Samenvatting

This article presents an analysis of the geographical clustering at the bottom end of the human capital distribution within Belgium and its major political regions (namely, the Flemish and the Walloon Region). At the national level, there is both a clear decrease of the shares of unskilled and unqualified adults and of their regionally unequal distribution. However, this overall decrease goes along with growing divergences between Flanders and Wallonia. In Flanders the number of early school leavers has become small. In Wallonia economic problems – measured in terms of unemployment rates – go hand in hand with a comparatively high number of school dropouts. Our empirical findings suggest that the success of particular areas and regions in a knowledge-intensive economy depends not only on the presence of highly skilled and highly qualified human capital, but also suffers from the presence of relatively large shares of the less-skilled. We discuss some implications for political decision-making.