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This paper reviews Paul Krugman's fundamental contributions to new trade theory (NTT) and new economic geography (NEG) on the occasion of his 2008 Nobel Prize. We appraise the impact his work had on the field of regional science broadly defined, and we quantify its influence on papers published in Papers in Regional Science ( PIRS) between 1991 and 2009 (vols. 70–87 and papers in press). We then discuss in more detail a few contributions published in PIRS that extend his original analysis in various directions. Finally, we briefly speculate on where NEG is headed to and which are the research directions that should be explored more thoroughly in the future. Resumen Con ocasión de su Premio Nobel de 2008, este artículo revisa las contribuciones fundamentales de Paul Krugman a la nueva teoría del comercio (NTT, por sus siglas en inglés) y a la Nueva Geografía Económica (NEG, por sus siglas en inglés). Valoramos el impacto que ha tenido su trabajo en el campo de la Ciencia Regional en su más amplia definición, y cuantificamos su influencia sobre artículos publicados en Papers in Regional Science (PiRS) entre 1991 y 2009 (vols. 70-87 y artículos en prensa). A continuación discutimos en más detalle unas pocas contribuciones publicadas en PiRS que amplían su análisis original en varias direcciones. Finalmente, especulamos brevemente sobre adónde se dirige la NEG y cuales son las avenidas de investigación que deberían ser exploradas en mayor profundidad en el futuro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at introducing a conceptual framework and assessing how features of local systems combine with high levels of cultural capital. This framework encompasses the local productive specializations and socio-demographic characteristics, as well as their interplay. A review on related concepts and contributions helps to generate three hypotheses on place-based cultural capital. The paper works under the three hypotheses and applies the framework to an original dataset based on the Italian local systems. The results show how urban areas and made-in Italy local productive systems tend to associate with high levels of cultural capital. Moreover, the interplay between local productive specializations and socio-demographic characteristics highlights the role of place specificities. Such relations should be considered in the elaboration of culture-based policies of territorial development, and in further researches over the accumulative forces of cultural capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses regional competitiveness at the subregional level through a novel methodological approach that adopts a matching design. By comparing the performance of similar firms in different parts of the region, it is possible to detect whether different places provide different competitive territorial assets. Using data for Lombardy, a large and competitive European region, the analysis shows that the different territories of the region are differently competitive in different industries, even when they are similar in terms of total GDP per capita or specialization. The paper also confirms that measuring competitiveness on different indicators (Labour Productivity, TFP, Profitability) can provide different results, and this especially happens when comparing static and dynamic indicators. The methodology presented here is especially relevant to the design of regional policies, that are mostly deployed at the NUTS-2 level but would benefit from accounting for the presence of strongly dis-homogeneous territories inside the same region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characterization of how entrepreneurial a region or country is, has generally been shaped by a narrow view of what actually constitutes entrepreneurship. In the case of Germany, this has led to a characterization of Germany as not being particularly entrepreneurial. Such a view is at odds with the remarkable, high-performing family business, widely held to be the backbone of the economy. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that the interpretation prevalent in entrepreneurship literature is problematic due to a too narrow operationalization of the entrepreneurship concept. As Zahra (2007; 2014) emphasized, context matters for entrepreneurship, especially on a local or spatial level. One particular organizational manifestation of entrepreneurship, family business, may be congruent in specific spatial and institutional contexts but not in others. Other geographic and institutional contexts may be congruent with the contrasting startups. Thus, an important and novel contribution of this paper is to analyze the geography of family business as distinct from startups: two ends of the entrepreneurship continuum, embedded in different kinds of entrepreneurial ecosystems. We generate innovative maps working with official data, showing the distinct distribution of both kinds of entrepreneurship in different ecosystems. These findings are connected with spatial effects, living conditions and lead to recommendations for policy measures. The paper focuses on Germany, because startups as well as family business are prevalent and can be found in all regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial summarises the papers published in issue 13.1 so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper adopts a scale neutral approach to investigate the spatial mechanisms that cause regional innovation and growth. The second paper claims that population-weighting when calculating indices of regional inequality might lead to inconsistent outcomes. The third paper estimates the effect of distance between family residence and higher education institution on a student's academic performance, thereby accounting for endogenous regressors. The fourth paper shows an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic development at region of origin and the propensity to migrate using a multilevel approach. The fifth paper provides spatial econometric evidence of price competition between sellers of used books on Amazon.com. The last paper estimates a hedonic housing price equation and parameterizes the spatial weight matrix to determine how far back in time buyers, sellers and realtors are looking at the housing market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing stream of empirical literature on regional inequalities has always adopted a retrospective look by analyzing the past evolution. We depart from the main stream by adopting a future perspective: Will regional inequalities shrink over time? How will the shape of income distribution evolve? Will spatial dependency increase? In the current paper, we forecast the long-term trajectory of per capita real personal income for U.S. states using the ARIMA model. We estimate the future of disparity level (for 2050 and 2090), the shape and spatial pattern of income distribution, convergence trend and spatial dependence by the help of inequality indexes (Atkinson, Coefficient of Variation, Theil) Kernel probability density distributions, explorative maps and Moran's I test. The dataset includes 48 coterminous U.S. states over the period 1929–2022. A set of important results appeared to emerge as an outcome of the empirical analyses: First, income disparities are expected to increase over the long-term period that implies a divergence pattern. Second, the forecasted shape of the income distribution is bi-modal and polarized, therefore, pointing to a widening of the inequalities. Third, the geography of the prosperity is projected to change in a way that the geographical position of high and low-income areas will change. Fourth, spatial dependence in per capita income is expected to fade away in the future. From a political stand point, additional resources should be devoted to the states that are expected to become backward (for some states in Northeast and Southwest) in order to maintain