Duygu Buyukyazici (p)

Riccardo Crescenzi

Regional capabilities are considered the main source of the industrial diversification process. Even so, the existing practice is somewhat reluctant to observe their exact nature. The present study explores one important dimension of regional capabilities, the gender gap in workplace skills, and considers it in accounting for the observed patterns of industrial diversification of regions. In doing so, it seeks to improve the policymakers’ understanding of gender segregation and skill gaps in industries, as well as their geographical patterns, to enhance the effectiveness of a variety of regional and industrial policies including re-skilling, up-skilling, capability building, and gender equality. To explore the importance of gender skill gaps in the industrial diversification of regions we focus on Italy, which is a country with significant regional differences and a fragmented industrial structure. We use a well-detailed data set, the Italian Sample Survey on Professions (ICP), on workplace skills and merge it with the Italian Labour Force Survey (ILFS) across 107 Italian regions (NUTS-3) and 524 (four-digit NACE) industries for the period 2012-2019. By building an indicator of the gender skill gap at the region and industry level, we provide the first study that considers the gender dimension of regional capabilities in explaining the industrial diversification of regions. The descriptive and empirical analyses document significant variations in the gender skill gaps across industries and regions. Interestingly, the paper shows that female-biased skill gaps are negatively related to diversification while male-biased skill gaps are positively related.

Jose Blanco-Álvarez (p)

Riccardo Crescenzi

The debate about the negative (brain drain) or positive (brain gain) effects of high skilled migration for sending countries remains controversial. However, these effects have yet to be studied at (subnational) region of origin, where specific conditions can alter the results and where it is necessary to integrate the internal and international migration in the same framework. We develop here a novel methodology to construct a regional brain drain database showing the migration rates by region of origin and skill level. Then, we explore the possibilities to apply this methodology worldwide and further demonstrate its feasibility by constructing an example dataset with already available data from 6 countries (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, Mexico and Spain). By doing so we are able to provide true brain drain estimates. Our results suggest that internal brain drain is higher than its external counterpart, that migration rate is higher for more skilled individuals and that there are fewer winners (regions with net positive migration) than losers whereas the relative magnitude of these gains are wider. In the future, this procedure will allow us to test some hypothesis on the relation between high skilled migration and development at subnational level.

Sara Lopes (p)

Riccardo Crescenzi

The issue of housing, especially the concept of social housing estates, carries a negative connotation regarding systems of social segregation and spatial inequalities. To counter this tendency of social housing prejudice and stigma, it is necessary to reflect on the role of ‘integrated interventions’ that promote urban regeneration in fragmented socio-economic and territorial domains.

This reflection will be based on the study of two concrete situations – the Bela Vista housing estate in Setúbal and the Vale da Amoreira housing estate in Moita, Portugal – for being established as places where experiences of mass interventions have been implemented, which constitute examples of good practice for urban regeneration, as well as being places of continued study that contributed to the formulation of the starting questions.

Given the dynamics of social and territorial transformation that aim to recover the relationship between housing and habitat morphologies, and social forms, the following starting questions were raised in these housing estates: (i) what are the current challenges of these neighbourhoods and what are the interventions needed to resolve or mitigate them? and (ii) what are the opportunities for transformation and what lessons can be extrapolated and included in current housing policies?

To provide an answer, this essay focuses on the experiences of integrated interventions, as well as on the opportunities for transformation and the role of social housing. The aim is to discuss social housing neighbourhoods’ processes of cohesion and integration, based on the axis of spatial organisation and social networks, necessary to progressively achieve the full realisation of the right to adequate housing.