Philip McCann

• The University of Sheffield

In this article, we analyze how industry‐ and region‐specific characteristics influence individual‐level decisions on mobility within and between regions during the life cycle of the industry. Using uniquely detailed panel‐type data from the Finnish high technology sector, our analysis demonstrates that the influence of different regional features...

This article exploits signals of capital pricing and availability in US cities which are obtained from uniquely detailed data on real estate investments. We identify how places were differently affected by the global financial crisis and provide insights which offer an alternative explanation of why US economic growth continues to experience spatia...

Addressing the pressure that population growth puts on the environment has become a high‐level policy priority. Less discussed is the role of population decline in either enhancing or degrading the natural environment, and how the reshaping of it can help new forms of de‐peripheralization and de‐marginalization. A long‐term trajectory of marginaliz...

This article examines the key features of the UK’s spatial productivity relationships and discusses some of the key questions currently being articulated or debated as they relate to potential devolution-related discussions. The paper demonstrates that the local productivity challenges facing UK regions are nationwide in nature rather than local, a...

This paper examines the challenges associated with fostering regional innovation via place-based innovation policies in a context where a country previously had little or no real place-based thinking or policy-framing. The UK displays a combination of both high interregional inequalities and a highly centralisation and top-down governance system. F...

This editorial summarizes the papers in issue 17(4) (2022). The first paper combines input–output modelling with priority weighting to analyse supply-chain impacts of disasters. The second paper examines skill-based functional specialization of value chains in Brazil using interregional and international value-added measures. The third paper questi...

In this paper we set out the relationships between the behavioural, technological and spatial changes in systems that allow for heterogeneous responses to working-from-home by different types of actors, and also identifies the channels via which such changes take place. Unlike all other papers on the subject, the analytical framework we propose cen...

Enhancing the well-being of its citizens is the central remit of the EU’s regional policy, but as yet, there is no analysis of the effects of EU regional policy on local well-being. The aim of this paper is to examine this relationship. To do this, we define a novel regionalised well-being measure and we exploit a dataset on regional expenditure in...

This editorial summarizes the papers published in issue 17(3) (2022). The first paper analyses the impact of knowledge spillovers on patent applications using a Tobit model. The second paper sets out an economic-theoretical model of industrial specialization patterns across cities and their impact on the spatial agglomeration of skilled workers and...

This editorial summarizes the papers published in issue 17(2) (2022). The first paper evaluates logistic regression and machine-learning methods for predicting firm bankruptcy. The second paper demonstrates that machine learning outperforms existing tools to improve the estimation of regional input–output tables. The third paper investigates whethe...

This editorial summarizes the papers published in issue 17(1) (2022). This issue begins with a second editorial calling on researchers to publish replication results from previous studies. The first paper applies a spatiotemporal Bayesian hierarchical model for understanding the dynamics of second home ownership in Corsica. The second paper determi...

We examine the regional mortality rates associated with the spread of Covid-19 in Europe. In particular, we analyse the potential contribution of the country’s geographical and institutional features in shaping the virus's interregional spread and resulting local death rates. Our analysis is based on information from both pandemic waves from March...

This editorial summarizes the papers published in issue 16(4) (2021). The first paper adopts a higher order spatial autoregressive model with endogenous spatial weight matrices. The second paper investigates the existence of the law of one price using regional observations over time. The third paper develops an economic-theoretical model that goes...

In this paper, we engage with the ‘good disaster governance’ imperative and we attempt to empirically capture the (socio-)institutional dimensions and dynamics producing, reproducing or responding to social-ecological change and disasters. Viewing the disaster situation as a project of collective endeavour, we propose a conceptual framing of instit...

This paper explains the background to the notion of the ‘geography of discontent’ in the context of UK interregional inequalities and political shocks. The paper then examines how the geography of discontent has bound conflicting political and economic narratives together in ways, which makes the correcting for these regional imbalances all the mor...

This chapter aims at providing an overview of the EU Cohesion Policy. The origins of the EU Cohesion Policy are discussed and so are the main changes, such as the shift in policy-thinking and policy-logic leading to the place-based approach in the aftermath of the Barca-Report. The chapter discusses three major challenges shaping the interregional...

