Spatial Labour Market Research Articles

Spatial Labour Market Inequality and Social Protection in the UK

Spatial Labour Market Inequality and Social Protection in the UK

Spatial labour markets and resilience of cities and regions: a critical review

ABSTRACT This study provides a comprehensive overview and critical assessment of the major scientific literature about labour market developments and resilience in a spatial context. This review paper – an introduction to the Regional Studies special issue on ‘The Tidal Movements of Spatial Labour Markets: Perturbation and Resilience’ – examines the effects of sudden shocks on the labour markets’ resilience capacity at the city or region level. The paper contributes to the existing literature in particular by generating a typology of shocks at different geographical scales, which may provide an operational framework for cities and regions to be able to prepare in advance for unforeseen shocks. The paper concludes with a strategic analysis of resilience policies and policy lessons on regional labour markets. This overview paper positions the scope and innovations in this special issue in a broader employment resilience context.

Is the creative class a shock absorber against an economic recession? Spatial labour market resilience in Romania

ABSTRACT The creative class has been argued to both hamper and support economic resilience. As such, we propose a new framework on the significance of the creative class for local economic resilience, namely: the creativity and resilience analysis approach (CREA). The study contributes to the literature (1) by evaluating resilience through an index that includes multiple dimensions of creativity-based economic development; and (2) by identifying preliminary findings that link economic resilience with spatial shifts in local labour markets.

Worker intra‐urban residential migration and spatial labour market change in Melbourne's functional economic regions

AbstractThis paper investigates the intra‐urban residential migration of workers in Melbourne and assesses the spatial effects of this dynamic on urban internal structure and spatial labour markets. Intra‐urban migration is an important category of internal migration that relocates human and social capital in urban areas, contributing to changes in urban residential and labour market structure. This paper fills the gap in internal migration literature by determining spatial residential movement dynamics through a spatial analysis of census‐based intra‐urban migration flow data. In addition to detailed migration flow analysis undertaken at a local scale, the paper contributes an improved economic data geography based on functional economic regions (FERs) that permits analysis of the intersection of worker migration flows with sub‐metropolitan labour markets. Our results show that intra‐urban migration results in a strong outward flow of workers in Melbourne, which primarily appears to be shaped by spatial housing markets. This process, in turn, contributes to the dispersion of labour markets in Melbourne, complicating policy aims concerning urban agglomeration and limiting urban spatial expansion.

Regional Mobility and Spatial Inequality: Determinants of Spatial Labor Market Behavior Considering Firm- and Region-Specific Factors

Regional disparities exist between states as well as within countries. In the Federal Republic of Germany, as a result of reunification, there are still considerable regional differences in terms of economic conditions. Local economic and structural circumstances affect individual employment opportunities and can be a motive for migration. Based on rational-economic approaches, the article examines the spatial labor market behavior of full-time employees subject to social security contributions, taking into account individual, firm-specific and regional characteristics. Workplace mobility is analyzed as a job move between the macro regions of North, South and East Germany. For this purpose, a linked employer-employee dataset (LIAB) from the “Institute for Employment Research” is used, supplemented by regional structural indicators (INKAR) at the level of the spatial planning regions. The analyses using binary logistic regression models show that transregional mobility especially depends on individual characteristics such as age and qualifications. Regarding regional features, it can be seen that the emigration tendency of younger employees increases with the local level of unemployment. Overall, the results do not indicate that there is a single-track brain drain from structurally weak regions. Nevertheless, these regions face a problem in age-specific migration patterns. The outflow of young workers weakens structurally poor areas directly and permanently.

Unemployment and vacancy flows in spatial labour market matching at the regional level. The case of a transition country

ABSTRACTWe examine the extent to which spatial interactions affect the labour market matching process at the regional level using three frameworks: random, stock-flow, and job-queuing. We study the underexplored, regionally diversified former transition country of Poland at the LAU-1 level over the 2003–2014 time period using registered monthly data. We employ a Durbin panel model with spatial error. Results prove that spatial interactions affect matching and that the stock-flow model is in some respects superior to others in explaining the job creation process. Unemployment affects matching more than vacancies. The newly unemployed may seek jobs in adjacent regions and can cause congestion there, but vacancies tend to attract workers from adjacent markets and exert positive externalities. Policy actions should be aimed at exploiting spatial interdependencies to improve matching at the regional level by increasing the number of available job offers, improving information, and increasing labour force mobility.

