High-Technology Employment and Transportation: Evidence from the European Regions

Abstract

Albalate D. and Fageda X. High-technology employment and transportation: evidence from the European regions, Regional Studies. High-technology sectors are typically open to external inputs, resources and knowledge spillovers. This paper studies the impact of transportation, which is essential for providing external links to regional and global markets, on high-tech employment. It draws on a sample of 182 European regions for the period 2002–10. By implementing a dynamic panel-data estimator, it is found that the density of motorways and the number of air services promote employment growth, yet only the latter remains consistent. Interestingly, network carriers have a greater impact than low-cost carriers. In contrast, high-speed rail does not seem to impact on employment.

Albalate D. and Fageda X. 高科技就业与运输：来自欧盟的证据，区域研究。高科技部门，特别对外来的投入、资源与技术外溢抱持着开放的态度。本文研究运输的影响，而运输对于提供高科技就业的区域与全球市场的外来连结而言相当关键。本文採用2002年至2010年期间，一百八十二个欧洲区域的案例。透过执行动态面板数据估计，本研究发现，高速公路的密度与航运服务的数量，促进了就业成长，但只有航运服务保持一贯性。有趣的是，全球性的航运公司，较低成本航运而言，具有较大的影响。反之，高速铁路则似乎不对就业产生影响。

Albalate D. et Fageda X. L'emploi dans les secteurs de la technologie de pointe et le transport: des résultats provenant des régions européennes, Regional Studies. Généralement les secteurs de la technologie de pointe sont ouverts aux entrées, aux ressources et aux retombées de la connaissance provenant de l'extérieur. Cet article étudie l'impact du transport, qui est indispensable à l'approvisionnement des liens externes avec les marchés régionaux et mondiaux, sur l'emploi dans les secteurs de la technologie de pointe. Il puise dans un échantillon de 182 régions européennes entre 2002 et 2010. En mettant en oeuvre un estimateur dynamique sur données de panel, il s'avère que la densité des autoroutes et l'importance du trafic aérien favorisent la croissance de l'emploi. Cependant, seul cette dernière demeure cohérente. Il est intéressant de noter que les transporteurs en réseau ont plus d'impact que les transporteurs à bas prix. Par contre, il semble que le trafic ferroviaire à grande vitesse n'ait pas d'impact sur l'emploi.

Albalate D. und Fageda X. Beschäftigungsniveau im Hochtechnologiesektor und Verkehrswesen: Belege aus den europäischen Regionen, Regional Studies. Sektoren der Hochtechnologie sind normalerweise offen gegenüber externen Inputs, Ressourcen und Wissensübertragungen. In diesem Beitrag untersuchen wir die Auswirkungen des Verkehrswesens, das für die Bereitstellung von externen Verbindungen zu regionalen und globalen Märkten unverzichtbar ist, auf das Beschäftigungsniveau im Hightech-Sektor. Grundlage ist eine Stichprobe von 182 europäischen Regionen im Zeitraum von 2002 bis 2010. Durch Anwendung eines dynamischen Paneldaten-Schätzers stellen wir fest, dass die Dichte des Autobahnnetzes und die Anzahl der Flugverbindungen das Beschäftigungswachstum fördern, wobei sich aber nur die Flugverbindungen einheitlich verhalten. Interessanterweise haben Netzfluggesellschaften größere Auswirkungen als Billigfluglinien. Demgegenüber scheinen sich Hochgeschwindigkeits-Eisenbahnstrecken nicht auf das Beschäftigungsniveau auszuwirken.

Albalate D. y Fageda X. Empleo de alta tecnología y transporte: evidencia de las regiones europeas, Regional Studies. Los sectores de alta tecnología suelen estar abiertos a aportaciones, recursos y difusión de conocimiento externos. En este artículo analizamos cuál es el impacto del transporte, que es fundamental para proporcionar enlaces externos a los mercados regionales y globales, en el nivel de empleo en el sector de alta tecnología. Nos basamos en una muestra de 182 regiones europeas para el periodo entre 2002 y 2010. Al aplicar un estimador dinámico de datos de panel, observamos que la densidad de las autopistas y el número de servicios aéreos fomentan el crecimiento de empleo, no obstante, este último es el único que permanece constante. Es interesante observar que las aerolíneas tradicionales tienen un impacto mayor que las aerolíneas de bajo coste. En cambio, el ferrocarril de alta velocidad no parece tener un gran efecto en el empleo.

• High-technology
• Employment
• Infrastructure
• Transportation

• 高科技
• 就业
• 基础建设
• 运输

• Technologie de pointe
• Emploi
• Infrastructure
• Transport

• Hochtechnologie
• Beschäftigung
• Infrastruktur
• Verkehr

• Alta tecnología
• Empleo
• Infraestructura
• Transporte

JEL classifications:

• L91
• R11
• R23

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Nicolás López for his excellent research assistance, and to two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Government [project number ECO2012-38004] and by the Regional Government of Catalonia [project number SGR2014-325].

Notes

1 This definition of high-tech industries is taken from the Technology, Innovation and Regional Economics Development Assessment of the Office of Technology at the US Congress, 9 September 1982.

2 Consumer decisions with regard to transportation are generally based on the generalized cost of the trip, which includes both monetary and time costs. One of the main components of the time costs is that of schedule delay, which is the difference between the desired and the actual time of departure. The schedule delay cost is negatively correlated with flight frequency. An additional time cost is the time required to access the infrastructure, which in some cases can be higher for low-cost airlines as they operate out of secondary airports located at some distance from the region's main city. Finally, the authors do not expect to find substantial differences in the in-vehicle time between network and low-cost airlines.

3 The NUTS classification (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) is a hierarchical statistical system used by EUROSTAT for dividing up the economic territory of the European Union. According to the statistical classification of EUROSTAT, the population of the NUTS-II areas should range between 800 000 and 3 million inhabitants. In practice, the statistical territorial units are defined in terms of the existing administrative units in the member states and do not necessarily fulfil these population limits.

4 Unfortunately, a variable for the density of railways that includes both conventional and high-speed rail lines could not be included. EUROSTAT data for this variable are very incomplete and its inclusion would have reduced substantially the number of regions that could have been considered in the regressions.

5 The variables for motorway density and the number of high-speed train lines should not be endogenous. Their infrastructure is associated with high investment levels and it shows a strong inertia over time. In this regard, investment in this infrastructure entails a complex decision-making process that includes technical, economic and political elements. As such, it is difficult to argue that these variables are correlated with the error term.

6 The Wooldridge test for autocorrelation was applied to panel data and indicated that there might be a problem of serial autocorrelation.

7 Fingleton et al. (2004) only report an association with human capital and education, and find only an insignificant relationship between employment in computer services and population size.

8 While Acs et al. (2002) find a positive and statistically significant effect of wages on employment, they acknowledge that this is a surprise. They argue that higher wages and employment might be a legacy of faster growth in previous years, a phenomenon not included in their short panel.