Johan P. Larsson

Start-ups and Local Entrepreneurial Social Capital in the Municipalities of Sweden

Westlund H., Larsson J. P. and Olsson A. R. Start-ups and local entrepreneurial social capital in the municipalities of Sweden, Regional Studies. This paper contains one of the first empirical attempts to investigate the influence of local entrepreneurial social capital (ESC) on start-up propensity. A unique database, including not only total start-ups but also data on start-ups divided into six sectors, is used to study the impact of ESC on start-ups per capita. The results support the hypothesis that social capital, measured both as (1) firm perception of local public attitudes to entrepreneurship and (2) the share of small businesses influences start-up propensity in Swedish municipalities. The findings also support previous results suggesting that social capital has a somewhat stronger influence in rural areas than in urban areas.

How Local are Spatial Density Externalities? Neighbourhood Effects in Agglomeration Economies

Andersson M., Klaesson J. and Larsson J. P. How local are spatial density externalities? Neighbourhood effects in agglomeration economies, Regional Studies. The geographic scale at which density externalities operate is analysed in this paper. Using geocoded high-resolution data, the analysis is focused on exogenously determined within-city squares (‘neighbourhoods’) of 1 km2. The analysis confirms a city-wide employment density–wage elasticity and an economically significant density–wage elasticity at the neighbourhood level that attenuate sharply with distance. Panel estimates over 20 years suggest a neighbourhood density–wage elasticity of about 3%, while the city-wide elasticity is about 1%. It is argued that the neighbourhood level is more prone to capture learning, e.g. through knowledge and information spillovers. This interpretation is supported by (1) significantly larger neighbourhood elasticities for university educated workers and (2) sharper attenuation with distance of the effect for such workers.

Accessibility and market potential analysis

The purpose of this chapter is to overview the advances in the field of measuring and modeling the influence of geographic market potential and accessibility. In general the models are designed to ...

Which retail services are co-located?

Purpose – Which retail services are co-located in space? Is it possible to categorize retail stores of different kinds with respect to their location pattern? Acknowledging the spatial dependency b ...

Non-routine activities and the within-city geography of jobs

Externalities are believed to drive the productivity benefits of cities, and also of dense sub-parts within cities, e.g. the central business district (CBD). Recent research claims that density externalities accrue mostly to non-routine activities, and that their effects, e.g. human capital spillovers, attenuate sharply with distance. Consistent with these claims, I demonstrate strong clustering tendencies in non-routine professions as evidenced by job-switching patterns, specifically switchers’ distances moved between employers. Individual-level geo-coded data for switchers within Sweden’s metropolitan areas are used to illustrate that employees hired to non-routine occupations tend to switch to jobs close to the previous work establishment, while blue collar workers show dispersion. The differences are chiefly explained by (1) non-routine activities concentrate in the CBD (the strongest effect) and local employment centres, (2) non-routine activities cluster also outside of centres, and (3) industry-specific effects. The patterns are consistent with the importance of sharply attenuating non-market interactions (e.g. knowledge spillovers) in the production of non-routine products and services.

Handbook of Social Capital and Regional Development

The role of social capital in regional development is a multifaceted topic which is studied all over the world using various methods and across numerous disciplines. It has long been evident that social capital is important for regional development, however, it is less clear how this works in practice. Do all types of social capital have the same effects and are different kinds of regions impacted in the same way? This book is the first to offer an overview of this rapidly expanding field of research and to thoroughly analyse the complex issue of social capital and regional development.

Social Capital and Regional Development: an introduction

This introductory chapter treats four issues: general relationships between social capital and space; what regional development is; the importance of social capital for regional development; and a summary of the other chapters. The first section contains a discussion on the relationships between social capital and space, distance, barriers and spatial hierarchies on how social capital is affected by, but also has an impact on these phenomena. The next section deals with and problematizes the question of what regional development is in forms of economic outcomes, well-being and various aspects of sustainability. Based on the view that social capital is created in all sectors of society as well as between them, the third section discusses which forms of social capital are most important for regions’ development. One important conclusion is that ‘maximum’ social capital seldom is the best solution. Instead, the best social capital for regional development can be described as optimum combinations of homogeneity and heterogeneity, bonding and bridging links and different ‘vintages’ of networks, norms and values. Finally, the chapters of the book are summarized.