No abstract
The skills mismatch and spatial mismatch perspectives are often presented as competing explanations of the spatial distribution of unemployment within metropolitan areas. This paper argues that the spatial mismatch hypothesis addresses some of the shortcomings of the skills mismatch perspective, while not denying the importance of skills mismatch. The development of the spatial mismatch hypothesis in the US is traced, before considering its relevance in the British context. A framework in which to conceptualise and reconcile skills mismatch and spatial mismatch within metropolitan areas is developed, incorporating the operation of local housing and labour markets as well as the role of commuting. The paper concludes by arguing that skills and spatial mismatches reinforce each other and that the concept of employability offers some potential to help understand how job searchers and employers make decisions in situations of skills and/or spatial mismatch. The implications for future research are highlighted.
Attracting in-migration of the creative class has been argued by Florida (2002) to be a route to higher economic growth in the era of the knowledge economy. This paper critically evaluates this proposition in relation to old industrial regions using the example of Scotland. The paper presents an assessment of, in the first instance, to what extent there is a shortage of skilled, talented and entrepreneurial individuals and, in the second instance, whether a talent attraction strategy alone can hope to attract such people to Scotland. It is proposed that for most migrants the availability of appropriate economic opportunities is a prerequisite for mobility. However, despite uncertain evidence that place attractiveness is a catalyst to mobility among the so-called creative class, this is not a reason for dismissing talent attraction programmes. Instead it is argued that talent attraction programmes have the potential to contribute to old industrial economies, but their success will be greatest when talent attraction is carefully targeted and based on economic realities rather than the marketing of ethereal conceptions of place attractiveness.
The spatial mismatch hypothesis postulates that employment deconcentration within U.S. metropolitan areas goes some way toward explaining higher unemployment and lower wages among ethnic minority groups, since these groups are more likely to reside in central‐city areas. However, little consensus has emerged on the importance of spatial mismatch in explaining disadvantage in the labor market. This article argues that conflicting evidence is the result of the variety of methods that have been used to test the spatial mismatch hypothesis. Moreover, it draws attention to a number of hitherto uncovered flaws in some of these methods that introduce systematic biases against finding evidence in support of the hypothesis. In light of these flaws, favored methods for future research are highlighted. Drawing on evidence from British conurbations that display similar spatial inequalities to U.S. metropolitan areas despite much smaller ethnic minority populations, the article contends that race does not lie at the heart of the spatial mismatch problem. Three areas in which the spatial mismatch hypothesis should be reconceptualized are identified: first, its emphasis should be on spatial, not racial, inequalities; second, it needs to differentiate between residential immobility and residential segregation, which are quite different; and third, it needs to recognize that the extent and the effect of spatial mismatch are distinct and should be measured separately.
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