opened in a region with a university, college, or hospital.
{"title":"Airports and regional development: the expansion of the Norwegian air network, 1950–2019","authors":"Jørn Rattsø, Nicholas Sheard","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae044","url":null,"abstract":"This article studies how airports affect regional growth in population and employment, considering heterogeneity in the circumstances of an airport’s opening. We use synthetic controls with staggered adoption and data on the whole airport system in Norway for 1950–2019. We find positive overall effects of airports on population and employment growth. Addressing heterogeneity, we find relatively strong effects of airports opened in the 1950s, more distant from other airports, with longer runways, or with links to major cities. We also find stronger growth if an airport is opened in a region with a university, college, or hospital.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142645896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Luisa Alamá-Sabater, Miguel Á Márquez, Emili Tortosa-Ausina, Júlia Cravo
During the last few decades, the gap between the most prosperous metropolitan areas and the rural areas has widened, especially since the 2008 crisis. This gap has been particularly relevant in relation to population and employment. However, the bi-directional links in terms of population and employment between rural places and the most urbanized areas have been partly overlooked by the literature. At the same time, recent studies have brought the plight of “left-behind” areas to the forefront, highlighting rural as well as other types of “left-behind” places as focal points of discontent. In the context of the debate on left-behind areas, and in an attempt to address the decline in population and employment that they are experiencing, this article proposes a strategy based on the spatial interactions among the different types of territories. Specifically, we develop a spatial econometric model capable of testing all interactions among different territorial typologies based on their degree of urbanization. We apply the model to 278 continental municipalities in Portugal during the period 2010–8. The model estimates have implications for understanding the dynamics of territorial interactions in Portugal, highlighting the crucial role of semi-urban municipalities. The results reveal the positive and significant connections between change in employment in semi-urban municipalities and population change in both neighboring rural and urban municipalities. The findings suggest that semi-urban/rural diffusion should be promoted as a policy approach to left-behind rural places in Portugal.
{"title":"Urban–rural links in relaunching left-behind places: the case of Portuguese municipalities","authors":"Luisa Alamá-Sabater, Miguel Á Márquez, Emili Tortosa-Ausina, Júlia Cravo","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae037","url":null,"abstract":"During the last few decades, the gap between the most prosperous metropolitan areas and the rural areas has widened, especially since the 2008 crisis. This gap has been particularly relevant in relation to population and employment. However, the bi-directional links in terms of population and employment between rural places and the most urbanized areas have been partly overlooked by the literature. At the same time, recent studies have brought the plight of “left-behind” areas to the forefront, highlighting rural as well as other types of “left-behind” places as focal points of discontent. In the context of the debate on left-behind areas, and in an attempt to address the decline in population and employment that they are experiencing, this article proposes a strategy based on the spatial interactions among the different types of territories. Specifically, we develop a spatial econometric model capable of testing all interactions among different territorial typologies based on their degree of urbanization. We apply the model to 278 continental municipalities in Portugal during the period 2010–8. The model estimates have implications for understanding the dynamics of territorial interactions in Portugal, highlighting the crucial role of semi-urban municipalities. The results reveal the positive and significant connections between change in employment in semi-urban municipalities and population change in both neighboring rural and urban municipalities. The findings suggest that semi-urban/rural diffusion should be promoted as a policy approach to left-behind rural places in Portugal.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"102 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142596730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Declining fertility and the persistent underrepresentation of women in the labour market are key concerns of our time. The fact that they overlap is not fortuitous. Traditionally, women everywhere have faced a conflict in balancing their career ambitions with family responsibilities. Yet, the pressures arising from this conflict vary enormously from one place to another. Existing research has tended to overlook the geographical features of this dilemma, which could result in an inadequate understanding of the issue and lead to ineffective policy responses. This article examines how variations in the quality of regional institutions affect women’s capacity to reconcile career and motherhood and, consequently, gender equality within Europe. Using panel data from 216 regions across 18 European countries, we uncover a positive effect of regional institutional quality on fertility rates, taking into account variations in female employment. Moreover, we show that European regions with better government quality provide a more reliable environment for managing the career/motherhood dilemma often faced by women. In contrast, women living in regions with weaker government institutions are more constrained in both their career and childbearing options.
{"title":"Regional government institutions and the capacity for women to reconcile career and motherhood","authors":"Costanza Giannantoni, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae041","url":null,"abstract":"Declining fertility and the persistent underrepresentation of women in the labour market are key concerns of our time. The fact that they overlap is not fortuitous. Traditionally, women everywhere have faced a conflict in balancing their career ambitions with family responsibilities. Yet, the pressures arising from this conflict vary enormously from one place to another. Existing research has tended to overlook the geographical features of this dilemma, which could result in an inadequate understanding of the issue and lead to ineffective policy responses. This article examines how variations in the quality of regional institutions affect women’s capacity to reconcile career and motherhood and, consequently, gender equality within Europe. Using panel data from 216 regions across 18 European countries, we uncover a positive effect of regional institutional quality on fertility rates, taking into account variations in female employment. Moreover, we show that European regions with better government quality provide a more reliable environment for managing the career/motherhood dilemma often faced by women. In contrast, women living in regions with weaker government institutions are more constrained in both their career and childbearing options.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"58 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142596727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article explores the role of evolutionary economic geography in enhancing understanding and implementation of the circular economy (CE). By incorporating spatial and territorial dimensions into CE research, this study emphasizes the significant influence of geographical factors on achieving economic and environmental objectives. The research highlights the importance of localizing CE practices and emphasizes the contributions of proximity theory and territorial governance in promoting collaborative networks that are crucial for CE success. Furthermore, the article introduces the concept of Territorial Circular Ecosystems, which provides a framework for analyzing regional variations and the interplay between local actors, resources, and institutional support in the deployment of the CE. The findings offer fresh insights for policymakers and researchers, advocating for place-based policies to address CE challenges and optimize sustainability strategies.
{"title":"Economic geography’s contribution to understanding the circular economy","authors":"Sébastien Bourdin, André Torre","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae040","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the role of evolutionary economic geography in enhancing understanding and implementation of the circular economy (CE). By incorporating spatial and territorial dimensions into CE research, this study emphasizes the significant influence of geographical factors on achieving economic and environmental objectives. The research highlights the importance of localizing CE practices and emphasizes the contributions of proximity theory and territorial governance in promoting collaborative networks that are crucial for CE success. Furthermore, the article introduces the concept of Territorial Circular Ecosystems, which provides a framework for analyzing regional variations and the interplay between local actors, resources, and institutional support in the deployment of the CE. The findings offer fresh insights for policymakers and researchers, advocating for place-based policies to address CE challenges and optimize sustainability strategies.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142490234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}