Philip S. Morrison

Geographies of labour market inequality

I: Introduction 1. Thinking about the Geographies of Labour II: The Production of Local Labour Markets Inequalities 2. Labour Market Risk and the Regions: Evidence form Gross Labour 3. Unemployment and Spatial Labour Markets: Strong Adjustments and Persistent Concentration 4. The Distribution of Incomes and Social Segregation: The Interactive Role of Housing and Labour Market Sorting Processes 5. Conceptualising Local Labour Markets 6. New Economy, Labour Market Inequalities and the Work Life Balance Issue III: Interventions and Policies 7. The Union Role in Preserving Jobs and Communities: The Employee Ownership Option 8. The Local Impact of the New Deal: Does Geography Make a Difference? 9. The Geographies of the National Minimum Wage IV: Postscript 10. The Geographies of Labour Market Inequality: Some Emergent Issues and Challenges

Internal Migration and Employment: Macro Flows and Micro Motives

Empirical support for models of internal labour migration are usually based on observed patterns of net flows into local labour markets with relatively low unemployment and relatively high real wages. The inference drawn from such evidence is that internal migrants move to enhance returns to their labour. However, major surveys in the USA (Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and the Current Population Survey), the UK (British Household Panel Survey) and Australia (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia) all show that less than a third of internal migrants are motivated primarily by employment reasons. This paper explores this apparent disconnect between net flows and motives using the Survey of Dynamics of Motivation and Migration, which has recorded in detail the reasons why over 6000 individuals moved within New Zealand over the two-year period 2005 and 2006. The survey confirms that only a minority of working-age migrants move between local labour markets primarily for employment reasons. Far from increasing returns to their employment, most migrants do not experience a rise in income or believe their employment prospects improved as a result of their move. Rather than being motivated by having their employment enhanced by internal migration, the majority of internal migrants of working age appear to be motivated by other goals. Employment remains important, but in most cases only insofar as the new destination enables its continuity.

Research Collaboration Among University Scientists

Despite the growing importance of collaboration in research there have been very few investigations of the practice of research collaboration itself. The study we report investigated this practice by analysing 444 collaborative projects undertaken by staff in the Science Faculty of a New Zealand university. While the results support the sociology of science model of vertical collaboration up and down the academic hierarchy, we also show that significant collaboration now takes place across levels in the hierarchy, that is among peers, in what we call horizontal collaboration. This shift from vertical to horizontal collaboration has not been readily apparent in bibliographic studies of co-authored papers in top journals. One of the questions this study raises is the often assumed positive association between collaboration, research output and research quality, and the implications such assumptions have on the institutionalisation of research within the university. We end by suggesting that the shift that is occurring in the location of research from conventional departments to research centres within the university may signal an attempt to resurrect the practice of vertical collaboration.

Unemployment and Urban Labour Markets

Two quite distinct views on how metropolitan labour markets work have co-existed for over three decades. Both claim empirical support and, after a brief period of confrontation, they continue to co-exist today giving quite conflicting signals to policy-makers. According to the first model, the urban labour market consists of a number of spatially defined sub-markets so that local unemployment exists primarily because of deficiencies in highly localised demand for labour. By this argument, unemployment rates remain high in the absence of a renewed supply of appropriate jobs within short commuting distances of the jobless. The solution according to this model is to attract private- and public-sector production into such areas. In contrast, a second model views the city as a single market in which transactions between labour and capital take place regardless of the location of residence and employment sites. According to this perspective, the spatial incidence of unemployment simply reflects the residential clustering effects of a housing market reacting to an unequal income distribution. Demand for labour may still be deficient, but only at the aggregate, metropolitan-wide level. According to this model, creating jobs for labour in particular parts of the conurbation in order to reduce unemployment in certain neighbourhoods will only have a temporary, short-term effect at best. The apparent conflicts between the policy implications drawn from these segmented and seamless models of the urban labour market arise out of a failure to recognise explicitly the marked differences that exist in the ability of different levels of human capital to adjust. Both models have relevance, but to different categories of labour. As soon as the implicit assumption of homogeneous labour is relaxed, the simultaneous presence of spatially seamless and segmented markets becomes a source of insight rather than conflict and their role in policy discussion becomes more transparent. The research challenge lies in achieving a better understanding of the scope and practice of adjustment of individuals with different skills together with the way the urban markets as a whole adjust.

