Right-wing populism and related geographies of discontent have become central subjects in the recent debate on regional inequalities. The present contribution seeks to complement existing, predominantly synoptic approaches by looking at specific economic practices of local actors. We argue that exclusionary regional political identities are transferred to firms and shape corporate practices. Using 65 semi-structured interviews with representatives from firms in East Thuringia, we analyze these processes and how they affect recruitment, customer-relations and local business networks in different types of firms. Furthermore, we show that these practices can have a negative impact on the business location and thus contribute to the consolidation of existing regional inequalities.
{"title":"Populist resentments and identities and their repercussions on firms and regions. The example of East Thuringia","authors":"Sebastian Henn, M. Hannemann","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad017","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Right-wing populism and related geographies of discontent have become central subjects in the recent debate on regional inequalities. The present contribution seeks to complement existing, predominantly synoptic approaches by looking at specific economic practices of local actors. We argue that exclusionary regional political identities are transferred to firms and shape corporate practices. Using 65 semi-structured interviews with representatives from firms in East Thuringia, we analyze these processes and how they affect recruitment, customer-relations and local business networks in different types of firms. Furthermore, we show that these practices can have a negative impact on the business location and thus contribute to the consolidation of existing regional inequalities.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44796034","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}
Why did rural areas recover from the great recession much more slowly than metropolitan areas? Due to declining tax revenues and intergovernmental aid, employment in the American local government sector fell substantially after the great recession. Cuts to local public employment were especially large, long-lasting and consequential in rural areas, which have become relatively dependent on public-sector employment and intergovernmental transfers. The public sector is relatively inconsequential in urban America, but in many rural places, a decade after the great recession, the public sector was the slowest category of employment to recover and the leading source of long-term job losses.
{"title":"The great recession and the public sector in rural America","authors":"J. Rodden","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Why did rural areas recover from the great recession much more slowly than metropolitan areas? Due to declining tax revenues and intergovernmental aid, employment in the American local government sector fell substantially after the great recession. Cuts to local public employment were especially large, long-lasting and consequential in rural areas, which have become relatively dependent on public-sector employment and intergovernmental transfers. The public sector is relatively inconsequential in urban America, but in many rural places, a decade after the great recession, the public sector was the slowest category of employment to recover and the leading source of long-term job losses.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41546070","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}
In China, state-led financialisation through local government financing platforms resulted in a surge in local government debt. To manage financial risk, the central state introduced local government bonds (LGBs) to replace the platforms as the main financing source for infrastructure investment. The issuance of LGBs is subject to a budgetary process. We argue that LGBs mark a turn to state de-financialisation, as the local state’s financial logic of maximising value extraction from the built environment is restricted by budgetary control. Through developing a database of LGB issuance in over 400 prefectural cities, this article reveals that local indebtedness determines the geographies of bond issuance, confirming the effect of the central state’s objective of restricting local government debt. The dynamics of state-led financialisation change from the inter-jurisdictional competition in infrastructure investment among local states through local government financing platforms to a hierarchical control of LGB issuance led by the central state using the budget. Our findings show that financial expansion may mean state de-financialisation and fiscal resources are not only used to promote state-led financialisation but also to enable state de-financialisation.
