Labour Market Areas Research Articles

Quel rôle réel pour les réseaux de firmes dans l'innovation locale ? Une analyse des bassins d'emplois canadiens durant la période 1997-2005

Nous nous intéresserons à l’effet des réseaux de coopération entre firmes sur le potentiel d’innovation des territoires dans l’espace canadien. Nous nous appuyons sur une analyse des bassins d’emplois durant la période 1997-2005 sur la base des demandes de brevets déposés en commun par plusieurs inventeurs pour établir des réseaux de coopération. Nous montrons que, pour les localités proches des métropoles, le degré d’ouverture n’est pas associé au niveau d’innovation, tandis que leurs caractéristiques internes le sont. Par contre, pour les régions éloignées, l’ouverture et le réseautage externe jouent un rôle primordial des métropoles. Autrement dit, ce sont les localités éloignées les mieux reseautées qui sont les plus innovantes, tandis que la position dans les réseaux et l’ouverture ne distinguent pas entre elles les régions proches des métropoles. Ces résultats sont semblables, mais ne sont pas identiques, selon le type d’innovation observé.

Delineating retail conurbations: A rules-based algorithmic approach

Retail conurbations may be defined as market areas with high intra-market movement. A limited range of approaches has been used to delineate such retail conurbations. This paper evaluates a simplified version of an existing zone design method used to define labour market areas, the Travel-To-Work-Area algorithm (TTWA), for application in a retail context. Geocoded loyalty card spend data recorded by Boots UK Limited, a large health and beauty retailer, were used to develop retail conurbations (newly termed Travel-To-Store-Areas (TTSAs)) for several UK regions using this algorithm. The output TTSA boundaries displayed significantly greater intra-zone flows compared to existing retail conurbation delineation approaches. There is thus scope for researchers and analysts to broaden the zone design approaches used to develop retail conurbations.

Labor Market Conditions and US Teen Birth Rates, 2001–2009

Using unemployment rates as the sole labor market explanatory variable, most previous studies have concluded that employment conditions do not systematically influence teen birth rates. By contrast, this study found that birth rates were positively correlated with male employment rates (20–24 years old) and negatively correlated with the real minimum wage. Teen birth rates were also positively correlated with teen gonorrhea infection rates; and for the older teens (18–19 years old), by a measure of illegal drug use. By contrast, alcohol use was negatively correlated with teen birth rates. Finally, teen female employment rates were positively correlated with teen birth rates in weak labor market areas, suggesting that better job opportunities might increase teen birth rates among disadvantaged youth. Given the persistence of young adult birth rates among disadvantaged youth, policy recommendations to eliminate the marriage penalty they face are offered.

Land Quality, Development and Space: Does Scale Matter?

This study analyzes empirically the relationship between land quality decline and the spatial distribution of per capita income observed in Italy at different spatial scales and geographical divisions. The aim of this contribution is to verify if a decline in land quality has higher probability to occur in economically disadvantaged areas and if scale may influence this relationship. Per capita income was considered a proxy indicator for the level of socio-economic development and life quality in the investigated area. Changes over time (1990–2000) of a composite index of land quality and per capita income in Italy were regressed at four spatial scales: (i) 20 NUTS-2 regions, (ii) 103 NUTS-3 prefectures, (iii) 784 local districts designed as Local Labour Market Areas (LLMAs), and (iv) 8,101 LAU-1 municipalities. Different specifications were tested, including first, second and third order polynomial equations. Linear models allowed the best fit for data examined at all spatial scales. However, elasticity of the dependent variable to per capita income varied considerably according to scale suggesting that developmental policies may have a limited impact on land quality in vulnerable southern Italian areas compared to northern and central Italy. This study suggests that geographically disaggregated data simulating different spatial levels of governance may offer further insights compared to cross-country datasets indicating targets for multi-scale policies possibly preventing a poverty-desertification spiral.

Does skilled migration foster innovative performance? Evidence from British local areas

AbstractWhat is the effect of an increase in the stock of human capital due to skilled immigration on the innovative performance of recipient economies? Combining firm‐level micro‐data with area‐level labour force information, this paper investigates the impact of skilled international migration inflows on firms' product and process innovation in British local labour market areas. The paper supports the evidence in favour of a causal link between immigration and innovation. Results also show that the nature of the innovative process and the typology of innovative activities performed by local firms play a key role in the relation between immigration and innovation.

