Andrés Rodríguez-Pose

To ignore regional plarisation is to invite a populist correction. McCann & Stierna identify in @regionalstudies.bsky.social the flaw in the #Draghi #competitiveness blueprint: it engages experts but shuns the people. A strategy without #legitimacy will not fly. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Two decades, two stories: shifting spatial patterns of wage growth in the Visegrád group countries - GeoJournal Investigating wage growth in spatial dimensions is motivated by the uneven distribution of wage increases across EU regions, which creates significant disparities in living standards and economic oppo...

#Wage growth in the Visegrád Four has become a "sticky" affair, with a region’s fortune tied to that of its neighbours. Boris Hošoff and Sergei Kharin show in GeoJournal that the winning hands are concentrated in #Poland while #Hungary faces a widening regional chill.
doi.org/10.1007/s107...

#Centralisation spreads responsibility thin; #autonomy concentrates it. In the European Journal of Political Economy, Ferraresi, Herrmann, Loiacono, Rizzo & Secomandi find that where town halls keep and manage most #tax the result is higher #income.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ej...

🛑 'Las regiones marginadas acaban vengándose del sistema que las abandonó'

El economista @rodriguez-pose.bsky.social explica en la #frAreces por qué territorios olvidados se han 'rebelado' y las posibles soluciones

Aquí, algunas respuestas 🗞️ www.fundacionareces.es/fundacionare...

#geografia

#Innovation has long been a story of #technology hubs and "innovation deserts." But as Zhuoying You & I argue in @spatialeconomic.bsky.social, #AI & #robotics are "digital levellers," allowing lagging places to leapfrog traditional barriers of distance and capital. doi.org/10.1080/1742...

Urban size becomes a multiplier only if there’s something to multiply.
In my @spatialeconomic.bsky.social paper, I argue that thin skills & weak institutions can make megacities sluggish.
Dynamism comes from skills, innovation & solid institutions, not headcount
doi.org/10.1080/17421772.2025.2603498

A nation that treats its hinterland as weekend décor shouldn’t be shocked when it becomes political.
Korsgaard, Bosworth & Gaddefors in @sbe-journal.bsky.social link #inequality, #climate strain & #unrest, proposing #rural #entrepreneurship as institutional activism. doi.org/10.1007/s111...

LSE-Miguel Dols Fellowship Spring term 2025-6 Call for Applications for the Winter term LSE-Miguel Dols Fellowship Scheme 2025-6

Applications open: LSE–Miguel Dols Fellowship (at Cañada Blanch Centre at LSE). Spring Term residency, 5 May–19 Jun. No stipend—just time, space and LSE.
Email CV+600-word proposal by 27 Feb to m.osuna-vergara@lse.ac.uk (subject: LSE-Miguel Dols Fellowship Application).
www.lse.ac.uk/canada-blanc...

Los “lugares que no importan” han vuelto: no con fábricas, sino con votos.
El 24/02 hablaré en @fundacionareces.bsky.social (Madrid) sobre abandono territorial, descontento y crecimiento del #populismo en #Europa, #EEUU y #América Latina.
¡No te lo pierdas!
www.fundacionareces.es/fundacionare...

Public R&D can nourish regions, but it needs business R&D to turn grants into #GDP. But, as Ortega-Argilés & Yuan argue in Industrial and Corporate Change, it also needs collaboration routes that still run through #London to trigger regional convergence.
doi.org/10.1093/icc/...

Valentine’s Day insists #love can be bought. But increasingly, our roses are for… no one. In @euractiv.com, Møller-Nielsen points to structural #loneliness. Chiara Burlina & I argue it has consequences beyond the personal and social. www.euractiv.com/news/europes...
doi.org/10.1177/0308...

True cohesion is less about shifting resources between places and more about expanding what individuals can actually do within them.
Artelaris & Mavrommatis argue in European Planning Studies for a "people-centric" turn in territorial #Cohesion Policy.
doi.org/10.1080/0965...

The 2008 crash left scars that refuse to fade. In JEMS, Avola, Piccitto & Vegetti reveal that while native #employment proved remarkably elastic, male #migrants faced a seven-point slump that has become a permanent feature of the post-crisis era.
doi.org/10.1080/1369...

AI and robotics as drivers of China’s urban innovation Few studies have examined the economic consequences of deploying artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in less-developed cities, where policies have often failed. To address this gap, we analys...

Maybe industrial policy isn’t picking winners but using the right mechanisms to innovate.
Zhuoying You & I show in @spatialeconomic.bsky.social that #AI adoption & #robots raise #innovation, especially in less innovative places and improve the returns of R&D spendomg.
doi.org/10.1080/1742...