Functional Labour Market Areas for Chile

Administrative areas are arbitrarily designed and do not necessarily reflect the geographical patterns of socio-economic and labour market activity. Labour market areas (LMAs) are required to analyse spatial labour market activity and provide a framework to guide spatially-explicit employment policy development. This resource describes a data source of a set of recently created labour market areas for Chile.

Functional Labour Market Areas for Chile

Administrative areas are arbitrarily designed and do not necessarily reflect the geographical patterns of socio-economic and labour market activity. Labour market areas (LMAs) are required to analyse spatial labour market activity and provide a framework to guide spatially-explicit employment policy development. This resource describes a data source of a set of recently created labour market areas for Chile.

An evolutionary approach to the delimitation of labour market areas: an empirical application for Chile

ABSTRACTAn evolutionary approach to the delimitation of labour market areas: an empirical application for Chile. Spatial Economic Analysis. Labour market areas (LMAs) are argued to represent a more appropriate policy framework than administrative units for the analysis of spatial labour market activity. This article develops LMAs for Chile by applying an evolutionary computation approach. This innovative approach defines LMAs through an optimization process by maximization of internal cohesion, subject to restrictions of minimum levels of self-containment and population. To evaluate the appropriateness of the LMAs, comparative analyses are performed between alternative delimitations based on different parameter configurations of the proposed method versus administrative boundaries and the most widely used method for official LMA delimitation, the travel-to-work areas method.

Spatial Nexus in Crime and Unemployment in Times of Crises

Space is important. In this paper we use the global financial crisis as an exogenous shock to the German labor market to elucidate the spatial nexus between crime and unemployment. Our contribution is twofold: first, we lay down a parsimonious spatial labor market model with search frictions, criminal opportunities, and, unlike earlier analyses, productivity shocks which link criminal engagement with employment status. Second, we seek empirical support using data on the 402 German regions and years 2009 - 2010, in a setting that not only allows for crime spatial multipliers but also circumvents reverse causality by exploiting exogenous changes in unemployment due to the crisis. As predicted by our theory, the destruction of the lowest productivity matches, measured by increases in unemployment rates, has a significant impact on pure property crime (housing burglary and theft of/from motor vehicles) and street crime. The analysis offers important implications for local government policy.

Spatial Labour Market Matching

We analyse the extent to which spatial interactions affect the labour market matching process. We apply spatial econometrics methods, including spatial panel Durbin models, which are rarely used in labour market matching analysis. We use the data on stocks and inflows of unemployed individuals and vacancies registered at public employment offices in Poland. We conduct the analysis at the NUTS-3 and NUTS-4 levels in Poland for the period 2003-2014. We find that (1) spatial interactions affect the matching processes in the labour market; (2) workers commute long distances, and many of these commutes involve crossing only one administrative border; (3) spatial indirect, direct, and total spillover effects determine the scale of outflows from unemployment in the focal and adjacent areas; and (4) spatial modelling is a more appropriate approach than classical modelling for the matching function.

A Proposal to Delineate Metropolitan Areas in Colombia

This paper discusses the need to delineate metropolitan areas and current practice in several countries. It argues for the use of a simple algorithm that examines cross-municipality commuting patterns. Municipalities are aggregated iteratively provided they send a share of their commuters, above a given threshold, to the rest of a metropolitan area. The algorithm is implemented on Colombian data and its robustness is assessed. Finally, the properties of the resulting spatial labor market networks are explored.

Spatial Labor Market Frictions and Economic Convergence: Policy Implications from a Heterogeneous Agent Model

This paper studies the effectiveness of different types of cohesion policies with respect to convergence of regions. A two-region agentbased macroeconomic model is used to analyze short-, medium- and long-term effects of policies improving human capital and fostering adoption of technologies in lagging regions. With fully integrated labor markets the human capital policy positively affects the economically stronger region but reduces production in the targeted weaker region. Subsidies for high technology investment in the weaker region have a positive local output effect and a negative effect on the neighboring region, thereby fostering convergence. When labor markets are not integrated both policies support convergence.

