This discussion paper resulted in an article in <I>Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie</I> (2011). Volume 102(4), pages 385-405.<P> Knowledge drives the growth of nations and regions in a competitive space-economy. Hence, we would expect a strong correlation between investments in R&D,...</p></i>

This paper focuses on the concept of knowledge and examines models depicting and explaining the role of knowledge in regional development and provides an assessment of empirical studies of how knowledge affects growth and development in functional regions. For this paper it is crucial to...

This paper investigates the relationship between inter-firm labor mobility and regional productivity growth. Previous studies have shown that density is positively correlated with growth. I claim that it is not density in itself, but rather the attributes associated with it that drives economic...

A burgeoning literature has emerged during the last two decades to assess the economic impacts of immigration on host countries. In recent years much research has been at the national level under the assumption that impacts in open regions may dissipate through adjustment processes such as...

This paper provides a conceptual discussion of relatedness, which suggests a focus on individuals as a complement to firms and industries. The empirical relevance of the main arguments are tested by estimating the effects of related and unrelated variety in education and occupation among...

When did the first Italian industrial districts spring up? In which regions have they developed, and over what times, in the forty years of republican Italy from the end of World War II to the nineties? How do districts develop? How do they change their shape in time? By using for the first time...

This paper offers a methodological contribution to empirical analysis of the relationships between banking and economic growth by proposing the microeconomic efficiency of banks as a new proxy for the state of development of the banking system. This measure is partly able to overcome the problem...