Tom Kemeny
Biographic Data
| ID | 970978 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tom Kemeny |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tom |
| FAMILY NAME | Kemeny |
| SIGNATURE | KEMENY T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Southampton |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4984-9104 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 238 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
The Changing Shape of Spatial Income Disparities in the United States
Spatial income disparities have increased in the US since 1980, a pattern linked to major social, economic, and political challenges. Yet, today’s spatial inequality, and how it relates to the past, remains insufficiently well understood. The primary contribution of this article is to demonstrate a deep polarization in the American spatial system—yet one whose character differs from that commonly reported on in the literature. The increase in spa…
Who gets left behind by left behind places
We document that children growing up in places left behind by today's economy experience lower levels of social mobility as adults. Using a longitudinal database that tracks over 20,000 places in the USA from 1980 to 2018, we identify two kinds of left behind places: the 'long-term left behind' that have struggled over long periods of history; and 'recently left-behind' places where conditions have deteriorated. Compared to children of similar ba…
Frontier workers and the seedbeds of inequality and prosperity
This article examines the role of work at the cutting of technological change—frontier work—as a driver of prosperity and spatial income inequality. Using new methods and data, we analyze the geography and incomes of frontier workers from 1880 to 2019. Initially, frontier work is concentrated in a set of ‘seedbed’ locations, contributing to rising spatial inequality through powerful localized wage premiums. As technologies mature, the economic di…
Local job multipliers revisited
There has been a recent surge in papers estimating local multiplier effects. However, existing studies rely on arbitrary periods of observation, limit samples to more populous regions, and commonly use relatively aggregated industrial categories. When we address these and other methodological issues, we find that, in the United States, each new traded sector job adds half a nontraded job to a local economy, and that the addition of each high‐tech…
Are mixed neighborhoods more socially cohesive? Evidence from Nanjing, China
Mixed housing is a widely accepted strategy to promote cohesive communities. However, there remains an enormous amount of heterogeneity in who are mixed, and through what mechanisms. Drawing on a bespoke household survey conducted in Nanjing, China, this paper responds to this gap by measuring how multiple sources of neighborhood mix are associated with different, theoretically-derived dimensions of neighborhood cohesion. The results underscore t…
Disruptive innovation and spatial inequality
Although technological change is widely credited as driving the last 200 years of economic growth, its role in shaping patterns of inequality remains under-explored. Drawing parallels across two industrial revolutions in the United States, this paper provides new evidence of a relationship between highly disruptive forms of innovation and spatial inequality. Using the universe of patents granted between 1920 and 2010 by the US Patent and Trademar…
Does Assimilation Shape the Economic Value of Immigrant Diversity
A growing literature has shown that greater diversity among immigrants offers material benefits in terms of higher wages and productivity. One limitation of existing work is that it has considered immigrants from a given country to be homogenous. However, immigrants differ in various ways, not least in their level of assimilation. This article considers how assimilation might shape diversity’s economic effects. Intuition suggests two conflicting …
Regions in a time of pandemic
This paper contributes to the current debate in the field of critical urban and regional studies on the meanings of the "regional" and the "urban".From a political science perspective, we focus on the European case.Firstly, we argue that the conception of the regional scale is not the same in various languages and traditions.Regions in Europe carry meanings and connotations that are not always easy to translate without losing their specific histo…
Rethinking regions in turbulent times
We live in turbulent times, but when has this not been the case? The history of regions and the ‘regional studies project’ has always had at its core concerns relating to new and increased social and spatial inequalities resulting from economic and political change. Whatever change has occurred to cause this turbulence, some people and places have taken advantage and raced ahead, while others were disadvantaged and left behind. The difference tod…
Creative differences? Measuring creative economy employment in the United States and the UK
This paper compares the creative economies of the US and the UK regions and nations using high-quality administrative microdata spanning the period 2011–13. The creative industries are highly urbanized in both countries. However, important differences are found in the size, density and diversity of creative activity between the two countries, which reflect differences in both urban systems and industrial organization. By testing the ‘Creative Tri…
