Structural change unfolding in and across local economies greatly impacts our everyday experiences and opportunities. At REC we work on understanding how economic and social structures and networks make more successful, sustainable and resilient regions.

Firms and other organizations are critical providers of employment opportunities and contributors to the long-term success of economic sectors and regions. At REC we work on revealing how worker skills and social networks within and across firms yield new, more productive and growing firms, and how these in turn foster growth and structural change in sectors and regions.

While labour markets have changed rapidly in recent decades in terms of both size and composition of economic activities, workers with different backgrounds bear markedly different shares of the risks and benefits associated with this restructuring. At REC we explore how various changes of local economic structures create opportunities and constraints, where and for whom.