This cumulative dissertation consists of five chapters. In terms of research content, my thesis can be divided into two parts. Part one examines local interactions and spillover effects between small regional governments using spatial econometric methods. The second part focuses on patterns...

The three essays of this dissertation contribute to the measurement of European economic integration and investigate the welfare effects of the European countries. The first study presents a newly developed index – the EU Index – which measures the extent of economic integration into the...