The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies: Lessons from San Francisco and Los Angeles
This book forum reports an outcome of the authors-meet-the-critics session organized for the 2016 American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, which took place coincidentally but appropriately, in San Francisco
Immobility and the Brexit vote
Popular explanations of the Brexit vote have centred on the division between cosmopolitan internationalists who voted Remain and geographically rooted individuals who voted Leave. In this article, we conduct the first empirical test of whether residential immobility—the concept underpinning this distinction—was an important variable in the Brexit vote. We find that locally rooted individuals—defined as those living in their county of birth—were 7…
Spillovers from immigrant diversity in cities
Theory and evidence suggest that people born in different countries complement each other in the labor market. Immigrant diversity could augment productivity by enabling the combination of different skills, ideas and perspectives, resulting in greater productivity. Using matched employer-employee data for the U.S., this paper evaluates this claim, and makes empirical and conceptual contributions to prior work. It addresses potential bias from uno…
Global reversal, regional revival
Regional Studies celebrates its 50th anniversary with this special issue. This introductory article reflects back on developments since the journal was started and offers signposts for urban and regional research looking ahead. It outlines the changing global context for regional studies and identifies some of the ways in which the need for regional research is enhanced by the extraordinary challenges currently confronting the world. It also intr…
The economic geography of immigrant diversity: Disparate impacts and new directions
Increasing immigrant diversity, both in the number of immigrants and the diversity of sending countries, is helping reshape the economic landscape in many countries, most notably in their urban regions. This paper provides a succinct introduction to the existing research on the economic effects, particularly productivity, of immigrant diversity, focusing on a recent wave of empirical work. It identifies outstanding questions in the research, offe…
Urban Immigrant Diversity and Inclusive Institutions
Recent studies identify a robust positive correlation between the productivity of urban workers and the presence of a diverse range of immigrants in their midst. Seeking to better understand this relationship, this article tests the hypothesis that the rewards from immigrant diversity will be higher in metropolitan areas that feature more inclusive social and economic institutions. Institutions ought to matter because they regulate transaction co…
On Specialization, Divergence and Evolution: A Brief Response to Ron Martin’s Review
for his insightful review essay on our book.Ron Martin has, as always, raised many of the issues that are central to understanding the development pathways of regions and to structuring research to generate robust insights that could be useful in sustaining or creating prosperous, inclusive regions.It is therefore a pleasure to be able to engage with his discussion in a way that hopefully will help us all to move forward collectively First, we ag…
The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies: Lessons from San Francisco and Los Angeles
The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies challenges many of the conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings. The authors argue that it is essential to understand the interactions of three major components—economic specialization, human capital formation, and institutional factors—to determine how well a regional economy will cope with new opportunities and challenges. Drawing on economics, sociology, political …
The economic value of local social networks
The idea that local social capital yields economic benefits is fundamental to theories of agglomeration, and central to claims about the virtues of cities. However, this relationship has not been evaluated using methods that permit confident statements about causality. This article examines what happens to firms that become affiliated with ‘dealmakers’—individuals who are unusually well connected in local social networks. We adopt a quasi-experim…
US Wage Inequality and Low‐Wage Import Competition
This paper revisits the link between trade and wage inequality motivated by two changes in the structure of trade. First, trade today is shaped as much by the exchange of components as finished goods. Second, low‐wage country imports into advanced economies like the US have risen dramatically since the early 1990s. We pay special attention to the timing of trade impacts. Consistent with prior work, technological change is confirmed as the key dri…
Is Specialization Good for Regional Economic Development
Debates about urban growth and change often centre on specialization. However, arguments linking specialization to metropolitan economic development contain diverse, and sometimes conflicting, claims. Is it better to be highly specialized or diversified? Does specialization refer to the absolute or relative scale of an activity in a region? Does specialization have static or evolutionary effects? This paper investigates these questions in theoret…
