Which Types of Relatedness Matter in Regional Growth? -industry, occupation and education

Sofia Wixe and Martin Andersson

No 1326, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: This paper provides a conceptual discussion of relatedness, which suggests a focus on individuals as a complement to firms and industries. The empirical relevance of the main arguments are tested by estimating the effects of related and unrelated variety in education and occupation among employees, as well as in industries, on regional growth. We show that for regional productivity growth, occupational and educational related variety matter over and above industry relatedness. This supports the conceptual discussion put forward. The potential of productive interactions between employees in a region is thus greater when there is related variety in their ‘knowledge base’. We also find that related variety in industries is positive for employment growth but negative for productivity growth.

Keywords: Relatedness; variety; occupation; education; regional growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 R12 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2013-12, Revised 2013-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-geo and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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http://econ.geo.uu.nl/peeg/peeg1326.pdf Version December 2013 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Which types of relatedness matter in regional growth? Industry, occupation and education (2017)
Working Paper: Which Types of Relatedness Matter in Regional Growth? - Industry, occupation and education (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egu:wpaper:1326

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