Social position of persons with disabilities in and out of residential institution

The 2011 Census in the Republic of Serbia introduced, for the first time questions about difficulties in functioning, following the Recommendations from the Washington Group on Disability Statistics. Since there are no stable and continuous sources on the position of persons with disabilities in Serbia, the Census results may be used as a relevant source on disability measurement. Of course, due to the main goal of census disability measurement, and that is a general identification of disability in population, these results should be employed with certain reservations and carefully, especially because of some methodological specification in approaching disability. The main use of census data on disability should be found in evaluating the "equality of opportunity" in relevant areas, such as economic activity (labour and employment), education, living sources, etc. and this is to be achieved mainly through comparison between the values in the general population and population with disabilities. Having done that, we were able to conclude on visible inequality of opportunities between the general and population with disabilities. These discrapancies are indeed evident first in the area of education-especially in accessing elementary education, where the percentage of persons with disabilities that never attended school is extremely high (12.2% v. 2.68% in general population). The unfavourable status of persons with disabilities in the context of education continues in almost all levels of education. An even more obvious inequality of opportunity is present in the area of economic activity, where the prevalence of inactive persons with disability is very high - almost 90%. Having gone through all the age categories, what becomes abvious is a significantly lower activity among all age groups in comparison to the same groups in general population. However, the main goal of this article was to detect the discrapancies existing between the position of persons with disabilities that live in the community and those living in institutional settings - institutions for collective housing. In both areas of education and economic activity, the results tell us very much about a much more problematic status of those living in residential settings. Overall, the access to education is much lower with residents, making an even more negative picture about this smaller group of persons with disabilities in Serbia. In the area of economic activity, the percentage of economically active persons with disabilities in residential settings does not climb to one percent (0.30% excluding the homes for adults and the elderly), which is indeed a worrying situation. Having in mind well known facts on the effects of institutionalization of persons with disabilities in terms of almost all their rights and freedoms, the results that we have encountered are to confirm a negative status of those living in residential settings. Experiences of discrimination, marginalization, segregation and exclusion are evident in the census results. Even if one tries to focus only on analyzing the equality of opportunity in the given context, in comparison with the general population, or even only with the contingent of persons with disabilities out of the residential settings, those living in institutions in Serbia are seriously suffering from lack of access to education, training, labour market and other important areas of life and social functioning. In addition, a potentially relevant insight has been made into the correlation of the type of problem and the status within economic activity and education of persons with disabilities in Serbia. The results confirm that those persons identified through census questions that aim at detecting problems of mental health (intellectual and psycho-social disability) are in the least favourable position in both of the observed areas. Such conclusions should also be connected to a specifically problematic social inclusion and acceptance of those with mental health problems and the extremely high burden of social stigma towards them, combined with the long-going practice of exclusion and discrimination (legal capacity, education, employability, etc.).

Area Disparities in Britain: Understanding the Contribution of People vs. Place Through Variance Decompositions

AbstractThis article considers methods for decomposing wage variation into individual and group specific components. We discuss the merits of these methods, which are applicable to variance decomposition problems generally. The relative magnitudes of the measures depend on the underlying variances and covariances, and we discuss how to interpret them, and how they might relate to structural parameters of interest. We show that a clear‐cut division of variation into area and individual components is impossible. An empirical application to the British labour market demonstrates that labour market area effects contribute very little to the overall variation of wages in Britain.

The Sensitivity of Labor-Supply Decisions to Plant Closures and Labor-Market Characteristics During Corporate Downsizing

Using individual-level data from personnel records and interviews, company-level data on plant conditions and closures, and labor-market area data, this paper undertakes a multi-level analysis of the effects of clustered factors, keyed to production plants, on individual decisions of continued labor supply among production and skilled-trades workers in General Motors plants during the period of the late 1980s as GM was struggling to avoid bankruptcy by (among other tactics) trying to induce workers in targeted plants who were at or near retirement age to accept an incentive-to-retire package.

Production networks in local labour market areas

L’obiettivo del lavoro e quello di mettere in luce e descrivere la configurazione dei legami produttivi sul territorio partire dalle reti delle imprese plurilocalizzate. Sono stati utilizzati gli strumenti della network analysis per descrivere la rete, l’intensita e le caratteristiche delle interrelazioni tra la sede dell’impresa e le sue unita locali. In ogni impresa plurilocalizzata, infatti, sussistono legami operativi tra la sede principale (che accentra le funzioni direzionali) e le altre unita locali (che ne sono governate): sono legami orientati dal verso delle relazioni di comando, hanno un evidente aspetto geografico riferito alla diversa localizzazione sul territorio della sede d’impresa e delle sue unita locali e l’intensita del legame puo essere convenientemente misurata dal numero di addetti di ogni unita locale governati dall’impresa-madre. L’applicazione della network analysis all’insieme dei legami tra imprese-madri e unita locali sotto il loro controllo consente di individuare i modelli di relazione e interazione tra le entita. Queste tecniche, infatti, e la loro rappresentazione grafica colgono in maniera sintetica l’esistenza delle reti di imprese sul territorio, superando l’ottica a due della matrice origine-destinazione, e permettono di individuare l’esistenza di tipologie di network riconducibili anche alle diverse connotazioni socioeconomiche dei territori coinvolti. Per meglio mettere in luce questo aspetto, l’analisi e condotta con riferimento ai Sistemi Locali del Lavoro.