Cultural Diversity, Institutions, and Urban Economic Performance
Interactions between culturally diverse individuals can spur economic benefits by stimulating new ideas that raise urban residents' productivity. But diversity can also diminish economic well-being by making communication difficult, and by stimulating conflict. This paper investigates whether urban institutions-in particular residents' sense of generalized trust-determine when diversity is an economic asset and when it is a liability. To do so, d…
Does Foreign Direct Investment Drive Technological Upgrading
Are international technology gaps growing or shrinking in the age of globalization
This article examines changing international technology gaps over the recent period of globalization, 1972–2001, using a novel measure of technology. It evaluates each economy's technology level based on the goods it exports, considering each product's average productivity and relative quality level. The analysis reveals a growing disparity between the most- and least-sophisticated economies and a lack of intradistributional mobility. Results are…
Regions in a time of pandemic
This paper contributes to the current debate in the field of critical urban and regional studies on the meanings of the "regional" and the "urban".From a political science perspective, we focus on the European case.Firstly, we argue that the conception of the regional scale is not the same in various languages and traditions.Regions in Europe carry meanings and connotations that are not always easy to translate without losing their specific histo…
Is Specialization Good for Regional Economic Development
Debates about urban growth and change often centre on specialization. However, arguments linking specialization to metropolitan economic development contain diverse, and sometimes conflicting, claims. Is it better to be highly specialized or diversified? Does specialization refer to the absolute or relative scale of an activity in a region? Does specialization have static or evolutionary effects? This paper investigates these questions in theoret…
Immobility and the Brexit vote
Popular explanations of the Brexit vote have centred on the division between cosmopolitan internationalists who voted Remain and geographically rooted individuals who voted Leave. In this article, we conduct the first empirical test of whether residential immobility—the concept underpinning this distinction—was an important variable in the Brexit vote. We find that locally rooted individuals—defined as those living in their county of birth—were 7…
Spillovers from immigrant diversity in cities
Theory and evidence suggest that people born in different countries complement each other in the labor market. Immigrant diversity could augment productivity by enabling the combination of different skills, ideas and perspectives, resulting in greater productivity. Using matched employer-employee data for the U.S., this paper evaluates this claim, and makes empirical and conceptual contributions to prior work. It addresses potential bias from uno…
Disruptive innovation and spatial inequality
Although technological change is widely credited as driving the last 200 years of economic growth, its role in shaping patterns of inequality remains under-explored. Drawing parallels across two industrial revolutions in the United States, this paper provides new evidence of a relationship between highly disruptive forms of innovation and spatial inequality. Using the universe of patents granted between 1920 and 2010 by the US Patent and Trademar…
Cultural Diversity, Institutions, and Urban Economic Performance
Interactions between culturally diverse individuals can spur economic benefits by stimulating new ideas that raise urban residents' productivity. But diversity can also diminish economic well-being by making communication difficult, and by stimulating conflict. This paper investigates whether urban institutions-in particular residents' sense of generalized trust-determine when diversity is an economic asset and when it is a liability. To do so, d…
Are international technology gaps growing or shrinking in the age of globalization
This article examines changing international technology gaps over the recent period of globalization, 1972–2001, using a novel measure of technology. It evaluates each economy's technology level based on the goods it exports, considering each product's average productivity and relative quality level. The analysis reveals a growing disparity between the most- and least-sophisticated economies and a lack of intradistributional mobility. Results are…
Rethinking regions in turbulent times
We live in turbulent times, but when has this not been the case? The history of regions and the ‘regional studies project’ has always had at its core concerns relating to new and increased social and spatial inequalities resulting from economic and political change. Whatever change has occurred to cause this turbulence, some people and places have taken advantage and raced ahead, while others were disadvantaged and left behind. The difference tod…
Creative differences? Measuring creative economy employment in the United States and the UK
