Ioannis (Yannis) Psycharis (p)

Yuyao Mei

The aim of this paper is to explore the geographical variations of incidence and deaths from COVID-19 in the Greek islands. In addition, it is making an attempt to present the place-specific policy responses in order to ameliorate the crisis impacts on the very sensitive and unique island socio-economic environments. Insularity has been regarded as a very instinctive area of interest for the EU cohesion policy. Due to the very specific features, such as isolation and discontinuity, limited accessibility and heavy reliance on tourism, islands constitute a very specific area of interest for regional analysis and policy. By tracing the evolution of spread and deaths provides a closer investigation of the vulnerability and resilience of islands to the disease. Furthermore, it provides a comparative investigation of the evolution and fatality from COVID-19 between islands vis-à-vis mainland municipalities. On parallel, analysis delves into changes in socio-economic and welfare conditions based on the study of the evolution of household incomes, the restructuring of the local production systems through the openings and closures of enterprises, and the changes in domestic and international tourist flows. Finally, the paper addresses the policy responses for the defense to the pandemic, the restoring of the socio-economic environment and support to sustainable development. Results are relevant to regional health inequalities and regional insular policy for building more resilient island economy and societies to crises and epidemic shocks in the future.

Dimitris Ballas (p), Richard Rijnks

Ioannis (Yannis) Psycharis

This paper revisits the literature on the economics and spatial economics of happiness with a particular focus on geographical and environmental features pertaining to islands and related characteristics and concepts such as insularity and islandness. It has long been argued that islands are special cases for sustainable economic and social development. They are relatively isolated and ‘on their own’ compared to mainland areas, yet they are also more dependent and need to be well-connected to other areas more than mainland areas. The dominant economic development model, which is based on high population concentrations, specialization, large-scale production, and agglomeration economies does not directly apply to most islands, especially the smaller and medium-sized ones. The paper presents statistical analysis of suitable secondary data in Europe (such as the European Social Survey and the UK Understanding Society) including most of the variables that are thought to be associated with subjective well-being measures and examines whether and the extent to which insularity and living on an island may have a statistically significant impact on happiness when compared to mainland areas. To that end the paper also considers a number of attributes of islands that are typically considered as negative from an regional economic performance perspective (mostly relating to remoteness and poor accessibility to the mainland) but which might be considered as positive in terms of happiness and well-being (as is also evident by the popularity of many remote islands as tourist destinations). The paper also considers and discusses the policy implications of the analysis.

Mihyun Seong (p)

Dimitris Ballas

This research investigates regional economic lock-ins and its ripple effects on local economies. Under regional lock-ins of path dependence theory in evolutionary economic geography, the ripple effects of shipbuilding industry in Geoje, South Korea are examined to measure how strongly its local economy is tied into the dominant industry. This ripple investigation is to provide a novel sight of how the local economy could be renewed towards a more stable and resilient one. Using spatial analyses with GIS and econometrics, the statistically significant relationships are found between the shipbuilding industry, and regional economic indicators such as employment (total number of employees) and economic structure (industrial diversity) in each administrative division. These statistical models take spatial and time factors into account in order for the analyses to provide deeper insights of the lock-in effects in Geoje. As the research results indicate, the shipbuilding industry has statistically significant positive relationships with the both indicators, but low coefficients for the industrial diversity. However, even with the low coefficients between the shipbuilding industry and the industrial diversity, the spatial econometrics model (dynamic Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) with common factors) indicates the industrial diversity of one spatial unit impacts its neighboring units. Therefore, diversifying the economic structure and employment in the shipbuilding industry can provide the ripple effects throughout Geoje. In order to maximize the ripple effect, the attention of the national, regional, and local governments should focus not only on the industry itself but also on intentional plans connecting regional firms to diversify regional economic structures and employments for a more resilient local economy.

Yuyao Mei (p), Frans Sijtsma, Dimitris Ballas

Mihyun Seong

Islands, more than mainland regions, face unique challenges related to small size and limited accessibility, which on the positive side can offer breeding grounds for innovation. At the same time, most islands are popular tourist destinations. In our research we ask the question whether and how the speed and impact of island innovation can be improved via smarter governance mechanisms, with the help of tourists of the islands. Our research involves 5 case study islands in 5 countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands and France) as our experiment spaces. In the project, North Sea islands act as special places for "spark type innovations" that offer great potential for the mainland. The project uses a bottom-up participatory approach in which community involvement is central and young entrepreneurs, students and tourists enrich the process. We perform a series of experiments that engage tourists in island innovation using online connectivity as the main workhorse. Three types of tourist engagement are tested: 1. Can tourists share ideas and be creative co-creators in the island innovations? 2. Are tourists willing to support island innovation in physical terms, via helping, or testing products? 3. Are tourists willing to give donations for innovations on islands? For this work we will use the Greenmapper platform (www.greenmapper.org) and will in cooperation with software developers build relevant software to support the experiments. The research is based in the FREIIA - Facilitating Resilience Embracing Islands Innovation Approaches - Interreg North Sea project.