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While in recent times many regions have flourished, many others are stuck—or are at risk of becoming stuck—in a development trap. Such regions experience decline in economic growth, employment, and productivity relative to their neighbors and to their own past trajectories. Prolonged periods in development traps are leading to political dissatisfaction and unrest. Such discontent is often translated into support for antisystem parties at the ballot box. In this article we study the link between the risk, intensity, and duration of regional development traps and the rise of discontent in the European Union (EU)—proxied by the support for Eurosceptic parties in national elections between 2013 and 2022—using an econometric analysis at a regional level. The results highlight the strong connection between being stuck in a development trap, often in middle- or high-income regions, and support for Eurosceptic parties. They also suggest that the longer the period of stagnation, the stronger the support for parties opposed to European integration. This relationship remains robust whether considering only the most extreme Eurosceptic parties or including parties with more moderate levels of Euroscepticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralisation has frequently been sold as a means to increase well-being and development. Yet, questions remain as to whether decentralisation improves economic performance. This is possibly because decentralisation processes have often led to 'unfunded mandates', that is, a mismatch between the powers transferred to subnational tiers of government and the resources allocated to them. In this article, we analyse how unfunded mandates shape regional economic growth across 518 regions in 30 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries over the period 1997–2018. There is a negative, statistically significant, and robust impact of unfunded mandates on economic growth. This effect is higher in more politically and less fiscally decentralised regions and in regions with a higher level of wealth. Unfunded mandates thus represent a serious drag on the potential positive economic effect of political decentralisation. Hence, for those benefits to materialise, better not more decentralisation – ensuring that finance follows function – should be pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic change over the past 20 years has rendered many individuals and territories vulnerable, leading to greater interpersonal and interterritorial inequality. This rising inequality is seen as a root cause of populism. Yet, there is no comparative evidence as to whether this discontent is the consequence of localised interpersonal inequality or stagnant growth in 'left-behind' places. This article assesses the association between levels and changes in local GDP per capita and interpersonal inequality, and the rise of far-right populism in Europe and in the USA. The analysis—conducted at small region level for Europe and county level for the USA—shows that there are both similarities and differences in the factors connected to populist voting on both sides of the Atlantic. In the USA, neither interpersonal inequality nor economic decline can explain populist support on their own. However, these factors gain significance when considered together with the racial composition of the area. Counties with a large share of white population where economic growth has been stagnant and where inequalities have increased supported Donald Trump. Meanwhile, counties with a similar economic trajectory but with a higher share of minorities shunned populism. In Europe, the most significant factor behind the rise of far-right populism is economic decline. This effect is particularly large in areas with a high share of immigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We quantify the general equilibrium effects on economic growth of improving the quality of institutions at the regional level in the context of the implementation of the European Cohesion Policy for the European Union and the UK. The direct impact of changes in the quality of government is integrated in a general equilibrium model to analyse the system‐wide economic effects resulting from additional endogenous mechanisms and feedback effects. The results reveal a significant direct effect as well as considerable system‐wide benefits from improved government quality on economic growth. A small 5 per cent increase in government quality across European Union regions increases the impact of Cohesion investment by up to 7 per cent in the short run and 3 per cent in the long run. The exact magnitude of the gains depends on various local factors, including the initial endowments of public capital, the level of government quality, and the degree of persistence over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of regional development trap refers to regions that face significant structural challenges in retrieving past dynamism or improving prosperity for their residents. This article introduces and measures the concept of the regional development trap for regions in Europe. The concept draws inspiration from the middle-income trap in international development theory but widens it to shed light on traps in higher-income countries and at the regional scale. We propose indicators—involving the economic, productivity, and employment performance of regions relative to themselves in the immediate past, and to other regions in their respective countries and elsewhere in Europe—to identify regions either in a development trap or at significant near-term risk of falling into it. Regions facing development traps generate economic, social, and political risks at the national scale but also for Europe as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social capital is an