In "Clio and the Economics of QWERTY," Paul David challenges an overarching, mainstream assumption that market forces should indeed lead toward efficient and optimal outcomes that include technology selection. David seeks to explain the endurance of technologies that his use of historiography...

Most research on R&D internationalisation focuses on comparative analysis of location factors at the national level of analysis. Very little work, however, has taken place in this field for the sub-national regional location behavior of multi-national enterprises (MNE). The paper contributes to...

Die Internationalisierung von Forschung und Entwicklung nimmt seit vielen Jahren zu. Dieses Phänomen weckt die Befürchtung, der Technologiestandort Deutschland könne durch die Verlagerung von Forschungsaktivitäten insbesondere in die aufstrebenden Schwellenländer gefährdet werden. Um ein...

This paper analyses the determinants of spatial distribution of foreign technological activity across 96 German regions (1996-2009). We identify foreign inventive activity by applying the ‘cross-border-ownership concept’ to transnational patent applications. The descriptive analysis shows...

Over the last decade there has been a resurgence of interest in the possibility of some measure of devolution to regional governments for at least parts of the United Kingdom. In Scotland, the debate has been particularly advanced, and three of the four main political parties in Scotland are...

The newly elected Labour government has pledged to ‘reinvigorate the Private Finance Initiative’, as part of the new emphasis on ‘public/private partnerships’ in the delivery of core public services. This article assesses the merits of using private finance to deliver public services...

Perceptions of private benefits from hypothecated tax increases may be correlated with income either because individuals with different incomes are more or less interested in public services or because they anticipate bearing different shares of the implied tax burden. Without being specific...

Many parts of the public sector coexist with private provision of similar services and in such circumstances we may expect to find interaction between public and private choices. Quality of publicly provided services will be a central influence on decisions whether to make use of private...

This paper examines the role of individual and household characteristics in explaining patterns of support for higher public spending on seven of the most important public spending programmes including health, education, the police and defence. Different groups in the population, such as the...

The cover story examines why small banks aren't usually thrown for a loop when the local economy has a rough ride