{"title":"State de-financialisation through incorporating local government bonds in the budgetary process in China","authors":"Zhenfa Li, Fulong Wu, Fangzhu Zhang","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In China, state-led financialisation through local government financing platforms resulted in a surge in local government debt. To manage financial risk, the central state introduced local government bonds (LGBs) to replace the platforms as the main financing source for infrastructure investment. The issuance of LGBs is subject to a budgetary process. We argue that LGBs mark a turn to state de-financialisation, as the local state’s financial logic of maximising value extraction from the built environment is restricted by budgetary control. Through developing a database of LGB issuance in over 400 prefectural cities, this article reveals that local indebtedness determines the geographies of bond issuance, confirming the effect of the central state’s objective of restricting local government debt. The dynamics of state-led financialisation change from the inter-jurisdictional competition in infrastructure investment among local states through local government financing platforms to a hierarchical control of LGB issuance led by the central state using the budget. Our findings show that financial expansion may mean state de-financialisation and fiscal resources are not only used to promote state-led financialisation but also to enable state de-financialisation.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42592663","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}
Mathieu Steijn, Pierre-Alexandre Balland, Ron Boschma, David Rigby
Abstract Regional resilience is high on the scientific and policy agenda. An essential feature of resilience is diversifying into new activities but little is known about whether major economic crises accelerate or decelerate regional diversification. This article shows how crises impact the development of new technological capabilities within U.S. metropolitan areas by examining three of the largest downturns in U.S. history, the Long Depression (1873–1879), the Great Depression (1929–1934) and the 1970s recession (1973–1975). We find that crises (i) reduce the pace of diversification in cities and (ii) narrow the scope of diversification to more closely related activities. This pattern seems general as it also holds for smaller, local crises. Evidence is presented that this general pattern of technological diversification strongly hampers employment growth. Additionally, we find that diverse cities generally diversify more strongly during times of crisis.
{"title":"Technological diversification of U.S. cities during the great historical crises","authors":"Mathieu Steijn, Pierre-Alexandre Balland, Ron Boschma, David Rigby","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad013","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Regional resilience is high on the scientific and policy agenda. An essential feature of resilience is diversifying into new activities but little is known about whether major economic crises accelerate or decelerate regional diversification. This article shows how crises impact the development of new technological capabilities within U.S. metropolitan areas by examining three of the largest downturns in U.S. history, the Long Depression (1873–1879), the Great Depression (1929–1934) and the 1970s recession (1973–1975). We find that crises (i) reduce the pace of diversification in cities and (ii) narrow the scope of diversification to more closely related activities. This pattern seems general as it also holds for smaller, local crises. Evidence is presented that this general pattern of technological diversification strongly hampers employment growth. Additionally, we find that diverse cities generally diversify more strongly during times of crisis.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135359163","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}
Georgios Efthyvoulou, Vincenzo Bove, Harry Pickard
When people migrate internally, do they tend to move to locations that reflect their political preferences? To address this question, we combine evidence from a unique panel dataset on population movements across local authority districts in England and Wales (2002–2015) with evidence stemming from individual survey-based data. Our results suggest that political similarity between two districts exerts an important positive effect on their bilateral migration flows. Our results also indicate that political alignment to the district of residence contributes to individuals’ sense of belonging and ‘fitting in’, consistent with the existence of a homophily mechanism.
{"title":"Micromotives and macromoves: political preferences and internal migration in England and Wales","authors":"Georgios Efthyvoulou, Vincenzo Bove, Harry Pickard","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad014","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 When people migrate internally, do they tend to move to locations that reflect their political preferences? To address this question, we combine evidence from a unique panel dataset on population movements across local authority districts in England and Wales (2002–2015) with evidence stemming from individual survey-based data. Our results suggest that political similarity between two districts exerts an important positive effect on their bilateral migration flows. Our results also indicate that political alignment to the district of residence contributes to individuals’ sense of belonging and ‘fitting in’, consistent with the existence of a homophily mechanism.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45400060","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}
Abstract This article investigates the long-term reaction of local labor markets (LLMs) to a mass layoff in a manufacturing plant. We adopt a non-parametric generalization of the difference-in-differences estimator expressly developed for time-series cross-sectional data and a new comprehensive dataset. Our results suggest that, on average, a mass layoff abruptly decreases industry employment by 22%; this negative impact is persistent even 9 years later. The shock has a negative and statistically significant effect only on the same industry of the affected LLM, while the rest of the local economy is, at most, mildly negatively affected. These findings depend on the initial level of development and call for the policymakers’ intervention to design efficient employment policies aimed at reducing the long-lasting social costs of a mass layoff at least for the less developed and less dynamic local economies.
