Public policy and cluster management face a common challenge in developing sustainable clusters. Many clusters report difficulties acquiring membership fees once the governmental subsidies come to an end, which brings doubts as to the cluster management's capabilities and likewise to the public...

Circular economy is a concept that currently received a particular attention due to its contribution to the European objectives related to economic development under restrictive environmental conditions, in other words, the implementation of circular economy activities is essential to maintain...

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) constitute the backbone of all market economies worldwide; the EU is not an exception. As such, they merit particular attention from the part of the public authorities, in times of financial crisis when alternative financing sources are needed....

We study the effects of a unique lending program initiated by the Swedish government at the height of the financial crisis that allowed firms to suspend payment of all labor-related taxes and fees. Comprehensive administrative data on all Swedish firms show that firms borrowing from the program...

We study the investment of criminal organizations in the legal economy. We focus on Italy, a country historically plagued by a conspicuous presence of mafia-type organizations. By using the exogenous credit contraction imposed by the 2007 financial crisis we highlight how the consequences for...

While some researchers have suggested that the self-employment (SE) sector is a haven during a financial crisis, others believe that SE is not necessarily the desired outcome, but an indicator that the labor market is tightening for some groups. Few researchers have compared the SE sector before...

I show that disruptions to personal sources of financing, aside from commercial lending supply shocks, impair the survival and growth of small businesses. Entrepreneurs holding deposit accounts at retail banking institutions that defaulted following the financial crisis reduce personal borrowing...

This paper calls for a fresh look at industrial policies in the light of recent trends and developments in the global economy. In particular, five new challenges and their implications for industrial policies are discussed. These have been neglected in the debate on industrial policy and include...

We propose and test empirically a theory describing the endogenous formation and persistence of mega-states, using China as an example. We suggest that the relative timing of the emergence of agricultural societies, and their distance from each other, set off a race between their autochthonous...

Women politicians face barriers that can undermine their performance relative to men. Using original micro-data from Uganda, we test for gender gaps in performance across different job duties in subnational legislatures. We hypothesize, and find, that performance gender gaps are greatest in job...