This editorial summarizes the papers published in issue 16(3) (2021) in order to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends and knowledge. The first paper analyses the economic consequences of the rise and spread of the Covid-19 virus in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The second paper presents a multi-regional ge...

Automation is expected to have strong implications for labour-saving technologies. We calculate the proportion of jobs at high risk of automation across European regions using data from the 2018 Labour Force Survey (LFS). We examine the relationship between regional vulnerability to job automation, specialization, related (and unrelated) variety an...

In this paper, we examine the challenges and opportunities facing the UK’s industrial and regional policy in the context of the policy decisions made over recent decades. We argue that the overly centralized and sectoral logic of the UK governance systems has led to a lack of clarity in thinking through place-based issues. This, in turn, has result...

Financial inclusion, defined as the proportion of individuals and firms making use of formal financial services, has become a central theme in discussions about how to achieve so-called inclusive development. Inclusive development refers to striving for equal development of all individuals, particularly including marginalized (that is the very poor...

This paper aims to sketch rural population decline in Mexico. A comprehensive multi‐scale documentation of Mexico’s urban and rural fabric and its depopulation dynamics is undertaken. This paper does not identify the causes and effects of rural depopulation, but aims to detect its geographical presence in a manner which other approaches are unable...

This paper explores the perspectives of expert analysts and policy-makers on the implications of Brexit for different parts of the UK economy. For local and regional areas, the need for such expert voices to be heard is urgent, given the fact that UK subnational and substate governance authorities have been effectively blocked out of all Brexit-rel...

Any form of Brexit will impact heterogeneously in terms of sectors and regions on the competitive position of firms in both the UK and Europe. The ongoing uncertainty about the conditions under which the UK will be leaving the EU creates difficulties in structurally estimating these impacts. Using uniquely detailed interregional trade data on goods...

This editorial summarises the papers published in issue 15.4 in order to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends and knowledge. The first paper challenges the standard notion that more growth is better. The second paper challenges macroeconomic models by looking at them from a regional micro-grounded lens, where...

Six years have passed since Smart Specialisation was incorporated in European Cohesion Policy and became the reference framework for innovation policy in European regions and countries. One year before the beginning of the new Cohesion Policy cycle, it is now the right time to strike a balance in the Smart Specialisation experience and support the...

The world’s largest place-based economic development policy operating within a single legal and institutional architecture is the regional and urban policy of the European Union (EU). In this paper we analyse how this policy is related to the promotion of regional well-being. In order to do this, we take advantage of the fact that the different ele...

This paper explores the nature and scale of inter-regional and inter-urban inequalities in the UK in the context of international comparisons and our aim is to identify the extent to which such inequalities are associated with strong national economic performance. In order to do this, we first discuss the evolution of UK interregional inequalities...

This study examines the roles of individual and household characteristics in internal migration in Indonesia for the first time using the five waves of Indonesia Family Life Survey. Our analysis extends previous research by using a longer period to capture mobility behaviour, by comparing changing of residence across three spatial scales, by incorp...

There is now strong evidence that ‘soft’ institutions are interrelated with the working of the economy. For example, in a geographical setting there is evidence that language borders affect interpersonal relationships, but there is no equivalent evidence regarding the effects of language borders on agglomeration or competition spillovers. This pape...

This editorial summarizes the papers published in issue 15(2) so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper combines a conditionally autoregressive process from the spatial statistics literature with a spatial Durbin error model from the spatial econometrics literature. The second paper feeds...

In addition to the three special issue papers, issue 15.1 contains two papers on input-output analysis. The first paper provides a thorough analysis of the cross entropy (CE) method to build input-output tables at sub-territorial levels or to update them in time. The second paper proposes a spatial input-output location quotient accounting for the...

This paper examines the contribution of the Nordic countries to regional science scholarship and practice over the last century. In order to do this we begin by reviewing the contributions of five key scholars whose work has heavily shaped regional science thinking in different ways. In each case the work of each of these scholars was seminal in di...

Knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) are widely perceived as being important drivers of technological progress and innovation. They generally depend on knowledge exchanges and, therefore, geographical proximity to markets, customers and suppliers would be expected to be a critical factor in their performance. This paper investigates how the...

