Subsidiarity can become an elegant alibi for abandonment. In Geoforum, Grillitsch, Stihl & Hermelin show that powers handed down without resources or infrastructure do not empower places or promote #development; they merely decentralise disappointment. doi.org/10.1016/j.ge...
A week is a long time in politics. #Brussels toasted #Orbán's defeat in #Hungary; a week later, in #Bulgaria, we are back to the revenge of the places that don’t matter. #Radev's victory suggests the backlash never left; it just waited for another election.
doi.org/10.1093/cjre...
Closing the door to immigrants closes the lab too.
Cornejo & @andrea-morrison.bsky.social show in their new Journal of Economic Geography paper that the #US quota acts of 1921–24 stifled #patenting, even among US-born #inventors.
Ideas & #innovation travel with people
doi.org/10.1093/jeg/...
Industrial policy goes wrong when it imagines firms live in a spreadsheet rather than a place. In Science and Public Policy, Gómez-Valenzuela, Holl, Oviedo & Martinez show that for Spanish #SMEs, cost and #logistics bite as hard as #technology.
doi.org/10.1093/scip...
Looking for a professorship in regional innovation?
Then join one of the most intellectually formidable, yet genuinely collegiate and welcoming, on #innovation, #regions, and #InnovationPolicy in #Europe at @unistavanger.bsky.social.
For all information, check: www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...
A great day for #Hungary & a warning for all. Anger wins elections but it's a thin basis for governing & a worse one for prosperity.
#Populism doesn't restore strength. It leaves a weaker #economy & a harsher public life.
publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/h...
ppr.lse.ac.uk/articles/10....
In #Italy’s south, the cost of fighting #mafia-like infiltration is a self-imposed #austerity.
As @marcodicataldo.bsky.social, @elenarenzullo.bsky.social & I find in JEBO paper, corrupt mayors forfeit 93% of EU funding; a strategic retreat to keep the regulators at bay. doi.org/10.1016/j.je...
The #EU’s dream of #convergence faces a structural nightmare. As @vicenteroyuela.bsky.social, @anpanori.bsky.social & López-Tamayo show, while the Nordics pivot gracefully into the future, Southern & Eastern hinterlands risk becoming the casualties of the twin #transition.
doi.org/10.1007/s001...
#Digital #government can be a ladder or a wall, depending on where you live.
@pedrofierroz.bsky.social, Helsper, Correa & Dodel find that in #Chile, online public services cluster in richer places, though they matter most where offline access is thinnest.
doi.org/10.1016/j.te...
Good anti-mafia policy is seldom cinematic.
As @marcodicataldo.bsky.social, @elenarenzullo.bsky.social & I note in JEBO, it leads to narrower margins & fewer chances to divert public money.
In southern #Italy, municipalities tainted by collusion manage less #EU funding.
doi.org/10.1016/j.je...
The Swiss rural-urban divide is a legacy of the cradle, not the polling booth. Mitteregger & @lhaffert.bsky.social, writing in @ejprjournal.bsky.social, suggest that #discontent & geographic friction in #Switzerland are a generational inheritance rather than a temporary spat. doi.org/10.1017/S147...
Europe’s regional #inequality persists not because poorer places lack #investment, but because #income leaks away from them with regularity.
@andrecarrascal.bsky.social & Hewings show in @spatialeconomic.bsky.social how capitals are suction pumps in #Europe’s economic system.
doi.org/10.1080/1742...
Brussels treats the twin #transition as a matter of capital. But as
Dal Molin & Leggerini argue the Journal of Regional Science, the green-digital future depends on having capable #institutions.
To save the planet, one must first ensure the state actually functions well.
doi.org/10.1111/jors...
We often mistake economic growth for a simple alchemy of #capital and #labour, forgetting the institutional vessel in which they mix.
Aparicio, Cordero & Polo argue in the Annals of Operations Research that #governance quality is a primary engine of regional #productivity. doi.org/10.1007/s104...
We mistake #coworking for a real estate play when it is actually a subtle engine of human capital.
Writing in @regionalstudies.bsky.social, @zihanwang.bsky.social, Fai, @prt1969.bsky.social, Barzotto & Ehrhardt argue that these spaces provide the vital scaffolding for skills.
doi.org/10.1080/0034...
