IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/growch/v51y2020i4p1440-1453.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Concentrated versus diffused growth assets: agglomeration economies and regional cohesion

Author

Listed:
  • Roberta Capello
  • Silvia Cerisola

Abstract

The interest toward the supposed trade‐off between efficiency and equity has strongly come back to the fore within the European Union (EU) after the 2008 economic crisis. The worsening of spatial economic imbalances, in fact, opened again the debate whether the European institutions should focus their budget allocations on core areas or on peripheral areas of less developed countries, following concentrated or spatially distributed normative actions. This paper addresses the question by applying an original method to assess the relative importance of urban efficiency with respect to spatially distributed resource endowments in affecting regional inequality. An innovative two‐step procedure is applied: that first estimates a regional production function and then makes use of its output through a simulation to assess efficiency versus spatially even distribution of resources on the improvement of regional cohesion. The results show that urban efficiency gains play a relatively minor role in affecting regional disparities if compared with a spatially even distribution of production factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Roberta Capello & Silvia Cerisola, 2020. "Concentrated versus diffused growth assets: agglomeration economies and regional cohesion," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 1440-1453, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:growch:v:51:y:2020:i:4:p:1440-1453
    DOI: 10.1111/grow.12419
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/grow.12419
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/grow.12419?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luis Ayala & Javier Martín‐Román & Juan Vicente, 2020. "The contribution of the spatial dimension to inequality: A counterfactual analysis for OECD countries," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 447-477, June.
    2. Jesús Peiró-Palomino & Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo, 2018. "Assessing well-being in European regions. Does government quality matter?," Working Papers 2018/06, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    3. Jesús Peiró‐Palomino & Andrés J. Picazo‐Tadeo & Vicente Rios, 2020. "Well‐being in European regions: Does government quality matter?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 555-582, June.
    4. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Tobias Ketterer, 2020. "Institutional change and the development of lagging regions in Europe," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(7), pages 974-986, July.
    5. Lewis Dijkstra & Hugo Poelman & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2020. "The geography of EU discontent," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(6), pages 737-753, June.
    6. Martijn J. Burger & Evert J. Meijers & Marloes M. Hoogerbrugge & Jaume Masip Tresserra, 2015. "Borrowed Size, Agglomeration Shadows and Cultural Amenities in North-West Europe," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 1090-1109, June.
    7. Michele Boldrin & Fabio Canova, 2001. "Inequality and convergence in Europe’s regions: reconsidering European regional policies," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 16(32), pages 206-253.
    8. Jesus Felipe & John McCombie, 2012. "Problems with Regional Production Functions and Estimates of Agglomeration Economies: A Caveat Emptor for Regional Scientists," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_725, Levy Economics Institute.
    9. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    10. repec:dau:papers:123456789/10091 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2004. "Micro-foundations of urban agglomeration economies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 48, pages 2063-2117, Elsevier.
    12. Roberto Camagni & Roberta Capello & Silvia Cerisola & Ugo Fratesi, 2020. "Fighting Gravity: Institutional Changes and Regional Disparities in the EU," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 96(2), pages 108-136, March.
    13. Cecilia Garcia-Penalosa & Eve Caroli & Philippe Aghion, 1999. "Inequality and Economic Growth: The Perspective of the New Growth Theories," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1615-1660, December.
    14. William Alonso, 1971. "The Economics Of Urban Size†," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 67-83, January.
    15. J. Vernon Henderson, 2010. "Cities And Development," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 515-540, February.
    16. Ron Martin, 2008. "National growth versus spatial equality? A cautionary note on the new ‘trade-off’ thinking in regional policy discourse," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(1), pages 3-13, November.
    17. Lim, Up, 2003. "The Spatial Distribution of Innovative Activity in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Evidence from Patent Data," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 33(2), pages 1-30.
    18. Leo Sveikauskas, 1975. "The Productivity of Cities," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 89(3), pages 393-413.
    19. Paul W. Bauer & Mark E. Schweitzer & Scott A. Shane, 2012. "Knowledge Matters: The Long‐Run Determinants Of State Income Growth," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 240-255, May.
    20. Heather M. Stephens & Mark D. Partridge & Alessandra Faggian, 2013. "Innovation, Entrepreneurship And Economic Growth In Lagging Regions," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 778-812, December.
    21. Roberto Camagni & Roberta Capello, 2015. "Rationale and design of EU cohesion policies in a period of crisis," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 25-47, March.
    22. Evert Meijers & Martijn Burger & Evert J. Meijers & Martijn J. Burger & Marloes M. Hoogerbrugge, 2016. "Borrowing size in networks of cities: City size, network connectivity and metropolitan functions in Europe," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(1), pages 181-198, March.
