Agglomeration effects on labour demand

"How do agglomeration effects influence the demand for labour? To answer this question, approaches on labour demand are linked with an analysis of the classic 'urbanization effect'. We use models for static and for dynamic labour demand to find out, whether agglomerations develop faster or slower than other regions. Estimations of the static model show the influence of different degrees of regional concentration at the employment level. The model of dynamic labour demand is used to estimate the effect of different regional types on the growth rate of labour demand. The empirical results (received with the linked employer-employee database of the IAB) on long-run or static labour demand indicate substantial agglomeration effects, since c. p. employment is higher in densely populated areas. In the dynamic model, however, labour demand in core cities grows slower than the average. This is not a contradiction. Labour demand is especially high in large cities, but the other areas are slowly reducing the gap." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Arbeitskräftenachfrage, Region, regionaler Arbeitsmarkt, regionale Disparität, Ballungsraum, Stadt, Stadtregion, ländlicher Raum, Peripherie, Siedlungsdichte, Beschäftigungseffekte, Dienstleistungsbereich, Suburbanisierung, Nachfrageentwicklung, regionale Faktoren, Beschäftigungsentwicklung, Arbeitsmarktregion, IAB-Linked-Employer-Employee-Datensatz

Technological progress and (un)employment development

One of the key issues in economics is the explanation of unemployment and its variation across different economies. Modern mainstream macroeconomics refers to the effects of financial crises and to institutional structures and their variation across countries. However, unemployment within the European states varies nearly as much as between these countries. In the interior of a country, however, there are only minor differences in institutions. To solve this puzzle, we explain this variation of unemployment building on the regional industry composition and technological progress. It is shown formally that under general and standard preconditions the price elasticity of demand on product markets is decisive: Technological progress leads to an expansion of employment if product demand is elastic. It is accompanied, however, by shrinkage of employment if product demand is inelastic. A transition from the elastic into the inelastic range of the demand function for the most important product(s) can already suffice to plunge a region into crisis. In our empirical analysis we use industry level time series data on output, prices, employment and national income for Germany provided by the Federal Statistical Office. We estimate Marshallian type demand functions using an instrumental variables estimator to derive the price elasticities for different industries and link this information to the regional labour market performance of the respective industries and regions.Ein wichtiges Thema der Volkswirtschaftslehre ist die Erklärung der Arbeitslosigkeit und ihrer Variation gemäß unterschiedlicher Bedingungen. Verschiedene moderne Ansätze führen die Höhe der Arbeitslosigkeit auf institutionelle Regelungen der betroffenen Volkswirtschaften zurück. Eine solche Erklärung steht jedoch für die Erklärung der Unterschiede der regionalen Arbeitslosigkeit nicht zur Verfügung, da die Institutionen innerhalb eines Landes weitgehend konstant sind. Um eine Erklärung zu bieten, rekurrieren wir auf die Industriestruktur der Ökonomien und auf den technischen Fortschritt. Unter Verwendung eines formalen Modells wird gezeigt, dass unter sehr allgemeinen Bedingungen die Preiselastizität der Nachfrage auf Produktmärkten entscheidend ist: Technischer Fortschritt führt zu einem Wachstum an Beschäftigung, wenn die Nachfrage elastisch reagiert. Ist die Nachfrage hingegen inelastisch, führt technischer Fortschritt zu einer Reduzierung der Beschäftigung. In der empirischen Analyse verwenden wir Industriedaten, um zunächst die Preiselastizität der Nachfrage in einem Modell mit Instrumentalvariablen abzuschätzen. Im folgenden Schritt analysieren wir die Nachfrage nach Arbeit in Abhängigkeit von der Preiselastizität auf dem Gütermarkt und vom technischen Fortschritt

Structural change and regional disparities in (un)employment

One of the key issues in economics is the explanation of unemployment. Doing so "modern mainstream macroeconomics" frequently refers to institutional structures in the individual countries (e.g. Layard, Nickell & Jackman 1991, 2006; Carlin & Soskice 2006). However, unemployment within states varies as much as between these countries. In Germany, for example, there are regions in which even during the crisis virtual full employment prevails (e.g. Munich Area) and others which face a deep labour market crisis (e.g. Ruhr Area). Within a country, however, there are only minor differences in the institutions. Therefore the large variation in regional unemployment is puzzling. We explain this regional variation of unemployment building on structural change and technical progress. The price elasticity of demand changes across the industry/product life cycle. The more mature an industry is the less elastic is demand. Technical progress has two opposing effects on employment. Increased productivity allows producing a given quantity wit less labour. This is the displacement effect of technical progress. However, technical progress decreases costs which lead to a drop in price. This in turn increases product demand and therefore labour demand rises. A compensation effect occurs. How strong this effect is and whether it may even "overcompensate" depends on the price elasticity of demand and therefore on the industry life cycle. However, each region has a specific industry mix and industries are regionally concentrated (Krugman 1991). The development of a region depends strongly on the demand elasticities of the dominant industries. Thus the mechanism of product life cycle, price elasticity and technical progress leads through the specialisation of regional economies to different spatial development paths of employment. We show formally that a transition from the elastic into the inelastic demand function for the dominant industries can plunge a region into crisis. Empirically we estimate Marshallian type demand functions using an instrumental variables estimator and industry level data to derive the price elasticities for different industries. In a second step these elasticities and the regional industry structure are used to explain regional (un)employment. The results support our theoretical reasoning