Spatial Commuting Patterns of German Regional Labour Markets: A Sustainability Perspective

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between commuting and spatial labour market developments in the framework of sustainability issues. To do so, we propose, first, an exploratory investigation of the effects of inbound commuter flows on employment in regional labour markets in Germany. Next, we address sustainability issues as a common umbrella for the relationship ‘economy-transportation’. In this context, we show that the German production system is faced with negative environmental externalities, which are clearly associated with a specific transport mode, viz. the private car. Negative environmental externalities as a result of modal choices in Germany are confirmed by data from EU-15 countries. Public transport, in particular the train, appears to be more environmentally-benign.Our results bring to light that, on average, commuter flows have a positive and robust effect on employment in the receiving German labour market districts, while, for commuting flows, public transport, especially the train, is a more environmentally-benign mode of transport, compared with the car, in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. In the light of possible policy strategies, the paper argues that sustainability may lead to positive economic effects; in particular, the improvement of the public transport system, which can provide more opportunities for sustainable commuting patterns, may lead to favourable employment perspectives for the local or regional labour force.

A Gravity Equation for Commuting

This paper derives a gravity equation for commuter flows from a simple spatial labor market model, and uses it to identify the effect of regional borders on commuting. This structural approach allows us to identify the relevant control variables and sources of potential omitted variable bias. The model is estimated by means of a negative binomial regression using Belgian data on intermunicipality commuting. We find that regional borders exert a sizable residual deterrent effect on commuting. This border-effect differs significantly between regions and depends on the direction in which the border is crossed.

The Role of Social Networks and Geographical Location in Labour Market Participation in the UK Coalfields

The demise of the coalmining industry has entailed an increased geographical separation of individuals from workplaces, highlighting the importance of understanding the spatial dimension of job search for those living in the coalfields. There has been an increasing interest among labour market researchers on the role of place and social networks in influencing labour market behaviour. A growing body of literature focuses on the importance of social networks in shaping people's attitudes, behaviour, and decision making—in particular, the links between people's social sphere and the nature and extent of their participation in the labour market. We aim to examine the area effects of social networks and how these affect labour market position. We will draw on material gathered from a Joseph Rowntree Foundation funded project on the economic, social, and governance links between coalfields and their neighbouring cities. Part of this research was composed of eighty-five interviews carried out with unemployed job seekers across three contrasting coalfields (Lothian, South Yorkshire, and the central Wales valleys). We will focus in particular on the issues of accessing of South Wales jobs, knowledge and experience of the spatial labour market, and the role of social networks in influencing job search and job knowledge.

Spatial Assimilation and Self-Employment: The Case of Black Americans

Residential segregation has played a central role in theories of minority entrepreneurship. This study integrates two theories in the extant literature on minorities and urban areas (spatial assimilation theory and labor market disadvantage theory); and tests hypotheses on the self-employment likelihood of black Americans. Descriptive statistics indicate a negative relationship between black-white segregation and increasing socioeconomic status (SES), although blacks remain considerably residentially segregated from whites of similar SES. The model results indicate that, after controlling for a number of factors, segregation of high SES blacks and whites in a metropolitan area is associated with higher likelihood of black self-employment.

Recruitment in a Monopsonistic Labour Market: Will Travel Costs Be Reimbursed?

Reimbursement of commuting costs by employers has attracted little attention from economists. We develop a theoretical model of a monopsonistic employer who determines an optimal recruitment policy in a spatial labour market with search frictions and show that partial reimbursement of commuting cost will in general be an element of the recruitment policy. The empirical evidence we offer is consistent with the interpretation of reimbursement as the result of monopsonistic behaviour. The alternative explanation that stresses the role of tax incentives is unlikely to provide a full explanation of the commuting costs reimbursement.

Landing a job in urban space: The extent and effects of spatial mismatch

This paper emphasizes the spatial nature of the job search process and analyzes the effects of job accessibility on search duration. A theoretical spatial job search model shows how the pattern and efficiency of job search activity may be affected by spatial labor market conditions. The empirical analysis develops unique measures of job accessibility. The results provide strong support of the spatial mismatch hypothesis. Simulation results show that blacks' greater sensitivity to local labor market demand conditions contributes significantly to the black–white gap in search durations. Racial differences in the distribution of job accessibility account for one-fifth of the black–white gap in the hazard of successfully completing a job search, and the cumulative effect of racial differences in all the spatial search-related variables accounts for 40% of the overall black–white gap.

Deriving Empirical Definitions of Spatial Labor Markets: The Roles of Competing Versus Complementary Growth

If economic growth elsewhere raises an individual’s earning prospects relative to his present location, then the individual will move. However, if the individual can exploit economic growth elsewhere by commuting, he will not need to move to gain from the expansion. County‐level data from eight states in the Midwest over the period 1969–1994 are used to show that local county population responds positively to own‐county economic growth, economic growth in the adjacent county, and economic growth two counties away. The magnitude of the effect decreases as distance from the county increases, and turns negative beyond a three county radius.