Maria Antonieta, Collazos-Ortiz, Pui Hang Wong (p), David Andrés Londoño Bedoya

Denis Alves

Subnational governments that are politically aligned with the central government tend to receive more fiscal resources than their non-aligned counterparts. However, the motivations behind this remain debatable. While some studies propose that these transfers reward politically aligned regions, others argue that they are intended to buy political support from non-supporting regions. This article revisits this debate using Colombia as a case study. Colombia reformed its royalty revenue-sharing rules in 2012, granting the president greater discretionary power in determining which municipalities could access fiscal resources, thereby inducing an alignment effect. Using municipal-level panel data and fixed-effects models, we find evidence of political alignment. We also observe that the alignment effect is positive for swing municipalities. Overall, our findings underscore the importance of balanced policy design in ensuring unbiased transfer distribution, thus avoiding inequality and inefficiency caused by political alignment.

Denis Alves (p), Raul Silveira Neto (p), Tássia Oliveira

Thomas Avery

The study evaluates the impact of the FNE, Brazil’s main place-based federal policy, in the state of Pernambuco from 2000 to 2017. The empirical strategy uses a recent difference-in-differences estimator with multiple time periods, along with a unique set of firm-level data that allows us to control for the influence of other policies, such as credits from FDNE and BNDES, as well as tax incentives from Sudene and Prodepe (the local development policy). The exclusive policy results, free from the influence of benefit accumulation in both the short and long term, indicate that the FNE has positive effects on job creation and payroll, although it results in a reduction in average wages. We also observe stronger effects for firms located in the semi-arid re- gion—specifically, those farther from the metropolitan area of Recife—along with microenterprises and those in the trade and services sectors, which showed better outcomes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that combinations of place-based policies can improve results for beneficiary firms, with find- ings showing that these combinations, including those with non-place-based credit (such as BNDES credit), can increase average wages.

Thomas Avery (p)

Edson Domingues

Place-based approaches (Barca, 2009; McCann, 2019) continue to gain traction in UK policy and research at national, regional, and local levels. Although these approaches are designed to be locally bespoke and heterogenous implementation is anticipated, nevertheless fostering a shared conceptual understanding across contexts is important to ensuring effective policy implementation. Given a recent proliferation of place-based policies in the UK, this paper investigates definitions and uses of ‘place’ within the academic literature using an integrative review methodology to consider the contributions of academia to this policy context. If place-based approaches to policy are to be effective, then it is important to understand how research and higher education institutions are positioned as contributing to regional development and policy.

An integrative literature review was conducted in April 2024. A systematic search strategy was developed and employed to search Web of Science and Science Direct for academic papers from ‘Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and the Economy’ (SHAPE) disciplines that used the term ‘place’ from 2000-2024. Of 3991 initial results, 188 were included in the final sample. A content analysis was then performed to generate descriptive quantitative findings and qualitative synthesis of results.

The analysis reveals the richness and complexity of place-based discourses across disciplines, from economic approaches to regional development through to emerging frameworks in environmental education, health, and more-than-human geographies. While some disciplinary conversations around place remain distinct, we identify several promising areas where theoretical frameworks complement each other, particularly in understanding multi-scalar relationships between policy and practice. By mapping these diverse conceptualizations of place, the paper contributes to debates about how higher education institutions can better support integrated approaches to regional development that draw on this full spectrum of disciplinary insights.

Edson Domingues (p), Madhu Khanna, Aline Magalhaes

Pui Hang Wong

Brazil has several biofuel policies, including RenovaBio, alongside new policies related to climate change (Plano Clima, June 2024) and energy transition. In addition to the reduction targets agreed upon during the COP21 Paris Agreement, Brazil has recently announced a policy for zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2030. There is no coordination among the various policies. Recently (2024), measures to increase the blending of diesel with biodiesel and ethanol with gasoline have raised questions about the impact on the demand for soybeans (in the case of biodiesel) and sugarcane (in the case of ethanol), and consequently, on the pressure for land expansion and deforestation. Therefore, there may be a trade-off between the expansion of renewables and forest conservation, namely, between energy matrix decarbonization and deforestation reduction. We apply a detailed inter-regional Computable General Equilibrium model for Brazil to evaluate these policies and scenarios. Economic impacts such as deforestation and GHG emissions are also assessed.