important factor explaining differences in economic growth among regions. However, the key distinction between bonding social capital, which can lead to lock-in and myopia, and bridging social capital, which promotes knowledge flows across diverse groups, has been overlooked in growth research. In this paper, we address this shortcoming by examining how bonding and bridging social capital affect regional economic growth, using data for 190 regions in 21 EU countries, covering eight waves of the European Social Survey between 2002 and 2016. The findings confirm that bridging social capital is linked to higher levels of regional economic growth. Bonding social capital is highly correlated with bridging social capital and associated with lower growth when this is controlled for. We do not find significantly different effects of bonding social capital in regions with more or less bridging social capital, or vice versa. We examine the interaction between social and human capital, finding that bridging social capital is fundamental for stimulating economic growth, especially in low-skilled regions. Human capital also moderates the relationship between bonding social capital and growth, reducing the negative externalities imposed by excessive bonding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses whether both the levels and the degree of change in government quality influence regional economic performance in the European Union and, in particular, in its lagging regions. The results of the econometric analysis, covering 249 NUTS-2 regions for the period 1999-2013, suggest that (1) government quality matters for regional growth; (2) relative improvements in quality of government are a powerful driver of development; (3) one-size-fits-all policies for lagging regions are not the solution; (4) government quality improvements are essential for low-growth regions; and (5) in low-income regions basic endowment shortages are still the main barrier to development. In particular, low-growth regions in Southern Europe stand to benefit the most from improvements in government quality, while in low-income regions of Central and Eastern Europe, investments in the traditional drivers of growth remain the main factors behind successful economic trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban economics and branches of mainstream economics – what we call the 'housing as opportunity' school of thought – have been arguing that shortages of affordable housing in dense agglomerations represent a fundamental barrier to economic development. Housing shortages are considered to limit migration into thriving cities, curtailing their expansion potential, generating rising social and spatial inequalities and inhibiting national growth. According to this dominant view, relaxing zoning and other planning regulations in the most prosperous cities is crucial to unleash the economic potential of cities and nations and to facilitate within-country migration. In this article, we contend that the bulk of the claims of the housing as opportunity approach are fundamentally flawed and lead to simplistic and misguided policy recommendations. We posit that there is no clear and uncontroversial evidence that housing regulation is a principal source of differences in home availability or prices across cities. Blanket changes in zoning are unlikely to increase domestic migration or to improve affordability for lower-income households in prosperous areas. They would, however, increase gentrification within metropolitan areas and would not appreciably decrease income inequality. In contrast to the housing models, we argue that the basic motors of all these features of the economy are the current geography of employment, wages and skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growth in China in recent decades has largely rested on the dynamism of its cities. High economic growth has coincided with measures aimed at improving the efficiency of local governments and with a mounting political drive to curb corruption. Yet the connection between government institutions and urban growth in China remains poorly understood. This paper is the first to look into the link between government efficiency and corruption, on the one hand, and urban growth in China, on the other hand and to assess what is the role of institutions relative to more traditional factors for economic growth in Chinese cities. Using panel data for 283 cities over the period between 2003 and 2014, the results show that the urban growth in China is a consequence of a combination of favorable human capital, innovation, density, local conditions, foreign direct investment, and city‐level government institutions. Both government quality—especially for those cities with the best governments—and the fight against corruption at the city level have a direct effect on urban growth. Measures to tackle corruption at the provincial level matter in a more indirect way, by raising or lowering the returns of other growth‐inducing factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a massive recent proliferation of special economic zones (SEZs), there is virtually no quantitative research on what drives their dynamism. The aim of this article is to address this gap and analyze the factors influencing SEZ performance—proxied by economic growth—in emerging countries. The article relies on two novel data sets, using nightlights data to proxy for SEZ performance, and containing a wide range of SEZ policy variables and characteristics across a large number of countries. The main results of the analysis indicate that (1) zone growth is difficult to sustain over time; (2) trying to upgrade the technological component or value added of the economy through SEZ policies is often challenging; and (3) zone size matters: larger zones have an advantage in terms of growth