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Shift-share analysis
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A shift-share analysis, used in regional science, political economy, and urban studies, determines what portions of regional economic growth or decline can be attributed to national, economic industry, and regional factors. The analysis helps identify industries where a regional economy has competitive advantages over the larger economy. A shift-share analysis takes the change over time of an economic variable, such as employment, within industries of a regional economy, and divides that change into various components. A traditional shift-share analysis splits regional changes into just three components, but other models have evolved that expand the decomposition into additional components.
Overview
[edit]A shift-share analysis attempts to identify the sources of regional economic changes. The region can be a town, city, country, statistical area, state, or any other region of the country. The analysis examines changes in an economic variable, such as migration, a demographic statistic, firm growth, or firm formations, although employment is most commonly used.[1][2] The shift-share analysis is performed on a set of economic industries, like those defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The analysis separates the regional economic changes within each industry into different categories. Although there are different versions of a shift-share analysis, they all identify national, industry, and regional factors that influence the variable changes.
Traditional model
[edit]The traditional form of the shift-share analysis was developed by Daniel Creamer in the early 1940s, and was later formalized by Edgar S. Dunn in 1960.[2] Also known as the comparative static model, it examines changes in the economic variable between two years. Changes are calculated for each industry in the analysis, both regionally and nationally. Each regional change is decomposed into three components.[3]
- National growth effect is the portion of the change attributed to the total growth of the national economy. It equals the theoretical change in the regional variable had it increased by the same percentage as the national economy.
- Industry mix effect is the portion of the change attributed to the performance of the specific economic industry. It equals the theoretical change in the regional variable had it increased by the same percentage as the industry nationwide, minus the national growth effect.
- Local share effect is the portion of the change attributed to regional influences, and is the component of primary concern to regional analysts.[3] It equals the actual change in the regional variable, minus the previous two effects.
Formula
[edit]The regional change in the variable e within industry i between the two years t and t+n is defined as the sum of the three shift-share effects: national growth effect (NSi), industry mix effect (IMi), and local share effect (RSi).[4]
The beginning and ending values of the economic variable within a particular industry are eit and eit+n, respectively. Each of the three effects is defined as a percentage of the beginning value of the economic variable.[4]
The total percent change in the economic variable nationwide for all industries combined is G, while the national and regional industry-specific percent changes are Gi and gi, respectively.
These three equations substituted into the first equation yield the following expression (from where the decomposition starts), which simply says that the regional economic variable (for industry i) grows at the speed of the regional industry-specific percent change. Note that usually (in case of slow growth) 0 < gi < 1 and that gi refers to the whole period from t to t+n.
Example
[edit]As an example, a shift-share analysis might be utilized to examine changes in the construction industry of a state's economy over the past decade, using employment as the economic variable studied. Total national employment may have increased 5% over the decade, while national construction employment increased 8%. However, state construction employment decreased 2%, from 100,000 to 98,000 employees, for a net loss of 2,000 employees.
The national growth effect is equal to the beginning 100,000 employees, times the total national growth rate of 5%, for an increase in 5,000 employees. The shift-share analysis implies that state construction would have increased by 5,000 employees, had it followed the same trend as the overall national economy.
The industry mix effect is equal to the original 100,000 employees times the growth in the industry nationwide, which was 8%, minus the total national growth of 5%. This results in an increase in 3,000 employees (100,000 employees times 3%, which is the 8% industry growth minus the 5% total growth). The analysis implies that the state construction would have increased by another 3,000 employees had it followed the industry trends, because the construction industry nationwide performed better than the national economy overall.
The local share effect in this example is equal to the beginning 100,000 employees times the state construction employment growth rate of −2% (it is negative because of the loss of employees), minus the national construction growth rate of 8%. This results in 100,000 employees times -10%, for a loss of 10,000 employees. However, the actual employment loss was only 2,000 employees, but that equals the sum of the three effects (5,000 gain + 3,000 gain + 10,000 loss). The analysis implies that local factors lead to a decrease in 10,000 employees in the state construction industry, because the growth in both the national economy and the construction industry should have increased state construction employment by 8,000 employees (the 5,000 national share effect plus the 3,000 industry mix effect).
