1) The document summarizes research on the role of human capital in different types of regions, including urban, rural, peripheral, and cross-border regions. 2) Two papers examined how human capital mobility impacts local employment in Danish municipalities, finding that in-migrants and in-commuters generally complement the local workforce except in some cases where they substitute medium-skilled locals. 3) A second paper analyzed the spatial mobility and early career outcomes of university graduates in Denmark, finding benefits to mobility for academic but not professional graduates. 4) The research also developed a model of "Cross-Border Institutional Thickness" to examine institutional cooperation and human capital creation in Danish-German border regions.

1. The role of human capital in the regional
assemblages
Human capital creation in the rural-urban and cross-
border regions of Denmark
Nino Javakhishvili-Larsen
Department of Business and Economics
and former Department of Border Region Studies
17.02.2017 Sønderborg
The research has been co-financed by INTERREG IV A – project Emerging Attraction and SDU

2. Introduction
Attracting knowledge and competences in regions is
the paramount importance for regional development.
Overall aim of a research
To study the role of human capital in the different types
of geographical entities
Urban and metropolitan
Rural and peripheral
Cross-border
Heterogeneous Regions

3. The Aim: Two dimensions of Human Capital
Functional:
Human capital – generates economic
returns?
Institutional:
Institutional interactions – support
human capital creation?
Human Capital
Institutional

4. Regional Assemblages
Regions – as territorially bounded
assemblages
 pre-defined boundaries of the political
and administrative authorities.
Traditional understanding of regions as
the demarcated geographical
territories:
Can be applied to Urban-rural typology
Regions – as ‘spatio-temporal’
assemblages
 are the nexus of inter-relations in the
form of networks where the
information, resources and priorities
flow, tangle and untangle, assemble and
disassemble in time and space.
Can be applied to cross-border regions
The assemblage theory is about relationships and interference of the
heterogeneous units that temporarily assemble in such a consistent
formation that they create the assemblage despite the differences in the
practices and norms. Such assemblages retain in the relation as long as
the roles and conditions hold. (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987)
Regional
Assemblages

5. Institutional Turn and
New regionalism
The processes of “new regionalism” and “hollowing-out” of nation states by
denationalisation and rescaling the governance.
Proliferation of the role of institutions in the local development
i.e. raising concepts of ‘institutional thickness’ (Amin and Thrift, 1995; 2004)
‘untraded interdependences.’ (Storper, 1995), etc.
Institutional
Thickness

6. Human Capital
Economists approach:
Human capital is the stock of skills and
knowledge of labour that produce
economic value.
Human Geographers approach:
Human capital is a collection of
resources, all the knowledge, talents and
wisdom.
Human
Capital
Is a nexus in the re-organisation of the economic geography of production in
cities and regions.

7. Research scope:
Regional Development Model
Interdependent linkages
between human capital,
institutions and Regional
Assemblages
Regional
assemblages
Institutional
thickness
Human
Capital

8. Content
Regions – as territorially fixed entities
Two scientific papers:
Paper 1
Labour Mobility and Local Employment:
Building a Local Employment Base from
Labour Mobility?
(co-authors: Amjad Naveed and Torben
Dall Schmidt)
Published in Regional Studies
Paper 2
Spatial mobility of Human Capital and
early career effects in the Danish labour
market
(co-author: Timo F. Mitze)
Soon submitting to the Journal of
Economic Geography
Regions – as cross-border assemblages
Two scientific papers:
Paper 3
Does cross-border ‘Institutional thickness’
support the human capital creation? Case
study: Rhine-Waal Region (NL-GE)
(co-authors: Andreas P. Cornett and Martin
Klatt)
Accepted in the book of Edward Elgar.
Paper 4
Institutional Framework of a Cross-Border
Regional Cooperation Network. Case
Study: Danish-German border region
Presented to the European Committee
of the Regions and European
Parliament Research Service

9. Research outcomes in the “Emerging
Attraction” context
Aims of EA-project
to explore the mechanisms
and possibilities for how to
solve the problems of human
capital shortages in the region
Research outputs in two
dimensions:
1) Understand the mobility
behaviour and its local
economic outcome of
human capital
1) Explore the cross-border
institutional cooperation
as a supportive-net for
the potential (or
complementary) human
capital creation

10. Structure of the research output
Research Output
Functional dimension of
the human capital
Paper 1 Paper 2
Institutional dimension of
the human capital
Paper 3
Paper 4

