This review discusses frontier topics in economic geography as they relate to firms and agglomeration economies. We focus on areas where empirical research is scarce but possible. We first outline a conceptual framework for city formation that allows us to contemplate what empiricists might...

The paper explores the potential for inter-sectoral technology flows in industrial clusters in Germany. With the help of a product-embodied R&D flow matrix, calculated using data on input-output tables and sectoral R&D employment, we construct industrial cluster based networks of technology...

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,...

Mit der zunehmenden Globalisierung wird der Wettbewerb heute auch für die Regionen spürbar. Damit diese den Anschluss an die internationale Weltmarktspitze nicht verlieren, müssen sie über ein leistungsfähiges regionales Innovationssystem verfügen. Gerade mit Blick auf den immer noch...

Regional politicians regard the cluster concept as a key factor for promoting regional economic performance. They refer to a comprehensive set of theoretical and empirical literature which provides the clusters' positive impact on regional development. Recent studies dealing with that topic...