Regional economic policy faces the challenge of two competing policy goals - reducing regional economic disparities vs. promoting economic growth. The allocation of public funds has to weigh these goals particularly under the restriction of scarce financial resources. If, however, some region...

Most panel data studies of the predictability of returns presume that the cross-sectional units are independent, an assumption that is not realistic. As a response to this, the current paper develops block bootstrap-based panel predictability tests that are valid under very general conditions....

The decision to take more education is complex, and is influenced by individual ability, financial constraints, family background, preferences, etc. Such factors, normally unobserved by the researcher, introduce endogeneity and heterogeneity problems into estimating the returns to education. In...