IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/egu/wpaper/2136.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Local access to skill-related high-income jobs facilitates career advancement for low-wage workers

Author

Listed:
  • Zoltan Elekes
  • Anna Baranowska-Rataj
  • Rikard Eriksson

Abstract

A considerable proportion of jobs across labour markets of the Western world are low-wage jobs, while the number of “bad†jobs with deteriorating working conditions and task content is growing. This puts pressure on both successful and lagging regions as low- wage workers struggle to avoid getting priced out of urban areas, while diminishing economic opportunities in more lagging regions fuel social and political discontent. The aim of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the role of local labour market structure and evolution in enabling or constraining workers in escaping low-wage jobs. Drawing on the network-based approach of evolutionary economic geography in measuring local labour market structure we employ a uniquely detailed individual-level panel dataset provided by Statistics Sweden to construct skill-relatedness networks for 72 functional labour market regions in Sweden. Our fixed-effect panel regressions indicate that the density of skill-related high-income jobs within a region is conductive of low-wage workers moving to better-paid jobs. While metropolitan regions offer a premium for this relationship, it also holds for smaller regions, as well as across various worker characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Zoltan Elekes & Anna Baranowska-Rataj & Rikard Eriksson, 2021. "Local access to skill-related high-income jobs facilitates career advancement for low-wage workers," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2136, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:egu:wpaper:2136
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://econ.geo.uu.nl/peeg/peeg2136.pdf
    File Function: Version November 2021
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Allen John Scott, 2014. "Beyond the Creative City: Cognitive--Cultural Capitalism and the New Urbanism," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(4), pages 565-578, April.
    2. Lorenzo Cappellari, 2002. "Do the `working poor' stay poor? An analysis of low pay transitions in Italy," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 64(2), pages 87-110, May.
    3. Gergő Tóth & Zoltán Elekes & Adam Whittle & Changjun Lee & Dieter F. Kogler, 2022. "Technology Network Structure Conditions the Economic Resilience of Regions," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 98(4), pages 355-378, August.
    4. Ron Boschma & Asier Minondo & Mikel Navarro, 2013. "The Emergence of New Industries at the Regional Level in S pain: A Proximity Approach Based on Product Relatedness," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 89(1), pages 29-51, January.
    5. Sofia Wixe & Martin Andersson, 2017. "Which types of relatedness matter in regional growth? Industry, occupation and education," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 523-536, April.
    6. Lixin Cai, 2015. "The dynamics of low pay employment in Australia," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 36(7), pages 1095-1123, October.
    7. Frank Neffke & Martin Henning & Ron Boschma, 2011. "How Do Regions Diversify over Time? Industry Relatedness and the Development of New Growth Paths in Regions," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 87(3), pages 237-265, July.
    8. Bleakley, Hoyt & Lin, Jeffrey, 2012. "Thick-market effects and churning in the labor market: Evidence from US cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 87-103.
    9. Ron Boschma, 2015. "Towards an Evolutionary Perspective on Regional Resilience," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(5), pages 733-751, May.
    10. Dieter F. Kogler & Jürgen Essletzbichler & David L. Rigby, 2017. "The evolution of specialization in the EU15 knowledge space," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(2), pages 345-373.
    11. Diego Puga, 2010. "The Magnitude And Causes Of Agglomeration Economies," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 203-219, February.
    12. Koen Frenken & Frank Van Oort & Thijs Verburg, 2007. "Related Variety, Unrelated Variety and Regional Economic Growth," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(5), pages 685-697.
    13. Frank Neffke & Matté Hartog & Ron Boschma & Martin Henning, 2018. "Agents of Structural Change: The Role of Firms and Entrepreneurs in Regional Diversification," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 94(1), pages 23-48, January.
    14. Markus Grillitsch & Mikhail Martynovich & Rune Dahl Fitjar & Silje Haus-Reve, 2021. "The black box of regional growth," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 425-464, July.
    15. Lorenzo Cappellari & Stephen P. Jenkins, 2004. "Modelling low income transitions," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(5), pages 593-610.
    16. Maarten Goos & Alan Manning & Anna Salomons, 2009. "Job Polarization in Europe," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 58-63, May.