This article builds an understanding of regional innovation specialisation by developing a multi-sector model with endogenous growth through quality improving innovations and spillovers from related technologies. The model provides an approach to incorporate the relatedness literature within the mainstream theoretical frameworks of endogenous growt...

This editorial summarises the papers published in issue 14(4) so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper analyses the impact of re-exports on bilateral trade data. The second paper proposes a new measure for the popular smart specialisation index (S3). The third paper proposes a new solutio...

This article builds an understanding of regional innovation specialization by developing a multi-sector model with endogenous growth through quality improving innovations and spillovers from related technologies. The model provides an approach to incorporate the relatedness literature within the mainstream theoretical frameworks of endogenous growt...

Studies relating income to subjective well‐being have found that both absolute and relative income determine individual well‐being. This paper assesses the effect of relative income on subjective well‐being, and the spatial scale on which this comparison takes place. This study employs spatial data on individual well‐being, health, socio‐economic s...

This paper examines the issue of whether the UK displays high levels of interregional inequality or only average levels of inequality. The question arises due to major differences in public perceptions. Following on from recent UK public debates, the UK evidence is examined in the context of 28 different indicators and 30 different Organisation for...

This editorial summarizes the papers published in issue 14(2) so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper deals with past and current challenges for regional science research. The second paper investigates whether people living in deprived neighbourhoods have less chance of succeeding in a j...

We adapt the product-space approach of Hausmann–Hidalgo et al. to the case of Italian provinces, examining the extent to which network connectedness and centrality of a province’s exports is related to its economic performance. We construct a new Product Space Position (PSP) index which retains many of the Hausmann–Hidalgo et al. features but which...

This paper discusses the various potential impacts of Brexit on UK regions and outlines the sub-national governance challenges these potential impacts raise. In the light of these, the types of activities that UK sub-national governance bodies have initiated in preparation for Brexit are then reviewed. The conclusions suggest that the UK sub-nation...

This editorial summarizes the papers published in issue 14(1) so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper applies the Shapley-based decomposition approach to determine the impact of firm-, linkage- and location-specific factors to the survival probability of enterprises. The second paper app...

Any form of Brexit will impact heterogeneously in terms of sectors and regions on the competitive position of firms in both the UK and Europe. The ongoing uncertainty about the conditions under which the UK will be leaving the EU creates difficulties in structurally estimating these impacts. Using uniquely detailed interregional trade data on goods...

Learning after a disaster is crucial in creating more resilient places. However, many societies are repeatedly overwhelmed by disasters. This can be because of missed opportunities to learn in post‐disaster settings or because of actions implemented that seem to be highly relevant to recovery in the short term, but potentially constrain aspirations...

The overwhelming impact that disasters have on societies is fed by socio-economic vulnerabilities and political-institutional factors. Disasters are, therefore, increasingly regarded as partially created by humans instead of as purely natural events. Although the “social creation” of disasters is assumed to occur “above the ground” and triggered by...

This editorial summarizes the papers published in issue 13(4) so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper develops an economic geography model with trade costs in all sectors and different shares of unskilled labour in all locations. The second paper translates an economic geography model in...

Anonymised dataset and Stata do file for the replication of the analysis.

This editorial summarizes the papers published in issue 13(3) so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper challenges the home market hypothesis that large countries host more firms relative to their size than small countries by considering the lobbying activities of multinational firms. The...

Much of the literature on agglomeration emphasises labour mobility between firms as a potential source of externalities. However, while there is a large literature on interregional migration, the empirical literature on the employment-mobility of workers within the local arena is surprisingly thin. Furthermore, there is almost no empirical evidence...

Purpose This paper aims to explain how thinking regarding multinationals, competitiveness and location in cities has evolved over the past five decades and how our current understanding and thinking about future challenges is contingent on these previous shifts. Design/methodology/approach The design of the paper is a conceptual piece linking di...

The main analytical and multidisciplinary frameworks adopted for understanding the multinational enterprise (MNE) have tended to be largely non-spatial and non-geographical in nature. Although there have been some recent developments incorporating geography into the analysis of the of MNE studies the longstanding and widespread absence of geography...

The main analytical and multidisciplinary frameworks adopted for understanding the multinational enterprise (MNE) have tended to be largely non-spatial and non-geographical in nature. Although there have been some recent developments incorporating geography into the analysis of the of MNE studies the longstanding and widespread absence of geography...