11. Part One: Functional dimension.
human capital mobility in urban and
rural municipalities of Denmark

12. Trends on Danish labour market (2006-2011)
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
Vallensbæk
Herlev
Ballerup
København
Gladsaxe
Frederiksberg
Lejre
Skanderborg
Gentofte
Favrskov
Ikast-Brande
Billund
City type Urban Rural
Total employment growth (% 2006-2011)
4.6
0.3
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
Vallensbæk Gentofte
City type
Growth contribution of in-migrants
(%, 2006-2011)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Herlev
Ballerup
Lejre
Kolding
Frederikssund
Frederiksberg
Aarhus
Greve
Odense
Gentofte
Favrskov
Middelfart
Slagelse
Halsnæs
Ikast-Brande
Haderslev
Hjørring
Esbjerg
Svendborg
Mariagerfjord
Fanø
Kalundborg
Nyborg
Holstebro
Rebild
Lemvig
Thisted
Norddjurs
Vesthimmerlands
City type Urban Rural Outskirts
Growth contribution of in-commuters (%, 2006-2011)

13. Paper 1: Labour Mobility and Local Employment:
Building a Local Employment Base from Labour
Mobility?
Main aim of this paper
is to identify the
economic significance
of labour inflows –
on the local labour
markets.
Our hypotheses is that the
mobility may either
complement, or substitute
• H0: Inflow of labour leads
to substitute the locals
• H1: Inflow of labour leads
to complement the locals

14. Key results of Paper 1:
In-migrants complement:
High skilled , medium skilled,
and low skilled create jobs for
high skilled locals in outskirt
municipalities
In-migrants substitute:
Low skilled in-migrants seem to
substitute medium skilled locals
in outskirts
In-commuters complement:
Medium skilled and Low skilled
in-commuters seem to create
jobs for the locals, in outskirts
municipalities
In-commuters substitute:
Medium skilled in-commuters
seem to substitute medium-
skilled locals in the outskirts

15. Paper 2: Spatial mobility of Human Capital and early career
effects in the Danish labour market
This paper investigates the spatial mobility
patterns of human capital after graduating
from higher educational institution (HEI)
and entering the first employment.
We Studied:
 Graduates from Academic Education
 Graduates from Professional
Education
To answer the research questions
related to
Overall labour market outcome of
graduates mobility
And
Location-specific labour market
outcome of graduates mobility

16. Key results of Paper 2:
In overall labour market outcome
Academic graduates get:
+0,7 % better employment
+0,9 % better wages
If they move after graduating
Professional graduates get:
-0,1 % worse employment
-0,3 % worse wages
If they move after graduating
Location-specific labour market outcome
Moving to urban:
- Academic graduates - has a largest positive
effect both on employment and wages
- Professional graduates – has positive effect
on wages by (+0,1 %)
Moving to rural:
- professional graduates has higher
employment and wage probability for both
moving and staying in rural areas
!!!! Key determinant in mobility decision of the human capital is the wages !!!!!
!!!! Professional graduates are skilled labour building the local labour market in rural
areas !!!!

17. To summarize Part One
• Human Capital plays important
role in the territorially bounded
entities
• Attracting the human capital in
the rural and peripheral areas are
crucial
• Creating, i.e. educate and train
human capital in the rural and
peripheral areas
• For EA-project: two papers
showed the mechanisms of
human capital mobility and its
role on the local labour markets
in generally rural areas

18. Part Two: Institutional Dimension
Cross-border Institutional thickness in
Danish-German region

19. Case study design
Pilot
Case:
NL-GE

20. What is CBIT?
Cross-Border Institutional Thickness
An “institutional thickness” is
explained as the local conditions
that are favourable for the
economic growth, by some non-
economic factors:
1. A strong local institutional
presence
2. The interaction between
the institutions-
3. A common agenda or
strategy
4. Structures of domination
and/or patterns of
coalition)

21. Structure within CBIT

22. CBIT Empirical Model
CBIT components SNA Empirical method Expected analyses
1.A strong local institutional
presence
 Network cohesion;
 Core-periphery structure;
 Closeness centrality;
-The structure of the full network.
-Its cohesiveness, embeddedness and
efficiency.
2.Interaction between the
institutions – direct and indirect
 Degree centrality;
 Eigenvector centrality;
-The maximum direct interactions of
any institution, i.e. immediate influence.
-The maximum indirect interactions of
any institution; i.e. long-term influence.
3.A common agenda or
strategy towards achieving the
development goal
 Identification of the
common goal of interest
(e.g. innovation);
 Degree and Eigenvector
centrality;
-The institutions that have maximum
direct and indirect interactions in the network
and participate in the projects that meet the
common goal of interest (e.g. innovation).
4.Structures of domination,
patterns of coalition and
coordination regarding the
financial matters
 Identification of the lead
partners in the networks;
 β-centrality;
-The lead partner organisations
role/power/and centrality in the CBIT.