    17. Lorenzo Cappellari, 2007. "Earnings mobility among Italian low-paid workers," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 20(2), pages 465-482, April.
    18. Neffke, Frank M.H. & Otto, Anne & Weyh, Antje, 2017. "Inter-industry labor flows," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 275-292.
    19. Rachata Muneepeerakul & José Lobo & Shade T Shutters & Andrés Goméz-Liévano & Murad R Qubbaj, 2013. "Urban Economies and Occupation Space: Can They Get “There” from “Here”?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-8, September.
    20. Ron Boschma & Rikard H. Eriksson & Urban Lindgren, 2014. "Labour Market Externalities and Regional Growth in Sweden: The Importance of Labour Mobility between Skill-Related Industries," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(10), pages 1669-1690, October.
    21. Schnitzlein, Daniel D. & Stephani, Jens, 2016. "Locus of Control and low-wage mobility," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 164-177.
    22. Eriksson, Rikard & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2017. "Job-related mobility and plant performance in Sweden," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 84286, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    23. Martin Henning & Rikard H Eriksson, 2021. "Labour market polarisation as a localised process: evidence from Sweden," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 14(1), pages 69-91.
    24. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2004. "Micro-foundations of urban agglomeration economies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 48, pages 2063-2117, Elsevier.
    25. Emelie Hane-Weijman & Rikard H. Eriksson & Martin Henning, 2018. "Returning to work: regional determinants of re-employment after major redundancies," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(6), pages 768-780, June.
    26. Donald R. Grimes & Penelope B. Prime & Mary Beth Walker, 2019. "Geographical Variation in Wages of Workers in Low-Wage Service Occupations: A U.S. Metropolitan Area Analysis," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 33(2), pages 121-133, May.
    27. Maarten Goos & Alan Manning, 2007. "Lousy and Lovely Jobs: The Rising Polarization of Work in Britain," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(1), pages 118-133, February.
    28. Sanne Velthuis & Paul Sissons & Nigel Berkeley, 2019. "Do low-paid workers benefit from the urban escalator? Evidence from British cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(8), pages 1664-1680, June.
    29. Jeroen Content & Koen Frenken, 2016. "Related variety and economic development: a literature review," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(12), pages 2097-2112, December.
    30. Ron Boschma, 2017. "Relatedness as driver of regional diversification: a research agenda," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 351-364, March.
    31. Clark, Ken & Kanellopoulos, Nikolaos C., 2013. "Low pay persistence in Europe," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 122-134.
    32. Lars-Fredrik Andersson & Therese Danley & Rikard Eriksson & Martin Henning, 2020. "Workers’ participation in regional economic change following establishment closure," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 589-604, February.
    33. Glaeser, Edward L & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1992. "Growth in Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(6), pages 1126-1152, December.
      • Edward L. Glaeser & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1991. "Growth in Cities," NBER Working Papers 3787, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
      • Glaeser, Edward Ludwig & Kallal, Hedi D. & Scheinkman, Jose A. & Shleifer, Andrei, 1992. "Growth in Cities," Scholarly Articles 3451309, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    34. Lixin Cai & Kostas Mavromaras & Peter Sloane, 2018. "Low Paid Employment in Britain: Estimating State†Dependence and Stepping Stone Effects," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 80(2), pages 283-326, April.
    35. Zoltán Elekes & Ron Boschma & Balázs Lengyel, 2019. "Foreign-owned firms as agents of structural change in regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(11), pages 1603-1613, November.
    36. Esteban Moro & Morgan R. Frank & Alex Pentland & Alex Rutherford & Manuel Cebrian & Iyad Rahwan, 2021. "Universal resilience patterns in labor markets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    37. Shade T Shutters & José Lobo & Rachata Muneepeerakul & Deborah Strumsky & Charlotta Mellander & Matthias Brachert & Teresa Farinha & Luis M A Bettencourt, 2018. "Urban occupational structures as information networks: The effect on network density of increasing number of occupations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, May.
    38. Ron Boschma, 2017. "Relatedness as driver behind regional diversification: a research agenda," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1702, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jan 2017.
