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Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper introduces an island tourism multi-dimensional model. Its aim is to develop an approach for integrating quantitative models and qualitative techniques into a coherent and useful methodology. The island tourism multi-dimensional model is divided into several modules as presented in the paper. They include geographic information system applications, economic impact assessment, forecasting modeling, accessibility modeling, seasonality modeling and alternative modeling. Forecasting models, economic impact assessments and geographic information systems can be used to project forecasts and demonstrate sustainable and economic development issues. The paper demonstrates that the outcomes of the accessibility and seasonality modules can be used to generate strategic plans of marketing segments, service engagement and community involvement. It suggests that by using alternative modeling the output of quantitative analyses and the input of private, voluntary and public sectors at community, business and governmental levels can be integrated with each other. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic growth literature suggests that knowledge spillovers are subject to distance decay effects. In this paper the main aim is to provide a theoretical framework and empirical evidence on the role played by other kinds of proximities, namely relational, social and technological proximity, in explaining productivity growth. Using a sample of 249 EU 27 NUTS 2 regions in the period 1990-2004, semiparametric spatial autoregressive models are estimated. Results provide evidence of a positive role of social and relational proximities as important channels of knowledge spillovers, and on the fact that, when simultaneously present, different kinds of proximities generate synergic effects on growth. Resumen La literatura sobre el crecimiento económico sugiere que los spillovers de conocimiento están sujetos a efectos de deterioro por distancia. El objetivo principal de este artículo es proporcionar un marco teórico y pruebas empíricas sobre el papel desempeñado por otros tipos de proximidades (relacional, social y tecnológica), a la hora de explicar el crecimiento de la productividad. Utilizando una muestra de 249 regiones NUTS 2 de la UE 27 para el período 1990-2004, se estiman modelos autorregresivos espaciales semiparamétricos. Los resultados aportan pruebas del papel positivo de las proximidades sociales y relacionales como canales importantes de spillovers de conocimientos, y del hecho de que, cuando se presentan simultáneamente, los diferentes tipos de proximidades generan efectos sinérgicos sobre el crecimiento. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a spatial neoclassical growth model for a system of N regional economies. Regional output growth is determined by interregional fixed capital relocations which depend on initial factor endowments as well as a region's relative location in space. The dynamics of the model are captured by a Taylor approximation, which provides a testable spatial econometric model specification that is applied for European regions on the NUTS 2 level. Both theoretical and empirical results show how relatively high human capital endowments are beneficial to growth if found within one region, but disadvantageous if found in neighbouring regions. Este artículo proporciona un modelo de crecimiento neo-clásico espacial para un sistema de N economías regionales. El crecimiento del producto regional viene determinado por deslocalizaciones interregionales de capital fijo que dependen de la dotación de factores inicial, así como de la relativa localización espacial de una región. Las dinámicas del modelo son capturadas mediante una aproximación de Taylor, que proporciona una especificación comprobable de modelo econométrico espacial que se aplica a regiones europeas a nivel NUTS 2. Tanto los resultados teoréticos como los empíricos muestran como las dotaciones relativamente elevadas de capital humano son ventajosas para el crecimiento cuando se concentran en una región, pero una desventaja si se encuentran en regiones vecinas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses Europe's growth problem. Recovery from the recent global financial crisis and 'great recession' has been slower than after previous recessions in most advanced countries and areas, especially Europe. But the European growth problem is structural in character and it started much earlier. This paper analyses the structural causes of the European growth problem, evaluates the policies that Europe adopted to overcome it, and concludes that even with the appropriate policies, the prospects for accelerating growth in Europe will be difficult, especially in the context of Brexit and the slowdown of world growth in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Harvey (1988) , the forecasting ability of the term spread on economic growth is due to the fact that interest rates reflect investors' expectations about the future economic situation when deciding their plans for consumption and investment. Past literature has used ex post data on output or consumption growth as proxies for their expected value. In this paper, we employ a direct measure of economic agents' expectations, the Economic Sentiment Indicator elaborated by the European Commission, to test this hypothesis. Our results indicate that a linear combination of European yield spreads explains a surprising 93.7\% of the variability of the Economic Sentiment Indicator. This ability of yield spreads to capture economic agent expectations may be the actual reason for the predictive power of yield spreads about future business cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper models externalities of production across regional economies. Under the assumption that knowledge diffuses without political or administrative barriers, we derive externalities that affect the steady state and the process of growth of each economy. The empirical counterpart of the reduced form equation summarizing the process of growth allows us to test for the presence of regional spillovers and to measure their magnitude. Our results for a sample of European regions show that spillovers are far from negligible, are robust to the consideration of variables within each region, and may cause nondecreasing returns at the spatial aggregate level. The paper also relates previous empirical evidence on spatial dependence in growth studies to the externalities modeled here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the coming years, the share of the working-age population in the total population will start to decline in all countries of the European Union. All other things remaining equal, this