Regional Inequality and the Knowledge Economy: North America and Europe

This paper provides a descriptive examination of trends in spatial inequality within the US, Canada and the UK and twelve European countries. It first draws on recent literature in American political economy which suggests that the transition to the knowledge economy has promoted three forms of growing spatial inequality: in the productive capacities and incomes of regions and in local patterns of population sorting into dynamic urban areas. It then asks whether the transition to knowledge-intensive production implies more spatial inequality in Europe. It finds that regional inequality has fallen less – or grown more – in terms of both productive capacity and income in the Anglo economies, but that urban areas in high-knowledge regions are becoming more distinct in both Europe and North America. It further shows that labor and educational institution are associated with different forms of regional inequality but not urban sorting.