From <i>extractive</i> to <i>transformative</i> industries:paths for linkages and diversification for resource-driven development

While conventional wisdom has placed the focus of the mining and oil and gas sectors on the fact of extraction, a prolific line of the debate on these industries is shifting towards the extent to which resources, as initial assets, can be transformed into broader-based development by promoting cross-sectoral linkages and diversification. This paper provides an overview of the Special Issue of Mineral Economics “Can Mining be a Catalyst for Diversifying Economies”, exploring trends and suggesting challenges for concepts and practice in these industries. It points to the Post-2015 Development Agenda as an opportunity of a transformational role for the mining industry

The local employment impacts of mining : an econometric analysis of job multipliers in northern Sweden

The way in which mining contributes to job opportunities in the region where it takes place has become increasingly important for the industry’s relations to the local community. The employment impacts of mining are however far from straightforward to assess. Considering these uncertainties about real-life job impacts, it is vital that there are sound assessments of these employment effects. The purpose of this paper is to apply a novel econometric approach to assess mining-induced job multipliers in the empirical context of northern Sweden. This analysis employs data on the number of employees in selected non-mining sectors and in the mining sector, respectively, and covering the relatively recent mining boom period (2003-2013). We also highlight differences across the two main mining counties in northern Sweden. The results show a positive statistical relationship between increases in the number of employees in the mining sector and changes in the number of employees in other sectors. The private services sector is particularly affected, while the industrial sector also benefits in the specific case of mining municipalities. The results also indicate relatively large inter-county differences, in turn highlighting the importance of addressing the context-specific circumstances when estimating the employment effects of mining.Validerad; 2017; Nivå 1; 2017-03-23 (rokbeg)</p

Unpacking the U‐shaped relationship between related variety and firm sales: Evidence from Japan

The purpose of this paper is to study how related variety influences firm sales. We apply an instrumental variable method (as well as the most recent plausible instrumental variable method in robustness tests) to analyze more than 600,000 firm observations in all of Japan's 47 prefectures. We find that related variety, as a kind of regional industrial structure, has a U-shaped relationship with firm sales. This finding enriches the related variety perspective by supplementing micro-level evidence, revealing that the “related variety–firm sales” relationship is not linear, as most prior studies have suggested.publishedVersio