Interregional Economic Disparities Research Articles

Rural areas as winners of COVID-19, digitalization and remote working? Empirical evidence from recent internal migration in Germany

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic crises and increased inter-regional economic disparities. However, the catalyst effect that the pandemic has had on digitalization may change the traditional pattern of internal migration, in favour of rural areas. Using time-sensitive register data we explain changes in net migration rates of German districts from an economic geography perspective. We show that, since the beginning of the pandemic, rural regions benefited more from migration. In particular, younger and highly skilled individuals increasingly move to rural areas. This confirms that rural regions can benefit from increasing remote work, but these effects differ across region types and individual skill levels.

Evidence of Development Inequality in Papua

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to identify and analyze disparities in per capita income between regions/areas in the Papua Mountain Province, analyze and compile recommendations regarding efforts to overcome development disparities between regions/areas in the Papua Mountain Province. Method: The research utilizes a comparative analysis approach to examine the disparities in per capita income between regions/areas in the Papua Mountain Province. Data from the last ten years (2013–2022) are analyzed to assess economic growth gaps and inter-regional economic disparities between districts in the Central Papua Province Region. Result and Conclusion: The study reveals significant economic growth gaps between regions/areas within the Papua Mountain Province over the past decade. These disparities indicate the need for efforts to address and overcome development discrepancies among districts. To promote equitable development across regions, district/city governments in the Papua Mountain Province must focus on improving community welfare and regional competitiveness. Implication of the Research: The research underscores the importance of addressing development disparities between regions/areas in the Papua Mountain Province. The findings provide valuable insights for policymakers and local governments to develop targeted strategies and policies aimed at reducing economic disparities and promoting balanced regional development. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the existing literature by providing a comprehensive analysis of development disparities within the Papua Mountain Province. By highlighting the economic growth gaps and inter-regional disparities, the research offers practical recommendations for fostering inclusive and sustainable development in the region.

Spatial inequalities in Russia: dynamic and sectorial analysis

We study the dynamics of inter-regional economic disparities for a number of development characteristics, test the hypothesis of the new economic geography and connect the results with the prediction of the bell curve describing spatial concentration over time. Empirical analysis shows that the spatial concentration of economic activity continues in Russia and that the rate of inter-regional divergence is rather high. The factors that affect spatial concentration and regional disparities in Russia are population density, size and accessibility of markets, as well as the level of diversification.

High‐tech industry clustering in less favoured areas

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to demonstrate that synergy between firms and local institutions may lead to success even in an economic environment which cannot offer competitive advantages to high tech industrial clustering. However, the condition for such a complex result is convergence between cluster‐based regional development policy, the related industry national strategy and the central government preferential policy for less developed areas.Design/methodology/approachThe experiences selected as case studies are the Xi'an National Civil Aerospace Base in Shaanxi Province (China) and CampaniAerospace in Campania region (Italy). As information was gathered both through policy documents (China and Italy) and direct interviews to cluster's stakeholders (Italy), the outcome is, according to the criteria suggested by Eisenhardt and Yin, a qualitative research. Comparing economic data provided by the respective countries' Statistical Offices, the authors assessed that Shaanxi Province and the Campania region share a “peripheral” position within their respective national context. Starting from this, the authors analyzed the formal documents which reported the experience of the two clusters.FindingsThe finding is that the outcome (the status of cluster which is assumed as “a value in itself”) of the convergence between firms' will to gain agglomeration advantages and the policymakers' plan to redress interregional economic disparities is definitely not an efficiency‐driven process. In the high tech sectors which are very sensitive to the increasing competition for technology on the international market, the pursuit of efficiency may, on the contrary, be dissipated.Originality/valueAs attested by the comparative literature, aims and performance of industrial clusters differ in accordance with the stage of economic development as well as the institutional and regulatory framework. The paper demonstrates, however, that in the take‐off stage, it is the position occupied by the host region within the national context which determines the behaviour of the actors concerned as well as the outcome of their commitment.

Globalising Economic Spaces, Uneven Development and Regional Challenges: Introduction to the Special Issue

The phenomenon of spatially uneven development has always captured the interest of economic geographers, forming one of the foundation stones of the discipline and a major research focus in analyses of both advanced or emerging economies (Hayter and Patchell, 2011; Sheppard et al., 2009). The economic exploitation of localized resources to improve the quality of people’s lives inevitably leads to widening of interregional economic disparities, engendering dynamics, which, over time, change little and are rarely reversed. Interregional disparities simply transform, assume different guises and, at times, shift between places. They never really vanish. And convergence is rare, as investigations of interregional disparities in Europe have shown (Badingera et al., 2004; Martin, 2001) and the USA (Caselli and Coleman, 2001). However, measuring the dynamics of interregional divergence and convergence is both demanding and problematic (Puga, 1999; Rey and Janikas, 2005). Consequently, the dynamics of spatially uneven development remain a major research question with significant and enduring policy relevance.

Les dépenses communautaires et régionales : instrument de développement économique et social ?

