This paper examines whether differences in educational externalities affect individual earnings across regions in the EU. Using microeconomic data from the European Community Household Panel, the analysis relies on spatial economic analysis in order to determine to what extent differences in...

The United States and European Union differ significantly in terms of their innovative capacity: the former have been able to gain and maintain world leadership in innovation and technology while the latter continues to lag. Notwithstanding the magnitude of this innovation gap and the political...

Thomas Friedman (2005) argues that the expansion of trade, the internationalization of firms, the galloping process of outsourcing, and the possibility of networking is creating a 'flat world': a level playing field where individuals are empowered and better off. This paper challenges this view...

Research on the institutional foundations of economic development emphasizes either rulebound systems of exchange or informal bonds between individuals and within small groups. This corresponds to a classical division in social science, between the forces of society and those of community. This...

The recent wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) is not only profoundly altering the structure of businesses, but has also triggered a thorough reshuffling in the location of economic decision-making. This paper explores these changes in Germany over the last decade, with particular attention...

Recent research has highlighted that in the last few years, the evolution of regional disparities in many European states has become pro-cyclical. This represents a change with respect to the predominantly anti-cyclical pattern of the 1960s and 1970s. This paper addresses the question of whether...

Past studies of regional economic disparities in the EU are fundamentally based on the information provided by macroeconomic variables. This paper considers regional disparities using microeconomic data aggregated at the regional level, paying attention not only to the average, but also to the...

European regional growth patterns have undergone two important changes in recent years. First, the process of convergence that dominated regional growth until the late 1970s and early 1980s has progressively given way to stability and divergence. Economic dynamism is increasingly concentrated in...