23. Data: INTERREG IV A – institutional cooperation matrix between
2007 - 2014
Country Institutions Lead
partners
Involvement
project
DK 66 44 142
GE 69 29 164
Grand Total 135 73 306
A strong local institutional presence

24. Institution name Degree
Eigenvect
or
Closeness HC-coop beta=+0,031
Syddansk Universitet, Odense 0,49 0,44 0,38 1 5,07503
Fachhochschule Flensburg 0,54 0,39 0,41 0 4,50227
Fachhochschule Kiel 0,36 0,35 0,37 0 4,04769
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel 0,38 0,33 0,35 1 3,81252
Universität Flensburg 0,34 0,32 0,38 0 3,69932
Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein,
Campus Kiel 0,30 0,24 0,34 1 2,78921
Odense Universitetshospital 0,31 0,24 0,37 0 2,72485
Syddansk Universitet, Sønderborg 0,17 0,21 0,34 0 2,44021
Stadt Flensburg 0,44 0,14 0,40 1 1,79208
Aabenraa Kommune 0,28 0,10 0,34 1 1,24217
Sønderborg Kommune 0,25 0,10 0,34 0 1,24061
Udviklingsråd Sønderjylland (URS) 0,10 0,09 0,35 1 1,03761
Tønder Kommune 0,27 0,07 0,34 1 0,86119
Industrie- und Handelskammer Flensburg 0,13 0,06 0,38 0 0,76561
Wissenschaftszentrum Kiel GmbH 0,08 0,06 0,33 0 0,70723
Syddansk Universitet, Kolding 0,06 0,05 0,32 1 0,57958
CBIT’s second, third and fourth components in summary

25. CBIT Replication to : Rhine-Waal (NL-GE)
Institution’s name Degree Eigenv. Closeness HC-
coop
β=+0.02
Wirtschaftsförderung Kreis Kleve GmbH 0,204 0,212 0,522 0 0,191
Gemeente Nijmegen 0,198 0,211 0,505 0 0,189
Gemeente Gennep 0,198 0,191 0,510 0 0,172
Gesellschaft für kommunales Marketing, Tourismus und
Wirtschaftsförderung der Stadt Goch 0,176 0,183 0,434 0 0,164
Gemeente Bergen 0,166 0,182 0,507 0 0,164
Gemeinde Weeze 0,166 0,179 0,432 0 0,160
Gemeente Groesbeek 0,161 0,178 0,498 0 0,160
Kleve Marketing GmbH &Co. KG 0,153 0,172 0,430 0 0,154
Gemeente Venray 0,166 0,165 0,501 0 0,148
Kreis Wesel - Entwichlungs-Agentur Wirtschaft (EAW) 0,146 0,162 0,505 0 0,146
Regionaal Bureau voor Toerisme Knooppunt Arnhem Nijmegen 0,143 0,162 0,430 0 0,145
Gemeente Horst aan de Maas 0,138 0,162 0,495 0 0,146
Gemeente Venlo 0,138 0,162 0,495 0 0,146
Stadt Krefeld Stadtmarketing 0,141 0,159 0,430 0 0,142
Wirtschaftsförderung Kreis Viersen GmbH 0,141 0,159 0,430 0 0,142
Gemeente Boxmeer 0,118 0,139 0,423 0 0,125
Gemeente Mook en Middelaar 0,118 0,139 0,423 0 0,125
Gemeinde Kranenburg 0,133 0,138 0,426 0 0,124
Gemeente Beek-Ubbergen 0,103 0,129 0,421 0 0,115
Stadt Rheinberg 0,118 0,124 0,428 0 0,111

26. To summarize Part Two
• Developing the CBIT model
• Replication the CBIT model
• Danish-German CBIT shows
that the central role is in the
hands of the universities.
• HEIs have wider influence on
DK-GE CBIT
• Key institutions in Rhine-Waal
CBIT are municipalities and local
and regional administration.
• In Rhine-Waal region beta power
is low – flat network.
• For EA-project: the institutions
in the Danish-German border
region can be mobilised to create
attractive networks for Human
capital creation

27. Main policy implications
• Focusing on attracting and retaining human capital
in the rural areas can be one of the most significant
policy recommendations
• Another key policy recommendation should be to
attract higher educational institutions, both,
universities and professional colleges in the rural
and peripheral areas
• The policy implication of the CBIT model is
demonstrated in the applicability of the model to
study how well local institutions are involved in the
cross-border interactions

28. Summarizing a relevant output for
project “Emerging Attraction”
Q: How to solve the human capital shortage in
the Danish-German border region?
A: No universal model for regional development
To create and attract is important,
but to retain more important!
To use cross-border incentives
to tackle local development issues
To apply CBIT model
for analysis and planning

29. Thank you for your attention