Corradini, C., Morris, D. and Vanino, E. orcid.org/0000-0002-4740-1501 (2025) Marshallian agglomeration, labour pooling and skills matching. Cambridge Journal of Economics. beaf010. ISSN 0309-166X
Abstract
Better skills matching has long been proposed as one of the key advantages of agglomeration economies. Yet, support for this improved matching has remained largely founded upon indirect proxies for skills such as wages and education. This paper contributes to the literature by offering novel empirical evidence on the relationship between specific measures of localised skills deficiencies and agglomeration economies, in the form of industrial density. Developing an instrumental variable approach and controlling for unobserved heterogeneity and other region-industry idiosyncratic effects across a panel dataset for the period 2009–2019 in England and Wales, our analysis reveals a positive effect of agglomeration economies in reducing both skills gaps within the employed workforce and skills shortages in the labour market external to the firm. We consider these findings in the context of persistent regional imbalances and the importance of strengthening skills provision within current regional industrial strategies.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Skills matching; Skills gaps; Skills shortage vacancies; Agglomeration; Labour market pooling |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Economics (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 11 Feb 2025 16:33 |
Last Modified: | 26 Mar 2025 10:25 |
Published Version: | https://academic.oup.com/cje/advance-article/doi/1... |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/cje/beaf010 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:223009 |