This paper examines what regional characteristics drove urban economic growth in Europe during the past decade. Possible impacts on the new member states in Central Europe due to expansion of the European Union are accounted for by comparison between two periods, before and after 2004. With a...

The city of Essen is located at the centre of the Ruhr area, one of the largest urban and industrial agglomerations in Europe. Like many places in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia Essen had to deal with tremendous structural changes due to the downturn of coal mining and the...

While it is intuitively convincing that neighbourhood characteristics add up to an important location factor, knowledge about the benefits that individual firms and entrepreneurs can draw from neighbourhood-oriented policy is still limited. This article contributes to the discussion by...

Supporting entrepreneurship in an urban neighbourhood context: A review of German experiences

In urban renewal policy, it has become a widespread goal to revitalise neighbourhood economies. The rationale for these measures derives, to a great extent, from the concept of regional economic clusters, and, not surprisingly, one of their key objectives is to activate local inter-firm...

In the discussion about demographic change, the regional dimension so far has played a subordinate role. Based on municipal data for the period between 1998 and 2008, this paper examines to what extent recent demographic change has affected the population of cities and neighbourhoods, focusing...

Nach Jahren des demographischen Niedergangs deutet sich in den jüngsten Bevölkerungsdaten der Ruhrgebietsstädte eine mögliche Abflachung des negativen Trends an. Insbesondere vollzog sich in den letzten Jahren nur noch eine begrenzte Abwanderung aus den kreisfreien Städten des Ruhrgebiets...

Angesichts der gesellschaftlichen Alterung ist es aus volkswirtschaftlicher Sicht unabdingbar, ältere Menschen stärker in das Wirtschaftsgeschehen zu integrieren, einerseits um dem sich abzeichnenden Fachkräftemangel bei Jüngeren entgegenzuwirken, andererseits um den Sozialstaat zu...

Das Ruhrgebiet hat in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten einen bemerkenswerten Strukturwandel durchlaufen. Stellenweise sind durchaus beachtliche Ansätze zu seiner wirtschaftlichen Revitalisierung erkennbar, es präsentiert sich heute wirtschaftlich vielfältiger als je zuvor. Nichtsdestoweniger sind...