    23. Rosenthal, Stuart S. & Strange, William C., 2004. "Evidence on the nature and sources of agglomeration economies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 49, pages 2119-2171, Elsevier.
    24. Segal, David, 1976. "Are There Returns to Scale in City Size?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 58(3), pages 339-350, August.
    25. Ben Gardiner & Ron Martin & Peter Tyler, 2011. "Does spatial agglomeration increase national growth? some evidence from Europe," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(6), pages 979-1006, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Evenhuis, Emil & Lee, Neil & Martin, Ron & Tyler, Peter, 2021. "Rethinking the political economy of place: challenges of productivity and inclusion," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122929, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Stefania Oppido & Stefania Ragozino & Gabriella Esposito De Vita, 2023. "Peripheral, Marginal, or Non-Core Areas? Setting the Context to Deal with Territorial Inequalities through a Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-36, July.
    3. Silvia Cerisola & Elisa Panzera, 2021. "Cultural and Creative Cities and Regional Economic Efficiency: Context Conditions as Catalyzers of Cultural Vibrancy and Creative Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-23, June.
    4. Alma Mačiulytė-Šniukienė & Mindaugas Butkus & Renata Macaitienė & Vida Davidavičienė, 2022. "Infrastructure and EU Regional Convergence: What Policy Implications Does Non-Linearity Bring?," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-22, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Frick, Susanne A. & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2018. "Change in urban concentration and economic growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 156-170.
    2. Wenfang Fu & Chuanjian Luo & Modan Yan, 2023. "Does Urban Agglomeration Promote the Development of Cities? Evidence from the Urban Network Externalities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Camilla Lenzi & Giovanni Perucca, 2021. "Not too close, not too far: Urbanisation and life satisfaction along the urban hierarchy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(13), pages 2742-2757, October.
    4. Stephen J. Redding, 2010. "The Empirics Of New Economic Geography," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 297-311, February.
    5. Evert Meijers & Martijn Burger & Roberto Camagni & Roberta Capello & Andrea Caragliu, 2016. "Static vs. dynamic agglomeration economies. Spatial context and structural evolution behind urban growth," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(1), pages 133-158, March.
    6. Cutrini, Eleonora & Mendez, Carlos, 2023. "Convergence clubs and spatial structural change in the European Union," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 167-181.
    7. Marcus Berliant & Chia-Ming Yu, 2015. "Locational Signaling And Agglomeration," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 757-773, November.
    8. Feldman, Maryann P. & Kogler, Dieter F., 2010. "Stylized Facts in the Geography of Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 381-410, Elsevier.
    9. Satyajit Chatterjee, 2004. "On the Contribution of Agglomeration Economies to Spatial Concentration of US Employment," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 164, Econometric Society.
    10. Martin Andersson & Hans Lööf, 2011. "Agglomeration and productivity: evidence from firm-level data," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 46(3), pages 601-620, June.
    11. Miguel Ángel García & Ivan Muñiz, 2005. "El impacto espacial de las economías de aglomeración y su efecto sobre la estructura urbana.El caso de la industria en Barcelona, 1986-1996," Working Papers wpdea0509, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
    12. Iritié, B. G. Jean-Jacques, 2014. "Enjeux des politiques industrielles basées sur les clusters d'innovation: cas des pôles de compétitivité [Issues of Innovative Clusters-based Industrial Policy: Case of Pole of Competitiveness]," MPRA Paper 54429, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Moretti, Enrico, 2011. "Local Labor Markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 14, pages 1237-1313, Elsevier.
    14. Hongjian Su & Houkai Wei & Jian Zhao, 2017. "Density effect and optimum density of the urban population in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(7), pages 1760-1777, May.
    15. Stephen J. Redding, 2013. "Economic Geography: A Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Daniel Bernhofen & Rod Falvey & David Greenaway & Udo Kreickemeier (ed.), Palgrave Handbook of International Trade, chapter 16, pages 497-531, Palgrave Macmillan.
    16. Luigi Buzzacchi & Antonio De Marco & Marcello Pagnini, 2021. "Agglomeration and the Italian North-South divide," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 637, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    17. Matthias Wrede, 2013. "Heterogeneous skills and homogeneous land: segmentation and agglomeration," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(5), pages 767-798, September.
    18. Roberta Capello & Andrea Caragliu, 2021. "Merging macroeconomic and territorial determinants of regional growth: the MASST4 model," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 66(1), pages 19-56, February.
    19. Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés & Frick, Susanne, 2017. "Big or small cities? On city size and economic growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 12324, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Jinliang Jiang & Zhensheng Xu & Jiayi Lu & Dongqi Sun, 2022. "Does Network Externality of Urban Agglomeration Benefit Urban Economic Growth—A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-19, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:growch:v:51:y:2020:i:4:p:1440-1453. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0017-4815 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.