National growth figures can flatter to deceive. The real question is where #prosperity happens, where it stalls, and what follows when whole #regions are left to drift. My discussion with Marwa Abdou:
lnkd.in/gvZe6p9E
lnkd.in/gdiMcARy
doi.org/10.1080/1742...
#Britain’s innovation gap is less a funding problem than a capacity problem: money travels, capability doesn’t. In @spatialeconomic.bsky.social, Ma, Ortega-Argilés, Lyons & Kratena show why regions need #skills, #institutions and #networks, not just cheques.
doi.org/10.1080/1742...
#Populism feeds not on #poverty but on feeling that prosperity grows elsewhere & your town has been edited out of the future. Neglect is political tinder & once weaponised, grievance becomes a method of rule.
doi.org/10.31389/lse... doi.org/10.1093/jeg/... doi.org/10.1080/0013...
#Green #cities can become oddly genteel: all campuses, cafés and climate slogans, with too little thought for where things are made, stored or repaired. In European Planning Studies, Stefano Di Vita & @yonnd.bsky.social argue that net zero needs blue-collar #urbanism too.
doi.org/10.1080/0965...
Come and join us where scholarly rigor meets the public square.
On 12 March, the Cañaada Blanch LSE Centre hosts a workshop of the Miguel Dols Fellows during the winter term 2026.
An evening dedicated to the enduring value of deep inquiry.
www.lse.ac.uk/canada-blanc...
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....
#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...
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...
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...
“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 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...
