Industrial clusters and economic integration : theoretic concepts and an application to the European Metropolitan Region Nuremberg

"Economic integration typically goes along with disintegration of production through outsourcing and offshoring (Feenstra 1998). As horizontal and vertical links between firms become more and more pronounced, value chains within regions are increasingly organized by production and innovation clusters. On the basis of a literature overview, we argue that in a world of economic integration clusters can be expected to play a prominent role. Therefore clusters can also be seen as a key element in the European Metropolitan Region concept. Within such an economic space, localisation economies according to the 'Marshallian trinity' (knowledge spillovers, input sharing and labour market pooling (Rosenthal/Strange 2003)) can be realized. The paper builds on a comprehensive company survey for the core of the European Metropolitan Region Nuremberg that includes customer-supplier relationships and various forms of cooperation. As indicated by numerous empirical studies, the characteristics of clusters differ substantially. In order to overcome the fuzziness of the concept we suggest a bottom-up methodology of cluster identification using a set of qualitative and quantitative indicators. Given that many kinds of barriers to interregional and international trade are becoming less and less important and transport cost are falling, modern production clusters tend to have a higher geographical extension than traditional ones. We therefore raise the question of whether clustering is relevant for economic integration on the regional, national and supra-national level." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Stadtregion, regionales Cluster, Standort, Industrieregion, Regionalökonomie, zwischenbetriebliche Kooperation, Zulieferer, Wirtschaftsstruktur, regionales Netzwerk, Nürnberg, Oberfranken, Mittelfranken, Franken, Bayern

The Creative Class, Bohemians and Local Labor Market Performance - A Micro-data Panel Study for Germany 1975-2004

The paper aims at testing Florida’s concept of the Creative Class using panel data for 323 West German regions for the time period 1975 – 2004. We apply two different estimation methods, a panel VAR for the complete data set and a dynamic system approach based on GMM for a modified data set collapsed to six five-year periods. We find that the local concentration of the Creative Class has predictive power for the economic development of a region and tends to outperform traditional indicators of human capital. However, our results do not support Florida’s assertion that the creative workers flock where the Bohemians are. According to our findings, the Creative Class is attracted by favorable economic conditions as indicated by employment growth or an increasing wage bill.Culture, Regional Development, Bohemians, Creative Class, Dynamic Panel Methods

Determinants of Lifetime Unemployment - A Micro Data Analysis with Censored Quantile Regressions

Building on a large administrative micro data set for the time span 1975 - 2004 we look at lifetime unemployment for West German birth cohorts 1950 to 1954. Descriptive evidence shows a highly uneven distribution of unemployment in West Germany - more than 60% of the individuals in our sample were not unemployed for a single day over the better part of their professional career while almost half of the total amount of unemployment fell upon 5% of the individuals covered. We employ censored quantile regressions to explain the amount of individual lifetime unemployment. Explanatory variables are either characteristics of the individual (like education), or of the job (like the wage) or the employer (like the size of the firm) early in the professional career. A particular emphasis is placed on the importance of the occupation: we find that for men working in a disadvantageous occupation at age 25 ceteris paribus leads to a signicantly higher amount of lifetime unemployment. Educational attainment or the wage earned at age 25 are also related to the amount of men's lifetime unemployment, amongst others. Some of these variables show very interesting patterns when looking at dierent quantiles. For women results are in general less clear-cut.Lifetime unemployment, Censored-Quantile Regressions, Occupations specific human capital

The Creative Class, Bohemians and Local Labor Market Performance: A Micro-data Panel Study for Germany 1975-2004

The paper aims at testing Florida's concept of the Creative Class using panel data for 323 West German regions for the time period 1975 2004. Applying a dynamic system approach based on GMM, we find that the local concentration of the Creative Class has predictive power for the economic development of a region and tends to outperform traditional indicators of human capital. However, our results do not support Florida's assertion that the creative workers flock where the Bohemians are. According to our findings, the Creative Class is attracted by favorable economic conditions as indicated by employment growth or an increasing wage bill. --Culture,Regional Development,Bohemians,Creative Class,Dynamic Panel Methods

The agglomeration wage differential reconsidered - an investigation with German micro data 1984-1997

The paper analyzes the agglomeration wage differerential using panel micro data with regional information for the time period 1984-1997. Referring to new contributions to regional economics, several theoretical explanations for spatial wage differentials are discussed. The empirical approach differentiates between two sectors of the economy (Manufacturing and Services), three skill groups and the position in the wage hierarchy. After presenting some descriptive evidence we use Chamberlain´s (1996) method of quantile regressons for the estimatons. According to our findings an agglomeration differential does exist except for low-skilled service workers. The agglomeration wage differential depends positively on the skill level, is typically higher in the manufacturing than in the service sector and tends to increase with the decile of the wage distribution. Our results indicate that a doubling of employment density leads to gross wage increase of 2.5 percent in the average.

