The Joint Task (“Gemeinschaftsaufgabe”) “Improvement of Regional Economic Structure” is an important instrument of German regional policy. The programme aims at narrowing the development disparities among regions. The “Gemeinschaftsaufgabe” identifies assisted areas using four single...

The standard model of New Economic Geography (NEG) presents a synthesis of polarization and neo-classical theories. Within a monopolistic competition framework it aims to explain processes of concentration and deconcentration of manufacturing in a two-sector economy. In this paper the effects of...

The indicators get different weights, when they are summarised to one figure. This weighting scheme is problematic for different reasons. On the one hand, the used transformations of the variables are non-permissible. On the other hand, the weighting of the indicators is not meaningful, because...

Although the phase of euphoria seems to be over, policymakers and regional agencies have maintained their interest in cluster policy. Modern cluster theory provides reasons for positive external effects that may accrue from interaction in a group of proximate enterprises operating in common and...

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,...

Modern cluster theory provides reasons for positive external effects that accrue from the interaction of spatially proximate firms operating in common and related fields of economic activity. In this paper, we examine the impact of R&D-intensive clusters as a key factor of regional...

Diese Festschrift enthält Beiträge zur empirischen Regionalforschung, die für die Regionalpolitik von hoher Relevanz sind. Dabei wird ein breites Methodenspektrum verwendet, wie es für die moderne Regionalforschung heute kennzeichnend ist. Thematisch erstrecken sich die Beiträge von der...