    39. Euan Phimister & Ioannis Theodossiou & Richard Upward, 2006. "Is it Easier to Escape from Low Pay in Urban Areas? Evidence from the United Kingdom," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(4), pages 693-710, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Duygu Buyukyazici & Leonardo Mazzoni & Massimo Riccaboni & Francesco Serti, 2024. "Workplace skills as regional capabilities: relatedness, complexity and industrial diversification of regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(3), pages 469-489, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. 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.
    2. Emelie Hane-Weijman & Rikard H. Eriksson & David Rigby, 2020. "How do occupational relatedness and complexity condition employment dynamics in periods of growth and recession?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2011, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Mar 2020.
    3. Gergő Tóth & Zoltán Elekes & Adam Whittle & Changjun Lee & Dieter F. Kogler, 2022. "Technology Network Structure Conditions the Economic Resilience of Regions," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 98(4), pages 355-378, August.
    4. John-Erik Rørheim & Ron Boschma, 2022. "Skill-relatedness and employment growth of firms in times of prosperity and crisis in an oil-dependent region," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(4), pages 676-692, June.
    5. Jefferson Ricardo Bretas Galetti & Milene Simone Tessarin & Paulo Cesar Morceiro, 2021. "Skill relatedness, structural change and heterogeneous regions: evidence from a developing country," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(6), pages 1355-1376, December.
    6. O’Clery, Neave & Kinsella, Stephen, 2022. "Modular structure in labour networks reveals skill basins," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(5).
    7. Martin Henning & Orsa Kekezi, 2023. "Upward job mobility in local economies," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 16(3), pages 431-444.
    8. Mattie Landman & Sanna Ojanperä & Stephen Kinsella & Neave O’Clery, 2023. "The role of relatedness and strategic linkages between domestic and MNE sectors in regional branching and resilience," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 515-559, April.
    9. Duygu Buyukyazici & Leonardo Mazzoni & Massimo Riccaboni & Francesco Serti, 2024. "Workplace skills as regional capabilities: relatedness, complexity and industrial diversification of regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(3), pages 469-489, March.
    10. Anne Otto & Rikard Eriksson & Martin Henning, 2015. "Industrial and geographical mobility of workers exiting the Swedish and West German shipbuilding industry 1970-2000," ERSA conference papers ersa15p958, European Regional Science Association.
    11. Kadri Kuusk & Mikhail Martynovich, 2018. "What kind of related variety for long-term regional growth?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1834, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2018.
    12. Adam Whittle & Balázs Lengyel & Dieter F. Kogler, 2020. "Understanding Regional Branching Knowledge Diversification via Inventor Collaboration Networks," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2006, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Feb 2020.
    13. Barbieri, Nicolò & Consoli, Davide, 2019. "Regional diversification and green employment in US metropolitan areas," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 693-705.
    14. 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.
    15. Jeroen Content & Nicola Cortinovis & Koen Frenken & Jacob Jordaan, 2022. "The roles of KIBS and R&D in the industrial diversification of regions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 68(1), pages 29-64, February.
    16. Caviggioli, F. & Colombelli, A. & De Marco, A. & Scellato, G. & Ughetto, E., 2023. "The impact of university patenting on the technological specialization of European regions: a technology-level analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    17. Peter Mayerhofer & Peter Huber, 2019. "Notwendigkeit und Möglichkeiten kooperativer Raum- und Wirtschaftsentwicklung in der Metropolregion Wien. Problemfelder, Handlungsoptionen, Umsetzungsmöglichkeiten," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 69764, March.
    18. Eduardo Hernandez-Rodriguez & Ron Boschma & Andrea Morrison & Xianjia Ye, 2024. "Functional upgrading and downgrading in global value chains: The role of complementary interregional value chain linkages in EU regions," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2432, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Oct 2024.
    19. Cilem Selin Hazir & Flora Bellone & Cyrielle Gaglio, 2019. "Local product space and firm-level churning in exported products," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 28(6), pages 1473-1496.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    skill-relatedness network; local labour market; low-wage workers; structural change; relatedness density;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:egu:wpaper:2136. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deguunl.html .

    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.