Under pressure: How places cope with industrial restructuring

This webinar was the 27th meeting of the Spatial Productivity Lab.

The Spatial Productivity Lab (SPL) at the OECD Trento Centre for Local Development is a dedicated research laboratory that works with local, national and global partners to improve our collective understanding of the spatial dimension of productivity growth, the relevance of links between different types of places and the role of  regional policy in driving productivity growth, creating better jobs and boosting well-being. 

This meeting is part of the OECD Transforming Places project, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The Transforming Places project will develop new international evidence on how places facing industrial restructuring can reshape local industries, institutions, and identities in ways that generate new sources of local prosperity. While it has a focus on transferrable lessons for the UK, it will generate insights and foster international exchanges that are relevant for a broader audience.

The pressure of industrial restructuring has been accelerating under the combined forces of digitalisation, advances in artificial intelligence, evolving global value chains and environmental considerations. These shifts create new opportunities for innovation and growth, but they also exert significant pressure on certain sectors, which tend to be highly spatially concentrated.

The impacts of industrial shocks are uneven: while some regions adapt and thrive, others struggle to recover, with potentially high social and economic costs for workers and communities. Yet, our understanding of why certain places rebound more effectively than others remains limited. By studying the spatial patterns of past industrial restructurings, we can uncover insights to help regions navigate current and future challenges, ensuring that industrial change becomes an engine of resilience rather than a source of vulnerability.

Two new OECD working papers, carried out within the Transforming Places project, introduces the Industrial Restructuring Pressure index, a tool that helps identify where restructuring pressures hit the hardest, and assess how places responded in the aftermath. Covering over 400 urban labour markets across six OECD countries and spanning over five decades, the analysis uncovers distinct adjustment patterns following industrial restructuring pressure.

This webinar marked the launch of the two OECD working papers. The session explored the geography of industrial change, discussed drivers of uneven adjustment patterns, and identified what these insights mean for policy strategies that support communities under pressure.

The event was open to civil society and all those interested in the topic upon free registration.

Papers

For more information, please contact Carlo.Menon@oecd.org, Wessel.Vermeulen@oecd.org  and Zuzana.Zavarska@oecd.org at the OECD Spatial Productivity Lab.