Classic and spatial shift-share analysis of state-level employment change in Brazil

This paper combines classic and spatial shift-share decompositions of 1981 to 2006 employment change across the 27 states of Brazil. The classic shift-share method shows higher employment growth rates for underdeveloped regions that are due to an advantageous industry-mix and also due to additional job creation, commonly referred to as the competitive effect. Alternative decompositions proposed in the literature do not change this broad conclusion. Further examination employing exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) shows spatial correlation of both the industry-mix and the competitive effects. Considering that until the 1960s economic activities were more concentrated in southern regions of Brazil than they are nowadays, these results support beta convergence theories but also find evidence of agglomeration effects. Additionally, a very simple spatial decomposition is proposed that accounts for the spatially-weighted growth of surrounding states. Favourable growth in northern and centre-western states is basically associated with those states’ strengths in potential spatial spillover effect and in spatial competitive effect

Business networks and localization effects for new Swedish technology-based firms’ innovation performance

This study examines the business networks and localization effects for new technology-based firms (NTBFs) in the context of innovation performance (the number of patents and product differentiation). In this regard, the study includes 28 variables. A survey was conducted in 2016 with 401 Swedish NTBFs that were small and young (the employment mean was 1.80 and the average age of each firm was 28.3\ua0months). The biggest category of NTBFs was knowledge-intensive high-technology services, followed by medium high-technology manufacturing, and high-technology manufacturing. Hypotheses on how business networks and localization are related to innovation performance were tested using principal component analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis. The results show that the primary significant factor for innovation performance regarding business networks and localization dimensions are professional network services, while industrial and regional areas also have a positive relationship on product differentiation. Our study also shows that innovation performance enhances firms’ abilities to access external financing through professional network services (e.g., venture capital companies)

Air Transportation and Regional Growth: Which Way Does the Causality Run?

The role of airports has become increasingly important with globalization. To have a regional airport is an especially important asset for retaining companies in the region as well as attracting new economic activity to the region. A well-developed transport infrastructure can be seen as a facilitator that allows the economic potential of a region to be realized. The provision of transportation does not, however, automatically lead to economic growth. It may also be the other way round: economic development leads to the better transport infrastructure and accessibility, stressing demand side elements. This paper aims to shed further light on the relationship between regional airports and economic performance. We ask whether accessibility is a key factor to economic success, or rather a consequence of it. In order to test the relative importance of various effects, the Granger non-causality method in a panel framework is applied. The Granger method exploits the fact that in time series there is temporal ordering, and the belief that effects cannot occur before causes. The empirical analysis is based on European level annual data from 86 regions and 13 countries on air traffic and regional economic performance in the period 1991-2010. The results revealed that for at least some regions (and possible all), there is statistical evidence of Granger causality from air traffic to regional growth but these processes are not uniform in all regions. The categorization of the regions into three groups of equal size according to their peripherality showed significant causality in peripheral regions and indicative causality in intermediate regions, while in core regions no significant causality was found. Hence, peripherality indeed matters: the more remote the region is the more important for it is to have efficient air connections. The evidence of the opposite direction of causality - from regional development to air traffic - was only partial and homogenous