This article attempts to analyse fiscal policies of the Belgian Regions and Communities in the last regional legislature, drawing attention to their scope for action, their priorities in the provision of public goods and the policy evaluation.In Belgium, Regions and Communities have a high fiscal and political autonomy, or “spending power”, so that they can apply their own reforms. On the last legislature, evolution of their revenue allowed to increase their expenditure more than the real trend growth, even by performing the States fiscal targets on the period 2005-2008. Public expenditures particularly increased in the Flemish Community and the Brussels Region. However, through equalisation mechanisms (National solidarity intervention), public expenditures per capita are distributed more equally than the income, and even in favour of poorer regions.Belgian Regions and Communities also make differential choices in the allocation of public goods. According to a comparison of the States budgets, Flemish States give greater place to education, health and social protection. Although some signs of convergence appeared during the period 2004 and 2008, the French-speaking States and the Brussels Region still spend more in economic affairs, employment and professional training. The long-lasting interregional economic disparities challenge the effectiveness of such expenditures. Therefore, policy and performance evaluation appear as a decisive stage to promote efficiency and effectiveness of public expenditures. In this area, the monitoring of the Marshall Plan is rather a promising initiative.JEL Codes – H70, H72, H73, H75

Patterns and Principles of Fiscal Federalism in Belgium

The territorial financial arrangements in Belgium reflect the bipolar and centrifugal logic of Belgian federalism. The structure of the Belgian federation is a political reflection of a territorialized language conflict, in part overlaid by inter-regional economic disparities. Discussions about territorial finance are always part of broader negotiations between a richer, Flemish north and a less wealthy, Francophone south about the way in which the two can remain in a common state. While tracing the evolution of Belgium's fiscal federalism before 2001, the contribution focuses on a new settlement achieved in major negotiations in 2001. This settlement established a more stable financial underpinning for Belgium's linguistic Communities (Flemish, Francophone, German) while allowing its economic Regions (Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels) greater fiscal autonomy. It is doubtful, though, that even this latest set of negotiations will provide an enduring basis for Belgian territorial finance.

Cycles of Conflict: Fiscal Equalization in Germany

Germany's arrangements for sharing and allocating resources between governments at central and regional levels have been the subject of intense and growing dispute since the 1980s, and especially since German unification in 1990. The cause has been growing inter-regional economic disparities, which have been reflected in conflicts of interest on finance matters. These conflicts have periodically reached such a critical mass that negotiations are held on reforming the system of fiscal equalization. The most recent were in 1993 and 2001, the latter following a constitutional suit brought by some of the wealthier Lander protesting about the perceived inequity of the system. However, no reform has yet addressed the underlying issues which provoke conflict, which have to do with incentives and the weakness of needs-based equalization criteria. Further conflict is therefore inevitable.

Regional Policy and the 'Regionalization' of University-Industry Links: A View from the English Regions

As several senior figures in UK Government have recently professed to want to promote the knowledge-driven economy across the nation, discussion of university-industry ties in less-favoured regions is particularly salient. This account documents how UK central government efforts to encourage greater university-industry links have increasingly taken on a regional dimension but then stresses that these efforts do not constitute a 'regional policy' (in the traditional sense of measures that seek to reduce interregional economic disparities). This activity is then set within the context of overall Government and European Union (EU) funding to universities which is also at odds with stated government aims of lessening regional economic disparities. The article goes on to highlight how mainstream regional policy, particularly that of the European Commission, has seen considerable support for university-industry activity in the regions but has faced an uncertain future due largely to the spectre of fund-draining EU expansion. The article concludes by asking what policies might be pursued for university-industry links to be increased in weaker regions. The underlying aim of the article is to contribute towards raising the profile of universities in debates about reducing interregional economic disparities (that must, in turn, be much higher on the public policy agenda).

Outside Looking in: International Migration and the Cities

A principal challenge to U.S. policy in coming decades will be the prospect of large-scale immigration from the chronically impoverished and misgoverned developing nations that make up most of world population. In contrast, interregional economic disparities (including slum areas) are likely to provide less troublesome problems for public policy. The ease of communications, the presence of large colonies of successful (or successfully coping) Third World migrants, and the weakness of immigration controls point to the United States as a major target for legal and illegal immigrants perhaps approaching the 1900-1910 level, that is, in 1990 terms, 2.5-3.0 million a year, approximately three to four times the level of the 1980s.

Migration Flows and Economic Conditions in the Dominican Republic

One of the most dynamic aspects of socioeconomic change in less-developed countries is expressed by their internal migration patterns. A large percentage of the present urban population in most of these countries has migrated at some time, either from a rural environment or from another city. In the Dominican Republic, over two-thirds of all urban dwellers are migrants. Rural areas, too, are often in flux, with a sizeable percentage of the population either having lived in cities or having moved from other rural areas. In the Dominican Republic, almost one-half of all those residing in the countryside have migrated. Such impressive population mobility, especially the rural-to-urban flow, is probably an inevitable concomitant of the development process as a country's labor force redistributes from the agricultural to the industrial sector [Sahota 1968, p. 218]. Broadly speaking, the phenomena of population shifts present the economist with two distinct, but related problems [Sjaastad 1962, pp. 81-2]. First, is migration a purposeful response of people to their perception of alternative economic conditions and opportunities in different regions of a country?' The second question, which, as Sjaastad notes, is the more difficult of the two, springs from the first: are migration flows effective in reducing the interregional economic disparities that originally generate migration? The present study analyzes individuals by migrant status and interprovincial aggregate migration rates in the Dominican Republic. Within the limitations posed by the available Dominican data, we find considerable evidence that migration flows are strongly affected by economic conditions, both in the area of origin and destination. Moreover, we offer tentative empirical support for the contention that migration helps equalize initial economic differences between regions losing population and regions gaining population. The first part of this study presents estimated urban-to-urban, urban-to-rural, rural-to-urban, and rural-to-rural migra-