Prof. Dimitris Kallioras (p), Dr. Leonidas Doukissas, Dr. Panayotis Pantazis, Prof. Yannis Psycharis

Europe is gradually moving from a “space of places” to a “space of flows” as the pure essence of the process of economic integration boils down to the gradual elimination of the pecuniary and non-pecuniary impediments to interaction. Indeed, as the process of European economic integration is in full swing, European regions have been experiencing a period of unprecedented change, being transformed into integral parts of the European economic space. Yet, the scarcity of data on economic flows at the regional level (i.e., interregional data) acts as a deterrent to the end of the thorough understanding of the spatial dynamics and externalities that are generated and / or reproduced. Hence, several important questions regarding the dynamics of the European economic integration process remain unsolved, for both scholars and policy makers. The paper offers a new understanding of the interrelations among regional economies in Europe, examining the spatial dynamics of intra-European outward foreign direct investment (FDI) across European NUTS-2 regions and over the period 2010-2018 (i.e., from the beginnings of the economic crisis to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic). To this end, the paper integrates a Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) gravity framework with spatial Markov chain analysis. Particularly, using high-dimensional fixed effects, the paper recovers region-specific outward FDI capacity (i.e., exporter fixed effects) and assesses both its spatial clustering and its mobility across relative performance states. Moving beyond static views of regional attractiveness, the paper models transitions across four pooled performance states and conditions them on local neighborhood regimes, thus capturing how spatial context shapes persistence, upgrading and downgrading. The results of the paper point to pronounced spatial dependence: regions embedded in high-performing neighborhoods display markedly higher state persistence, while upward mobility does not differ systematically across neighborhood regimes. These findings underscore the role of spatial context in shaping regional FDI trajectories and motivate place-based investment and cohesion policies that account for persistent neighborhood regimes. For the needs of the analysis, the paper utilizes a novel origin-destination (O-D) matrix for intra-European FDI flows at the regional level.

Mr Jerome Picault (p), Dr Arnaud Simon

Based on the perceived-quality literature, we propose a new way of controlling location quality when constructing hedonic indices. The location indicator relies on qualitative interviews with market stakeholders and surveys to define weights, resulting in a unique perceived location score.
By shifting the complexity from the number of location variables in hedonic regressions to the determination of the market weights needed to estimate the perceived location quality score, it is possible to construct indices for smaller markets. It also makes possible analysis of the evolution of the marginal price of location and the average level of transaction quality, as well as estimation of specific indices according to various quality segments. In times of recession, the flight to centrality can easily be observed using this synthetic indicator.
Applied to the case study of the Paris office market, the leading European market in terms of surface area, the perceived location index shows the same trend and the same level of volatility as the traditional hedonic indices. However, their ability to detect market turning points seems better. By noting that the marginal price of location has risen more quickly than the index, it is also established that the best-perceived locations significantly outperform the less good ones.

Mr Grzegorz Pakier, Dr. Kateryna Zabarina (p)

This study develops a transport accessibility index for municipalities in Poland and uses geographically weighted regression to examine the impact of transport accessibility on the registered unemployment rate. Based on the analysis of the developed econometric models, it was found that transport accessibility has a significant negative impact on the unemployment rate, which varies across regions. A stronger relationship with the unemployment rate was evident in the model using the average transport accessibility of municipalities in a given poviat. This suggests that accessibility at poviat level is more important than local (municipality) accessibility.

Prof. Chiara F. Del Bo (p), Prof. Andrea Caragliu, Prof. Artur Ochojski

Efficient and sustainable cities are on the policy agenda of many public bodies, both at the national and supranational level. Focusing on the latter, the Smart City label is declined differently across the globe. This consideration, coupled with differing socio-economic and institutional environments, suggest that implementation and development of Smart City programs may imply different processes and impacts. Against this backdrop, our research aims to study the role of endogenous and exogenous factors in Smart Cities, highlighting common factors and differences. This question is empirically tested by comparing Asian and European Smart cities.