Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

While the level of disparities across regions in 10 advanced European economies studied in this paper mostly reflects productivity gaps, the increase since the Great Recession has resulted from diverging unemployment rates. Following the pandemic, this could be further exacerbated given teleworkability rates are lower in poorer regions than in high-income regions, making them ex-ante more vulnerable to the pandemic’s likely material impact on the prevalence of remote work. Preliminary evidence from 2020 confirms that regional disparities between countries increased during 2020. A further concern is that the pandemic might accelerate the automation of jobs across Europe, something which often happens following recessions. While lagging regions have lower ex-ante vulnerabilities against the routinization, the transformation of jobs through sectors with higher routinization rates in these regions could increase their vulnerability to technological change over time. The green transition could also lead to challenges for regions that have benefitted from carbon-intensive growth strategies. Finally, the paper discusses the role for policies—including placed-based ones—in reducing disparities in the face of the aforementioned short, medium, and long-term risks.

Macroeconomics --- Economics: General --- Environmental Conservation and Protection --- Diseases: Contagious --- Labor --- Environmental Policy --- Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity --- Demand and Supply of Labor: General --- Human Capital --- Skills --- Occupational Choice --- Labor Productivity --- Environment and Growth --- Climate --- Natural Disasters and Their Management --- Global Warming --- Health Behavior --- Employment --- Unemployment --- Wages --- Intergenerational Income Distribution --- Aggregate Human Capital --- Aggregate Labor Productivity --- Environmental Economics: Government Policy --- Financial Crises --- Economic & financial crises & disasters --- Economics of specific sectors --- Climate change --- Infectious & contagious diseases --- Labour --- income economics --- Environmental policy & protocols --- Greenhouse gas emissions --- Environment --- COVID-19 --- Health --- Climate policy --- Global financial crisis of 2008-2009 --- Financial crises --- Currency crises --- Informal sector --- Economics --- Greenhouse gases --- Communicable diseases --- Economic theory --- Environmental policy --- Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2009 --- United Kingdom