Patterns of inter- and intra-regional differences in human capital and earnings: Evidence from Finland and Sweden 1987–2015

Human capital convergence in European NUTS 2 regions

“…In order to measure regional human capital, some authors used simple indices, like the average or compulsory schooling period or the Gross Enrolment Index at various levels of education (e.g. Eliasson et al, 2021;Stamatakis, 2016). Other researchers constructed proprietary measures, often based on the World Bank HCI (Merło & Bogdański, 2018) for European NUTS 2 regions, Pasquini and Rosati (2020) for Italian provinces).…”

“…They proved that human capital investment exerted a positive impact on local revenues while the cohesion policy effectiveness depended on existing regional preconditions for development. In the case of Finland and Sweden over the 1987-2015 period, Eliasson et al (2021) revealed statistically insignificant changes in the geographical dispersion of human capital on the inter-regional scale, large and persistent disparities between the core and hinterlands, and the largest intra-regional differences within the metropolitan labour markets. Jagódka and Snarska (2023) found human capital to be the main driver of regional disparities in Polish NUTS 2 regions and investigated whether it was fully utilised in creating innovations.…”

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“…Development disproportions in intra-regional relations were noticed relatively early. Location in space may lead to differences in the level of economic development due to the weakening of many economic and social functions in the border areas of provinces (Churski et al, 2015) and in centers (Eliasson et al, 2021). Mitigating disproportions, also in the intraregional dimension, was considered one of the goals in strategic documents developed in Poland (National Strategy, 2018; Buck, Zagórowska, 2016).…”

Labour Market Areas and cluster subdivision for Spain 2011

“…Stimson et al (2018) measure the endogenous performance of regional markets across Australia, and recommend to focus the efforts of policy-makers on region-specific development policies. Eliasson et al (2021) study geographical disparities in human capital and income in Finland and Sweden. In Chile, Carriel et al (2022) identify and explain the determinants of long-distance commuting among different sectors, worker skills and levels of education, and Goya (2022) analyse the Marshallian and Jacobian externalities in creative industries across Chile, both works supporting the use of LMAs in the analyses.…”