Names and regions
[edit]Shift-share analysts sometimes use different labels for the three effects, although the calculations are the same. National growth effect may be referred to as national share.[4][5] Industry mix effect may be referred to as proportional shift.[5] Local share effect may be referred to as differential shift,[3] regional shift,[4] or competitive share.[6]
In most shift-share analyses, the regional economy is compared to the national economy. However, the techniques may be used to compare any two regions (e.g., comparing a county to its state).[7]
Dynamic model
[edit]In 1988, Richard Barff and Prentice Knight, III, published the dynamic model shift-share analysis.[8] In contrast to the comparative static model, which only considers two years in its analysis (the beginning and ending years), the dynamic model utilizes every year in the study period. Although it requires much more data to perform the calculations, the dynamic model takes into account continuous changes in the three shift-share effects, so the results are less affected by the choice of starting and ending years.[8] The dynamic model is most useful when there are large differences between regional and national growth rates, or large changes in the regional industrial mix.[8]
The dynamic model uses the same techniques as the comparative static model, including the same three shift-share effects. However, in the dynamic model, a time-series of traditional shift-share calculations are performed, comparing each year to the previous year. The annual shift-share effects are then totaled together for the entire study period, resulting in the dynamic model's shift-share effects.[8]
Formula
[edit]The regional change in the variable e within industry i between the two years t and t+n is defined as the sum of the three shift-share effects: national growth effect (NSi), industry mix effect (IMi), and local share effect (RSi).[8]
If the study period ranges from year t to year t+n, then traditional shift-share effects are calculated for every year k, where k spans from t+1 to t+n.[8] The dynamic model shift-share effects are then calculated as the sum of the annual effects.[8]
The growth rates used in the calculations are annual rates, not growth from the beginning year in the study period, so the percent change from year k-1 to k in the economic variable nationwide for all industries combined is Gk, while the national and regional industry-specific percent changes are Gik and gik, respectively.[8]
Esteban-Marquillas Model
[edit]In 1972, J.M. Esteban-Marquillas extended the traditional model to address criticism that the regional share effect is correlated to the regional industrial mix.[9] In the Esteban-Marquillas model, the regional share effect itself is decomposed into two components, isolating a regional shift component that is not correlated to the industrial mix.[9] The model introduced a then-new concept to shift-share analyses, a homothetic level of the economic variable within an industry. This is the theoretical value of the variable within an industry assuming the region has the same industrial mix as the nation.[9]
In the Esteban-Marquillas model, the calculations of the national share and industrial mix effects are unchanged. However, the regional share effect in the traditional model is separated into two effects: a new regional share effect that is not dependent on the industrial mix, and an allocation effect that is. The allocation effect indicates the extent to which the region is specialized in those industries where it enjoys a competitive advantage.[9]
Formula
[edit]The regional change in the variable e within industry i between the two years t and t+n is defined as the sum of the four shift-share effects: national growth effect (NSi), industry mix effect (IMi), regional share effect (RSi), and allocation effect (ALi).
The beginning and ending values of the economic variable within a particular industry are eit and eit+n, respectively. The beginning value of the regional homothetic variable within a particular industry is hit.[9] It is based on the regional and national values of the economic variable across all industries, et and Et respectively, and the industry-specific national value Eit.
Each of the four shift-share effects is defined as a percentage of either the beginning value of the economic variable, the homothetic variable, or the difference of the two.[9]
The total percent change in the economic variable nationwide for all industries combined is G, while the national and regional industry-specific percent changes are Gi and gi, respectively.
