Papers in Regional Science最新文献

Italian environmental laws set targets for separate waste collection (SWC) in a top-down public decision-making approach. This study uses quarterly data (2002Q1–2019Q1) on the 103 Italian provinces to investigate whether the targets activate a yardstick competition (YC) mechanism in SWC. Applying a two-regime spatial Durbin model, this study demonstrates that YC emerges in the sub-periods defined by target levels (35%, 45% and 65%) when using an inverse geographical distance matrix. Conversely, YC does not arise when proximity is defined in economic and institutional quality terms. Finally, the study proposes policy implications.

This study explores the diversification of high-quality technologies within Chinese cities from 2000 to 2015. Our results reveal that both high-quality and low-quality technological portfolios contribute to high-quality technological diversification. High-quality portfolios dominate this process as provide high-value knowledge that can be shared with new related technologies. Meanwhile, low-quality portfolios play a complementary role in this process by facilitating local knowledge deepening, in which existing low-value knowledge gradually evolves into high-value one through local interaction. Moreover, technological relatedness and interregional spillovers are substitutable when contributing to the diversification of high-quality technologies.

The paper aims to investigate regional participation in a new Portuguese Research and Innovation (R&I) programme (so-called ‘Agendas for Industrialization’) funded by the European Next Generation EU (NGEU). Using a probit model with sample selection and a novel dataset, we find that the distribution of territorial participation to the NGEU-related programme is more similar to that observed for the European Commission’s R&I Horizon 2020 programme than for the R&I funds under the Cohesion Policy (2014–2020). The results also show a rural-urban divide in regional participation, which is eventually due to a lack of demand for this type of funding in less developed regions.

This paper contributes to the literature on economic relatedness and diversification in Brazil. It uses firm-level, occupational data to estimate the relationship between regions’ diversification, the degree of relatedness, and economic complexity indexes. Given that the current literature often focuses on a single variable, a new relatedness measure is introduced. It includes three new relatedness dimensions. The co-occupation captures the degree of similarity of firms’ occupations; co-location, considers the geographical proximity of different sectors; and co-company, evaluates if firms operate in more than one sector. Analyzing the evolution of 558 microregions from 2006 to 2016, the study finds that new industries are more likely to enter when technologically related to existing ones, while industries lacking relatedness are prone to exit. The results highlight diversification as a significant path-dependent process. They also underscore the challenges of attracting and retaining new industries, especially those technologically distant or more complex, emphasizing the importance of relatedness in regional economic cohesion.

Geographic expansion negatively impacts bank outcomes during recessions. While increases in average bank-to-branch distance for a given bank have a small positive impact on bank performance, increases in average bank-to-branch distance across all banks negatively impact performance as a result of aggregate spillovers. These findings support the existence of economically substantive geographic information asymmetries in banking, emphasizing the need for an explicit consideration of the spatial implications of banking (de-)regulation.

The provision of new subsidized housing projects presents an effective solution for alleviating the significant housing deficit in developing countries. However, limited knowledge exists regarding how these housing projects impact the quality of the surrounding environment, particularly when situated near informal settlements. By using highly detailed data from Medellin, Colombia, and employing an instrumental variables strategy, we estimate the external effects of social housing programs on the neighboring communities. Our results demonstrate that these projects contribute to a reduction in informal housing, poverty levels, and crime within the surrounding neighborhood. This external effect is significant and often overlooked when assessing the overall returns of social housing programs.

This paper investigates the gender gap in commuting by differentiating between the place of residence and work in urban and rural regions. Using administrative geo-referenced data for Germany and applying decomposition techniques, we provide evidence for a triple gap in commuting to the disadvantage of women. Apart from the overall gap, the regional disaggregation uncovers a further gap among workers commuting between rather than within regions, with the highest gap among commuters between rural regions. Occupational segregation and establishment size are the most relevant factors for explaining the gender commuting gaps.