This editorial summarises the papers published in issue 13.1 so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper adopts a scale neutral approach to investigate the spatial mechanisms that cause regional innovation and growth. The second paper claims that population-weighting when calculating indices...

In this paper we employ an extension of the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) with regional detail for EU countries to study the degree to which EU regions and countries are exposed to negative trade-related consequences of Brexit. We develop an index of this exposure, which incorporates all effects due to geographically fragmented production proc...

In this paper we model growth using a scale-neutral approach to innovation allowing differences between regions to emerge due to regional mechanisms. In this model, agglomeration is growth enhancing as the scale effect for innovation arises from greater access to knowledge rather than any assumed scale effects in growth-modelling techniques. Furthe...

The chapter will examine some of the key demographic trends across OECD cities and regions and will discuss some of the most important challenges facing different types of places. In particular, the links between ageing and population decline will be discussed in the context of local labour markets and shifts in long-run public policy needs. Insigh...

This article examines the geographical drivers and outcomes of demographic ageing and population decline and the possible differential impacts on cities and regions. Evidence from OECD and European Union regions and cities is used to motivate discussions about the likely long-run effects of demographic change on the efficacy of public policy to man...

Raising the bar (6). Spatial Economic Analysis. This editorial summarizes and comments on the papers published in issue 12(4) so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper addresses the question of whether ‘jobs follow people’ or ‘people follow jobs’. The second paper develops a new methodolog...

This article examines the links between firm innovation and firm productivity performance across a range of European economies, and in particular, we explore the differences between countries which are in transition from efficiency-driven to innovation-driven with those which are primarily innovation-driven economies. We employ an endogenous-switch...

Disasters have the potential to shake societies and their governance systems not only temporarily, but often for years afterwards as well. Studying disaster governance through lenses of social-ecological systems can provide essential insights in disaster contexts, as disasters occur through the interactions between nature and societies. Drawing upo...

The mismatch between local voting and the local economic consequences of Brexit. Regional Studies. This paper reveals that in the 2016 UK referendum regarding whether to remain in or leave the European Union, the regions that voted strongly for leave tended also to be those same regions with greatest levels of dependency on European Union markets f...

Raising the bar (5). Spatial Economic Analysis. This editorial summarizes and comments on the papers published in this issue 12(1) so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper examines the impact of the level of education on the decision to migrate and finds that it is approximately twice as...

We address three questions: Do infrastructure investments impact on local incomes, population and land values? Do these effects spill over into neighbouring regions? Is infrastructure investment a response to local developments? We outline a theoretical framework and estimate a simultaneous equation growth model of infrastructure investment, real i...

Smart specialisation is the new policy approach to the development of regional innovation systems across Europe and it involves fostering innovative and entrepreneurial initiatives which are well tailored to the local context. The different technologies, skills profiles, business activities, institutions and sectors which reflect a region’s economi...

This article discusses the interaction between demographic aging, population decline, and various aspects of the local development challenges facing public authorities. In particular, this article examines some of the financial issues arising from population aging and decline and the ways in which new approaches to public finance are being used in...

The disequilibrium and equilibrium models of migration disagree on how local amenities and labor market dynamics influence regional in-migration. Research into migration motives and decision-making show that migration for some individuals is mainly driven by proximity to the labor market, while migration for others is mainly amenity driven. As this...

Occupational choice and heterogeneous managerial ability enter a spatial Dixit-Stiglitz setting, linking location, wages and regional entrepreneurship rates. Market potential has a positive partial effect and wages a negative partial effect on the regional supply of entrepreneurs, both balancing in equilibrium with endogenous wages. Market potentia...

This editorial summarizes and comments on the papers published in issue 11(4) so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper deals with common factors and spatial dependence in the error term specification of a production function model. The second paper sets forth a New Economic Geography (NEG...

This editorial summarizes and comments on the papers published in issue 11(3) so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper proposes spatial and a-spatial indicators to describe the networks of airline companies around the world. The second paper sets forth a two-regime gravity-type model with...

The ‘age schedule of migration’ has been studied fairly extensively. Yet, its regional implications have received only limited attention. The highly cited seminal paper of Plane and Jurjevich (Prof Geogr 61(1):4–20, 2009) was demonstrated in a novel manner on the basis of US Census data that, when interregional migration flows are disaggregated by...

