Final Report Summary - SPIKES (Spatial spikes: bridging geography and economics to study distance, agglomeration, and policy)
SPIKES has broadened our understanding of the factors driving economic development in regions with different density of economic activity. It has used a combination of theoretical and analytical tools stemming from economic geography and geographical economics. The empirical evidence accumulated underlines the importance of ’spatial spikes’, that is, intense geographical concentrations of economic activity. These are crucial to understand innovation, productivity and growth. The biggest cities and the regions with greatest agglomerations of activity offer substantial advantages for innovation, firms’ productivity, and the skills and earnings of workers. Intermediate and peripheral regions enjoy these sort of benefits to a smaller extent, and mostly through distant interactions with more agglomerated places, be it through the diffusion of knowledge, the establishment of networks, or the migration of workers who carry the skills accumulated in denser areas. The project has also analysed what policies may be more efficient at contributing to achieve a balance between maximising the benefits of spatial spikes and helping these benefits disseminate more widely to intermediate and peripheral areas. Both tailoring development strategies to the conditions of different types of territories territory – that is, implementing place-based policies – and making institutions and local government quality essential parts of development strategies emerge as key factors to improve the delivery of public goods and services and enhance the chances of economic development across regions and cities.