Arcelus Model
[edit]In 1984, Francisco Arcelus built upon Esteban-Marquillas' use of the homothetic variables and extended the traditional model even further.[10] He used this method to decompose the national share and industrial mix effects into expected and differential components. The expected component is based on the homothetic level of the variable, and is the effect not attributed to the regional specializations. The differential component is the remaining effect, which is attributable to the regional industrial mix.[10]
Arcelus claimed that, even with the Esteban-Marquillas extension, the regional share effect is still related to the regional industry mix, and that the static model assumes all regional industries operate on a national market basis, focusing too heavily on the export markets and ignoring the local markets.[10] In order to address these issues, Arcelus used a different method for separating the regional share effect, resulting in a regional growth effect and a regional industry mix effect. Both of these are decomposed into expected and differential components using the homothetic variable.[10]
Formula
[edit]The regional change in the variable e within industry i between the two years t and t+n is defined as the sum of the eight shift-share effects: expected national growth effect (NSEi), differential national growth effect (NSDi), expected industry mix effect (IMEi), differential industry mix effect (IMDi), expected regional growth effect (RGEi), differential regional growth effect (RGDi), expected regional industry mix effect (RIEi), and differential regional industry mix effect (RIDi).[10]
The eight effects are related to the three traditional shift-share effects from the comparative static model.[10]
The homothetic variable is calculated the same as in the Esteban-Marquillas model. The beginning value of the regional homothetic variable within a particular industry is hit. It is based on the regional and national values of the economic variable across all industries, et and Et respectively, and the industry-specific national value Eit.[10]
Each of the eight shift-share effects is defined as a percentage of either the beginning value of the economic variable, the homothetic variable, or the difference of the two.[10]
The total percent changes in the economic variable nationally and regionally for all industries combined are G and g respectively, while the national and regional industry-specific percent changes are Gi and gi, respectively.
Further reading
[edit]- Borusyak, Kirill, Peter Hull, and Xavier Jaravel. 2025. "A Practical Guide to Shift-Share Instruments." Journal of Economic Perspectives 39 (1): 181–204.
References
[edit]- ^ Cheng, Shaoming (2 February 2010). "Business cycle, industrial composition, or regional advantage? A decomposition analysis of new firm formation in the United States". The Annals of Regional Science. 47 (1): 147–167. doi:10.1007/s00168-009-0361-0.
- ^ a b Shi, Chun-Yun; Yang Yang (2008). "A Review of Shift-Share Analysis and its Application in Tourism". International Journal of Management Perspectives. 1 (1): 21–30.
- ^ a b c Leigh, Nancey Green (2013). Planning Local Economic Development. Sage Publications. pp. 174–175. ISBN 9781452242590.
- ^ a b c d Stevens, Benjamin; Craig Moore (1980). "A critical review of the literature on shift-share as a forecasting technique". Journal of Regional Science. 20 (4): 419. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9787.1980.tb00660.x.
- ^ a b Knudesn, Daniel C. (2000). "Shift-share analysis: further examination of models for the description of economic change". Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. 34.
- ^ "Georgia Statistics System". University of Georgia. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
- ^ Michael LaFaive; James M. Hohman (31 August 2009). "The Michigan Economic Development Corporation: A Review and Analysis". Mackinac Center. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Barff, Richard; Prentice L. Knight III (April 1988). "Dynamic Shift-Share Analysis". Growth and Change. 19 (2): 1–10. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2257.1988.tb00465.x.
- ^ a b c d e f Esteban-Marquillas, J.M. (1972). "A reinterpretation of shift-share analysis". Regional and Urban Economics. 2 (3): 249–261. doi:10.1016/0034-3331(72)90033-4.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Arcelus, Francisco (January 1984). "An extension of shift-share analysis". Growth and Change. 15 (1).