This paper compares the creative economies of the US and the UK regions and nations using high-quality administrative microdata spanning the period 2011–13. The creative industries are highly urbanized in both countries. However, important differences are found in the size, density and diversity of creative activity between the two countries, which reflect differences in both urban systems and industrial organization. By testing the ‘Creative Tri…
Does Foreign Direct Investment Drive Technological Upgrading
The Changing Shape of Spatial Income Disparities in the United States
Spatial income disparities have increased in the US since 1980, a pattern linked to major social, economic, and political challenges. Yet, today’s spatial inequality, and how it relates to the past, remains insufficiently well understood. The primary contribution of this article is to demonstrate a deep polarization in the American spatial system—yet one whose character differs from that commonly reported on in the literature. The increase in spa…
Who gets left behind by left behind places
We document that children growing up in places left behind by today's economy experience lower levels of social mobility as adults. Using a longitudinal database that tracks over 20,000 places in the USA from 1980 to 2018, we identify two kinds of left behind places: the 'long-term left behind' that have struggled over long periods of history; and 'recently left-behind' places where conditions have deteriorated. Compared to children of similar ba…
Urban Immigrant Diversity and Inclusive Institutions
Recent studies identify a robust positive correlation between the productivity of urban workers and the presence of a diverse range of immigrants in their midst. Seeking to better understand this relationship, this article tests the hypothesis that the rewards from immigrant diversity will be higher in metropolitan areas that feature more inclusive social and economic institutions. Institutions ought to matter because they regulate transaction co…
The economic value of local social networks
The idea that local social capital yields economic benefits is fundamental to theories of agglomeration, and central to claims about the virtues of cities. However, this relationship has not been evaluated using methods that permit confident statements about causality. This article examines what happens to firms that become affiliated with ‘dealmakers’—individuals who are unusually well connected in local social networks. We adopt a quasi-experim…
Are mixed neighborhoods more socially cohesive? Evidence from Nanjing, China
Mixed housing is a widely accepted strategy to promote cohesive communities. However, there remains an enormous amount of heterogeneity in who are mixed, and through what mechanisms. Drawing on a bespoke household survey conducted in Nanjing, China, this paper responds to this gap by measuring how multiple sources of neighborhood mix are associated with different, theoretically-derived dimensions of neighborhood cohesion. The results underscore t…
Global reversal, regional revival
Regional Studies celebrates its 50th anniversary with this special issue. This introductory article reflects back on developments since the journal was started and offers signposts for urban and regional research looking ahead. It outlines the changing global context for regional studies and identifies some of the ways in which the need for regional research is enhanced by the extraordinary challenges currently confronting the world. It also intr…
Frontier workers and the seedbeds of inequality and prosperity
This article examines the role of work at the cutting of technological change—frontier work—as a driver of prosperity and spatial income inequality. Using new methods and data, we analyze the geography and incomes of frontier workers from 1880 to 2019. Initially, frontier work is concentrated in a set of ‘seedbed’ locations, contributing to rising spatial inequality through powerful localized wage premiums. As technologies mature, the economic di…
On Specialization, Divergence and Evolution: A Brief Response to Ron Martin’s Review
for his insightful review essay on our book.Ron Martin has, as always, raised many of the issues that are central to understanding the development pathways of regions and to structuring research to generate robust insights that could be useful in sustaining or creating prosperous, inclusive regions.It is therefore a pleasure to be able to engage with his discussion in a way that hopefully will help us all to move forward collectively First, we ag…
Are international technology gaps growing or shrinking in the age of globalization
This article examines changing international technology gaps over the recent period of globalization, 1972–2001, using a novel measure of technology. It evaluates each economy's technology level based on the goods it exports, considering each product's average productivity and relative quality level. The analysis reveals a growing disparity between the most- and least-sophisticated economies and a lack of intradistributional mobility. Results are…
Does Foreign Direct Investment Drive Technological Upgrading
Cultural Diversity, Institutions, and Urban Economic Performance
Interactions between culturally diverse individuals can spur economic benefits by stimulating new ideas that raise urban residents' productivity. But diversity can also diminish economic well-being by making communication difficult, and by stimulating conflict. This paper investigates whether urban institutions-in particular residents' sense of generalized trust-determine when diversity is an economic asset and when it is a liability. To do so, d…
