Profiles of local growth and industrial change: Facts and an explanation

Arbeitspapier

In this paper we take a detailed look at the sectoral anatomy of regional growth in German regions over the period 1978-2008. In the aggregate, the German economy is characterized by a secular decline of the manufacturing sector and a rise of the modern service economy. This trend of structural change (Petty's law) by no means occurs uniformly across space, however. Some regions exhibit this trend even at an accelerated pace, while other regions develop their local economic structures against the trend and expand their manufacturing bases. We first develop a novel empirical approach that allows us to categorize all German regions into one out of three groups with pro-trend, anti-trend or featureless regional growth. Afterwards we show that the differential exposure to international trade is an important cause of the divergent patterns of local industrial change.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IAB-Discussion Paper ; No. 20/2012

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes ; Trade and Labor Market Interactions
• Subject: Structural change ; local industry compositions ; trade exposure ; local employment growth ; Regionaler Strukturwandel ; Regionales Wachstum ; Drei-Sektoren-Hypothese ; Regionaler Außenhandel ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Dauth, Wolfgang ; Südekum, Jens
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB)
• (where): Nürnberg
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/84931
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET