{"title":"Angry together or agitated alone? The role of social capital in the geographies of discontent","authors":"Luise Koeppen , Dimitris Ballas , Arjen Edzes , Sierdjan Koster","doi":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100185","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100185","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research on the spatial variation in ‘populist’ and ‘anti-establishment’ voting focuses on the role of ‘left behind places’, where these parties are particularly successful in regions that have been left behind economically or culturally. Applying this perspective to the German case, this paper examines the spatial distribution of ‘populist’ and ‘anti-establishment’ voting. Using micro-data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and official regional statistics at NUTS 3 level, we construct a multilevel model to investigates the roles of socio-economic and demographic contextual and individual level determinants with the intention to vote for AfD, <em>die Linke</em>, and radical right or ‘anti-establishment’ parties in general in the 2017 federal election. Specifically, we explore how social capital – encompassing interpersonal relations and civic engagement – affects the likelihood of voting for these parties. Although social capital is commonly thought of as a shielding effect against ‘populist’ and ‘anti-establishment’ voting and strengthening political representation, its influence on anti-establishment voting remains vague. Based on original survey data from 2017, the results show that indicators of interpersonal relations and civic engagement in networks of civil society, specific forms of social capital, seem to play an important role in affecting voting behaviour, revealing that civically involved individuals are more likely to support established democratic parties, rather than voting for a ‘populist’ or ‘anti-establishment’ party.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45520,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science Policy and Practice","volume":"17 6","pages":"Article 100185"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143882450","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Deterministic political competition and regional economic outcomes when the creative class sets tax policy","authors":"Amitrajeet A. Batabyal , Hamid Beladi","doi":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100198","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100198","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We analyze how deterministic political competition between the elites and the so-called creative class shapes economic outcomes in a stylized region. By deterministic, we mean a case where political power has shifted from the elites to the creative class with probability one. There are three groups in our region: workers, creative class members, and the elites. Unlike previous studies, tax policy in our region is set not by the elites but instead by the creative class. In this setting, we first present a counterintuitive result in which the creative class prefers to tax itself, and not the elites or the workers, with the tax proceeds being redistributed also to itself via lump-sum transfers. Second, we explain why this counterintuitive result makes sense. Finally, we discuss whether the above counterintuitive result will hold if the proceeds of taxation are redistributed using lump-sum transfers to all the groups in our region and not just to the creative class.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45520,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science Policy and Practice","volume":"17 7","pages":"Article 100198"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143817229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When the past becomes the future: The challenges of policies in ‘Left Behind’ places in East Germany – A case study from the Gera region","authors":"Tobias Johannes Hertrich, Thomas Brenner","doi":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100195","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100195","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The concept of <strong>‘</strong>left behind<strong>’</strong> places encompasses economic, demographic, infrastructural, social and political aspects. Different studies of the left behind place concept focus on different aspects or combinations of these. The theoretical model by Hertrich and Brenner (2024) assumes an interplay of many aspects that lead to the left behind feeling, but emphasizes the emerging dynamics of opinion. The purpose of this paper is to analyze this interaction of individual factors in detail in a case study and thus gain a deeper understanding of the processes that presumably play a role in many other regions. Contrary to perception, the Labor market region (LMR) Gera is developing dynamically in many parameters. We find that although the reasons for the left behind feeling can be assigned to the pillars of the model, in most cases they relate to the past. We conclude that the political measures and developments in the LMR to date have not had an effect due to the strong formation of opinion based on historical events. In addition, the dynamics of opinion formation play a major role in left behind places, which has so far been neglected in politics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45520,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science Policy and Practice","volume":"17 8","pages":"Article 100195"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143874406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Spatial equity in public rental housing based on commuting accessibility","authors":"Seongman Jang, Hyungwon Park","doi":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100196","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100196","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Public rental housing (PRH) differs from general housing in its policy objectives and resident composition, as low-income households in PRH face financial constraints that limit their ability to afford high rents. In this context, this study assesses the spatial equity of PRH by comparing the commuting accessibility of PRH residents to that of general housing residents. Specifically, it investigates the following research questions: 1) Is there a significant difference in commute distance between PRH and general housing residents? 2) Is this difference attributable to income level? 3) Is there spatial autocorrelation between the density of households and workplaces by income group? The key findings are as follows: 1) The average straight-line commute distance for PRH residents was significantly longer than that for general housing residents. (2) PRH residents—except those in the lowest income group (income class 1)—had significantly longer commutes than their general housing counterparts. 