Shift-share analysis
View on GrokipediaIntroduction
Definition and Purpose
Shift-share analysis is a decomposition technique in regional economics that breaks down changes in regional economic indicators, such as employment or output, into three primary components: a national growth effect reflecting overall economic expansion, an industry composition effect capturing the influence of sectoral mixes, and a regional competitive effect highlighting local advantages or disadvantages.[6] This approach enables the isolation of region-specific factors from nationwide trends and industrial structures, providing a structured way to evaluate why a region's economy may grow faster or slower than expected.[6] The core purpose of shift-share analysis is to identify the drivers of regional economic performance by distinguishing between exogenous influences—like national growth and industry-specific trends—and endogenous ones, such as local competitiveness, thereby supporting targeted economic development strategies and policy formulation.[6] By quantifying these effects, the method helps policymakers and analysts pinpoint thriving sectors for investment or underperforming areas needing intervention, fostering a deeper understanding of structural economic changes at the regional level.[7] Shift-share analysis originated in the post-World War II era of regional economics, emerging as a tool to analyze postwar economic disparities and guide planning efforts amid rapid industrialization and reconstruction.[1] It presupposes basic knowledge of economic indicators, including employment shares by industry and region, to interpret the relative performance of local economies against benchmarks.[6]Historical Development
An early precursor to shift-share analysis appeared in the 1940 Barlow Report by the Royal Commission on the Location of the Industrial Population in the United Kingdom, which used a rudimentary form of the technique to assess interregional employment changes and inform post-war planning.[1] The method originated in the early 1940s with the work of economist Daniel Creamer, who developed it as a method to examine shifts in regional manufacturing employment relative to national trends, initially applied to U.S. data on labor distribution across industries.[8] Creamer's approach laid the groundwork for decomposing regional economic changes into national growth, industrial mix, and regional share components, though it remained largely descriptive at this stage. The method gained formal structure in 1960 through the contributions of Edgar S. Dunn Jr. and collaborators, including Harvey Perloff, who refined it into a systematic analytical tool. Dunn's paper "A Statistical and Analytical Technique for Regional Analysis" introduced the "Dunn cross-classification" to better isolate and interpret the interactive effects between national and regional factors.[9] This formalization was influenced by pioneers in regional science, such as Walter Isard, whose 1960 book Methods of Regional Analysis: An Introduction to Regional Science integrated shift-share into broader frameworks for studying spatial economic dynamics and emphasized its role in understanding regional development as a subset of national growth. The collaborative work, including Perloff et al.'s Regions, Resources and Economic Growth, elevated shift-share from an ad hoc measurement to a standardized technique, widely adopted in academic and policy analyses during the 1960s to evaluate employment trends and inform redevelopment strategies in economically distressed areas.[1] Extensions to the core model began in the 1970s, addressing limitations in handling structural changes over time. In 1972, J.M. Esteban-Marquillas proposed a reinterpretation that incorporated homothetic employment assumptions to separate allocation effects more precisely, enhancing the model's ability to account for differential industry distributions.[10] This was further developed in 1984 by Francisco J. Arcelus, who extended the framework to include additional interaction terms, improving the decomposition of competitive advantages.[11] Meanwhile, efforts to incorporate temporal dynamics traced back to earlier critiques but culminated in the 1988 dynamic model by Richard A. Barff and Prentice L. Knight III, which used continuous growth rates to mitigate biases in static comparisons over extended periods.[12] These advancements solidified shift-share as a cornerstone of regional economic analysis by the late 20th century.Core Methodology
Components of the Traditional Model
The traditional shift-share model decomposes changes in a regional economy, such as employment or output, into three distinct components that isolate the influences of broader economic trends, sectoral composition, and local factors. This decomposition allows analysts to attribute regional performance to national dynamics, structural characteristics, and competitive elements without implying causation. Developed as a descriptive tool, the model applies to various geographic scales, including states, metropolitan areas, and subnational regions, providing insights into how local economies align with or diverge from national patterns. The national growth effect, also known as the proportional or national share effect, represents the portion of regional change attributable to overall national economic expansion. It assumes the region grows at the same rate as the nation as a whole, reflecting what the region's economy would experience if its industry shares remained constant relative to the national total. This component captures the baseline influence of macroeconomic conditions, such as aggregate demand or policy shifts, on the region. For instance, during periods of national recovery, a positive national growth effect would indicate that the region's expansion mirrors broader growth, independent of its unique industrial makeup.