Harald Bathelt, Maximilian Buchholz, Michael Storper
Social scientists and policymakers alike have become increasingly concerned with understanding the nature, causes, and consequences of inter-regional inequality in economic living conditions. Contemporary spatial inequality is multi-faceted—it varies depending on how we define inequality, the scale at which it is measured, and which groups in the labor force are considered. Increasing economic inequality has important implications for broader social and political issues. Notably, it is difficult to account for the rise of far-right populism in industrialized countries without considering the context of growing inter-regional inequality. Important explanations for the rise in inter-regional inequality include changing patterns of worker and firm sorting processes across space, major transitions like the reorientation of the economy from manufacturing to digital technologies, and increasing global economic integration, as well as policy. Different causal explanations in turn imply a different role for place-based policy. This article introduces the context of the special issue on the nature, causes, and consequences of inter-regional inequality, focusing specifically on inequality in North America and Western Europe, and aims to identify challenges for, and spark further research on, inter-regional inequality.
{"title":"The nature, causes, and consequences of inter-regional inequality","authors":"Harald Bathelt, Maximilian Buchholz, Michael Storper","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae005","url":null,"abstract":"Social scientists and policymakers alike have become increasingly concerned with understanding the nature, causes, and consequences of inter-regional inequality in economic living conditions. Contemporary spatial inequality is multi-faceted—it varies depending on how we define inequality, the scale at which it is measured, and which groups in the labor force are considered. Increasing economic inequality has important implications for broader social and political issues. Notably, it is difficult to account for the rise of far-right populism in industrialized countries without considering the context of growing inter-regional inequality. Important explanations for the rise in inter-regional inequality include changing patterns of worker and firm sorting processes across space, major transitions like the reorientation of the economy from manufacturing to digital technologies, and increasing global economic integration, as well as policy. Different causal explanations in turn imply a different role for place-based policy. This article introduces the context of the special issue on the nature, causes, and consequences of inter-regional inequality, focusing specifically on inequality in North America and Western Europe, and aims to identify challenges for, and spark further research on, inter-regional inequality.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"87 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140343150","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}
Jose Antonio Belso-Martinez, Isabel Díez-Vial, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose
This article examines the effect of formal and informal institutional settings and of the governance of inter-organizational relationships on innovation at the cluster level. The research primarily relies on quantitative methods, utilizing data obtained from a survey involving 115 firms and 12 in-depth interviews. Supplementary qualitative information from the interviews has also been incorporated into the analysis. The results support the hypothesis that innovative firms should consider not only the impact of different governance modes but also how these modes align with the existing local contexts. Failure to do so may result in firms becoming entrenched in the prevailing practices and products of a specific location.
{"title":"Inter-organizational governance and innovation under different local institutional contexts","authors":"Jose Antonio Belso-Martinez, Isabel Díez-Vial, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbae001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbae001","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the effect of formal and informal institutional settings and of the governance of inter-organizational relationships on innovation at the cluster level. The research primarily relies on quantitative methods, utilizing data obtained from a survey involving 115 firms and 12 in-depth interviews. Supplementary qualitative information from the interviews has also been incorporated into the analysis. The results support the hypothesis that innovative firms should consider not only the impact of different governance modes but also how these modes align with the existing local contexts. Failure to do so may result in firms becoming entrenched in the prevailing practices and products of a specific location.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"93 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139568338","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}
Persistent racial inequality in socioeconomic status within urban areas has been a significant concern in both the US and European countries. Differences across racial groups in intergenerational mobility (IM) have been identified as a key source of this persistence. However, efforts to understand racial inequality in IM have rarely considered the role of urban sprawl. This article argues that urban sprawl affects differences in IM between racial groups directly and indirectly through racial segregation, racial bias, and social capital. We analyze data from 874 metropolitan counties in the US using structural equation models to test these direct and indirect effects of sprawl on racial inequality in IM. We found that urban sprawl was negatively associated with racial inequality in IM. The direct effect, which we partially attribute to higher racial disparities in social capital in more compact counties, was statistically significant. For the indirect effects, racial segregation had the largest mediating effects between urban sprawl and racial inequality in IM, followed by economic connectedness (EC) and racial bias. The net indirect effect of sprawl on racial inequality in IM was negative because negative indirect effects through racial segregation and EC outweigh positive indirect effects through racial bias. Our findings demonstrate the significant role of urban form in racial inequality in IM.
