Spatial variations of employment change in Greece over the early-crisis period (2008-2011)

Abstract

Towards conceptualizing and understanding the spatial impact of the contemporary economic crisis, the paper scrutinizes the spatial variations of employment change in Greece. To this end, the paper employs a trade-adjusted shift-share analysis; a shift-share formulation accounting for employment changes resulting from changes in exports, imports and domestic demand. Trade-adjusted shift-share analysis is employed against the backdrop of the world economy, on the basis of employment data that refer to NACE Rev. 2 aggregation sectoral levels and to NUTS II spatial level, and covers the early-crisis period (2008-2011). The results obtained highlight the negative national effect component as an outcome of the shocks and the upsets that the Greek economy has suffered. The industry mix component and the competitive shift component are positive only for specific regions and sectors. Particularly, for the industry mix component it comes that all Greek regions specialize in sectors that, at the national level, are export-declining and import-declining and experience labor productivity losses. © 2016, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists. All rights reserved.