Every year, the State of Regions and Cities report invites us to pause, zoom in, and take stock of where we stand. Europe is often spoken of in broad strokes - the Union, the market, the continent. But the real pulse of Europe is felt locally: in our cities, towns, and regions, where daily life...

Every year, the State of Regions and Cities report invites us to pause, zoom in, and take stock of where we stand. Europe is often spoken of in broad strokes - the Union, the market, the continent. But the real pulse of Europe is felt locally: in our cities, towns, and regions, where daily life...

In neuen Kooperationen von Kommunen mit Wissenschaft, zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisationen und Bürger*innen erforschten und erprobten in den beiden BMBF-Fördermaßnahmen "Kommunen innovativ" und "REGION.innovativ - Kreislaufwirtschaft" bundesweit 47 Verbundvorhaben innovative Lösungen, mit...

We study the reaction of low vs. high-skilled politicians to a reform, approved in Italy in 2011, that introduces stringent individual financial and career sanctions to local administrators who are judged responsible for their municipality’s bankruptcy. To this aim, we leverage exogenous...

January 2025, for the first time in the postwar history of Germany's national parliament, a mainstream political party (the Christian Democratic Union) relied on the support of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) to pass a motion. This prompted intense public debate as many Germans worried that...

Nachdem im Deutschen Bundestag Ende Januar 2025 erstmals eine politische Mehrheit mit den Stimmen der AfD zustande kam, sind viele Deutsche besorgt, dass es bald weitergehende Kooperation mit der AfD geben könnte. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht unsere Studie den Stand der Brandmauer in...

According to various growth theories, technology is the main factor driving long-run growth and economic convergence. Yet this process is constrained by the features of a country's institutional background. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between economic convergence and...

To fully understand why the European Union is defined by its motto United in diversity, one must look at its regions and cities. This complex network of communities, old and new, full of collective and personal stories, is the beating heart of Europe. As a new political cycle starts for the...

To fully understand why the European Union is defined by its motto United in diversity, one must look at its regions and cities. This complex network of communities, old and new, full of collective and personal stories, is the beating heart of Europe. As a new political cycle starts for the...

Intermediate cities have started competing for capital, thus becoming privileged sites for economic growth and policy formulation in agricultural, industrial, and service production areas. However, this process, driven by speculative urban development, exacerbates problems such as socio-spatial...

Do young politicians prioritize other types of municipal spending than old politicians? We study this question using hand-collected candidate-level data on municipal elections (1996-2020), along with detailed administrative data on municipal spending in Bavaria. Our identification strategy makes...