[13] The industry mix effect, sometimes termed the structural or differential industry effect, measures the impact of the region's sectoral composition compared to the national average. It accounts for whether the region specializes in industries that expand or contract faster than the national economy overall. A favorable industry mix occurs when a region has a higher concentration in high-growth sectors, contributing positively to its performance beyond national trends; conversely, over-reliance on declining industries yields a negative effect. This component highlights structural advantages or vulnerabilities in the regional economy's diversification. Terminology variations include "industry share" or "proportionality effect," emphasizing the role of sectoral specialization.[14] The regional share effect, referred to alternatively as the competitive, differential, or regional shift effect, isolates the residual change after accounting for national growth and industry mix influences. It reflects local factors—such as labor quality, infrastructure, innovation, or policy environments—that drive performance above or below national and structural expectations, indicating a region's competitive edge or disadvantage. A positive regional share suggests "regional advantage," where local conditions enable outperformance in specific industries, while a negative value points to inefficiencies or external challenges unique to the area. This effect is central to identifying policy levers for enhancing competitiveness.[13] These components are interlinked and additive, summing to the total observed regional change, which enables a clear isolation of the regional share as a measure of localized dynamics. The national growth effect provides the foundational trend, the industry mix adjusts for compositional differences, and the regional share captures idiosyncratic performance, together offering a layered understanding of economic shifts across regions like U.S. states or European metropolitan areas. Variations in terminology, such as "regional drift" for the competitive effect, arise from contextual adaptations but preserve the core decomposition logic.[14]Formula and Calculation
The traditional shift-share model mathematically decomposes the change in regional employment for a specific industry into three additive components: the national growth effect, which captures overall national economic expansion; the industry mix effect, which accounts for the differential growth rates of industries at the national level; and the regional share effect, which isolates the region's competitive advantage or disadvantage relative to the national industry average.[15] This formulation, originally developed by Edgar M. Dunn in 1960, provides a structured way to attribute regional economic changes to broader and local factors.[16] Key notation includes: , the base-period employment in region for industry ; , the national growth rate across all industries over the period; , the national growth rate specific to industry ; and , the growth rate of industry in region .[17] These variables are typically derived from employment data spanning two time periods, such as census years, with growth rates calculated as , where superscript denotes the end period.[15] The core equation for the change in regional industry employment, , is expressed as: Here, the first term represents the national effect, the second the industry mix effect, and the third the regional share effect.[17] To compute these for a single industry, one first calculates the growth rates , , and from available employment data, then multiplies each differential by the base employment .[15] For the total regional economy, the effects are aggregated across all industries : the total national effect is , where ; the total industry mix effect is ; and the total regional share effect is .[17] This summation verifies that the overall regional employment change equals the sum of the three total effects, ensuring the decomposition is exhaustive.[15] The model assumes a static analysis between two discrete periods, treating growth rates as constant within each period and applying uniform national growth to all regions in the absence of industry-specific or regional factors.[16] It further presumes that national trends provide a neutral benchmark, with deviations attributable solely to industrial composition and local competitiveness.[17]Example and Interpretation
To illustrate the traditional shift-share model, consider a hypothetical example of manufacturing employment changes in a U.S. state, such as California, from 1950 to 1960, drawing on the style of historical economic data analyses from that era.[6] Suppose the state's manufacturing sector employed 1,000,000 workers in 1950, while the national economy grew by 5% over the decade, the national manufacturing sector grew by 3%, and the state's manufacturing sector actually grew by 6%, reaching 1,060,000 workers by 1960. This setup allows decomposition of the total 60,000-job increase into the three components. The calculation begins with input data: base-year (1950) employment for the state’s manufacturing industry (), national growth rate (), national industry growth rate for manufacturing (), and regional industry growth rate ().- National growth effect: This measures the expected change if the region grew at the national average rate: jobs (a +5% share of the base).[6]