The performance of the New Zealand (NZ) economy is something of an enigma. Although ranked one (of 144 countries) for four important ‘growth fundamentals’ NZ is ‘middle of the pack’ when it comes to economic growth, productivity and process innovation. Using four iterations (2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011) of the Business Operations Survey, this researc...

It is widely known that there is a strong relationship between local ethnic concentration and local social engagement. This article attempts to take a step forward by analysing the gap between the real and the expected local social engagement and its association with local ethnic concentration. Understanding this gap may assist policy makers with b...

Traditionally, the effectiveness of European Cohesion Policy has been evaluated in terms of GDP growth rate. In this paper, we consider the effect of the regional policy in terms of its impacts on two specific fields of intervention, namely 'research, technological development and innovation', and 'transport infrastructure'. Our econometric approac...

This paper discusses the early-stage experience of the smart specialization agenda within EU Cohesion Policy. The analysis examines the types of policy prioritization choices made by different member states and regions and seeks evidence on the extent to which weaker regions, in particular, might be constrained in their choices. The paper then revi...

In this editorial we summarise and comment on the papers published in issue 11.2 so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper analyses which regions in Europe were resilient to the great Recession and which ones were not. The second and the third develop a competing-destinations gravity model...

This paper discusses the ways that European regional policy has been re-shaped in order to build on the role played by entrepreneurship in driving regional innovation. The various lines of re-thinking which have helped to reform the policy draw heavily on modern theories of entrepreneurship and innovation, and these insights have contributed signif...

Traditionally, the effectiveness of European Cohesion Policy has been evaluated in terms of GDP growth rate. In this paper, we consider the effect of the regional policy in terms of its impacts on two specific fields of intervention, namely ‘research, technological development and innovation’, and ‘transport infrastructure’. Our econometric approac...

In this paper we employ data on 156,000 workers working within the Finnish high-tech industries in order to identify the extent to which labour mobility between sectors and regions is influenced by the characteristics of the locality in which the worker works. With these data we are able to estimate different types of binary, multinomial and ordere...

In this editorial, we summarize and comment on the papers published in issue 11.1 so as to raise the bar in applied spatial economic research and highlight new trends. The first paper employs the J-test to discriminate between two economic-theoretical explanations for the wage curve. The second applies a two-step ML procedure to measure the impact...

The paper discusses the origins and emerging ideas of smart specialization, and in particular its translation from a non-spatial concept to an explicitly spatial and regional concept. This discussion is then set in the context of debates regarding the nature, rationale, and role of modern innovation policy, and the governance and institutional issu...

This paper investigates how the creative economy discourse is interpreted and implemented in the context of Indonesia as a developing country. Our main conclusion is that the discourse is interpreted differently across localities. Bandung appears to be the only locality whose interpretation aligns with the general understanding of a creative econom...

Growth before and especially after the crisis differed from large-city-led growth pattern. The crisis has led to big contractions especially in urban regions and in remote rural regions, while intermediate and rural regions close to a city displayed more resilience. In some countries, the capital metro region had much higher economic growth prior t...

This paper examines to what extent, and for whom, different geographical characteristics affect the levels of local social engagement, satisfaction, and embeddedness in the Netherlands. We employ a uniquely detailed dataset of individuals in Dutch neighbourhoods and municipalities, which is examined using a multilevel hierarchical model with spatia...

This paper uses an endogenous switching technique which allows us to utilize micro-econometric data to construct counterfactual scenarios of the innovation-productivity relationship in Irish firms. A firm's innovation effort, capital intensity, firm size, location and its operating environment are key variables in explaining a firms' propensity to...

This paper presents a model of regional innovation based on the matching of research and entrepreneurial skills. We provide a method of empirically testing the model using a dynamic knowledge matching (KM) function, which is applied to data on patent applications and new firms in Chilean municipalities for the period 2002–2008. The estimations conf...

Mameli F., Faggian A. and McCann P. Estimation of local employment growth: do sectoral aggregation and industry definition matter?, Regional Studies. Over the last two decades, numerous attempts have been made to explain the determinants of local growth, with as yet little overall consensus. The aim of this paper is to reveal a potential problem of...