Income and employment disparities across European regions: The role of national and spatial factors

Abstract

Meliciani V. (2006) Income and employment disparities across European regions: the role of national and spatial factors, Regional Studies 40, 75-91. The paper analyses the impact of trends in employment rates on income convergence across European regions looking at the evolution of entire distributions. Between 1988 and 1996, European regions have been characterized by a very slow process of income convergence across countries and by a lack of income convergence within countries. While trends in labour productivity have contributed to income convergence, trends in employment rates have had a diverging impact. Polarization in employment rates also appears to be the result of national factors and of the negative performance of Objective 1 regions more than the consequence of the emergence of geographical clusters that go beyond national borders. Regional convergence; Unemployment; Spatial correlation; Non-parametric estimation Meliciani V. (2006) Les ecarts de revenu et d'emploi a travers les regions d'Europe: l'importance des facteurs nationaux et geographiques, Regional Studies 40, 75-91. Cet article cherche a analyser l'impact des tendances dans le domaine des taux d'emploi sur la convergence des revenus a travers les regions d'Europe, etudiant l'evolution des distributions entieres. Il s'avere que, sur la periode allant de 1988 a 1996, les regions d'Europe se caracterisent par un processus tres lent de convergence des revenus a travers les pays et par un manque de convergence des revenus au sein des pays. Alors que les tendances dans le domaine de la productivite du travail ont contribue a la convergence des revenus, les tendances dans le domaine des taux d'emploi ont incite a la divergence. Il s'avere aussi que des taux d'emploi polarises resultent des facteurs nationaux et de la performance negative des regions classees sous l'Objectif 1 plutot que de la naissance des regroupements geographiques qui vont au-dela des frontieres nationales. Convergence regionale; Chomage; Correlation geographique; Estimation non-parametrique Meliciani V. (2006) Einkommen und Ungleichheiten bei Erwerbstatigkeit in europaischen Regionen. Die Rolle uberregionaler und raumlicher Faktoren, Regional Studies 40, 75-91. Dieser Aufsatz analysiert die Auswirkung von Tendenzen bei Erwerbstatigkeitsraten auf Einkommenskonvergenz in allen europaischen Regionen, und untersucht die Entwicklung ganzer Verteilungsmuster. Es zeigt sich, dass europaische Regionen sich im Zeitraum 1988-96 durch ein sehr langsames Fortschreiten der Einkommenskonvergenz der Lander und durch Mangel an Einkommenskonvergenz uberhaupt auszeichnen. Zwar haben Tendenzen der Arbeitsleistung zur Einkommenskonvergenz beigetragen, doch Tendenzen der Erwerbstatigkeitsraten haben sich davon abweichend ausgewirkt. Die Autoren stellen auch fest, dass Polarisation in Erwerbstatigkeitsraten anscheinend eher das Ergebnis uberregionaler Faktoren sowie der negativen Leistung der Objektive 1 Regionen ist als der Folge des Auftauchens geographischer Cluster, die sich uber Landesgrenzen ...

Productivity and employment—Is there a trade-off? Comparing Western European regions and American states 1950–2000

“…The simultaneous focus on productivity and employment variables also put focus on the relationship between the two in making up convergence in GVA per capita. Recently, some authors have suggested that there might be a trade-off between employment and productivity growth (Gordon 1995;McGuckin and van Ark 2005) and that this may lie behind slow European regional convergence rates in per capita GVA (Meliciani 2006). Meliciani especially argues that productivity increase have taken place in the least productive regions at the expense of employment by stating that "…increased competition through trade liberalization with low labour mobility can have forced convergence in labour productivity by means of a reduction of employment rates in low productivity regions" (2006, p. 88).…”

“…Secondly, the article analyzes whether there has been a trade-off between employment and productivity growth, as suggested by Meliciani (2006), and to what extent this potential trade-off is a distinctively European feature. For this purpose, a novel regional dataset that covers 89 Western European regions from 10 countries and 51 American states and districts has been put together.…”

Measuring intra-distribution income dynamics: an application to the European regions

“…Just as a short reference to some of the most interesting works, it is worth mentioning the old but excellent survey edited by Armstrong and Vickerman (1995). More recently, the books edited by Cuadrado-Roura and Parellada (2002) and Fingleton (2003), reviews as Magrini (2004), and papers such as those of López-Bazo et al (1999), Badinger et al (2004), Miller and Genc (2005), Fingleton and López-Bazo (2006), Meliciani (2006), Arbia et al (2008), Fischer and Stumpner (2008), and Mora (2008) are very good references.…”

“…The results, which are available upon request, show that, at large, mobility is lower with filtered than actual data, meaning that factors behind spatial dependence have a positive effect on intra-distribution mobility. 6 For more recent papers see, for instance,Meliciani (2006),Pittau and Zelli (2006),Ezcurra et al (2007),Villaverde and Maza (2008) and.…”

Empirical Evidence of Economic Bipolarization in Africa

“…Analysis of per capita convergence between countries has also been done by some authors: López-Bazo et al [14], Cuadrado and Parellada [15], Fingleton and López-Bazo [16], Badinger et al [17], Magrini [18], Miller and Genc [19], and Meliciani [20].…”