- Industrial mix effect: This captures the industry's deviation from national trends: jobs (a -2% share, reflecting manufacturing's slower national performance).[6]
- Regional share effect: This isolates local factors: jobs (a +3% share). The total shift aggregates to 50,000 - 20,000 + 30,000 = 60,000 jobs, matching the observed +6% net growth.[6]
| Component | Calculation | Jobs Gained/Lost | Percentage Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Growth | +50,000 | +5% | |
| Industrial Mix | -20,000 | -2% | |
| Regional Share | +30,000 | +3% | |
| Total Change | Sum of components | +60,000 | +6% |
Advanced Models
Dynamic Model
The dynamic shift-share model extends the traditional static framework by addressing its key limitation: the assumption of constant national and industry-specific growth rates throughout the analysis period. Instead, it employs period-specific growth rates to compute the national, industrial mix, and regional (competitive) components annually, then sums these effects across multiple periods for a cumulative assessment. This approach enables more accurate decomposition of employment or output changes over extended time horizons, where growth patterns may fluctuate due to economic cycles or structural shifts. Developed by Barff and Knight in 1988, the model was motivated by the need to mitigate biases in static analyses, particularly when regional growth deviates significantly from national trends over time. The core formula for the total change in regional industry employment, , under the dynamic model is: Here, the summation occurs over all periods ; denotes employment in regional industry at the start of period ; (or equivalently ) is the national growth rate in period ; is the national growth rate for industry in period ; and is the regional growth rate for industry in period . The first term captures the national growth effect, the second the industrial mix effect, and the third the regional competitive effect, each recalculated using the updated employment base from the prior period. This iterative process ensures that subsequent periods build on prior outcomes, reflecting compounding dynamics. A primary advantage of the dynamic model lies in its ability to capture temporal variations in growth rates, providing a nuanced view of how regional performance evolves relative to national benchmarks. For example, if a region's industry experiences rapid expansion in early periods but stagnation later, the model attributes effects accordingly, avoiding the averaging distortions of the static method. Barff and Knight demonstrated this in their analysis of New England employment growth from 1939 to 1984, where dynamic calculations revealed shifting competitive advantages in high-technology sectors amid national economic recoveries. Overall, it reduces estimation bias in multi-decade studies by incorporating continuous updates to the employment base and growth rates, yielding more reliable insights into long-term regional competitiveness. In contrast to the traditional model, which applies a single set of growth rates derived from endpoint data, the dynamic variant accumulates effects through period-by-period computations, better approximating actual growth trajectories and minimizing under- or overestimation of components in volatile economies.Esteban-Marquillas Model
The Esteban-Marquillas model, proposed by J. M. Esteban-Marquillas in 1972, extends the traditional shift-share framework by further decomposing the regional share effect to distinguish between structural influences and pure competitive advantages at the industry level. This approach addresses a key limitation in the classical model, where the regional component conflates a region's inherent competitiveness with biases stemming from its unique industrial composition relative to the national average. By isolating these elements, the model enables analysts to assess whether observed growth deviations arise from structural factors, such as over- or under-specialization in certain industries, or from region-specific efficiencies and market dynamics.[18] Central to the model is the introduction of homothetic employment, defined as the hypothetical employment in industry j for region r at the base period if the region mirrored the national industrial structure:where and are the base-period total employment in the region and nation, respectively, and is the national base-period employment in industry j. This contrasts with the actual base-period regional employment . The location quotient quantifies the structural deviation, with .[18] The regional share effect from the traditional model, , where , , and denote the growth rates for region r-industry j, national industry j, and national overall, respectively, is reformulated as the sum of two components:
- Competitive effect: , which applies the regional growth differential to the homothetic base, capturing performance independent of structural biases.
- Allocative (structural) effect: , which measures the interaction between compositional differences (via ) and the regional growth differential, highlighting how specialization amplifies or dampens competitiveness.
This decomposition ensures additivity to the original regional effect while providing granular insights into industry-specific drivers.[18] For instance, a positive allocative effect indicates that a region's over-specialization ( ) in fast-growing industries relative to the nation enhances overall performance.[18]