Is Specialization Good for Regional Economic Development
Debates about urban growth and change often centre on specialization. However, arguments linking specialization to metropolitan economic development contain diverse, and sometimes conflicting, claims. Is it better to be highly specialized or diversified? Does specialization refer to the absolute or relative scale of an activity in a region? Does specialization have static or evolutionary effects? This paper investigates these questions in theoret…
The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies: Lessons from San Francisco and Los Angeles
The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies challenges many of the conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings. The authors argue that it is essential to understand the interactions of three major components—economic specialization, human capital formation, and institutional factors—to determine how well a regional economy will cope with new opportunities and challenges. Drawing on economics, sociology, political …
The economic value of local social networks
The idea that local social capital yields economic benefits is fundamental to theories of agglomeration, and central to claims about the virtues of cities. However, this relationship has not been evaluated using methods that permit confident statements about causality. This article examines what happens to firms that become affiliated with ‘dealmakers’—individuals who are unusually well connected in local social networks. We adopt a quasi-experim…
US Wage Inequality and Low‐Wage Import Competition
This paper revisits the link between trade and wage inequality motivated by two changes in the structure of trade. First, trade today is shaped as much by the exchange of components as finished goods. Second, low‐wage country imports into advanced economies like the US have risen dramatically since the early 1990s. We pay special attention to the timing of trade impacts. Consistent with prior work, technological change is confirmed as the key dri…
On Specialization, Divergence and Evolution: A Brief Response to Ron Martin’s Review
for his insightful review essay on our book.Ron Martin has, as always, raised many of the issues that are central to understanding the development pathways of regions and to structuring research to generate robust insights that could be useful in sustaining or creating prosperous, inclusive regions.It is therefore a pleasure to be able to engage with his discussion in a way that hopefully will help us all to move forward collectively First, we ag…
The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies: Lessons from San Francisco and Los Angeles
This book forum reports an outcome of the authors-meet-the-critics session organized for the 2016 American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, which took place coincidentally but appropriately, in San Francisco
Immobility and the Brexit vote
Popular explanations of the Brexit vote have centred on the division between cosmopolitan internationalists who voted Remain and geographically rooted individuals who voted Leave. In this article, we conduct the first empirical test of whether residential immobility—the concept underpinning this distinction—was an important variable in the Brexit vote. We find that locally rooted individuals—defined as those living in their county of birth—were 7…
Spillovers from immigrant diversity in cities
Theory and evidence suggest that people born in different countries complement each other in the labor market. Immigrant diversity could augment productivity by enabling the combination of different skills, ideas and perspectives, resulting in greater productivity. Using matched employer-employee data for the U.S., this paper evaluates this claim, and makes empirical and conceptual contributions to prior work. It addresses potential bias from uno…
Global reversal, regional revival
Regional Studies celebrates its 50th anniversary with this special issue. This introductory article reflects back on developments since the journal was started and offers signposts for urban and regional research looking ahead. It outlines the changing global context for regional studies and identifies some of the ways in which the need for regional research is enhanced by the extraordinary challenges currently confronting the world. It also intr…
The economic geography of immigrant diversity: Disparate impacts and new directions
Increasing immigrant diversity, both in the number of immigrants and the diversity of sending countries, is helping reshape the economic landscape in many countries, most notably in their urban regions. This paper provides a succinct introduction to the existing research on the economic effects, particularly productivity, of immigrant diversity, focusing on a recent wave of empirical work. It identifies outstanding questions in the research, offe…
Urban Immigrant Diversity and Inclusive Institutions
Recent studies identify a robust positive correlation between the productivity of urban workers and the presence of a diverse range of immigrants in their midst. Seeking to better understand this relationship, this article tests the hypothesis that the rewards from immigrant diversity will be higher in metropolitan areas that feature more inclusive social and economic institutions. Institutions ought to matter because they regulate transaction co…
