Dear colleagues,

The Department of Economics cordially invites you to the WU Economic Research Seminar on Wednesday, October 28, with

Michel Serafinelli

(University of Essex)

"The World’s Rust Belts"

Abstract: We document what happens at local level after the decline of manufacturing in six major Western countries (France, Germany, Italy, Japan, U.K., U.S.) since the 1970susing a newly-assembled dataset. We document a significant heterogeneity in employment growth across local labor markets in the decades following the start of manufacturing decline, even within the group of manufacturing capitals which were more strongly affected by the country-level trend. Using data on driving distance to the nearest historical research university to construct an instrument, we also document a positive association between human capital at the start of manufacturing de-cline and employment performance in the following decades, particularly in knowledge intensive services. Our estimates suggest that skills are important for local reinvention.

Date: Wednesday, October 28^th

Time: 4.30-6.00 pm

Location: You can either join the seminar on site at the campus or via MS Teams.

· On site: Seminar room TC.4.03 (current max. capacity 32 persons instead of 60), please register until October 27th.

· MS Teams: You can access starting from 4.30 pm using this link.

With best regards,

Harald Oberhofer

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Univ.-Prof. Dr. Harald Oberhofer

Institute for International Economics

WU Vienna University of Economics and Business

Phone: +43/1/31336-4984