Inge Thorsen (p), Kjell Gunnar Salvanes, David Philip McArthur, Helge Sandvig Thorsen

Magnus Andersson

Many cities and regions around the world struggle with either notable population gro- wth or decline. In this paper, we explore what may determine population change, with a particular focus on the role played by educated workers and the state of the labour market. Understanding the relationship between population growth and growth in jobs is beset by econometric problems. By using unique administrative data from municipalities in Norway covering the years form 1986 to 2010, along with careful model specification, we are able to estimate effects which we argue are robust and causal. Our results show that the presence of educated workers and jobs for these workers is important in explaining population growth. Spatial structure and spillover effects are also shown to be important.

Magnus Andersson (p), Souknilanh Keola , Mladen Stamenkovic

Inge Thorsen

This study investigates how nighttime light images acquired from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System provide spatial and temporal insight with regards to the economic impact of the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Firstly, the study provides an overview of the economic development in Yugoslavia using conventional statistics and secondly analyses the disintegration of the federation by comparing official statistics with nighttime light data. Evaluating the impact of the disintegration of Yugoslavia as a federation and the conflicts arising in the wake of the break up are challenging since reliable data is missing. Therefore, satellite images, as one of the few sources of objective information, are potentially of great importance. We used yearly Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System composites covering the period 1992 to 2013. The analysis is divided into small geographical units (districts) based on the republics in the former Yugoslavia.

Beatrice Balivet (p)

Ola Jingryd

see extended abstract

Rents are in principle freely fixed in terms of housing leases. However, in order to improve access to housing and social mix in tense urban zones, the French legislator intervened, on the occasion of Law No. 2014-366 of 24 March 2014 on access to housing and renewed urban development, to regulate rents. In tense areas, the prefect sets each year, by decision, on the basis of the data provided by the local rent observatory, a reference rent, an increased reference rent and a reduced reference rent, expressed by a price per m², per housing category and per geographical area. The measure was tested in Lille and Paris, but the prefectural decisions were contested and finally cancelled. The issue concerned the scope of the framework adopted by these decisions. The prefects had only retained certain sectors of the municipalities and not the municipalities as a whole, a distinction that was not considered in conformity with the 2014 Law by the administrative tribunals, and then by the courts of second instance in decisions from 2017. The French legislator then had to give its opinion on the subject again, in the recent law n° 2018-1021 of 23 November 2018 on the evolution of housing, development and digital technologies, known as the ELAN Law. Rent frameworks can now be applied to sectors within a tense territory to take into account the diverse reality of the territories. The short French experience already shows the need to have a correspondence between the perimeters of the framing, observation and approval of the local rental observatories. It also reflects a gap between the projected and actual results and the resulting need for a corrective and coercive framework to ensure the effectiveness of this system.

Peter Håkansson (p), Peter Karpestam

Muriel Maillefert

The labour market in the new ‘service and knowledge-oriented society’ based on digitalisation is skilled-biased and routine-biased. This means that innovation, as previous innovations, favours skills, but also leads to routine based work to become automized. In this paper we analyse the new labour market from a gendered labour market perspective. The new jobs arise in the city. Historically, there has been a surplus of women in urban areas and a deficit of women in rural areas in Sweden. The new labour market seems to increase these differences. By using longitudinal data from Statistics Sweden and descriptive statistics, we find that after the turn of the new millennium, women move with a more clear purpose than men: they move to gain career opportunities. Women move more often from unemployment to employment, than men. Furthermore, they move more often than men do to start studying.

Helena Bohman (p)

Rosalia Camporeale

This study focuses on the effects of major infrastructure investments in Malmö, southern Sweden. The construction of the Oresund bridge and the city tunnel, connecting the urban centra of Malmö and Copenhagen, has implied changed accessibility for surrounding neighbourhoods. In this study we identify four neighbourhoods, based on their socio-economic characteristics. The area provides an interesting case since the catchment area contains neighbourhoods ranging from the poorest in the city, to upper middle class areas. The municipality has an explicit aim of integrating areas which have bene divided by very clear physical barriers. In two of the affected neighbourhoods, new development and densification projects are being implemented, resulting in an increasing population. The case thus provides an opportunity to better understand how accessibility effects may differ across socio-economic characteristics. The main issue addressed in the paper is whether effects from improved accessibility differs across different neighbourhoods, and which factors that may explain such differences. Difference-in-difference models are applied to property data to study effects, but additional data on residential migration is used to explore who moves into the affected area.