Legislation is no substitute for #geography when a tenant’s safety is determined by their census tract rather than the rule of law.
Rahman et al. in Cities reveal a Victorian #rental market fracturing into two tiers: professional pride and managed decay.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ci...
Place matters, but it is not the whole story.
#Firms in weaker regions innovate more if they benefit from psychological openness & if they are equipped to absorb & use new #knowledge, as Grillitsch, Tavassoli & Obschonka argue in Research Policy.
doi.org/10.1016/j.re...
Grand #climate #change ambitions often shatter upon the stubborn realities of #geography.
We invite submissions to a special issue of Applied Geography on how to successfully implement the #green #transition.
Long abstracts to a.sandu@lse.ac.uk by 15 May.
www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
An ageing society does not just swell pension bills. It can also stunt the appetite for experiment.
Min Zhang & Xiaochen Zhang's new Annals of Regional Science article finds that #ageing cities in #China lose some of the social chemistry behind #innovation.
doi.org/10.1007/s001...
National growth figures can flatter to deceive. The real question is where #prosperity happens, where it stalls, and what follows when whole #regions are left to drift. My discussion with Marwa Abdou:
lnkd.in/gvZe6p9E
lnkd.in/gdiMcARy
doi.org/10.1080/1742...
#Britain’s innovation gap is less a funding problem than a capacity problem: money travels, capability doesn’t. In @spatialeconomic.bsky.social, Ma, Ortega-Argilés, Lyons & Kratena show why regions need #skills, #institutions and #networks, not just cheques.
doi.org/10.1080/1742...
#Populism feeds not on #poverty but on feeling that prosperity grows elsewhere & your town has been edited out of the future. Neglect is political tinder & once weaponised, grievance becomes a method of rule.
doi.org/10.31389/lse... doi.org/10.1093/jeg/... doi.org/10.1080/0013...
#Green #cities can become oddly genteel: all campuses, cafés and climate slogans, with too little thought for where things are made, stored or repaired. In European Planning Studies, Stefano Di Vita & @yonnd.bsky.social argue that net zero needs blue-collar #urbanism too.
doi.org/10.1080/0965...
Come and join us where scholarly rigor meets the public square.
On 12 March, the Cañaada Blanch LSE Centre hosts a workshop of the Miguel Dols Fellows during the winter term 2026.
An evening dedicated to the enduring value of deep inquiry.
www.lse.ac.uk/canada-blanc...
To ignore regional plarisation is to invite a populist correction. McCann & Stierna identify in @regionalstudies.bsky.social the flaw in the #Draghi #competitiveness blueprint: it engages experts but shuns the people. A strategy without #legitimacy will not fly. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
#Wage growth in the Visegrád Four has become a "sticky" affair, with a region’s fortune tied to that of its neighbours. Boris Hošoff and Sergei Kharin show in GeoJournal that the winning hands are concentrated in #Poland while #Hungary faces a widening regional chill.
doi.org/10.1007/s107...
#Centralisation spreads responsibility thin; #autonomy concentrates it. In the European Journal of Political Economy, Ferraresi, Herrmann, Loiacono, Rizzo & Secomandi find that where town halls keep and manage most #tax the result is higher #income.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ej...
🛑 'Las regiones marginadas acaban vengándose del sistema que las abandonó'
El economista @rodriguez-pose.bsky.social explica en la #frAreces por qué territorios olvidados se han 'rebelado' y las posibles soluciones
Aquí, algunas respuestas 🗞️ www.fundacionareces.es/fundacionare...
#geografia
#Innovation has long been a story of #technology hubs and "innovation deserts." But as Zhuoying You & I argue in @spatialeconomic.bsky.social, #AI & #robotics are "digital levellers," allowing lagging places to leapfrog traditional barriers of distance and capital. doi.org/10.1080/1742...
Urban size becomes a multiplier only if there’s something to multiply.
In my @spatialeconomic.bsky.social paper, I argue that thin skills & weak institutions can make megacities sluggish.
Dynamism comes from skills, innovation & solid institutions, not headcount
doi.org/10.1080/17421772.2025.2603498