This article studies path dependent regional structural change using a quantitative framework. Based on an inter-relatedness indicator, the degree to which local skill-bases exist and force local economies onto a path-dependent development trajectory is studied. The main question is into which...

Who introduces structural change in regional economies: Entrepreneurs or existing firms? And do local or non-local firms and entrepreneurs create most novelty in a region? Using matched employer-employee data for the whole Swedish workforce, we determine how unrelated and therefore how novel the...

This paper follows the industry employment histories of all individuals at some point affiliated with the dismantling Swedish shipbuilding industry 1970-2000. We analyse the situation of the individual workers leaving shipbuilding through investigating to what extent they were employed at all,...

The concept of path dependence has gained momentum in the social sciences, particularly in economic geography. In this paper, we explore the empirical literature on path dependence and path creation in regional economic development. We offer a critical reflection on these studies and outline...

Cities vary with regard to the characteristics of their economic life. A formal model by Duranton and Puga (2001) suggests a division of labour between diversified and specialized cities. Diversified cities (the “nursery cities”) provide a fertile environment for search and innovation....

In this paper we measure technological relatedness between industries using a dataset on product portfolios of plants. For this purpose we first develop a general methodology to extract data on co-occurrences of classes (e.g. industries) in a single entity (e.g. a plant) to construct estimates...

Using dynamic panel data methods on UK counties (1841-1971), we investigate long-term employment dynamics in seven distinct local industries. We study how industries benefit from specialised environments (MAR), diverse local economies (Jacobs’) and large local markets (urbanization), and, in...

In this paper, the changing roles of agglomeration externalities during different stages of the industry life cycle are investigated. A central argument is that agglomeration externalities vary with mode of competition, innovation intensity, and characteristics of learning opportunities in...

The literature in economic geography has recently shown a growing interest in the path dependent transformation of regional economies. According to evolutionary accounts, the development of regional economies can be regarded as a result of technological branching processes, where the development...

We investigate the extent to which a local industry is affected by an overrepresentation of related industries in the local economy. We focus on two types of inter-industry relatedness, namely, the degree to which two industries can employ a similarly skilled labor force and the degree to which...