Regional convergence of German labour markets represents a politically important question. Different studies have examined convergence processes in Germany. We derive equations to estimate the speed of convergence on the basis of an extended Solow model. The technique of geographically weighted...

The robustness of the results coming from an econometric application depends to a great extent on the quality of the sampling information. This statement is a general rule that becomes especially relevant in a spatial context where data usually have lots of irregularities. The purpose of our...

A test strategy consisting of a twofold application of a Lagrange Multiplier test is suggested as a device to reveal spatial nonstationarity and spurious spatial regeression. It is further illustrated how the test strategy can be used as a diagnostic for presence of a spatial cointegrating...

In recent times, there has been a renewed interest in cluster policies for supporting industrial and regional development. Prominent economics like Porter and Krugman emphasise the role of clusters in regional competition and show in which way clusters can positively affect competition by...

Strong regional clusters are increasingly seen as a response to economic globalization by policy makers and regional development agencies. The reasoning of competitive advantages of countries and regions with enterprises organized in clusters has mainly been popularized by Porter (1990, 1998,...

Changes in production and employment are closely related over the course of the business cycle. However, as exemplified by the laws of Verdoorn (1949, 1993) and Okun (1962, 1970), thresholds seem to be present in the relationship. Due to capacity reserves of the firms, output growth must exceed...

In this paper, we use the Beveridge relationship to address the effectiveness of the matching process, that brings workers searching for jobs together with employers searching for workers. For a fixed matching technology, the curve yields a negative relation between the unemployment rate and the...