{"title":"The long-term effects of mass layoffs: do local economies (ever) recover?","authors":"Viviana Celli, Augusto Cerqua, Guido Pellegrini","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article investigates the long-term reaction of local labor markets (LLMs) to a mass layoff in a manufacturing plant. We adopt a non-parametric generalization of the difference-in-differences estimator expressly developed for time-series cross-sectional data and a new comprehensive dataset. Our results suggest that, on average, a mass layoff abruptly decreases industry employment by 22%; this negative impact is persistent even 9 years later. The shock has a negative and statistically significant effect only on the same industry of the affected LLM, while the rest of the local economy is, at most, mildly negatively affected. These findings depend on the initial level of development and call for the policymakers’ intervention to design efficient employment policies aimed at reducing the long-lasting social costs of a mass layoff at least for the less developed and less dynamic local economies.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135571162","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}
Marialuisa Divella, Alessia Lo Turco, A. Sterlacchini
In this article, we adopt a task approach to measure the local pool of capabilities which can more effectively spur innovation. By focusing on the core activities that workers undertake in their jobs, we build an abstract task intensity measure of occupations to proxy the ability in analysing and solving complex problems, as well as in coordinating and integrating people with different knowledge endowments, that should be especially relevant for the process of invention and innovation. We thus estimate the relationship between the local abstract intensity and the inventive performance, proxied by granted patents, of US Commuting Zones (CZs) during the period 2000–2015. The evidence provided, robust to a wide array of sensitivity checks, points to the extent of workers’ engagement in abstract tasks across CZs as a crucial determinant of the local inventive activity.
{"title":"Local labour tasks and patenting in US commuting zones","authors":"Marialuisa Divella, Alessia Lo Turco, A. Sterlacchini","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad011","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In this article, we adopt a task approach to measure the local pool of capabilities which can more effectively spur innovation. By focusing on the core activities that workers undertake in their jobs, we build an abstract task intensity measure of occupations to proxy the ability in analysing and solving complex problems, as well as in coordinating and integrating people with different knowledge endowments, that should be especially relevant for the process of invention and innovation. We thus estimate the relationship between the local abstract intensity and the inventive performance, proxied by granted patents, of US Commuting Zones (CZs) during the period 2000–2015. The evidence provided, robust to a wide array of sensitivity checks, points to the extent of workers’ engagement in abstract tasks across CZs as a crucial determinant of the local inventive activity.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42579447","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 analyze land-use regulation and the determinants thereof across Swiss municipalities. We construct several residential development stringency indices based on a comprehensive survey. These indices capture various aspects of local regulation and land-use coordination across jurisdictions. Combining these indices, we construct an index that provides harmonized information about what local regulation entails and the local regulatory environment across municipalities. Our analysis shows that historical building density, natural amenities, socio-demographic factors, cultural aspects and municipal competition are important determinants of local land-use regulation. However, a large share of land-use regulation variation remains unexplained. Moreover, our results indicate that more stringent land-use regulation is associated with steeper house price increases but less urban sprawl.
{"title":"Quantifying land-use regulation and its determinants","authors":"Simon Büchler, Maximilian v. Ehrlich","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad009","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 We analyze land-use regulation and the determinants thereof across Swiss municipalities. We construct several residential development stringency indices based on a comprehensive survey. These indices capture various aspects of local regulation and land-use coordination across jurisdictions. Combining these indices, we construct an index that provides harmonized information about what local regulation entails and the local regulatory environment across municipalities. Our analysis shows that historical building density, natural amenities, socio-demographic factors, cultural aspects and municipal competition are important determinants of local land-use regulation. However, a large share of land-use regulation variation remains unexplained. Moreover, our results indicate that more stringent land-use regulation is associated with steeper house price increases but less urban sprawl.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47006802","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}
In this article, I use the emerging concept of geographies of dissociation to examine fragmented labour regimes in global production networks (GPNs). The article takes informality in the Sri Lankan apparel industry and the application of ethical codes as a case example. Using qualitative research methods, I provide a critical analytical lens through which the concept of dissociation makes visible what has been obscured through much of the debate on ethical codes. In so doing, the article makes three contributions to the debate on ethical codes and dissociation. First, I illuminate uneven geographies of ethical codes manifested through highly fragmented workplaces where some workers are excluded from the protection of ethical codes. In so doing, the article challenges the notion of homogenous workplaces, in which, dialectics of inclusion and exclusion of ethical codes often go unnoticed. Secondly, by illustrating bifurcated and inequal labour regimes, I argue that both association and dissociation practices can co-exist in the same workplace at the same time. This is in contrast to the existing works that mostly frame places of dissociation as distant and hidden from the association places. Third, I advance the concept of dissociation beyond its current framing to argue for a notion of collective dissociation emerging from fluid and complex social relations of multi-scalar actors. I argue that in GPNs, such collective practices of dissociation are possible and even necessary given the complex ways firms and non-firm actors are connected to each other from the global scale to the workplace.