在美国和欧洲国家,城市地区社会经济地位中持续存在的种族不平等现象一直备受关注。不同种族群体之间在代际流动性(IM)方面的差异被认为是造成这种持续性的主要原因。然而,人们在努力理解代际流动中的种族不平等时,却很少考虑城市扩张的作用。本文认为,城市无计划扩展通过种族隔离、种族偏见和社会资本直接或间接地影响了种族群体间代际流动的差异。我们使用结构方程模型分析了来自美国 874 个大都市县的数据,以检验无计划扩展对种族 IM 不平等的直接和间接影响。我们发现,城市扩张与 IM 中的种族不平等呈负相关。我们将这种直接影响部分归因于在更紧凑的县城中社会资本的种族差异更大,这种直接影响在统计上是显著的。就间接效应而言,种族隔离在城市无计划扩展与 IM 中的种族不平等之间具有最大的中介效应,其次是经济联系(EC)和种族偏见。无计划扩展对 IM 中种族不平等的净间接效应是负的,因为通过种族隔离和经济联系产生的负间接效应超过了通过种族偏见产生的正间接效应。我们的研究结果表明,城市形态在 IM 的种族不平等中发挥着重要作用。
{"title":"Urban sprawl and racial inequality in intergenerational mobility","authors":"Ning Xiong, Yehua Dennis Wei, Sergio J Rey","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad039","url":null,"abstract":"Persistent racial inequality in socioeconomic status within urban areas has been a significant concern in both the US and European countries. Differences across racial groups in intergenerational mobility (IM) have been identified as a key source of this persistence. However, efforts to understand racial inequality in IM have rarely considered the role of urban sprawl. This article argues that urban sprawl affects differences in IM between racial groups directly and indirectly through racial segregation, racial bias, and social capital. We analyze data from 874 metropolitan counties in the US using structural equation models to test these direct and indirect effects of sprawl on racial inequality in IM. We found that urban sprawl was negatively associated with racial inequality in IM. The direct effect, which we partially attribute to higher racial disparities in social capital in more compact counties, was statistically significant. For the indirect effects, racial segregation had the largest mediating effects between urban sprawl and racial inequality in IM, followed by economic connectedness (EC) and racial bias. The net indirect effect of sprawl on racial inequality in IM was negative because negative indirect effects through racial segregation and EC outweigh positive indirect effects through racial bias. Our findings demonstrate the significant role of urban form in racial inequality in IM.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139494948","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}
Firms may seek non-redundant information through inter-firm relations beyond their geographic and cognitive boundaries (i.e., relations with firms in other regions and active in different fields). Little is known about the conditions under which firms benefit from this high-risk/high-gain strategy. We created a digital layer of 600,000 German firms by using their websites’ textual and relational content. Our results suggest that strong relations (relations with common third partners) between firms from different fields and inter-regional relations are positively associated with a firm’s innovation level. We also found that a specific combination of weak and strong relations confers greater innovation benefits.
{"title":"Leveraging the digital layer: the strength of weak and strong ties in bridging geographic and cognitive distances","authors":"Milad Abbasiharofteh, Jan Kinne, Miriam Krüger","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad037","url":null,"abstract":"Firms may seek non-redundant information through inter-firm relations beyond their geographic and cognitive boundaries (i.e., relations with firms in other regions and active in different fields). Little is known about the conditions under which firms benefit from this high-risk/high-gain strategy. We created a digital layer of 600,000 German firms by using their websites’ textual and relational content. Our results suggest that strong relations (relations with common third partners) between firms from different fields and inter-regional relations are positively associated with a firm’s innovation level. We also found that a specific combination of weak and strong relations confers greater innovation benefits.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139041461","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 estimates commuters’ scheduling utility function, which comprises the disutility of arriving at work earlier or later than desired (namely, the schedule-delay cost) and the disutility of travel time. The marginal rate of substitution (MRS) between the schedule delay and the travel time is about 0.85, meaning that commuters are willing to accept an extra schedule delay of about 1.2 time units (the reciprocal of 0.85) to reduce their travel time by 1 unit. For most travelers, the slope of the travel-time profile is much smaller than the estimated slope of the indifference curve (MRS). Based on our theoretical framework, where commuters choose a trip timing based on their travel-time profiles, our empirical results imply that commuters tend to arrive around their desired times bearing a small schedule-delay cost.
