Die wirtschaftliche Spezialisierung ländlicher Räume

This working paper describes the industry structure of regions and types of regions in Germany. It focusses on the economic specialization of rural areas relative to Germany’s federal economy overall. These investigations stem from the research project „The spatial mobility of workers throughout individual working lives - Analyses for rural areas in Germany“ (MobiLä), which receives funding from the Federal Rural Development Scheme (BULE). Our analysis of regional industry structures shows that the four types of rural regions according to the typology of the Thünen Institute are marked by an industry structure that differs from the overall federal struc-ture, but the extent of these differences is moderate. In addition to a specialization in the prima-ry sector, whose significance for employment is limited even in rural areas, we observe speciali-zations of the aggregate of rural areas in knowledge intensive industries as well as non-knowledge intensive industries. Conversely, knowledge intensive services are significantly under-represented in rural regions. A detailed analysis of the specialization of individual regions reveals a marked heterogeneity within the regional type „rural areas“. Extreme deviations from Germa-ny’s aggregate industry structure are observed in few regions and are mostly driven by branches of the manufacturing industry. Furthermore, the negative correlation of the share of industrial branches and the share of non-knowledge intensive services is noticeable. Regions‘ distinct specialization tendencies are expected to be significant for the heterogeneity of regional migra-tion balances regarding the direction of the net flow as well as the composition of migration flows. First, industry structure influences the regional level of wages and can have effects on economic growth and labour demand. Second, companies‘ required qualifications vary signifi-cantly across different industry branches, therefore the respective specialization partly deter-mines which workers are attracted to a region’s labour market.