IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eurpls/v29y2021i9p1672-1689.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Glowing cities and the future of manufacturing in the US and Europe: How digitalization will impact metropolitan areas depending on sectoral dominances and regional skill distribution

Author

Listed:
  • Yasmin M. Hilpert

Abstract

Since digitalization and Industry 4.0 have been recognized as a key issue for future economic development, prosperity and wealth distribution, several studies have emerged on the potential threats of new technology on workforce development. The consensus is that jobs may fall away, while some new jobs will be created, with a different skills profile and a new set of qualifications that are required. This paper examines the effects of three main indicators: the impact of skills, industrial sector dominance and product complexity on workforce reduction. Based on metropolitan data from the US (Census) and Europe (Eurostat), the author develops a metropolitan typology based on industrial sectors in each metro and analyses the systematic relationship between regional variations of automation, local skills and economic sector variations, finding that automation exposure in Europe is significantly lower than in the US and that medium-skilled manufacturing jobs in the US are increasingly threatened and low-skill service jobs remain relatively safe from automation – leading to a decreasing middle class. This also shows how metropolitan areas are at risk of developing polarized effects: some facing economic upturn and continuous prosperity, and a majority of others either stagnant or with extreme downturn and high unemployment rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Yasmin M. Hilpert, 2021. "Glowing cities and the future of manufacturing in the US and Europe: How digitalization will impact metropolitan areas depending on sectoral dominances and regional skill distribution," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(9), pages 1672-1689, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:eurpls:v:29:y:2021:i:9:p:1672-1689
    DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2021.1963052
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09654313.2021.1963052
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09654313.2021.1963052?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    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:taf:eurpls:v:29:y:2021:i:9:p:1672-1689. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CEPS20 .

    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.