{"title":"Congestion and scheduling preferences of car commuters in California: estimates using big data","authors":"Jinwon Kim, Jucheol Moon","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad033","url":null,"abstract":"This article estimates commuters’ scheduling utility function, which comprises the disutility of arriving at work earlier or later than desired (namely, the schedule-delay cost) and the disutility of travel time. The marginal rate of substitution (MRS) between the schedule delay and the travel time is about 0.85, meaning that commuters are willing to accept an extra schedule delay of about 1.2 time units (the reciprocal of 0.85) to reduce their travel time by 1 unit. For most travelers, the slope of the travel-time profile is much smaller than the estimated slope of the indifference curve (MRS). Based on our theoretical framework, where commuters choose a trip timing based on their travel-time profiles, our empirical results imply that commuters tend to arrive around their desired times bearing a small schedule-delay cost.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"77 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138449698","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 estimate the causal impact of communication infrastructure quality on growth and structural transformation. We use variation across US counties’ Internet speeds in 2018 and build an instrument using ARPANET, a military network that preceded the modern Internet, with its location documented in historical government reports. We find that doubling Internet speeds increases the 4-year employment growth by 3.3–6.1 percentage points. Faster Internet shifts economic activity toward high-skilled services and away from non-tradeable services while increasing inequality. Industry linkages, capital-skill complementarity, and information and communication technology workers’ sorting rationalize our results. Medium and small cities and rural areas drive our results.
{"title":"Quality of communications infrastructure, local structural transformation, and inequality","authors":"Camilo Acosta, Luis Baldomero-Quintana","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad032","url":null,"abstract":"We estimate the causal impact of communication infrastructure quality on growth and structural transformation. We use variation across US counties’ Internet speeds in 2018 and build an instrument using ARPANET, a military network that preceded the modern Internet, with its location documented in historical government reports. We find that doubling Internet speeds increases the 4-year employment growth by 3.3–6.1 percentage points. Faster Internet shifts economic activity toward high-skilled services and away from non-tradeable services while increasing inequality. Industry linkages, capital-skill complementarity, and information and communication technology workers’ sorting rationalize our results. Medium and small cities and rural areas drive our results.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"130 37","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138289222","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}
Gavin Hilson, Yanfei Hu, Abigail Hilson, John R Owen, Éléonore Lèbre, Titus Sauerwein
This article explores how the gold mining sector has adapted and evolved in developing countries since the onset of the global pandemic. A major criticism of capital-intensive gold mines has been that they occur as enclaves which fail to catalyze local economic development. Pre-pandemic, the pressure applied by NGOs and donors on gold mining companies to ‘de-enclave’ was steadily building. It has since dissipated, however, because many governments have declared mining an ‘essential’ industry. This decision has further entrenched the sector’s enclavity by justifying companies’ moves to continue operating in isolation and abandon their traditional Corporate Social Responsibility strategies.
{"title":"Rethinking resource enclavity in developing countries: Embedding Global Production Networks in gold mining regions","authors":"Gavin Hilson, Yanfei Hu, Abigail Hilson, John R Owen, Éléonore Lèbre, Titus Sauerwein","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad028","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores how the gold mining sector has adapted and evolved in developing countries since the onset of the global pandemic. A major criticism of capital-intensive gold mines has been that they occur as enclaves which fail to catalyze local economic development. Pre-pandemic, the pressure applied by NGOs and donors on gold mining companies to ‘de-enclave’ was steadily building. It has since dissipated, however, because many governments have declared mining an ‘essential’ industry. This decision has further entrenched the sector’s enclavity by justifying companies’ moves to continue operating in isolation and abandon their traditional Corporate Social Responsibility strategies.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"67 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71507423","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}
Conditions of local governance in the aftermath of the global financial crisis are often discussed as reflections of ‘austerity urbanism’. What forms of mutations have taken place in austerity urbanism after the initial years of spending cuts at the local level? This article investigates this question by focusing on the uneven geographies of post-austerity debt-drive in Britain. It is shown that austerity urbanism in Britain was somewhat peculiarly combined with debt-driven ‘entrepreneurialism’ several years after the introduction of extensive budgetary cuts. The local debt-drive was instigated by austerity-urbanism as a way of resolving the challenge of financing local services and development. The relatively low level of initial debt stock among local governments, very attractive borrowing terms and various regulatory changes facilitated the expansion of borrowing. Using debt stock data for over 300 local governments, it is demonstrated how debt build-up evolved to create financial difficulties for around 40 per cent of local governments. The Covid-19 pandemic, with its severe impacts on local revenues, exposed the debt-driven local development projects, leading to rescue operations and efforts to curb borrowing through new rules and regulations. For deeper international insights into the dynamics of debt-financing and urban development in times of crises, further research is needed to complement existing research in Britain and the USA, where relatively greater evidence exists.