potential. Furthermore, country context significantly determines SEZ performance. Firms look for low-cost locations but in close proximity to large cities. Proximity to large markets as well as preexisting industrialization also increase SEZ performance. In contrast, incentives and other program-specific variables are highly context specific and not structurally correlated with SEZ performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the economic effect of immigrant women differ from that of immigrant men? This paper examines if gender has influenced the short- and long-term economic impact of mass migration to the United States, using census microdata from 1880 and 1910. By means of ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variables (IV) estimations, the analysis shows that a concentration of immigrant women led to lower levels of development in US counties. However, immigrant women also shaped economic development positively, albeit indirectly, via their children. Communities with more children born to foreign mothers experienced greater growth than those dominated by children of foreign-born fathers or American-born parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates (1) the evolution of urban concentration from 1985 to 2010 in 68 countries around the world and (2) the extent to which the degree of urban concentration affects national economic growth. It aims to overcome the limitations of existing empirical literature by building a new urban population dataset that allows the construction of a set of Herfindahl-Hirschman-Indices which capture a country’s urban structure in a more nuanced way than the indicators used hitherto. We find that, contrary to the general perception, urban concentration levels have on average decreased or remained stable (depending on indicator). However, these averages camouflage diverging trends across countries. The results of the econometric analysis suggest that there is no uniform relationship between urban concentration and economic growth. Urban concentration is beneficial for economic growth in high-income countries, while this effect does not hold for developing countries. The results differ from previous analyses that generally underscore the benefits of urban concentration at low levels of economic development. The results are robust to accounting for reverse causality through IV analysis, using exogenous geographic factors as instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the link between average city size and aggregate economic growth in a total of 114 countries for the period between 1960 and 2010. The analysis--which includes pooled two-stage least-squares (2SLS), panel data analysis, system generalized method-of-moments (GMM) estimator and an instrumental variable (IV) approach--finds that, in contrast to the prevailing view, there is no universal positive relationship between average city size and economic growth and that the results vary between high-income and developing countries. In high-income countries, there is consistent evidence of a positive albeit decreasing link between city size and economic growth. In contrast, the relationship does not hold for developing countries, for which most of the coefficients display insignificant results or point towards a negative connection between both factors [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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EzcurraR. and Rodríguez-PoseA. Political decentralization, economic growth and regional disparities in the OECD,Regional Studies. Recent scholarly work has addressed whether decentralization affects economic growth and regional disparities, by typically resorting to fiscal decentralization, while disregarding political decentralization indices. This article covers this gap by investigating the association between different political decentralization indices with two measures of economic performance: changes in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and in territorial inequalities. The results suggest a lack of statistical relationship between political decentralization and economic growth, regardless of how political decentralization is measured. In the case of regional disparities, the results depend on the index used and range from the absence of a link to a positive association between both factors. EzcurraR. and Rodríguez-PoseA. 经济发展与合作组织（OECD）中的政治去中心化、经济成长与区域差距，区域研究。近年来的学术研究处理去中心化是否会影响经济成长与区域差距的议题时，通常是藉由诉诸财政去中心化，但却忽略政治去中心化的指标。本文以下列两种经济表现方法，透过探讨各种政治去中心化指标之间的联系，填补上述研究阙如：人均国内生产总值（GDP）以及领域性不平等的变迁。研究结果指出政治去中心化与经济成长之间缺乏统计关系，不论政治去中心化如何测量。至于区域差距方面，研究结果取决于所使用的指标，并有着从缺乏关联性到两者之间为正相关等不等之结果。 政治去中心化 经济成长 区域差距 区域 经济发展与合作组织（OECD） EzcurraR. et Rodríguez-PoseA. La décentralisation politique, la croissance économique et les écarts régionaux dans les pays de l'OCDE,Regional Studies. Des travaux savants récents ont porté sur la question de savoir si, oui ou non, la décentralisation influe sur la croissance économique et les écarts régionaux, ayant généralement recours à la décentralisation fiscale tout en mettant de côté les indices de la décentralisation politique. Cet article cherche à colmater cette brèche en examinant le rapport entre diverses indices de décentralisation politique à partir de deux mesures de la performance économique: à savoir, la variation du produit intérieur brut (PIB) par tête et des écarts régionaux. Les résultats laissent supposer l'absence d'une corrélation statistique entre la décentralisation politique et la croissance économique, quelle que soit la façon d'estimer la décentralisation politique. Pour ce qui concerne les écarts régionaux, les résultats dépendent de l'indice employée, allant de l'absence d'aucun lien à la forte corrélation entre les deux facteurs. Décentralisation politique Croissance économique Écarts régionaux Régions Organisation de coopération et de développement économique (OCDE) EzcurraR. und Rodríguez-PoseA. Politische Dezentralisierung, Wirtschaftswachstum und regionale Disparitäten in der OECD,Regional Studies. In den akademischen Arbeiten der letzten Zeit wurde die Frage untersucht, ob sich eine Dezentralisierung auf das Wirtschaftswachstum und die regionalen Disparitäten auswirkt, wobei in der Regel auf Indizes für fiskale Dezentralisierung zurückgegriffen wurde, ohne die Indizes für politische Dezentralisierung zu berücksichtigen. In diesem Beitrag schließen wir diese Lücke, indem wir den Zusammenhang zwischen verschiedenen Indizes für politische Dezentralisierung und zwei Maßstäben der Wirtschaftsleistung untersuchen: den Veränderungen beim Bruttoinlandsprodukt (BIP) pro Kopf und bei der territorialen Ungleichheit. Unabhängig von der Methode zur Messung der politischen Dezentralisierung lassen die Ergebnisse auf eine mangelnde statistische Beziehung zwischen politischer Dezentralisierung und Wirtschaftswachstum schließen. Im Fall der regionalen Disparitäten hängen die Ergebnisse vom verwendeten Index ab und reichen vom Fehlen einer Verbindung bis hin zu einer positiven Beziehung zwischen den beiden Faktoren. Politische Dezentralisierung Wirtschaftswachstum Regionale Disparitäten Regionen Organisation für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (OECD) EzcurraR. y Rodríguez-PoseA. Descentralización política, crecimiento económico y disparidades regionales en la OCDE,Regional Studies. Investigaciones recientes han estudiado hasta qué punto los procesos de descentralización afectan al crecimiento económico y a las disparidades regionales, utilizando índices de descentralización fiscal en detrimento de los índices de descentralización política. Este artículo analiza precisamente la relación entre distintos índices de descentralización política con dos indicadores de desempeño económico básicos: cambios en el PIB per cápita y en los desequilibrios territoriales. Los resultados del índice señalan una ausencia de relación entre la descentralización política y el crecimiento económico, independientemente del índice de descentralización política utilizado. En lo que respecta a las disparidades regionales, los resultados dependen del índice utilizado y varían desde una ausencia total de relación hasta una asociación positiva entre ambos factores. Descentralización política Crecimiento económico Disparidades regionales Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the impact of public investment on regional economic growth and convergence at the NUTS 3 level in Greece. Using a new database of public expenditure per region for the period 1978-2007, it proposes a model which captures not just the impact of public investment in Greek prefectures, but also the spillover effects related to the existence of externalities from neighbouring regions. The results point to a positive long-run impact of public investment per capita on regional economic growth - but not on convergence - which also generates considerable spillover effects. However, the returns vary according to different types of public investment, with education and infrastructure spillovers having the highest impact. In general, public investment externalities seem to be more relevant for regional growth than direct public investment in each region. Finally, the impact of different types of public investment in Greece is mediated by politics and political factors, but the effect of politics disappears once we control for political-period-specific spatial-invariant variables. Resumen Este artículo estima el impacto de la inversión pública en el crecimiento económico regional y la convergencia a nivel NUTS 3 en Grecia. Haciendo uso de una nueva base de datos de gasto público por región para el periodo 1978-2007, se propone un modelo que identifica no solamente el impacto de la inversión pública en las prefecturas griegas, sino también los efectos de spillover relacionados con la existencia de externalidades procedentes de regiones vecinas. Los resultados apuntan a un impacto positivo a largo plazo de la inversión pública per cápita en el crecimiento económico regional - pero no en la convergencia - el cual genera unos efectos de spillover considerables. Sin embargo, los retornos varían de acuerdo con los diferentes tipos de inversión pública, siendo la educación y los spillovers de infraestructura los de mayor impacto. En general, las externalidades de inversión pública parecen tener una mayor relevancia para el crecimiento regional que la inversión pública directa en cada región. Para terminar, el impacto de los diferentes tipos de inversión pública en Grecia se ve influido por sus políticas y otros factores políticos, pero el efecto de las políticas desaparece una vez que se controlan las variables espacialmente-invariantes de tipo político ligadas a un periodo específico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport infrastructure has represented one of the cornerstones of development and cohesion strategies in the European Union (EU) and elsewhere in the world. However, despite the considerable funds devoted to it, its impact remains controversial. This paper revisits the question of to what extent transport infrastructure endowment - proxied by regional motorways - has contributed to regional growth in the EU between 1990 and 2004. It analyses infrastructure in relationship to other factors which may condition economic growth, such as innovation, migration, and the local 'social filter', taking also into account the geographical component of intervention in transport infrastructure and innovation. The results of the two-way fixed-effect (static) and difference GMM (dynamic) panel data regressions indicate that infrastructure endowment is a relatively poor predictor of economic growth and that regional growth in the EU results from a combination of an adequate 'social filter', good