Rethinking regions in turbulent times
We live in turbulent times, but when has this not been the case? The history of regions and the ‘regional studies project’ has always had at its core concerns relating to new and increased social and spatial inequalities resulting from economic and political change. Whatever change has occurred to cause this turbulence, some people and places have taken advantage and raced ahead, while others were disadvantaged and left behind. The difference tod…
Creative differences? Measuring creative economy employment in the United States and the UK
This paper compares the creative economies of the US and the UK regions and nations using high-quality administrative microdata spanning the period 2011–13. The creative industries are highly urbanized in both countries. However, important differences are found in the size, density and diversity of creative activity between the two countries, which reflect differences in both urban systems and industrial organization. By testing the ‘Creative Tri…
Regions in a time of pandemic
This paper contributes to the current debate in the field of critical urban and regional studies on the meanings of the "regional" and the "urban".From a political science perspective, we focus on the European case.Firstly, we argue that the conception of the regional scale is not the same in various languages and traditions.Regions in Europe carry meanings and connotations that are not always easy to translate without losing their specific histo…
Does Assimilation Shape the Economic Value of Immigrant Diversity
A growing literature has shown that greater diversity among immigrants offers material benefits in terms of higher wages and productivity. One limitation of existing work is that it has considered immigrants from a given country to be homogenous. However, immigrants differ in various ways, not least in their level of assimilation. This article considers how assimilation might shape diversity’s economic effects. Intuition suggests two conflicting …
Local job multipliers revisited
There has been a recent surge in papers estimating local multiplier effects. However, existing studies rely on arbitrary periods of observation, limit samples to more populous regions, and commonly use relatively aggregated industrial categories. When we address these and other methodological issues, we find that, in the United States, each new traded sector job adds half a nontraded job to a local economy, and that the addition of each high‐tech…
Are mixed neighborhoods more socially cohesive? Evidence from Nanjing, China
Mixed housing is a widely accepted strategy to promote cohesive communities. However, there remains an enormous amount of heterogeneity in who are mixed, and through what mechanisms. Drawing on a bespoke household survey conducted in Nanjing, China, this paper responds to this gap by measuring how multiple sources of neighborhood mix are associated with different, theoretically-derived dimensions of neighborhood cohesion. The results underscore t…
Disruptive innovation and spatial inequality
Although technological change is widely credited as driving the last 200 years of economic growth, its role in shaping patterns of inequality remains under-explored. Drawing parallels across two industrial revolutions in the United States, this paper provides new evidence of a relationship between highly disruptive forms of innovation and spatial inequality. Using the universe of patents granted between 1920 and 2010 by the US Patent and Trademar…
Who gets left behind by left behind places
We document that children growing up in places left behind by today's economy experience lower levels of social mobility as adults. Using a longitudinal database that tracks over 20,000 places in the USA from 1980 to 2018, we identify two kinds of left behind places: the 'long-term left behind' that have struggled over long periods of history; and 'recently left-behind' places where conditions have deteriorated. Compared to children of similar ba…
Frontier workers and the seedbeds of inequality and prosperity
This article examines the role of work at the cutting of technological change—frontier work—as a driver of prosperity and spatial income inequality. Using new methods and data, we analyze the geography and incomes of frontier workers from 1880 to 2019. Initially, frontier work is concentrated in a set of ‘seedbed’ locations, contributing to rising spatial inequality through powerful localized wage premiums. As technologies mature, the economic di…
The Changing Shape of Spatial Income Disparities in the United States
Spatial income disparities have increased in the US since 1980, a pattern linked to major social, economic, and political challenges. Yet, today’s spatial inequality, and how it relates to the past, remains insufficiently well understood. The primary contribution of this article is to demonstrate a deep polarization in the American spatial system—yet one whose character differs from that commonly reported on in the literature. The increase in spa…
Economics (20 works) · Geography (17 works) · Economic geography (16 works) · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis (13 works) · Political science (11 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Demographic economics (8 works) · Economic growth (8 works) · Immigration (6 works) · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies (6 works)