Technological Progress and (Un)employment Development

In recent times the employment effects of technical progress raised much intention. Will recent productivity gains lead to technological unemployment or to a new prosperity? In our paper it is shown formally that under general and standard preconditions the price elasticity of demand on product markets is decisive: Technological progress leads to an expansion of employment if product demand is elastic. It is accompanied, however, by shrinkage of employment if product demand is inelastic. A transition from the elastic into the inelastic range of the demand function for the most important product(s) can already suffice to plunge a region into crisis. In our empirical analysis we use industry level time series data on output, prices, employment and national income for Germany provided by the Federal Statistical Office. We estimate Marshallian type demand functions using an instrumental variables estimator to derive the price elasticities for different industries and link this information to the regional labour market performance of the respective industries and regions

Technological progress and regional disparities in (un)employment

One of the key issues in economics is the explanation of unemployment and its variation across different economies. Doing so, modern mainstream macroeconomics refers to the effects of financial crises and to institutional structures and their variation across countries. However, unemployment within the European states varies nearly as much as between these countries. In the interior of a country, however, there are only minor differences in institutions. Therefore, the large variation in regional unemployment and in the development of employment is puzzling. Our explanation of this regional variation of unemployment builds on the regional industry composition and technological progress. It is shown formally that under very general and standard preconditions the elasticity of demand on product markets is decisive: Technological progress leads to an expansion of employment if product demand is elastic. It is accompanied, however, by shrinkage of employment if product demand is inelastic. A transition from the elastic into the inelastic range of the demand function for the most important product(s) can already suffice to plunge a region into crisis. In our empirical analysis we use industry level time series data on output, prices, employment and national income for Germany provided by the Federal Statistical Office and the OECD. We estimate Marshallian type demand functions using an instrumental variables estimator to derive the price elasticities for different industries and link this information to the regional labour market performance of the respective industries and regions

Agglomeration effects on labour demand

How do agglomeration effects influence the demand for labour? To answer this question, approaches on labour demand are linked with an analysis of the classic 'urbanization effect'. We use models for static and for dynamic labour demand to find out, whether agglomerations develop faster or slower than other regions. Estimations of the static model show the influence of different degrees of regional concentration at the employment level. The model of dynamic labour demand is used to estimate the effect of different regional types on the growth rate of labour demand. The empirical results (received with the linked employer-employee database of the IAB) on long-run or static labour demand indicate substantial agglomeration effects, since c. p. employment is higher in densely populated areas. In the dynamic model, however, labour demand in core cities grows slower than the average. This is not a contradiction. Labour demand is especially high in large cities, but the other areas are slowly reducing the gap

Contradictory effects of technological change across developed countries

Will productivity gains lead to technological unemployment in a region or to new prosperity? In our article, we formally show that under general assumptions the price elasticity of demand on product markets is decisive: technological change leads to employment growth if product demand is elastic and it leads to employment decline if product demand is inelastic. In our empirical analysis, we use industry-level time series data on output, prices, employment, wages, and national income for nine countries (including Germany, UK, USA) to estimate aggregate Marshallian product demand functions based on IV regressions and state space models with time-varying coefficients. The resulting income and price elasticities are used as inputs in a second step in which we estimate the employment effects of productivity changes as interactions with the elasticities. The results correspond to theoretical expectations: demand is generally inelastic and the employment effect of technological progress is therefore moderately negative

