Specialization Versus Diversification: The Microeconomics of Regional Development and the Spatial Propagation of Macroeconomic Shocks in Europe

Research Training Network

Job Opportunities

Pre- and Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships

This Research Training Network will pursue an innovative programme of research exploring the impact of further economic integration within Europe on the geographical pattern of productive activity (see below for more details). Applications are invited for pre- or post-doctoral fellowships of up to three years at one of seven participating institutions.

The terms of the contract specify that applicants must:

• be 35 years of age or under

• be a national of an EU Member State or of an EU-Associated State or have lived in the Community for at least five years prior to his/her appointment

• not be a national of the country where they seek employment, or have worked/studied for more than 12 months of the 24 months prior to appointment in that country

Applicants should send a CV (including details of 3 referees) and a personal statement in support of their application to one or more of the following participating institutions (indicating, if relevant, the names of the other Network institutions they have applied to):

Participants

Università di Modena (Professor Graziella Bertocchi)

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Dr Antonio Ciccone)

Université Catholique de Louvain (Professor Jacques Thisse)

University of Tel Aviv

Università degli Studi di Sassari (Professor Luigi Guiso)

CERAS, Paris (Dr Mathias Thoenig)

For specific information regarding the above vacancies (such as application deadlines, salary bands, and qualification requirements), please contact the relevant team leader (contact details above). General queries (such as eligibility conditions) should be directed to Rebecca Arnold at CEPR.

Summary of Research Objectives

The policy environment in Europe is undergoing profound changes as a result of EMU and the Single Market. These developments are likely to bring about significant changes in the geographical pattern of productive activity. Understanding – and modelling – these changes is crucial for predicting how monetary and fiscal policies will propagate through the regions and nations of the European Union. Recent literature addressing this issue has been based on historical data and so is of limited relevance. If the location of economic activity changes as a result of EMU and the Single Market so will the synchronization of regional and national business cycles and hence the propagation mechanisms for European macroeconomic policy. In order to understand the new propagation mechanisms, we need to model the spatial pattern of European economic activity at a deeper structural level. This network's research and training programmes address this task. The network brings together researchers who have been key contributors in the fields of location economics, economic geography, economic integration and business cycle research and the statistical analysis of large dynamic time series and cross section data sets.

The outcome of these processes depends, of course, on the interaction of micro- and macroeconomics and one aim of this project is to investigate the nature of these feedbacks. First, we need to understand how regional specialization is likely to evolve. The network is thus studying the determinants of agglomeration of economic activity, by examining empirically the importance of different types of externalities and the role of risk sharing. The findings will be used to evaluate competing models of economic geography. Second, the network is evaluating the implications of these 'structural' findings for the synchronization of regional cycles and, therefore, on the potential impact of European macroeconomic policy. The final part of the research agenda aims to evaluate the regional impact of monetary policy on regional output and inflation. Monetary policy is assumed to target aggregate (European) inflation and output, but the geographical and temporal pattern of its impact depends on the heterogeneity of regional productive structures. The network is investigating the effect of aggregate inflation targeting on output and inflation in different European nations under a regional diversification scenario or under a regional specialization scenario.

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