IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/regstd/v55y2021i3p479-494.html

Relatedness, complexity and local growth

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin Davies
  • David C. Maré

Abstract

We derive a measure of the relatedness between economic activities based on weighted correlations of local employment shares. Our approach recognizes variation in the extent of local specialization and adjusts for differences in data quality between cities. We use our measure to estimate activity and city complexity, and examine the contribution of relatedness and complexity to urban employment growth in New Zealand. Relatedness and complexity are complementary in promoting employment growth in New Zealand’s largest cities, but do not contribute to employment growth in its smaller cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin Davies & David C. Maré, 2021. "Relatedness, complexity and local growth," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(3), pages 479-494, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:55:y:2021:i:3:p:479-494
    DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2020.1802418
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00343404.2020.1802418
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00343404.2020.1802418?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Milene Tessarin & Ron Boschma & Deyu Li & Sergio Petralia, 2025. "Regional development traps in Europe. A study of occupational trajectories of regions," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2501, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jan 2025.
    2. Balland, Pierre-Alexandre & Boschma, Ron, 2022. "Do scientific capabilities in specific domains matter for technological diversification in European regions?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    3. Focacci, Chiara Natalie & Kovac, Mitja & Spruk, Rok, 2023. "Ethnolinguistic diversity, quality of local public institutions, and firm-level innovation," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    4. Rodríguez-pose Andrés & Dijkstra Lewis, 2025. "The pursuit of competitiveness and the high stakes of territorial myopia," JRC Research Reports JRC142460, Joint Research Centre.
    5. Mariane Santos Françoso & Ron Boschma & Nicholas Vonortas, 2024. "Regional diversification in Brazil: The role of relatedness and complexity," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), March.
    6. Julia Bachtrögler-Unger & Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Ron Boschma & Thomas Schwab, 2023. "Technological Capabilities and the Twin Transition in Europe. Opportunities for Regional Collaboration and Economic Cohesion," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 33926503.
    7. Tolulope Paul Akinbobola & Oluwole Matthew Akinnagbe, 2023. "Determinants of linkages between agricultural institutions and agro-allied industries in Southwest, Nigeria," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 228-248, January.
    8. Ron Boschma, 2022. "Evolutionary Economic Geography and Policy," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2220, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Oct 2022.
    9. Barbara MARTINI & Marco PLATANIA, 2022. "Are The Regions With More Gender Equality The More Resilient Ones? An Analysis Of The Italian Regions," Regional Science Inquiry, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, vol. 0(2), pages 71-94, June.
    10. Joanna Kudelko & Katarzyna Zmija & Dariusz Zmija, 2022. "Regional smart specialisations in the light of dynamic changes in the employment structure: the case of a region in Poland," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 17(1), pages 133-171, March.
    11. Tom Broekel & Rune Dahl Fitjar & Silje Haus-Reve, 2021. "The roles of diversity, complexity, and relatedness in regional development – What does the occupational perspective add?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2135, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2021.
    12. DIODATO Dario, 2024. "Handbook of Economic Complexity for Policy," JRC Research Reports JRC138666, Joint Research Centre.
    13. Koen Frenken & Frank Neffke & Alje van Dam, 2023. "Capabilities, institutions and regional economic development: a proposed synthesis," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 16(3), pages 405-416.
    14. R. Boschma & Eduardo Hernández-Rodríguez & A. Morrison & C. Pietrobelli, 2021. "Do global value chains and local capabilities matter for economic complexity in EU regions?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2139, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Dec 2021.
    15. Jason Deegan & Tom Broekel & Silje Haus-Reve & Rune Dahl Fitjar, 2024. "How regions diversify into new jobs: from related industries or related occupations?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(11), pages 1965-1980, November.
    16. Xiaozhen Qin & Jianfu Shen & Eddie Hui & Xun Li, 2026. "Skill-related thickness and employment growth in China’s urban labour market," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 75(1), pages 1-31, March.
    17. Colozza, Federico & Boschma, Ron & Morrison, Andrea & Pietrobelli, Carlo, 2021. "The importance of global value chains and regional capabilities for the economic complexity of EU-regions," MERIT Working Papers 2021-051, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    18. Mert Abay & Sedef Akgüngör, 2024. "Technological paths and smart specialization: analysis of regional entry and exit in Turkey," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 45-84, March.
    19. N. Cortinovis & D. Zhang & R. Boschma, 2024. "Regional diversification and intra-regional wage inequality in the Netherlands," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(12), pages 2292-2306, December.
    20. Zoltán Elekes & Anna Baranowska-Rataj & Rikard Eriksson, 2023. "Regional diversification and labour market upgrading: local access to skill-related high-income jobs helps workers escaping low-wage employment," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 16(3), pages 417-430.
    21. Wang, Feng & Wu, Min & Wang, Jingcao, 2023. "Can increasing economic complexity improve China's green development efficiency?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    22. repec:osf:socarx:2gw9c_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Fritz, Benedikt & Manduca, Robert, 2021. "The Economic Complexity of US Metropolitan Areas," SocArXiv 2gw9c, Center for Open Science.
    24. Ashraf, Sania & P., Jithin & Slim, Skander & Najeeb, Roshen, 2023. "Global value chains and economic complexity index: Evidence from generalized panel quantile regression," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 347-365.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:55:y:2021:i:3:p:479-494. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRES20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.