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Economic crisis accelerates urban structural change via inter-sectoral labour mobility

Details

Identification
JRC129110
Publication date
22 April 2022
Author
Joint Research Centre

Description

Are recessions drivers of structural change? Here we investigate the resilience of cities, and argue that a re-allocation of labour between industrial sectors in times of crisis induces an  acceleration in structural change. Using UK data, we find that cities experienced a sharp increase in inter-sectoral job transitions, and that local employment in skill-related sectors is most strongly associated with employment growth, during the recession, which we identify with the period of employment contraction between 2008 and 2011. This coincides with a massive but short-lived increase in the rate of structural change (i.e. the total change in employment shares of different industries) around 2009. These findings suggest that cities with skill-related sectors re-allocate workers in a crisis, thus inducing structural change.

Authors

STRAULINO Daniel, DIODATO Dario, O'CLERY Neave

Files

22 APRIL 2022
JRC129110_Economic crisis accelerates urban structural change via inter-sectoral labour mobility
English
(3.58 MB - PDF)
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