BICEPS/SSE Riga Research Seminar: Lights along the frontier: convergence of economic activity in the proximity of the Polish-German border, 1992-2012
We kindly invite you to the BICEPS/SSE Riga research seminar! It will take place on Thursday, January 23 at 17.00 in room 611 with the presentation:
“Lights along the frontier: convergence of economic activity in the proximity of the Polish-German border, 1992-2012” by Michal Myck (CenEA).
Abstract
This paper studies regional economic development on the municipality-level in Poland and Germany along the Oder-Neisse border. We use high-quality satellite night-time light intensity data as an innovative, comparable and reliable measure to proxy for economic activity on both sides of the border consistently over a long period of time (1992-2012). We use descriptive heat maps as well as regression analysis to investigate two aspects: first, how far is the economic convergence across and within municipalities along the Polish-German border? Second, what effect does the distance to the border have on economic activity as measured with light emissions? Our findings suggest that – somewhat surprisingly – convergence across the border has been almost complete. Polish towns that used to be economically much weaker have caught up with German towns. Also, we show that the patterns of economic activity related to distance vary greatly for Germany and Poland.
Michał Myck is Director and Member of the Board of CenEA. He received his M.Phil. degree in Economics at the University of Oxford and in March 2006 he received his Ph.D. degree at the University of Warsaw. He is currently associated as Privatdozent with Universität Greifswald. He is a Research Fellow at IZA Bonn and regularly cooperates with the World Bank. His research has focused on modelling of labour market behaviour and on the implications of labour market regulations on employment and retirement decisions. He has studied the effectiveness of tax and benefit systems and worked on issues related to measurement of poverty and income inequality.
Next seminars
2020-02-06 “Does Nationalization Work? Evidence from Government Takeovers in Russia” by Carsten Sprenger (NES).
2020-02-20 “The Early History of Gold Mining in the Russian Far East and Northeast China” by Mark Gamsa (Tel Aviv University).
No prior registration for the seminar is necessary. For any questions about the seminar, or if you have a colleague that would like to be added to the distribution list, please write to Nicolas Gavoille.