Regional Inequality in Europe and North America

• In Event: Regional Inequality in the Knowledge Economy in Europe and North America

Abstract

This paper provides a descriptive examination of trends in regional inequality within the US, Canada and twelve European countries. It first draws on recent literature in American political economy which suggests that the transition to the knowledge economy has promoted three forms of growing regional inequality: in the productive capacities of regions, in the income of regions, and in local patterns of population sorting into dynamic urban areas. It then asks whether we see the same trends in Europe and North America? Does the transition to knowledge-intensive production imply new urban growth models everywhere? It finds that regional inequality has fallen less – or grown more – in terms of both productive capacity and income in the liberal economies of North America (and the UK) than in the European economies. However, it finds that urban areas in high-knowledge regions are becoming more distinct in both regions, suggesting that while large macro-institutions are more redistributive in Europe, there are important social processes of sorting on the ground in both contexts.

Author

• Jane R. Gingrich, University of Oxford