territorial cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the growth and clustering of craft breweries in New Jersey. We compiled a historical dataset from 1995 to 2020 that allows us to measure the degree of geographic clustering among craft breweries in New Jersey. The number of craft breweries in New Jersey grew 491% from 2012 to 2020 (from 22 to 130 craft breweries). An impetus for this growth was that New Jersey enacted legislation in 2012 that made opening and operating a craft brewery in the state more economically viable. Our analysis finds that craft breweries in New Jersey are clustering in specific parts of the state and that this is likely due to co-location benefits such as building a culture of craft beer that drives innovation, knowledge sharing, customer sharing, and a thicker labor market. While distinct craft beer clusters have formed in New Jersey, we find there is still significant opportunity for growth. Our analysis confirms this using data on planned craft brewery openings to measure changes in the size and density of clusters and where, in New Jersey, new clusters are likely to form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional economic resilience is the ability of the regional economy to hold out when there is an economic shock. Interconnectedness between actors in a regional economy is a crucial factor in regional economic resilience, especially for the adaptive resilience. However, extant studies have analyzed the overall regional resilience competencies in terms of advanced technology, productivity input factors (human and physical capital), and agglomeration economies. This study aims to operationalize the concept of the regional economy's network characteristics and empirically analyze the relationship between network characteristics and the resilience of regional economy. We posited the hypotheses on the relationship between the network characteristics of regional industrial ecosystems and resilience. We use the automobile parts yearbook of the South Korea Automobile Association from 1997 to 2019. We built automobile industry transaction data by digitalizing the paper-based records. It operationalized the concept of weak tie using modularity and skewness. As a result, an economic ecosystem with weak ties showed better performance in economic resilience. This study argues that the regional industrial ecosystem is an important, but neglected, factor for the sustainable development of the regional economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the policy area of local economic development, this paper identifies five research needs: 1) better definitions of local labor markets; 2) policy know-how on how local economic development's benefits can be spread to distressed neighborhoods; 3) evidence on what types of jobs have both good growth prospects and also provide long-run job opportunities for U.S. workers who lack a bachelor's degree; 4) estimates of how local worker skill-upgrading programs, or worker attraction programs, affect local labor market outcomes; and 5) more rigorous evaluation of both customized business services provided to individual firms and more comprehensive regional economic development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the key determinants of economic growth, regional prosperity and sustainable development is entrepreneurship. This paper aims to identify proxies for entrepreneurship that can drive prosperity at the regional level, investigating the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth and development from a spatial econometric perspective in Greece. A spatial Durbin model was used across the 13 Greek regions for the period 2011–2016. Entrepreneurial activity, as measured by enterprise turnover, heavily affects economic development, employability and income inequality as depicted by gross domestic product per capita, unemployment and household income, respectively. The number of enterprises and research and development expenditure were not important factors. The latter supports a U-shaped relationship between public spending and economic growth. The contribution of this paper to the existing literature is the employment of spatial data models to identify determinants that may affect entrepreneurial development at a regional level, which in turn facilitates economic growth at a country (Greece) level. The advantage of spatial data analysis over conventional econometric models is that it takes into account regional proximity. The empirical findings may be used to potentially introduce appropriate policy measures to foster growth at the regional level, by capitalizing on the competitive advantages of each region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the key features of the UK's spatial productivity relationships and discusses some of the key questions currently being articulated or debated as they relate to potential devolution-related discussions. The paper demonstrates that the local productivity challenges facing UK regions are nationwide in nature rather than local, and systemic rather than specific. In particular, the scale-productivity relationships across cities and regions which are evident in almost all other OECD countries are largely absent in the UK. Instead, previous prosperity is the dominant marker of current local prosperity, suggesting that cumulative causation processes define the UK regional and urban economic landscape rather than scale relations. This article explains these features in a manner which is accessible to a wide audience, in order to provide greater clarity regarding the fundamental economic problems to be addressed and also the underlying objectives which the Levelling Up agenda needs to achieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The aim of this paper is to analyse co-location patterns of manufactures and service industries at a microgeographic level using Spanish data from the Mercantile Register. Our approach allows us to analyse joint-location and co-location patterns of firms in different industries, and to overcome previous technical constraints in this type of analyses, partially thanks to using homogeneous cells instead of administrative units. This paper contributes to the empirical literature on industry location by developing a multisectorial co-location index computed by comparing differences between observed data about firms' location and randomly generated data. Multisectorial relationships are analyzed by transposing bilateral relations onto an n-dimensional space. Our results show that dispersed industries tend to locate jointly and that industries with lower joint-location patterns have spatial structures similar to those obtained through input–output relationships, suggesting weak role of co-location patterns as interindustry linkages are not the main location determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to explore how factors of regional competitiveness are associated with the location of car manufacturing companies in the EU. Although the European automotive market can be characterized by an intense dynamics in terms of location choices, literature offers little empirical guidance on how regional factors influence the location of car manufacturers in the EU. This paper aims to fill this gap by combining regional competitiveness data on 276 EU regions with the actual location of all 269 production units of car manufacturing companies currently present in the EU. Logistic regression is used to discover significant relationships, while the comparative analysis of clusters of regions is meant to offer a more detailed understanding of the role of different location factors. Results of the analysis show that the most influential location factor is related to infrastructural development, but other competitiveness factors, such as regional innovation capabilities or labour market efficiency, might also play an important role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]