Jan Amcoff

RAPID REGIONAL ENLARGEMENT IN SWEDEN: A PHENOMENON MISSING AN EXPLANATION

Abstract. According to Swedish register data, regional size and the extent of commuting have both increased rapidly in recent decades. From the perspective of policy‐making authorities, this would indicate good prospects for regional development, as small regions could be integrated into larger ones resulting in increased economic growth. However, there are few concrete manifestations of such regional enlargement, and alternative datasets give other impressions of the effects of commuting. Here we argue that this apparent growth might stem from several problems inherent in a register‐based way of measuring changes in commuting patterns. Thus, regional enlargement and the extent of commuting may be exaggerated when measured conventionally, and the high hopes of using such enlargement to lever regional development might be misplaced. More generally, this study considers the problems arising as census or other enquiry and interview based data are replaced by register data.

The (un)importance of the closure of village shops to rural migration patterns

This study investigates the importance of local service provision for the survival of rural areas. EU Rural Development Policy includes support to village shops as a means to sustain population. Shop closing is assumed to negatively affect migration to and from the area served. We analyse quantitative data on all Swedish village shops and the migration patterns in their market areas before and after shop closure. No significant effect of shop closure on either in- or out-migration can be established, regardless of whether larger or smaller market areas are employed or whether migrants with more urban shopping habits (i.e. commuters and families with children) are excluded. Complementary interviews in three villages where the last shop has closed verify the results.

Tourism’s localised population effect in the rural areas of Sweden

ABSTRACT This paper examines how population change among young adults in rural areas is affected when tourism is the dominant industry. The relation between tourism and population change is often implicitly assumed but has not been well examined on a broader societal level. Existing studies have indicated that the effect of tourism on population change is limited in geographical range, and therefore a fine geographical resolution is useful. This analysis is based on yearly information on each individual who resided in Sweden in any year between 1990 and 2010, with 100-metre grid cells as the finest geographical resolution. Since young adults constitute a large part of all migration that takes place, they are the focus of this study. The findings show that the net population change among young adults is clearly more positive in tourism-dominated areas (TDAs) than in non-TDAs, and this becomes more significant the more remote the areas. Further, there is a better gender balance and a younger population in TDAs. Stayers and return migrants can partly explain the positive population change in TDAs, but as shown in previous research, there is a higher turnover of population in TDAs, and in-migration seems to be the key to positive population change.

The geographical redistribution of retail outlets in Sweden 1998–2008

Abstract Detailed descriptive data are used to analyse the geographical redistribution of different kinds of retail. It is shown that in 2008, town centres generally still had a strong position as retail centres, although many small towns (including their centres) had been depleted of their retailers during the previous 10 years. Locations in built-up areas, outside of retail agglomerations, seem to be most affected by ‘shop death’. A diffuse tendency to dispersion, countering the general trend towards concentration, can be observed in rural areas. Shops specialised in durable goods are leaving town centres everywhere, no matter whether large out-of-town developments are established or not. There are also indications that the customer base necessary for a shop to make a profit has increased. These findings fit well with established explanations and underpin the insight that the growth of out-of-town developments is a symptom of restructuring forces, rather than a cause of restructuring.

Back to the city: internal return migration to metropolitan regions in Sweden

Longitudinal microdata on the Swedish population, 1990–2006, are used to examine the numbers and characteristics of internal return migrants, emphasizing Swedens three largest cities. Our study indicates that metropolitan regions are gaining population from net return migration, which thus carries people in the same direction as does most internal migration. Evidence also indicates that returnees to metropolitan regions are more likely to stay permanently than are migrants returning elsewhere. Furthermore, return migrants to metropolitan regions are distinguished from other return migrants in ways that emphasize the advantages of these regions, higher incomes and levels of education being among the pronounced attributes. However, metro-bound returnees do not have as many children as do other return migrants.

Food deserts in Sweden? Access to food retail in 1998 and 2008

ABSTRACT Using an approach that is as unprejudiced as possible, this study sets out to examine people’s access to food shops in Sweden. The focus is particularly on disadvantaged groups in the population, since it has been suggested that their increased frequency of welfare diseases (e.g. obesity or diabetes) may be explained by deficient access to healthy foods. It is established that disadvantaged groups generally have shorter distances to food shops than the general population. Disadvantaged groups are also not hit harder than others by changes in accessibility. Nonetheless, it is possible to identify a number of geographical concentrations of disadvantaged people with longer than average distances to the nearest food shop. Besides that, access to car(s) appears to be higher in the types of areas where the distance to food shops tends to be longer.