STRING (South Western Baltic Sea Transregional Region - Implementing New Geography) is a regional cooperation of urban centers and regions in the Nordic countries and Northern Germany. The study shows that the member countries of STRING have developed dynamically over the last decades, both...

This paper provides a non-technical summary of recent research on why people stay put rather than move, even in the face of adverse local economic shocks. I compare three frameworks for understanding migration: the moving costs model, the spatial frictions model, and a newer approach called the...

STRING (South Western Baltic Sea Transregional Region - Implementing New Geography) is a regional cooperation of urban centers and regions in the Nordic countries and Northern Germany. The study shows that the member countries of STRING have developed dynamically over the last decades, both...

We examine the local effects of South Korea's large-scale place-based industrial policy of constructing industrial complexes in left-behind regions. We compile a novel dataset on industrial complex designations dating back to the 1960s and link it to administrative establishment surveys. Using a...

This paper evaluates EU Cohesion Policy interventions during 2014-2020 using regression discontinuity design (RDD), exploiting funding thresholds at 75 and 90 percent of EU average GDP per capita across 281 NUTS-2 regions. The analysis examines nominal and real GDP per capita growth, GDP per...

This paper examines the impact of the European Union's Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 on enterprise dynamics at the NUTS-2 level. Using discrete eligibility thresholds at 75 and 90 percent of EU average GDP per capita, we implement sharp and fuzzy regression discontinuity designs to assess effects on...

The paper aims to provide spatial evidence on where to prioritize place-based support for women's entrepreneurship by linking the geography of female founders to the proximity of formal support infrastructure in Germany. To pursue this objective, we assemble nationwide venture microdata covering...

Population concentration in the Seoul Metropolitan Area has continued unabated since the 1970s. In the 2010s, diverging productivity drove this trend-gains in semiconductor and knowledge-based sectors in the capital region versus losses in manufacturingoriented regional cities. Planned city...

Policies aimed at supporting economically lagging regions have changed considerably in the past decades. This includes an increased link between innovation and regional policy, as well as more recently transformative policy. The WIR! Programme, funded by the Ministry of Research and Education in...

To study the distribution of economic activity across space and place-based policies, I develop a model of the location choice of new establishments incorporating monopsonistic labor markets, taxes, and spillovers. Estimates using German administrative data indicate that establishments prefer...

Die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der österreichischen Volkswirtschaft entwickelt sich zunehmend negativ. Wie der aktuelle EcoAustria Competitiveness Index (ECI) für das vierte Quartal 2024 zeigt, hat sich die bis etwa 2022 feststellbare Phase der Stagnation in den Jahren 2023 und 2024 zu einer Phase...

Im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft, Energie und Tourismus (BMWET) hat EcoAustria untersucht, wie Österreichs unterentwickelter Venture-Capital-Markt gestärkt werden kann. Ausgangspunkt ist die Diagnose, dass Österreich mit einem VC-Volumen von lediglich 0,02 Prozent des BIP im...

In den vergangenen 35 Jahren wurde beim Aufbau der Wirtschaft in den östlichen Bundesländern viel erreicht. Jedoch bestehen weiterhin hartnäckige Unterschiede in der wirtschaftlichen Leistungsfähigkeit und in den zugrundeliegenden wirtschaftlichen Strukturen im Vergleich zu Westdeutschland....

Das Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft hat zum vierten Mal Unternehmen in Deutschland befragt, ob sie in ihrer allgemeinen Geschäftstätigkeit regelmäßig durch Infrastrukturmängel beeinträchtigt wurden und wenn ja, welche Infrastrukturnetze der Ursprung ihrer Probleme sind. Die Ergebnisse...

Am 13. Februar 2025 wurde der zweite Zwischenbericht zur begleitenden Evaluierung des Investitionsgesetzes Kohleregionen (InvKG) und des STARK-Bundesprogramms von den Wirtschaftsforschungsinstituten IWH und RWI veröffentlicht. Die Evaluierung, die im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für...

This paper replicates and extends the framework of Guzman and Stern (2020) to examine the evolution of entrepreneurial activity in Europe, focusing on France, Germany, and the United Kingdom between 2009 and 2023. Using harmonized national business registry data, we construct measures of both...

Das Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft hat zum vierten Mal Unternehmen in Deutschland befragt, ob sie in ihrer allgemeinen Geschäftstätigkeit regelmäßig durch Infrastrukturmängel beeinträchtigt wurden und wenn ja, welche Infrastrukturnetze der Ursprung ihrer Probleme sind. Die Ergebnisse...

In den vergangenen 35 Jahren wurde beim Aufbau der Wirtschaft in den östlichen Bundesländern viel erreicht. Jedoch bestehen weiterhin hartnäckige Unterschiede in der wirtschaftlichen Leistungsfähigkeit und in den zugrundeliegenden wirtschaftlichen Strukturen im Vergleich zu Westdeutschland....

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 1991, the average labor productivity of the then-new federal states (plus West Berlin) only reached nearly half of the total national productivity level. Since then, the average labor productivity of these states has climbed up to nearly 90 percent. However, the ranking of the individual...

This report explores the role of local and regional actors in mission-oriented innovation and industrial policies. It examines how current mission-oriented approaches engage regions, cities, and rural communities in mission design and implementation, and whether these policies have the potential...

Smart specialisation is an EU policy approach, fully implemented from the 2014-2020 programming period onwards, wherein regions identify investment priorities and focus their EU regional innovation spending on them. The goal is to maximise competitive advantage and to build on the regions' own...

This policy brief presents one such initiative: a Peer2Peer study visit by the Andalusian delegation to their counterparts in Finland and Denmark. Facilitated by the Joint Research Centre and supported by the TAIEX-REGIO Peer2Peer instrument in collaboration with DG REGIO, the visit aimed to...

As one of the EU's key tools for participatory democracy, the European citizens' initiative (ECI) allows citizens to call directly on the European Commission to propose new laws in areas where the EU has competence. Since its launch, the ECI has given Europeans a stronger voice in shaping Union...

The place-based approach in regional policy emphasizes the need for interventions tailored to local contexts and functional linkages. FUAs serve as essential spatial units, delineating urban-rural interactions shaped by labour markets, migration, and service accessibility. This study advocates...

The development of home ownership in the second half of the 20th century has been perceived as an asset and a significant contributor to wealth accumulation. However, rising property prices and increasingly stringent mortgage lending criteria have placed this model under pressure, particularly...

Im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft, Energie und Tourismus (BMWET) hat EcoAustria untersucht, wie Österreichs unterentwickelter Venture-Capital-Markt gestärkt werden kann. Ausgangspunkt ist die Diagnose, dass Österreich mit einem VC-Volumen von lediglich 0,02 Prozent des BIP im...

Die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der österreichischen Volkswirtschaft entwickelt sich zunehmend negativ. Wie der aktuelle EcoAustria Competitiveness Index (ECI) für das vierte Quartal 2024 zeigt, hat sich die bis etwa 2022 feststellbare Phase der Stagnation in den Jahren 2023 und 2024 zu einer Phase...