The geography of rental housing and the restructuring of housing assistance in New Zealand

Abstract In 1993 major reforms to the delivery of housing assistance in New Zealand came into effect. These included the introduction of an Accommodation Supplement to provide income assistance for housing, the establishment of Housing New Zealand Limited to market former state houses and the setting up of the Ministry of Housing to provide policy advice. These reforms have replaced an explicitly spatial public policy based on the provision of housing stock in particular locations with an apparently aspatial housing policy based on income supplements,. The former state housing construction and allocation programme, however, has generated residential location patterns which continue to constrain and predetermine the choices made by those contemporary households who now draw income supplements. Far from spatially diffusing rental demand, these recent housing reforms show every sign of further concentrating demand and supply of low rental housing and reinforcing the inherited, highly segmented social geograp...

Bank Branch Closures in New Zealand: the application of a spatial interaction model

Abstract Banking is going through a revolution that is radically altering the way banks work and the way customers use them. It is a revolution driven by global competition and enabled by technology. Unlike the back-room developments of previous decades, contemporary restructuring is directly affecting the network of bank branches and opportunities customers have to interact with them. Today virtually all retailing banks are seeking ways of reducing their extensive and costly network of branches and experimenting with alternative means of interacting with customers. Many of the difficulties of deciding what branches to close relate to predicting the impact of such closures on remaining parts of the bank’s network. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the application of a GIS-based spatial interaction model designed to help banks make that decision. Applied in the New Zealand context, it draws attention to some of the opportunities, as well as difficulties, a spatial interaction model creates in assessing the consequences of closing branches, both for the bank itself and for the wider community.

The Inner-city Apartment versus the Suburb: Housing Sub-markets in a New Zealand City:

This paper addresses a new phenomenon in New Zealand—the growing demand for residence within the central business district. The construction of inner-city apartments has seen a ready response by local authorities keen to rejuvenate a demand for downtown services, by developers facing a slow-down in suburban growth and by absentee owners as well as owner-occupiers seeking to broaden their residential portfolios. The paper argues that, although we are witness to the emergence of a new and different housing sub-market, the inner-city apartment is in fact a natural extension of an existing demand for residence close to the city; its recent appearance as inner-city apartments is simply a reflection of the competition for inner-city land rather than the revealed preference of buyers for a wholly different type of housing. Far from turning their back on the single-dwelling unit, most apartment buyers seek dwelling attributes similar to those of their single-unit, suburban counterparts. What is unique to this new sub-market therefore is its location. The inner-city apartment is primarily a geographical reaction to the marked physical separation of residence, paid work and live entertainment which characterises the suburb rather than a switch of preference for a wholly new residential form. Although these are quite distinct housing forms, there remain strong market connections between the inner-city apartment and detached, single-unit dwellings in the suburbs. Fashionable though these new apartment units are, New Zealand housing continues to be dominated by low-density, suburban, single-unit dwellings.

Restructuring Effects of Deregulation: The Case of the New Zealand Taxi Industry

In most countries the taxi industry is highly regulated and in cases where deregulation has been attempted, positive outcomes have not always been evident. The taxi industry was one of the very last to be deregulated by the New Zealand government as part of its sweeping restructuring of the countrys industry in the 1980s. The author looks at the impact of that 1989 Act. The 1989 legislation, which removed the quantitative controls (deregulation), has been followed by a tripling of the number of companies in the metropolitan centres and a massive increase in the number of taxi cabs. A much wider range of taxi services now exploit different market segments and offer a wider geographic coverage. These changes have been accompanied by a decline in fares in real, if not nominal, terms. As expected, the influx of new players has necessitated the imposition of additional quality controls. Customers have benefited from greater numbers of cabs, shorter waiting times, and a greater range of services. Many more driving jobs have been opened up, although this is widely believed to have been accompanied by reduced incomes and longer hours until the market expanded. The larger firms which existed prior to deregulation have attempted to consolidate their market share in the face of increased competition from newer taxi organisations. There has also been increased competition between taxi and public transport operations as a variety of taxi companies tender for selected routes.

Socio-spatial Mobility and Residential Sorting: Evidence from a Large-scale Survey

This paper demonstrates that residential locations observed at one point in time influence socio-spatial mobility and hence neighbourhood outcomes arising from residential mobility. Using a unique survey of migration within New Zealand, it illustrates the classic result that repeated observations regress towards the mean. According to this statistical property, those leaving the most and least deprived areas are observed moving up and down towards the mean level of neighbourhood quality. After addressing this statistical effect, it is shown that those leaving very deprived areas are less likely to upgrade their neighbourhood, particularly if they also report relatively low incomes. By contrast, the downward adjustment observed by those leaving areas of low deprivation approximate those expected on the basis of regression towards the mean.

Consumption and Environmental Awareness: Demographics of the European Experience

Who are the most pro-environmental in their purchasing behaviour? Is it the young, middle-aged or older consumers? The answer to this question has important implications for the marketing of pro-environmental products.