{"title":"Austerity urbanism, local government debt-drive, and post COVID predicaments in Britain","authors":"Hulya Dagdeviren","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad031","url":null,"abstract":"Conditions of local governance in the aftermath of the global financial crisis are often discussed as reflections of ‘austerity urbanism’. What forms of mutations have taken place in austerity urbanism after the initial years of spending cuts at the local level? This article investigates this question by focusing on the uneven geographies of post-austerity debt-drive in Britain. It is shown that austerity urbanism in Britain was somewhat peculiarly combined with debt-driven ‘entrepreneurialism’ several years after the introduction of extensive budgetary cuts. The local debt-drive was instigated by austerity-urbanism as a way of resolving the challenge of financing local services and development. The relatively low level of initial debt stock among local governments, very attractive borrowing terms and various regulatory changes facilitated the expansion of borrowing. Using debt stock data for over 300 local governments, it is demonstrated how debt build-up evolved to create financial difficulties for around 40 per cent of local governments. The Covid-19 pandemic, with its severe impacts on local revenues, exposed the debt-driven local development projects, leading to rescue operations and efforts to curb borrowing through new rules and regulations. For deeper international insights into the dynamics of debt-financing and urban development in times of crises, further research is needed to complement existing research in Britain and the USA, where relatively greater evidence exists.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"51 17","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71514437","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 Affordable housing projects may affect neighboring property values. Negative spillovers are more likely in developing countries because governments may fail to provide complementary infrastructures such as schools. We study one of the world’s largest affordable housing projects, the Mehr housing project in Iran, which facilitated the construction of 2 million affordable apartments. Using the universe of house transactions in nineteen large cities, we employ a difference-in-differences methodology to estimate the causal impact of Mehr on neighboring properties. Results show nearby housing prices fall by 11%. This negative effect fades away in neighborhoods that saw a proportionate expansion of schools.
{"title":"Large-scale affordable housing construction and public goods provision: evidence from Iran","authors":"Saeed Tajrishy, Mohammad Vesal","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad030","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Affordable housing projects may affect neighboring property values. Negative spillovers are more likely in developing countries because governments may fail to provide complementary infrastructures such as schools. We study one of the world’s largest affordable housing projects, the Mehr housing project in Iran, which facilitated the construction of 2 million affordable apartments. Using the universe of house transactions in nineteen large cities, we employ a difference-in-differences methodology to estimate the causal impact of Mehr on neighboring properties. Results show nearby housing prices fall by 11%. This negative effect fades away in neighborhoods that saw a proportionate expansion of schools.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135889322","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 We study firms’ optimal R&D location strategies in a dynamic industry model with competition in product quality. In light of potential future inwards and outwards spillovers firms make their location choices relying on heuristic strategies that are based on the expected present values associated with alternative location patterns. Using a simulation analysis, we show how the strategies of innovators and imitators differ and how they depend on whether firms operate in strongly or weakly innovative industry environments. We also characterize how firms’ location choices should account for the innovativeness of the competitors active in a location.
{"title":"R&D location in dynamic industry environments","authors":"Luca Colombo, Herbert Dawid, Philipp Harting","doi":"10.1093/jeg/lbad024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We study firms’ optimal R&D location strategies in a dynamic industry model with competition in product quality. In light of potential future inwards and outwards spillovers firms make their location choices relying on heuristic strategies that are based on the expected present values associated with alternative location patterns. Using a simulation analysis, we show how the strategies of innovators and imitators differ and how they depend on whether firms operate in strongly or weakly innovative industry environments. We also characterize how firms’ location choices should account for the innovativeness of the competitors active in a location.","PeriodicalId":48251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Geography","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136034342","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}