Urban 'third places' foster informal interactions and face-to-face contact that is critical to the development of new innovations and start-up businesses. Our research utilises extensive microdata in combination with telephone interviews with over 200 start-up companies in Stockholm, Sweden. Our findings indicate that access to third places has a significant impact on the number of new high-tech start-ups (both by entrepreneur place of residence and work) in their vicinity. This suggests that third places play a demonstrable role in innovation and economic growth.

In this paper, we examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being of entrepreneurs. We surveyed a representative sample of Swedish entrepreneurs and wage employees at different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey data, combined with register data, show that the COVID-19 outbreak has a negative effect on the well-being of entrepreneurs in terms of increased perceived stress. However, this negative effect is weaker for entrepreneurs who feel younger than their chronological age and entrepreneurs who are geographically distant from the epicenter of the crisis. 

This article studies upward job mobility in different types of local economies. Relying on Swedish register data, we disentangle the impacts stemming from local labour market size, the presence of related industries and occupations and the size of own-industry and own-occupation concentrations. Results show that the local economic structure is important in shaping upward mobility outcomes. However, we observe different impacts from local industry-versus-occupation agglomerations and depending on whether people move from lower-paid or higher-paid jobs. The results have important implications for understanding the drivers of upward job mobility in times of increasing labour market polarization and regional divergence.

This paper relies on a regional knowledge production function to examine the heterogeneous determinants of knowledge creation across five US manufacturing sectors and 853 metropolitan counties over the period 2001-08. Using a Tobit model with state fixed effects, the results indicate that local intra- and inter-sectoral research and development (R&D) investments by the private sector as well as university R&D play a key role in knowledge creation across all sectors under study. We also find that the role of short- versus long-distance interregional spillovers on knowledge creation varies greatly across sectors. These key features improve the design of future local and national innovation policies.

This paper studies how the previous experience among workers relates to the labor productivity of the creative industries in Sweden. Effective knowledge transfers are dependent on the cognitive distance among employees. Using longitudinal matched employer-employee data, I measure the portfolio of the skills within a workplace through (i) the workers' previous occupation, and (ii) the industry they have been working in previously. Estimates show that diversity of occupational experience is positive for labor productivity, but the diversity of industry experience is not. When distinguishing between related and unrelated diversity, the relatedness of occupational experience is positive for labor productivity, while unrelated occupational experience instead shows negative relationship with productivity. These results point towards the importance of occupational skills that workers bring with them to a new employment, for labor productivity.

Loss of specific human capital is often identified as a mechanism through which displaced workers might experience permanent drops in earnings after job loss. Research has shown that displaced workers who migrate out of their region of origin have lower earnings than those who do not. This paper extends the discussion on returns to migration by accounting for the type of jobs people get and how related they are to their skills. Using an endogenous treatment model to control for selection bias in migration and career change, we compare displaced stayers with displaced movers in Sweden. Results show that migrants who get a job that matches their occupation- and industry-specific skills display the highest earnings among all displaced workers. If migration is combined with a job mismatch, earning losses are instead observed. This group experiences the lowest earnings among all displaced workers.

For some time now, the research focusing on Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) has been very active. Observing that knowledge as a production factor is only becoming more and more pronounced, this focus is well-grounded. It is therefore important to examine how these knowledge-hubs gain and propagate their knowledge. We hypothesize that KIBS (as many other sectors) benefit from intra-industry knowledge spillovers facilitated by geographical concentration. Our focus is the innovative capacity of KIBS, which we measure through trademarks registered by KIBS firms. While there may be several mechanisms facilitating knowledge spillovers, we can identify local intra-sectoral labor mobility as one. Accessibility measures are used to assess the geographical attenuation of the spillover effects. Results show that the distance decay of spillovers is fast. Only local concentrations of KIBS seem to be of importance. Over longer distances, we instead observe negative consequences for trademarking, indicating possible spatial competition effects.

This thesis consists of one introductory chapter and four independent papers. Each paper looks at different aspects of labor mobility, especially focusing on the transferability of specific human capital and the role of space for job matching.

The focus of the first paper is to examine how diversity of previous work experience of employees in creative industries matters for labor productivity. I further distinguish between related vs. unrelated occupation and industry experience to better understand how they matter for knowledge flows within a firm. The results show that diversity, and especially relatedness of previous occupational experience, are positively related to labor productivity.

In the second paper, I study how co-location of knowledge-intensive business services influences the innovative capacity of the sector. The results suggest that co-location facilitates labor mobility and thereby knowledge flows as well as innovation capacity across firms.

In the third and fourth papers, the focus shifts from the firm to the individual. The third paper examines how regional characteristics, especially Marshallian labor market pooling, influence the type of employment obtained after job displacement. The results show that regional industrial and occupational structures are crucial for facilitating job matches and occupational upgrades of individuals. The fourth paper examines whether there are wage returns to migration after job displacement, after the job match is considered. The results indicate that returns to migration are positive only when combined with a re-employment that matches the skills of the worker.

Many developed countries are facing a demographic change with an increasing share of older individuals, yet little is known about how older workers will impact regional and national economies in terms of labor market dynamics. This Handbook deals with the important and emerging field of entrepreneurship among this group and focuses on the behavioral perspectives of this phenomenon; on innovation, dynamics and performance; and the ways entrepreneurship among the elderly looks within different countries.

[From publisher's description]