While there is typically a strong correlation between air traffic and economic growth, the direction of causation between the two is not clear. To address the existence of causality in this paper we consider the nature of this relationship in different types of regions. The empirical analysis is based on European-level annual data from eighty-six regions and thirteen countries on air traffic and regional economic performance in the period 1991 to 2010. Granger noncausality analysis in a panel framework, which allows possible heterogeneity between regions, was used. The results suggest that the causality processes are homogenous from regional growth to air traffic. There is causality from air traffic to regional growth in peripheral regions, but this causality is less evident in core regions. Thus, air transportation plays a crucial role in boosting development in remote regions. There might, therefore, be a case for subsidizing local airports in these regions.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in Abstract:Regional concentration of population and economic activity is a common phenomenon both in Finland and the other most developed countries, which refers to the existence of agglomeration economies. Two types of economies are usually recognised to be important: specialisation (Marshall externalities) and diversity (Jacobs externalities) economies. The former refer to the geographical concentration of a specific industry and the latter to the industrial diversity of the local system. This paper examines the relationship between agglomeration economies and regional productivity in the manufacturing sector in Finland. A distinction is made between the effects of urbanisation and localisation economies. The production function method is applied to the manufacturing sub-sectors in the 83 NUTS 4-level regions in 1995 and 1999. The results find in favour of regional specialisation more than diversification even if some differences can be seen between the manufacturing sub-sectors. Localisation economies seem to be stronger in the regions where the average size of firms is small, which indicates that regions with smaller firms might profit more from localisation.2

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate inter-industry labor mobility, paying special attention to workers who move into high-tech (HT) sectors or knowledge-intensive business services (KIBSs). This study inquires whether skilled workers are mobile and whether the characteristics of mobile workers support the effective transfer of knowledge across industries. Design/methodology/approach -Census data representing 7 percent of Finnish residents were used. The micro-econometric estimation method with correction of sample selection bias was applied. Findings -The results show that young workers are the most mobile, whereas mobility decreased for those with previous work experience, higher education and higher income level. These findings indicate that the highly skilled workers are not necessarily the most mobile, a trend that may weaken the effectiveness of knowledge spillover. However, on average, highly educated workers move into KIBS sectors more often than to other sectors, and HT sectors attract workers who have higher incomes, which may indicate that their skills are highly valued. As a result, knowledge spillovers may emerge. The knowledge spillovers resulting from job mobility are concentrated in large growth centers that have universities. Originality/value -This study provides a new and topical viewpoint to the mobility literature by focussing on skilled workers and their movement toward the HT and KIBS sectors. IntroductionIn knowledge-driven economies, economic development and technological progress are highly dependent on the accumulation and diffusion of knowledge. The high-tech (HT) sectors and knowledge-intensive business services (KIBSs) are essential aspects of what is known as the knowledge economy. The emergence of the knowledge economy, which demands that people spend more time maintaining and renewing their human capital over the course of their working career, has had a significant effect on job mobility in both the internal labor market (through in-work transitions, multi-skilling, multi-tasking, etc.) and the external labor market. Moreover, the globalization of the economy, and the resulting pressure on employers to more rapidly adapt the workforce to changes in aggregate demand, has increased turnover in the labor market (Korpi and Mertens, 2004). Due to the increasingly rapid spread of knowledge, the demand for low-skill labor is decreasing in favor of more educated and highly skilled workers (Muffels and Luijkx, 2008;Lee et al., 2010). It is assumed that the mobility of highly educated and innovation-intensive workers between firms and industries acts to ensure the diffusion and circulation of knowledge, in turn increasing overall knowledge and innovation (see e.g. Almeida and Kogut, 1999;Breschi and Lissoni, 2003;

Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use:Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes.You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. If the documents have been made available under an OpenContent Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.