The Incidence and Persistence of Cyclical Job Loss in New Zealand

In New Zealand, the impact of the 2007–2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) was milder than in most other developed countries, though still substantial, with employment declining by 2.5 percent between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the fourth quarter of 2009. There were pronounced declines in job and worker turnover rates, signalling a decline in labour market liquidity and difficulties for new entrants and high-turnover groups of workers (Fabling and Mare, 2012). The current paper documents the extent and composition of employment change between 2000 and 2011, focusing particularly on the 2008–2010 period, when the labour market impacts of the GFC were strongest. As in previous downturns, the incidence of cyclical job loss and unemployment has fallen disproportionately on young and unskilled workers. The paper identifies, for subgroups of workers identified by age, gender and earnings level, the sensitivity of employment growth and labour market flows to aggregate employment fluctuations and also to relative fluctuations across industries and local labour market areas. The rate of job accessions (hiring) is particularly sensitive to the economic cycle and most strongly for young workers. Most of the differences across groups in the size of cyclical employment fluctuations are due to differing responsiveness to common shocks and not to exposure to different industry and local shocks. Finally, the paper traces outcomes for workers whose jobs end, summarising their duration out of work and the wage increases or reductions they experience when they secure employment. Workers who left or lost jobs spent longer out of work after the GFC and settled for lower earnings growth when they did find a job. Both of these effects had partly but not fully abated within 3 years of the onset of the GFC.

Determinants of the Spatial Distribution of Foreign Employees on Different Skill Job Positions: The Case of the Czech Republic

Abstract The aim of the paper is to discuss the spatial distribution of foreign employees in highlyskilled, skilled and unskilled job positions by using correlation and regression analyses. On the one hand, our results indicate that foreign employees, no matter what job position they work in, usually concentrate in districts where regional centers or eventually large industrial factories are located. The outcomes also indicate that these foreign employees are usually employed in areas where foreigners were also employed in previous years. On the other hand, there seem to be determinants of the spatial distribution of foreigners that differ by job positions. The spatial distribution of foreign employees in highly-skilled job positions seems to be primarily influenced by characteristics of the economic area, whereas the spatial pattern of foreign employees in skilled and unskilled job positions seem to be more determined by the characteristics of the labour market area.

Aglomeración económica y sistemas locales de trabajo en Boyacá

El artículo discute someramente las pautas que han desarrollado algunos autores en torno al fenómeno de la localización productiva. La discusión incluye una presentación de los conceptos expuestos originalmente por Marshall, que fueron retomados tanto en los trabajos de Krugman sobre geografía económica como en las ideas de los Sistemas Locales de Trabajo de los teóricos del distrito industrial.De Krugman también se presentan algunos aspectos de su modelo de centro periferia. Después de exponer algunos puntos teóricos relevantes, con los datos disponibles se aplica parcialmente una metodología basada en la información del censo 2005 sobre movimientos pendulares de los Commuters en el departamento de Boyacá, con el objeto de identificar localidades centrales que atraen trabajadores de las vecindades.

Innovation and the local workforce

AbstractWe combine firm‐level innovation data with area‐level Census data to examine the relationship between local workforce characteristics, especially the presence of immigrants and local skills, and the likelihood of innovation by firms. We examine a range of innovation outcomes, and test the relationship for selected subgroups of firms. We find a positive relationship between local workforce characteristics and average innovation outcomes in labour market areas, but this is accounted for by variation in firm characteristics such as firm size, industry, and research and development expenditure. Controlling for these influences, we find no systematic evidence of an independent link between local workforce characteristics and innovation.

Rule versus Interaction Function: Evaluating Regional Aggregations of Commuting Flows in Sweden

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the performance of two divergent methods for delineating commuting regions, also called labour market areas, in a situation that the base spatial units differ largely in size as a result of an irregular population distribution. Commuting patterns in Sweden have been analyzed with geographical information system technology by delineating commuting regions using two regionalization methods. One, a rule-based method, uses one-way commuting flows to delineate local labour market areas in a top-down procedure based on the selection of predefined employment centres. The other method, the interaction-based Intramax analysis, uses two-way flows in a bottom-up procedure based on numerical taxonomy principles. A comparison of these methods will expose a number of strengths and weaknesses. For both methods, the same data source has been used. The performance of both methods has been evaluated for the country as a whole using resident employed population, self-containment levels and job ratios for criteria. A more detailed evaluation has been done in the Göteborg metropolitan area by comparing regional patterns with the commuting fields of a number of urban centres in this area. It is concluded that both methods could benefit from the inclusion of additional control measures to identify improper allocations of municipalities.

