Kurt Weninger (p)

Settlement development is one of the core aspects of spatial planning and also one of the “traditional” planning tasks. The topic of mobilizing already zoned building land is an important topic since many years as in Austria about 26.5% of the already zoned building land contain no built up areas, the values ranging from 20.3% to 37.9% in the federal states (with the exception of Vienna with 4.3%). (Umweltbundesamt, 2016:23)
Already the Austrian Spatial Development Concept 2011 (ÖREK 2011) defined “space-saving” and “space management” as important areas of responsibility in the context of sustainable settlement and free space development – measures of active land management even to be a “key issue for local spatial developments” (ÖROK 2011:21). Against this background, the discussions in Austria on expanding or enhancing the existing planning instruments in order to (better) enable municipalities to actively mobilize land have increased in recent years and several measures for land mobilization have been introduced.(ÖROK, 2009:137ff)
In Austria, regions differ greatly in terms of their economical, settlement-structural and, in particular, population development. This fact is not (or not strongly enough) taken into account in the discussion of – and in the meantime also the implementation of – instruments of active land policy. Different types of space (or regions) require different objectives, measures and instruments depending on the region characteristics. And these regional characteristics not only vary between the federal states, but also within them.
The implementation of regulation and measures for land management is mostly homogenous within federal states of Austria. No difference in the implementation is made in different regions within the states. Especially if the application of these measures is mandatory for the municipalities, but also in general, this might result in undesired effects.
For the depicted hypothetical case, based on the regulations implemented in the Salzburg Spatial Planning Act of 2017, some limits but also possibilities have been shown. The obligation for municipalities to set an expiry date on newly zoned building land seems not suitable for all municipalities (more abstract: spatial types).
Therefore differentiating between regions should be considered (for measures of land management as well). The idea is not new – several publications suggest differentiating spatial instruments and measures according to spatial types (ÖROK, 2009:40, ÖROK, 2011:58, Kanonier, 2017:15)

Valentina Giannini, Donato Iacobucci (p), Giulio Cainelli

Abstract: According to the Evolutionary Economic Geography theory (EEG) the characteristics of firms are influenced by the local context, as a result of the replication of successful routines through labor mobility and entrepreneurial spawning. Up to now there is little empirical evidence to support this hypothesis. The main aim of this paper is to analyze the differences between business groups located within local clusters (industrial districts) and business group located outside agglomerated areas. Moreover, the paper provides an analysis of the performance, in terms of growth and profitability, of district and non-district groups during the financial crisis.
The empirical analysis is based on a dataset of Italian business groups, obtained using information from the AIDA database of Bureau Van Dijk. The results of the empirical analysis are in line with our hypotheses. Groups located in industrial districts show a lower diversification and a greater spatial concentration groups located outside industrial districts. Moreover, thanks to the supporting role towards affiliated firms, business groups increased their weight during the financial crisis, within and outside industrial districts.

Jaroslaw Nazarczuk (p), Marlena Cicha-Nazarczuk

Using SPAG index of spatial agglomeration (Kopczewska et al. 2017), combined with locational data on firms operating in special economic zones, we run an analysis, in which patterns of firms’ agglomeration are investigated from the perspective of point data. Each firm is assigned a circle in space, which size is proportional to the firm’s employment. Its joint surface is finally standardised to the total area of the region/country. Thus, with the use of SPAG, we measure the concentration of firms within a certain national or regional boundaries, irrespective to their shapes.
Given the limited empirical evidence on the agglomeration of firms within special economic zones, we aim at identifying: (i) areas of SEZ firms’ concertation; (ii) sectoral/regional/zone-specific patterns of emerging hubs; (iii) factors affecting successful firm agglomeration within particular zones. The study is based on the data obtained from the Ministry of Economy in Poland for years 1995-2015. The reference area is set: (i) for the national economy as a whole; and (ii) for 16 NUTS 2 regions separately.
By comparing the overall value of the SPAG index, mean distance among firms, the overlap factor, the coverage of firms’ circles - in time and between regions - we formulate implications for SEZ-led programme in Poland, comment on the effects of amendments introduced to the scheme of SEZs’ location during the last two decades, and deliver universal recommendations that can applied by other countries adopting SEZ-led programmes.

Enrico Vanino (p)

Recent fears about the unfair competition from Chinese exports of steel have pushed the UK government to call for EU anti-dumping measures not only to protect the British steel industry, but more particularly to safeguard the local economy of the south of Wales particularly dependent on the this industry. Trade defence policies have been largely analysed in the trade literature in order to understand their effects on trade flow, protected domestic industries and harmed foreign exporters. However, there’s no theoretical prediction or evidence regarding the spatial externalities of trade protection and the spillover effects for the affected local economies. This is the first study analysing the externalities of trade protection for the local economies using granular micro-level data on the spatial distribution, industrial relatedness and performance of firms. In particular, by considering the agglomeration and clustering of protected industries at the local level, we investigate the spillover effects of trade policies for firms not directly affected but related with the protected industries, through industrial supply-chain linkages, spatial agglomeration and competition in the local labour market. We contribute to both the economic geography and trade literatures by identifying a new channel trough which international trade policies could affect local regional economies.