3) The bivariate Global Moran’s I analysis indicated that PRH exhibited little to no spatial autocorrelation across all income classes, whereas general housing displayed relatively strong spatial clustering. Additionally, the bivariate LISA cluster map analysis revealed that PRH residents experienced a spatial separation between their residences and workplaces, whereas general housing residents exhibited a more balanced job-housing distribution. These findings indicate that PRH residents face inequitable commuting accessibility caused by a persistent job-housing imbalance</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45520,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science Policy and Practice","volume":"17 8","pages":"Article 100196"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143874770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unravelling the geography and spatial mismatch of individual and political discontent in the UK","authors":"Camilla Lenzi, Giovanni Perucca","doi":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100194","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100194","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper studies the association between life and political discontent in the regions (NUTS2) of the United Kingdom in the Brexit period (2015–2016). Previous literature suggested that political discontent is propelled by the unhappiness experienced by people suffering from the economic decline of their community. This paper provides a first attempt to test empirically this hypothesis by mapping the geography of life and political discontent, by identifying alternative regional discontent typologies and by profiling them according to their socioeconomic characteristics. Results suggest that the link between regional economic decline and political discontent via life dissatisfaction accounts for a partial variation in political discontent outcome. Regional demography and cultural values are important co-determinants of political discontent.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45520,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science Policy and Practice","volume":"17 7","pages":"Article 100194"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143706122","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The emergence of the radical right on the Spanish political scene: Towards a spatial perspective","authors":"Adolfo Maza , Maria Hierro","doi":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100193","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100193","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper unveils the reasons behind the irruption of the radical right-wing populist party VOX in the region of Andalusia, breaking the immunity to that political trend in Spain. The empirical analysis is based on data from the 2018 Regional Election at municipal level (778 municipalities), revealing that geographical location matters from two perspectives: because VOX outcome in a municipality is closely related to that in its neighbors (spatial dependence) and since the influence of the main explanatory factors varies between municipalities (spatial non-stationarity). Furthermore, it uncovers that the share of votes won in the previous regional election by the most important right-wing party (namely PP) is the most decisive factor explaining the new support for VOX, closely followed by the percentage of the foreign population. Other important explanatory variables are age, income and size. Finally, the results reveal the existence of some geographical clusters characterized by different spatial patterns.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45520,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science Policy and Practice","volume":"17 7","pages":"Article 100193"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143706123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Socio-economic and environmental impacts of intended decarbonisation policies in the East Asia region","authors":"Yuventus Effendi , Budy P. Resosudarmo","doi":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100191","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100191","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Given the rising levels of carbon emissions, governments in the East Asia region are exploring effective decarbonization policies. This study examines the socio-economic and environmental implications of these policies using a computable general equilibrium model that captures the closed linkages between the economy and climate change. Our findings suggest that the intended decarbonization policy, aimed at accelerating technology transfer, may not always reduce carbon emissions. However, incorporating Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology into existing coal power plants and implementing a carbon tax could significantly reduce carbon emissions in all countries in the region. The paper suggests implementing carbon tax policy to reduce carbon emissions, retrofitting CCS technology in coal-based electricity powerplants, and developing renewable electricity at the same time as controlling emissions from non-renewable energy. These policies, however, need some supplement policy strategies to compensate for the potential output contraction due to the tax.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45520,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science Policy and Practice","volume":"17 7","pages":"Article 100191"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143706227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The consequence of urban shrinkage: Investigation on the local fiscal revenue","authors":"Jian Wang , Lechao Zhang , Kefu Lin","doi":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100188","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100188","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Previous research on urban shrinkage has primarily focused on conceptual development and identifying underlying drivers. This paper seeks to extend this foundation by proposing a comprehensive analytical framework, grounded in a review of relevant literature, to examine the fiscal implications of urban shrinkage. Specifically, we explore the impact of population decline, a defining characteristic of urban shrinkage on local fiscal revenues. Applying our framework to the context of Japan, we discover that urban shrinkage significantly deteriorates local fiscal revenues, particularly affecting building taxes. However, the heterogeneity shows that the impact of shrinkage on land tax and depreciated assets tax appears to be less pronounced. This study enhances our understanding of the fiscal consequences of urban shrinkage and offers valuable insights for policy-making at the local government level.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45520,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science Policy and Practice","volume":"17 7","pages":"Article 100188"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143735173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anabela Marques Santos , Francesco Molica , Carlos Torrecilla-Salinas
{"title":"EU-funded investment in Artificial Intelligence and regional specialization","authors":"Anabela Marques Santos , Francesco Molica , Carlos Torrecilla-Salinas","doi":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100190","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100190","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The paper assesses the geographical distribution at NUTS2-level of European Union-funded investments related to artificial intelligence (AI) during the programming period 2014–2020. It also examines the relationship between this specialization pattern and regional characteristics using a spatial autoregressive model. The results show that in the period 2014–2020, around EUR 8 billion of EU funds were targeted for AI investments in the European regions. More developed regions have a higher specialization in AI EU-funded investments. This specialization also generates spillover effects that enhance similar specialization patterns in neighboring regions. AI-related investments are more concentrated in regions with a higher concentration of ICT activities and that are more innovative, highlighting the importance of agglomeration effects. Regions that have selected AI as an innovation priority for their Smart Specialization Strategies are also more likely to have a higher funding specialization in AI.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45520,"journal":{"name":"Regional Science Policy and Practice","volume":"17 7","pages":"Article 100190"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2025-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143759436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}