innovation capacity, both in the region and in neighbouring areas, and a region's capacity to attract migrants. The meagre returns of infrastructure endowment on economic growth raise interesting questions about the opportunity costs of further infrastructure investments across most of Western Europe. Resumen La infraestructura de transporte ha venido siendo una de las piedras angulares de las estrategias de desarrollo y cohesión en la Unión Europea ( UE) y el resto del mundo. Sin embargo, y a pesar de los considerables recursos que se le ha dedicado, su impacto es un tema controvertido. Este artículo revisa el interrogante de hasta que punto ha contribuido la dotación de infraestructura de transporte - representada por las autopistas regionales - al crecimiento regional en la UE entre 1990 y 2004. Se analiza la infraestructura en relación a otros factores que podrían condicionar el crecimiento económico, como la innovación, la migración, y el 'filtro social' local, teniendo en cuenta asimismo el componente geográfico de la intervención en la infraestructura de transporte y la innovación. Los resultados de las regresiones de datos de panel de efectos fijos (método estático) de doble vía y MGM por diferencias (método dinámico) indican que la dotación de infraestructura es un pobre indicador del crecimiento económico y que el crecimiento regional en la UE tiene su origen en una combinación de un 'filtro social' adecuado, en una buena capacidad innovadora tanto en la región como en áreas vecinas, y en la capacidad de la región de atraer migración. Los escasos retornos para el crecimiento económico de la dotación de infraestructura suscitan cuestiones interesantes sobre los costos de oportunidad de futuras inversiones en infraestructura para la mayoría de Europa Occidental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of clusters has attracted considerable interest over the last few decades. The articulation of clusters into complex networks and systems of innovation—generally known as regional innovation systems—has, in particular, been associated with the delivery of greater innovation and growth. Despite the growing economic and policy relevance of clusters, little systematic research has been conducted into their association with other factors promoting innovation and economic growth. This article addresses this issue by looking at the relationship between innovation and economic growth in 152 regions of Europe during the period between 1995 and 2006. Using an econometric model with a static and a dynamic dimension, the results of the analysis highlight that (1) regional growth through innovation in Europe is fundamentally connected to the presence of an adequate socioeconomic environment and, in particular, to the existence of a well-trained and educated pool of workers; (2) the presence of clusters matters for regional growth but only in combination with a good social filter, and this association wanes in time; (3) more traditional research and development variables have a weak initial connection to economic development, but this connection increases over time and is, once again, contingent on the existence of adequate socioeconomic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human geography is in a unique position to understand how local structural factors shape social, political, and ultimately economic outcomes. Indeed, the discipline has had much to say about the interaction between local institutions and the economy in general, and about how the broader institutions of society influence local economic development. Yet, to date, geographers have for the most part avoided debates on more generalized theories of economic growth and development. With the increasing recognition — among sociologists, political scientists and even economists — that explaining economic growth robustly requires taking into account the role of both formal society-wide institutions and local and sometimes informal institutions, geographers are in a position to make an important contribution. In order to do so, however, they will need to take greater account of the theories and developments that are taking place outside the discipline. Using the framework of community and society as complementary structural forces shaping development trajectories, this paper presents a broad overview of the principal theoretical and empirical developments in the institutionalist approaches to economic development and identifies areas in which geographical research could contribute to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rodríguez-Pose A. and Crescenzi R. Research and development, spillovers, innovation systems, and the genesis of regional growth in Europe. Regional Studies. Research on the impact of innovation on regional economic performance in Europe has fundamentally followed three approaches: (1) the analysis of the link between investment in research and development (R&D), patents, and economic growth; (2) the study of the existence and efficiency of regional innovation systems; and (3) the examination of the geographical diffusion of regional knowledge spillovers. These complementary approaches have, however, rarely been combined. Important operational and methodological barriers have thwarted any potential cross-fertilization. This paper tries to fill this gap in the literature by combining in one model R&D, spillovers, and innovation systems approaches. A multiple regression analysis is conducted for all regions of the group of 25 European Union countries (EU-25), including measures of R&D investment, proxies for regional innovation systems, and knowledge and socio-economic spillovers. This approach allows the discrimination between the influence of internal factors and external knowledge and institutional flows on regional economic growth... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]