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The aging and migration megatrends and their impact on spatial – regional and local – labor market performance is the core theme of this book, and thus together define its scope and focus. The contributions provide an overview of key aging and migration issues in various countries together with analyses of their varied impacts on regional labor markets. Systematic database research and related empirical analyses are used to map out the complex and dynamic nature of these trends, while cutting-edge economic and modeling techniques are used to analyze them. In closing, the book critically reviews and assesses selected policy measures designed to cope with the effects of aging and migration on regional labor markets.

During the last two decades a new growth theory has emerged - often labelled'endogenous economic growth'. The contributions in the book develop these advances into a theoretical framework for endogenous regional economic growth and explain the implications for regional economic policies in the perspective of the new century. Endogenous growth models can reflect increasing returns and hence refer more adequately to empirical observations than earlier models, and the models become policy relevant, because in endogenous growth models policy matters. Such policies comprise efforts to stimulate the growth of knowledge intensity of the labour supply and knowledge production in the form of R&D.

The need for informed and effective insights into key concepts and models of regional development and growth, from an endogenous growth perspective, has risen over the past decade. These recent advances address in particular local and regional assets and characteristics comprising inter alia creativity, knowledge, innovation forces and entrepreneurship. Access to and exploitation of these modern forms of human and social capital are of paramount importance for the dynamic regional economic environment in a city or region. This volume offers an overview and critical treatment of the spatial-economic roots, opportunities and impacts of new growth strategies, mainly from an evidence-based perspective. In the various contributions to this volume, relevant findings and strategic options are interpreted and discussed from both an analytical and a policy perspective to help cultivate creativity, human capital development and innovation as well as entrepreneurial activity, with a view to exploit the drivers of economic development, in order to strengthen the competitive edge of cities and regions.

The emphasis of this book lies on emerging hypotheses, new methods and theoretic developments in the field of regional economic development. A further amplification is provided with a diverse set of cases extending this new way of thinking at the theory and methods level into policy and practice. The case studies range from a focus on Europe, Central and East Asia and North America. Considerable emphasis is laid on the role of entrepreneurship and innovation as drivers of economic growth and development on the sub-national regional level.

In recent years there has been increased focus on understanding the dynamic relationships among entrepreneurship, policymaking and economic growth. At the heart of research, debate and practical application is the question: “Under what conditions can entrepreneurship flourish?” And the corollary: “To what degree does encouraging entrepreneurship result in economic growth?” A popular response is to argue for “entrepreneurship policy”—that is, targeted policies that are designed to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and small business creation. To the editors and contributors of this volume, that approach is fundamentally flawed. They argue that there is no such thing as a discrete entrepreneurship policy; instead, there is only policymaking in the context of an entrepreneurial economy. The book addresses policies operating at the individual, national, regional, and international levels, and offers a unique perspective on several institutional structures that enhance entrepreneurship and economic growth.

Regional economic development has attracted the interest of economists, geographers, planners and regional scientists for a long time. And, of course, it is a field that has developed a large practitioner cohort in government and business agencies from the national down to the state and local levels. In planning for cities and regions, both large and small, economic development issues now tend to be integrated into strategic planning processes. For at least the last 50 years, scholars from various disciplines have theorised about the nature of regional economic development, developing a range of models seeking to explain the process of regional economic development, and why it is that regions vary so much in their economic structure and performance and how these aspects of a region can change dramatically over time. Regional scientists in particular have developed a comprehensive tool-kit of methodologies to measure and monitor regional economic characteristics such as industry sectors, employment, income, value of production, investment, and the like, using both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis, and focusing on both static and dynamic analysis. The'father of regional science', Walter lsard, was the first to put together a comprehensive volume on techniques of regional analysis (Isard 1960), and since then a huge literature has emerged, including the many titles in the series published by Springer in which this book is published.