Agglomeration effects on labour demand

"How do agglomeration effects influence the demand for labour? To answer this question, approaches on labour demand are linked with an analysis of the classic 'urbanization effect'. We use models for static and for dynamic labour demand to find out, whether agglomerations develop faster or slower than other regions. Estimations of the static model show the influence of different degrees of regional concentration at the employment level. The model of dynamic labour demand is used to estimate the effect of different regional types on the growth rate of labour demand. The empirical results (received with the linked employer-employee database of the IAB) on long-run or static labour demand indicate substantial agglomeration effects, since c. p. employment is higher in densely populated areas. In the dynamic model, however, labour demand in core cities grows slower than the average. This is not a contradiction. Labour demand is especially high in large cities, but the other areas are slowly reducing the gap." (author's abstract)Wie beeinflussen Agglomerationseffekte die Arbeitsnachfrage? Um diese Frage zu beantworten, werden Nachfrage-Ansätze mit einer Analyse des klassischen Urbanisations-Effekts verknüpft. Modelle der statischen und dynamischen Arbeitsnachfrage werden eingesetzt, um herauszufinden, ob sich Agglomerationen schneller oder langsamer als andere Regionen entwickeln. Schätzungen auf der Basis des statischen Modells belegen den Einfluss regionaler Konzentration auf der Ebene der Beschäftigung. Dynamische Modelle werden eingesetzt, um die Auswirkungen unterschiedlicher Arten von Regionen auf die Wachstumsquote der Arbeitsnachfrage abzuschätzen. Die Ergebnisse der empirischen Untersuchung, die sich auf den Linked-Employer-Employee-Datensatz des IAB stützen, ergeben für die langfristige oder statische Nachfrage bedeutende Agglomerationseffekte, da das Beschäftigungsniveau in dicht besiedelten Gebieten höher ist. Dem dynamischen Modell zufolge wächst die Arbeitsnachfrage in den Kernstädten hingegen unterdurchschnittlich langsam. Dies wird jedoch nicht als Widerspruch betrachtet. Die Nachfrage nach Arbeit ist vor allem in den großen Städten hoch, aber die anderen Regionen holen langsam auf. Der Dienstleistungsbereich entwickelt sich in allen Arten von Regionen besser als in den Kernstädten; hier wird der Trend zur Suburbanisierung sichtbar. (IAB

Temperature Dependence of Fast and Slow Gating Relaxations of ClC-0 Chloride Channels

The chloride channel from the Torpedo electric organ, ClC-0, is the best studied member of a large gene-family (Jentsch, T.J. 1996. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 6:303–310.). We investigate the temperature dependence of both the voltage- and chloride-dependent fast gate and of the slow gate of the “double-barreled” ClC-0 expressed in Xenopus oocytes. Kinetics of the fast gate exhibit only a moderate temperature dependence with a Q10 of 2.2. Steady-state popen of the fast gate is relatively independent of temperature. The slow gate, in contrast, is highly temperature sensitive. Deactivation kinetics at positive voltages are associated with a Q10 of ∼40. Steady-state open probability of the slow gate (popenslow(V)) can be described by a Boltzmann distribution with an apparent gating valence of ≈2 and a variable “offset” at positive voltages. We note a positive correlation of this offset (i.e., the fraction of channels that are not closed by the slow gate) with the amount of expression. This offset is also highly temperature sensitive, being drastically decreased at high temperatures. Paradoxically, the maximum degree of activation of the slow gate also decreases at higher temperatures. The strong temperature dependence of the slow gate was also observed at the single channel level in inside-out patches. The results imply that within a Markovian-type description at least two open and two closed states are needed to describe slow gating. The strong temperature dependence of the slow gate explains the phenotype of several ClC-0 point-mutants described recently by Ludewig et al. (Ludewig, U., T.J. Jentsch, and M. Pusch. 1996. J. Physiol. (Lond.). In press). The large Q10 of slow gating kinetics points to a complex rearrangement. This, together with the correlation of the fraction of noninactivating channels with the amount of expression and the fact that the slow gate closes both protochannels simultaneously suggests that the slow gate is coupled to subunit interaction of the multimeric ClC-0 channel

H+-Independent Glutamine Transport in Plant Root Tips

BACKGROUND: Glutamine is one of the primary amino acids in nitrogen assimilation and often the most abundant amino acid in plant roots. To monitor this important metabolite, a novel genetically encoded fluorescent FRET-reporter was constructed and expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana. As a candidate for the glutamine fluxes, the root tip localized, putative amino acid transporter CAT8 was analyzed and heterologously expressed in yeast and oocytes. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Rapid and reversible in vivo fluorescence changes were observed in reporter-expressing root tips upon exposure and removal of glutamine. FRET changes were detected at acid and neutral pH and in the presence of a protonophore, suggesting that part of the glutamine fluxes were independent of the pH. The putative amino acid transporter CAT8 transported glutamine, had a half maximal activity at approximately 100 microM and the transport was independent of external pH. CAT8 localized not only to the plasma membrane, but additionally to the tonoplast, when tagged with GFP. Ultrastructural analysis confirmed this dual localization and additionally identified CAT8 in membranes of autophagosomes. Loss-of function of CAT8 did not affect growth in various conditions, but over-expressor plants had increased sensitivity to a structural substrate analog, the glutamine synthetase inhibitor L-methionine sulfoximine. CONCLUSIONS: The combined data suggest that proton-independent glutamine facilitators exist in root tips