{"title":"Geographies of dissociation: informality, ethical codes and fragmented labour regimes in the Sri Lankan apparel industry","authors":"S. Wickramasingha","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad010","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In this article, I use the emerging concept of geographies of dissociation to examine fragmented labour regimes in global production networks (GPNs). The article takes informality in the Sri Lankan apparel industry and the application of ethical codes as a case example. Using qualitative research methods, I provide a critical analytical lens through which the concept of dissociation makes visible what has been obscured through much of the debate on ethical codes. In so doing, the article makes three contributions to the debate on ethical codes and dissociation. First, I illuminate uneven geographies of ethical codes manifested through highly fragmented workplaces where some workers are excluded from the protection of ethical codes. In so doing, the article challenges the notion of homogenous workplaces, in which, dialectics of inclusion and exclusion of ethical codes often go unnoticed. Secondly, by illustrating bifurcated and inequal labour regimes, I argue that both association and dissociation practices can co-exist in the same workplace at the same time. This is in contrast to the existing works that mostly frame places of dissociation as distant and hidden from the association places. Third, I advance the concept of dissociation beyond its current framing to argue for a notion of collective dissociation emerging from fluid and complex social relations of multi-scalar actors. I argue that in GPNs, such collective practices of dissociation are possible and even necessary given the complex ways firms and non-firm actors are connected to each other from the global scale to the workplace.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46452686","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}
B. Pritchard, Elen Welch, Guillermo Umaña Restrepo, Lachlan Mitchell
This article uses a purpose-designed land parcels database covering all rural land transactions over 16 years (2004–2019 inclusive) to document the ways in which financialised agri-corporate investors acquired farmland in a major Australian cropping and grazing region, New England North West (NENW). Framing these investments through the lens of strategic coupling reveals a mix of land acquisition strategies. Almost 200,000 ha of farmland was acquired by financialised agri-corporate investors in NENW during the study period. Approximately one-third was acquired through takeovers of stock market listed agricultural companies or unlisted agricultural asset management companies, another third involved the purchase of farms already packaged into assetised forms by prior rounds of restructuring and the final third involved the purchase and aggregation of family farms. We interpret this mix of entry modes to indicate a flexible and opportunistic set of dynamics in how financialised agri-corporate investors amass their land assets, underlining their reach and scope in the restructuring of regional agricultures.
{"title":"How do financialised agri-corporate investors acquire farmland? Analysing land investment in an Australian agricultural region, 2004–2019","authors":"B. Pritchard, Elen Welch, Guillermo Umaña Restrepo, Lachlan Mitchell","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad008","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article uses a purpose-designed land parcels database covering all rural land transactions over 16 years (2004–2019 inclusive) to document the ways in which financialised agri-corporate investors acquired farmland in a major Australian cropping and grazing region, New England North West (NENW). Framing these investments through the lens of strategic coupling reveals a mix of land acquisition strategies. Almost 200,000 ha of farmland was acquired by financialised agri-corporate investors in NENW during the study period. Approximately one-third was acquired through takeovers of stock market listed agricultural companies or unlisted agricultural asset management companies, another third involved the purchase of farms already packaged into assetised forms by prior rounds of restructuring and the final third involved the purchase and aggregation of family farms. We interpret this mix of entry modes to indicate a flexible and opportunistic set of dynamics in how financialised agri-corporate investors amass their land assets, underlining their reach and scope in the restructuring of regional agricultures.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47685849","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}