Determinants of Lifetime Unemployment: A Micro Data Analysis with Censored Quantile Regressions

The empirical literature on unemployment almost exclusively focuses on the duration of distinct unemployment spells. In contrast, we use a large German administrative micro data set for the time span 1975-2004 to investigate individual lifetime unemployment (defined as the total length of all unemployment spells over a 25-year period). This new perspective enables us to answer questions regarding the long-term distribution and determinants of unemployment for West German birth cohorts 1950-1954. We find that lifetime unemployment is highly unevenly distributed and employ censored quantile regressions to show that, for men, pursuing a disadvantageous occupation early in the professional career leads to a significantly higher amount of lifetime unemployment.lifetime unemployment, censored quantile regressions, occupation-specific human capital

Labor Market I. Data from the German Federal Employment Services

This contribution shows the increasing supply on German micro data over the last years for labor market research. We focus on the research data centre movement, the development of new anonymisation techniques for establishment data, the new challenges of the social code II and the fundamental change to evaluate labor market programmes actively with administrative data. Although a lot of ongoing developments like combining different data sets are happening, we make three recommendations for future developments in this area: (1) Demand to have an influence an the data production. (2) The need to combine data sets (especially across national borders) (3) Importance to establish an international infrastructure for data access.labor market, data access, administrative data, linked employer employee data, research data center, social code II, evaluation

Is There a Gap in the Gap? Regional Differences in the Gender Pay Gap

In this paper, we investigate regional dierences in the gender pay gap both theoretically and empirically. Within a spatial oligopsony model, we show that more densely populated labour markets are more competitive and constrain employers' ability to discriminate against women. Utilising a large administrative data set for western Germany and a fexible semi-parametric propensity score matching approach, we and that the unexplained gender pay gap for young workers is substantially lower in large metropolitan than in rural areas. This regional gap in the gap of roughly ten percentage points remained surprisingly constant over the entire observation period of thirty years.Gender pay gap, urban-rural differences, matching, monopsonistic discrimination

Is There a Gap in the Gap? Regional Differences in the Gender Pay Gap

In this paper, we investigate regional differences in the gender pay gap both theoretically and empirically. Within a spatial oligopsony model, we show that more densely populated labour markets are more competitive and constrain employers' ability to discriminate against women. Utilising a large administrative data set for western Germany and a flexible semi-parametric propensity score matching approach, we find that the unexplained gender pay gap for young workers is substantially lower in large metropolitan than in rural areas. This regional gap in the gap of roughly ten percentage points remained surprisingly constant over the entire observation period of thirty years.gender pay gap, urban-rural differences, matching, monopsonistic discrimination

Die Lohnkurve im Rahmen eines allgemeinen regionalen Anpassungsmodells (The wage curve in the framework of a general regional adjustment model)

"The article places the wage curve in the context of a more extensive model of regional adjustment procedures. According to the approach it is necessary to differentiate between variables which show convergence characteristics and variables which strive for permanently changed balances following temporary shocks. The subdivision given as a result of the specification of the model is in principal confirmed by means of an empirical longitudinal/cross-sectional analysis at the level of the federal states or regional employment office districts for the period 1960 to 1993. Both the wages and the unemployment rates are assigned to the convergent variables. The estimation of impulse/answer functions on the basis of a vector-autoregressive approach, however, shows a very slow speed of adjustment. The wage formation/unemployment relationship found for the short and medium term does not conflict with the results of literature on wage curves, although the statistical confirmation of the impulse/answer functions is only given in one out of two variants of the estimation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Lohnkurve - Modell, regionaler Arbeitsmarkt, Lohnhöhe, Arbeitslosigkeit, Westdeutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland