Tea Lönnroth, Heidi Falkenbach, Elias Oikarinen (p)

Anna Renhart

The responsiveness of housing supply, measured as the price elasticity of housing supply, has important influences on housing price and quantity developments across locations. Despite its importance, there is still a lack of understanding on the variation in the supply elasticity across regions and on which factors contribute to this variation particularly in countries where public authorities are actively involved in both spatial planning and the land development process. We address this gap by using a two-step analysis in the context of Finland. Using time series data from 1988 to 2020, we first estimate the long-run housing supply elasticities for 22 Finnish cities. We then use a unique dataset on city-level differences in land policy interventions, such as land use regulations, to demonstrate how the variation in local supply elasticity relates to different land policy and non-policy factors. Our findings show that the price elasticity varies substantially across cities. Moreover, cities with more restrictive land policy, especially in terms of interventions that increase the indirect costs of housing development, exhibit a lower elasticity. These findings imply that local public authorities can support a more responsive housing supply particularly by mitigating bottlenecks in the development process.

Raul Silveira Neto (p), Rozane Siqueira, Carlos Candido, José Ricardo Nogueira

Elias Oikarinen

In addition to being persistent, Brazilian regional income inequality is associated with significant regional differences in poverty and well-being. This situation renders spatially blind income transfer policies potentially progressive from a regional perspective, favoring the country’s poorest federation units over the richest ones. The dysfunctionality of the Brazilian welfare system is particularly evident, being reflected in the fact that, despite the high level of social spending, Brazil remains one of the most unequal countries in the world where poverty is widespread (World Bank, 2022).
We, thus, employ a microsimulation model to investigate and compare the effects of the current Brazilian tax-benefit system and a policy that combines a Universal Basic Income (UBI) with a flat-rate income tax on Brazilian regional per capita income inequality. In this context, a UBI appears particularly appealing. Our results indicate that, despite its progressive effect on regional per capita disposable income inequality, the current tax-benefit system does not substantively change the high level of regional income inequality among Brazilian federation units. In contrast, the introduction of a UBI combined with a flat-rate income tax that partially replaces current taxes and transfers results in a significant reduction of per capita disposable income inequality among Brazilian federation units. Measured by the Gini and Theil indicators, for example, this inequality decreases by 30% and 49%, respectively. The reason for this significant regional effect is linked to the spatial distribution of poor and economically vulnerable individuals in Brazil: the poorest federation units also have an overrepresentation of individuals in poverty. Remarkably, the reduction of Brazilian regional income inequality with the introduction of the UBI is achieved with significant reductions in per capita disposable income inequality within federation units, implying an effective contribution from the local economic elites. This primary outcome indicates significant progressive regional impacts of introducing a UBI in Brazil and contrasts with the country’s experience with traditional territorial policies.

Anna Renhart (p)

Raul Silveira Neto

Alpine pastures hold significant economic and agricultural importance, playing a pivotal role in the livelihoods of communities in mountainous regions. They provide a unique environment for grazing livestock, making them crucial for dairy and meat production. Moreover, alpine pastures support local economies through tourism and recreational activities, and contribute to ecosystem services such as water regulation, erosion control, and carbon sequestration, enhancing their wider environmental significance.

The Alpine region is at increased risk of land abandonment compared to other regions with agricultural activity in Europe. This research aims to examine the drivers of this process together with implications of subsidies on land use in the Alpine region. The paper looks at the effect of policy related payments (stemming from the Common Agricultural Policy and Cohesion policy) on land use, controlling for socio-economic variables (income, sectoral gross value added, employment shares, population density, and education), geophysical variables (slope, altitude, soil type), climatic variables (temperature, precipitation), and cost structures of farms (producer prices, input costs, land rents).

The paper looks at changes in land cover from the CORINE land cover survey. This is overlayed with data from the land parcel identification systems (LPIS) from Alpine regions to identify abandonment of pastures and meadows. Information regarding costs and output comes from the farm accountancy data network (FADN), information on demographic indicators from the farm statistical survey (FSS). Using a spatial autoregressive panel specification, I will show how farmers cultivating alpine pastures respond to subsidies.

Daniela-Luminita Constantin (p), Clara Volintiru

This paper proposes a review of the recent literature on territorial inequalities and place-based policies with a particular focus on the challenges for local development in peripheral areas. In order to produce a well-founded report, an automatic search engine (Publish-or-Perish) has been employed, so as to extract from the Google Scholar database the most relevant references in terms of keywords and number of citations between 2015-2023. In addition, several other papers of interest have been explored, the whole collection being subsequently triangulated with key publications from international organisations covering essential topics under investigation. The paper showcases issues pertaining to theory, modelling and datasets, current and future challenges and policy implications. The undertaken inquiries reveal a variety of approaches, from those which bring into the spotlight the ‘left-behind places’, the ‘places that don’t matter’ (and their revenge), the ‘geography of discontent’, etc. to those proposing an entire typology for the lagging regions, revealing the interest of both academic community and policy-makers in this subject. The policies gravitate around place-based solutions, which, without neglecting the strongest European regions, aim to support the weaker regions as well. In order to zooming-in on territorial specificities, an important message conveyed is that ‘granularity matters’, supporting the need of more emphasis on studies at local administrative unit level and, as a consequence, on local development, creating the basis for more accurate decisions and policy measures, with the involvement of individuals and local communities. In the described context and in line with the current debates on peripheries (e.g. Storti et al., 2023; Barbero&Rodriguez-Crespo, 2022), our paper does not address the peripheral areas as simply ‘natural’, according to simple geographical features; on the contrary, distinction is made between economic, technological, social, institutional and geographical peripheries and their interrelations are discussed so as to identify the determinants for effective place-based policies and the ‘de-marginalization’ mechanisms. A special attention is paid to the institutional capacity and the role of local collaborative networks in peripheral regions (Torre, 2022) and, further on, to the transnational collaborative networks at the EU’s periphery, using the evidence of the Romania-Moldova neighbourhood, given the strong developmental aid cooperation between the two countries (PEPER, 2023).