Cities and Clusters: Economy-Wide and Sector-Specific Effects in Corporate Location

Bottazzi G. and Gragnolati U. Cities and clusters: economy-wide and sector-specific effects in corporate location, Regional Studies. Are the observed spatial distributions of firms decided mostly by economy-wide urbanization economies or rather by sector-specific localization economies? This paper finds that the latter kind of forces weight systematically more than the former in deciding firm location. The analysis uses Italian data on a variety of manufacturing and service sectors spatially disaggregated at the level of local labour market areas.

La estructura policéntrica de los mercados laborales locales de la Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México

Datos sobre desplazamientos residencia–trabajo a nivel de distrito y un algoritmo específicamente elaborado para delimitar áreas auto–contenidas muestran que la Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México (ZMVM) se estructura en 2007 en doce mercados laborales locales. Aunque seis subcentros de empleo fueron identificados, la ZMVM se encuentra aún claramente dominada por su Distrito Central de Negocios (Central Business District, CBD), situándose el resto de subcentros próximos al CBD. La valoración de esta estructura espacial no es positiva: decremento de la co–localización, descenso de la velocidad y aumento de los tiempos y distancias de los viajes al trabajo. No obstante, el aumento en el porcentaje de los desplazamientos al trabajo intra–distritales es un signo positivo, aunque esta tendencia no es uniforme en toda la zona metropolitana.

Self-employment of immigrants and natives in Sweden – a multilevel analysis

Recent research suggests that self-employment among immigrants is due to a combination of multiple situational, cultural and institutional factors, all acting together. Using multilevel regression and unique data on the entire population of Sweden for the year 2007, this study attempts to quantify the relative importance for the self-employed of embeddedness in ethnic contexts (country of birth) and regional business and public regulatory frameworks (labour market areas). This information indicates whether the layers under consideration are valid constructs of the surroundings that influence individual self-employment. The results show that 10% (women) and 8% (men) of the total variation in individual differences in self-employment can be attributed to the country of birth. When labour market areas are included in the analyses, the share of the total variation increases to 14% for women and 12% for men. The results show that the ethnic context and the economic environment play a minor role in understanding individual differences in self-employment levels. The results can have important implications when planning interventions or other actions focusing on self-employment as public measures to promote self-employment often are based on geographic areas and ethnic contexts.

Labour Markets and Wages in Australia in 2011

In a context of international economic uncertainty and uneven domestic economic performance, labour market outcomes showed considerable diversity. Wide-ranging outcomes in employment numbers, patterns of full-time and part-time work, labour utilization, and changes in earnings were evident both across and within industries. Men’s full-time employment appears to be one labour market area that is experiencing particular decline as casualization of the workforce continues and men’s traditional industries of employment experience subdued economic growth. Women’s employment appears to be faring relatively well in terms of growth, but large and persistent gender pay gaps remain evident in particular feminized industries, including financial and insurance services and health and social assistance. Predictions made earlier this decade that population ageing might ensure relative stability in employment among younger workers have not yet been fulfilled. Younger workers continue to experience relatively high levels of unemployment and underutilization, with the immediate employment experiences of younger men being relatively unfavourable compared with younger women in the workforce.

Measuring The Social Opportunity Cost of Labor In Mexico

This paper reviews the theory underlying the concept of the social opportunity cost of labor (SOCL), as that concept is used in benefit-cost analysis and in applied welfare economics generally. It then presents in detail the procedures to be followed in estimating the SOCL in real-world cases. Important steps in data processing include calculating gross and net wages from data on “reported” wages. Further economic analysis involves taking account of migration patterns and of labor market duality. Estimates are made for 32 labor market areas in Mexico, covering 21 occupations for males and 19 for females.Our main results are a) that there are important differences between reported wages and the gross wages paid by employers, and also between both of these and the net wages received by workers, and b) that taking labor market duality into account leads to significant modifications of our SOCL estimates. More important, perhaps, than our specific estimates for Mexico, is the methodological framework that we use. This framework, based on the fundamental principles of applied welfare economics, can serve as a useful starting point for serious estimation of the SOCL for other countries.

Tiered Housing Markets and their Relationship to Labour Market Areas

This paper develops a tiered geography of local housing market areas (HMAs) that provides a national framework for spatial planning. It is derived from a theoretical understanding of the economic basis of HMAs. The analysis explores the relationships between the tiers of the HMA geography and local labour market areas. Drawing on this understanding, the empirical research generates sets of different potential geographies of HMAs for England based on an algorithm that applies criteria linked to the degree of closure of migration and/or commuting patterns. A range of theoretically appropriate criteria then enable the different geographies to be assessed. The choice of geography is guided by Chow tests of statistical differences in standardised house prices in neighbouring HMAs derived from hedonic regressions. Finally, conclusions are drawn on the validity of the approach developed. The empirical work is on England and datasets drawn from the Census and Land Registry.