Because of heterogeneity across regions, economic policy measures are increasingly targeted at the regional level. As a result, the need for economic forecasts at a sub-national level is rapidly increasing. The data available to compute regional forecasts is usually based on a pseudo-panel that...

Complexity and uncertainty are key issues in exploring future developments. Moreover, although the future cannot be predicted, it is clear that certain decisions/actions can influence the future in desired directions. In this respect, planners are being challenged to focus on the development of...

In this paper, a set of neural network (NN) models is developed to compute short-term forecasts of regional employment patterns in Germany. NNs are modern statistical tools based on learning algorithms that are able to process large amounts of data. NNs are enjoying increasing interest in...