It has long been an article of faith amongst regional economists that increasing returns to scale are necessary to explain the punctiform location of economic activity and population. However, there is no consensus in the empirical literature over whether returns to scale are constant or...

Using data envelopment analysis, we calculate indices of total factor productivity (TFP), efficiency and technological change for the manufacturing sectors of 68 European NUTS1 regions over the period 1986-2002. We subsequently examine these indices using exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA)...