Recent theoretical research deals with economic costs and benefits of cultural diversity related to immigration. However, empirical evidence regarding the impact of cultural diversity on economic performance is still scarce. We analyse the effect of cultural diversity of the labour force on...

This paper develops an analytically solvable new economic geography model in which not only skilled, self-employed labour is mobile, but also the unskilled labour force. Unskilled labour mobility increases the agglomeration incentive of skilled labour and influences the pattern of agglomeration....

By revisiting Lotka's law to account for the concentration of authors in a given field, this paper examines the determinants of scientific productivity in Belgium, measured as publications' "impact scores". We then estimate "arrondissement impact scores" in a model that incorporates spatial...

Economic growth is an important priority for many local governments. There is a long-standing theoretical debate on how to best organize government for economic growth. There is surprisingly little empirical research focusing on how government organization affects regional growth. In this paper...

Physical and economic geography both contribute to low levels of income in Africa. The small size of African countries and markets impedes growth through a number of mechanisms. The business environment is prone to monopoly and opportunistic behaviour. Cities are relatively small. Public goods...

This paper analyses the differential impact of human capital, in terms of different levels of schooling, on regional productivity and convergence. The potential existence of geographical spillovers of human capital is also considered by applying spatial panel data techniques. The empirical...

The new economic geography (NEG) has become a mainstay of regional science in the last two decades, as signified by the awarding of Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize. Yet, most American regional scientists and urban/regional economists do not use NEG in determining regional growth patterns. Instead,...

Trade costs are a crucial element of New Economic Geography (NEG) models. Without trade costs there is no role for geography. In empirical NEG studies the unavailability of direct trade cost data calls for the need to approximate these trade costs by introducing a trade cost function. In doing...

This paper aims to provide insights into the phenomenon of knowledge flows. We study one of the main mechanisms through which these flows occur, namely, the mobility of highly-skilled individuals. We focus on the geographical mobility of inventors across European regions. Thus, patent data are...