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

Arbeitspapier

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.

Show object

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: JRC Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation ; No. 02/2022

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes ; Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity ; Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
• Subject: Cities ; resilience ; financial crisis ; labour markets ; structural change ; labour mobility

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Straulino, Daniel ; Diodato, Dario ; O'Clery, Neave
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC)
• (where): Seville
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/283071