Geographical Labor Market Imbalances

This book focuses on the questions of how territorial differences in productivity levels and unemployment rates arise in the first place and why territorial differences in labor market performance persist over time. Unemployment divergence and unemployment club convergence have been touched on in a large number of works and have recently also been studied using spatial econometric analysis. In this book we aim to develop the debate to include several important new topics, such as: the reasons why structural changes in some sectors cause slumps in some regions but not in others; the extent to which agglomeration factors explain regional imbalances; the degree of convergence / divergence across EU countries and regions; the role of labor mobility in reducing / increasing regional labor market imbalances; the impact of EU and country-level regional policy in stimulating convergence and the (unsatisfactory) role of active labor market policy in stimulating labor supply in the weakest economic areas.

“The papers analyse the issue of geographical labour market imbalances from a very broad perspective … . the reader will find several empirical facts, new references, research questions, and empirical strategies that will be useful to understand and explore the origins and the consequences of labor market disparities for economies and regions. All regional economists interested in labour market issues should definitely find a place for this book on the shelves of their libraries.” (Antonio Accetturo, Papers in Regional Science, Vol. 95 (2), June, 2016)“I studied ‘Geographical Labor Market Imbalances’ with great pleasure and great benefits for myself and would like to recommend it to wider audience, including researchers, students and professors in the areas of labor market, regional economics and comparative economics.” (Olga Demidova, Journal of Economics Bibliography, Vol. 3 (1), March, 2016)“Geographical Labor Market Imbalances represents a collective volume of outstanding scientific papers concerning regional issues … . The chapter’s authors … succeed in clarifying relevant and actual issues of the regional labor market and present them in a clear and accessible way without charge or overwhelming the reader with specialist terms. … The spectrum of readers to whom the book is addressed is large … making it possible to realize them on a higher level in future research.” (Daniela Paşnicu, Annals of Spiru Haret University Economics Series, Vol. 16 (1), 2016)