Economics Explored Regional divergence: why cities are growing faster than regions w/ Robert Sobyra | EP160
Why are cities growing faster than regional areas in many economies around the world, including in Australia, the US, and UK? Robert Sobyra of Construction Skills Queensland explains his recent research findings to show host Gene Tunny. Robert and Gene discuss what the predominance of high-skilled employment growth in cities means for regional economies, and whether policy measures to address the regional divergence would be desirable.
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Links relevant to the conversation
Rob’s LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-sobyra/?originalSubdomain=au
Rob’s LinkedIn article “Why Regions Are Falling Behind – And What To Do About It”:
Rob’s research paper:
Data mentioned by Gene:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trend-deck-2021-urbanisation/trend-deck-2021-urbanisation
Urban population (% of total population) - United States
https://population.un.org/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2018-Highlights.pdf
Brookings' article about US regional divergence:
On agglomeration effects, please check out EP136:
https://economicsexplored.com/2022/04/26/wider-economic-benefits-of-infrastructure-projects-ep136/
Credits
Thanks to Josh Crotts for mixing the episode and to the show’s sponsor, Gene’s consultancy business www.adepteconomics.com.au.
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