We have long feared #AI as a job-destroyer, yet it may drive #innovation and increase the returns of R&D. As Zhuoying You & I argue in our new @spatialeconomic.bsky.social paper, AI & #robotics make scarce resources deliver in places where investment has disappointed.
doi.org/10.1080/1742...

Special Economic Zones don’t fail loudly. They fade quietly.
#SEZs in #Africa amplify existing strengths—skills, infrastructure—while exposing weaknesses. The can raise export diversification but slowly, with effects only appearing after a decade or so. doi.org/10.1080/0885...

It is a funny feeling to find one’s work translated so precisely by a machine. My friend Duarte Rodrigues used #AI to craft a banner for my new LSEPPR paper. It captures the very soul of the debate. The algorithm, it seems, has a keener eye for nuance than I dared imagine. doi.org/10.31389/lse...

Can #Europe deliver on the #green #transition or just legislate it?
A new Special Issue of the Journal of Economic Policy Reform, guest-edited by Sandu, @mariatsouri.bsky.social & me invites answers.
Abstracts by 30 March 2026 to a.sandu@lse.ac.uk
think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...

Tuesday 10 February at LSE: Lewis Dijkstra will deconstruct the quiet rewriting of the global #urban story. By 2100, the #rural may be little more than a memory.
Join us at the @CanadaBlanchLSE to see how new UN data clarifies our urban destiny.
www.lse.ac.uk/canada-blanc...

A new SEA paper, “Why size really doesn’t matter: from megacity myths to place-sensitive prosperity” by @rodriguez-pose.bsky.social, challenges the idea that bigger cities are always more successful.

Open access: doi.org/10.1080/1742...

#EU #CohesionPolicy hasn’t failed. It has been mis-sold. Framed as compensation rather than #investment, it lost legitimacy, despite evidence of #growth and spillovers.
My new LSEPPR paper shows that a policy of development dressed up as charity struggles.
doi.org/10.31389/lse...

Are YIMBYs winning the housing wars? Not so fast, these people say. Though the “build more” movement is chalking up wins, supply skeptics contend housing affordability calls for government policies, not just market forces.

“Build, baby, build” meets inequality. As Julie Weil notes in @washingtonpost.com, supply alone may not fix #affordability. Our @urbanstudiesjournal.com paper warned why: #inequality, not #zoning, does the damage.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
doi.org/10.1177/0042... doi.org/10.31235/osf...

The left-behind economy and what to do about it New insights into regional inequality

The populist free lunch is a mirage. As @martinsandbu.ft.com argues in the @financialtimes.com, today’s fault line is not left vs right but centre vs periphery. Uneven #geography breeds anger, anger➡️risk—& risk drains #growth.
www.ft.com/content/91de...
publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/h...

Come and join us at this Cañada Blanch Centre event to explore the "degree of #urbanisation," a new global standard that renders national #urban definitions obsolete.
Lewis Dijkstra will unpack vital data for #climate resilience and #housing from 1950 until 2100.
Don't miss it! 10 Feb

When local #news disappears, #democracy thins out.
Rachel Barber’s study of 500 closures in the Journal of Urban Affairs reveals a bleak #geography: losses fall hardest on "left-behind" places. In these news deserts, accountability is displaced by noise & growing conflict.
doi.org/10.1080/0735...

In theory, ideas have no borders; in practice, they behave like real estate.
Check my new blog with Xiang & @neillee.bsky.social on the brutal #geography of #research. "Star" #scientists still cluster where the air is thickest with influence.
blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci... doi.org/10.1111/tran...

The brutal geography of global elite scientific research - LSE Impact In theory where you are from is not meant to determine the quality of your research. The geography of elite research shows this to be untrue.

💥New | The brutal geography of global elite scientific research

✍️ @rodriguez-pose.bsky.social, Leiboyu Xiang & @neillee.bsky.social

#AcademicSky #Innovation #Geography

The #GreenTransition doesn’t have an acceptance problem. It has a representation problem.
In their new Applied Geography paper, Louise Michelle Fitzgerald & @angelique-palle.bsky.social find that technical jargon curdles into distrust; only candid politics builds legitimacy. doi.org/10.1016/j.ap...

Is liberal democracy in terminal decline? The old system worked under a set of conditions that are no longer present

@jburnmurdoch.ft.com writes in the @financialtimes.com that liberal #democracy’s rise rode on growth—not a moral escalator. But when #prosperity stalls, norms look like luxuries in places where the promise of a brighter future has moved elsewhere
www.ft.com/content/b4d2...
doi.org/10.1093/cjre...

#Europe’s periphery won’t catch up by trading mostly with close neighbours. In International Economics, Tidu, Apuzzo, and Usai note that the regions escaping the #productivity doldrums are those with the confidence to compete well beyond the #EU’s edges. doi.org/10.1016/j.in...