so-called demographic burden will have a downward effect on economic growth. This paper examines whether the Europe 2020 employment targets would be sufficient to compensate for the downward impact of demographic burden and whether the impact of demography on economic growth differs between EU countries and between urban and rural regions. The results show that raising employment rates to the Europe 2020 targets can restore positive opportunities for economic growth, but not in all countries and only to a limited extent. They also show that even though urban and rural regions differ in terms of population growth and growth of the working age population, the prospects for demographic burden are highly similar for both types of regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper proposes the notion of territorial patterns of innovation as a new conceptualization to understand the relationship among knowledge, innovation, and economic growth at the regional level. The territorial patterns of innovation approach reject the simplistic view of an invention-innovation equivalence and advance alternative patterns, alternative ways in which knowledge and innovation can take place and mix in space. Each of them represents a different way of innovating, one not necessarily more efficient than the other. On the empirical ground, the paper demonstrates this statement for all NUTS2 regions of the 27 European Union states by showing that the efficiency in taking advantage of innovation does not only link to the strength of the local knowledge base; rather, territorial patterns of innovation characterized by relatively low knowledge intensity can be relatively more efficient in grasping and exploiting innovation returns for growing. Interesting policy implications can be drawn from the empirical analysis presented. If the results do not deny the importance of research and development ( R&D) activities for regional growth, and therefore the right focus put forward by the Europe 2020 on a 'smart growth' based on knowledge and innovation, they call for particular attention when the Europe 2020 goal is translated into a regional setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the endogenous development ( ED) approach has gained influence within the rhetoric of European rural development policies ( RP). This paper provides a fundamental critique of the approach and shows that neither the economic elements of RP in general nor ED in particular are targeted towards the specific economic needs and capabilities of rural areas. The second part of this paper consists of the search for possible alternative concepts for a more targeted and effective RP. Based on a synopsis of existing theories, an integrated approach is proposed that builds upon the different coordination mechanisms for economic activity suggested by different theories. The new, integrated perspective enables an economic characterisation of rural areas and indicates that the successful support of local coordination of economic activity is determined by specific local conditions. It also makes evident that localised approaches usually cannot compensate rural areas for the lack of agglomeration advantages. Therefore, programmes for the economic development of rural areas which support the local coordination of economic activity remain a second-best policy. As such, they do not free the state from policies of spatial redistribution if the political aim is the creation of comparable living conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper deals with the problem of new intermediate products within a simple model, where production is circular and goods enter into the production of other goods. It studies the process by which the new good is absorbed into the economy and the structural transformation that goes with it. By means of a long‐period method the forces of structural transformation are examined, in particular the shift of existing means of production towards the innovation and the mechanism of differential growth in terms of alternative techniques and their associated systems of production. We treat two important Schumpeterian topics: the question of technological unemployment and the problem of ‘forced saving’ and the related problem of an involuntary reduction of real consumption per capita. It is shown that both phenomena are potential by‐products of the transformation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how spinoffs in peripheral regions can profit from the work experience of their founders. More specifically, it discusses which firm routines and business contacts entrepreneurs gather through their prior work experience, and how this experience influences the organizational structure and orientation of the newly founded firm. The transfer of capabilities from parent firm to spinoff has been identified as important aspect of industrial clustering, but empirical evidence from peripheral areas is still sparse. It compares 22 semi-structured interviews with founders of manufacturing firms from different peripheral regions in Switzerland to investigate whether routine and network transfer differs in varying peripheral contexts. The results show that not only inherited routines are important, but also inherited business contacts. Further, instead of simply reproducing acquired routines and networks, founders employ a mixture of continuity and change to find a good trade-off between relying on well-proven practices and introducing novelty. Finally, the geographical proximity of inherited business contacts seems to have an influence on the implementation strategy founders choose. Entrepreneurs with strong inherited local business contacts do not have to invest as much in building up new business contacts as those entrepreneurs in more isolated locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has highlighted that in the last few years, the evolution of regional disparities in many European states has become pro-cyclical. This represents a change with respect to the predominantly anti-cyclical pattern of the 1960s and 1970s. This paper addresses the question of whether and when this change has taken place in the southern periphery of Europe, before analysing the factors that may have played a role in such a change. The analysis relies on a regional database that includes the evolution of the GDP per capita of NUTS II regions in five European countries (France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) between 1980 and 2000. The results of the analysis support the hypothesis of a change towards a pro-cyclical evolution of regional disparities in the cases of Italy, Portugal, and Spain, but not in those of Greece and France. A relationship between these pro-cyclical patterns and the emergence of less dynamic sheltered economies is also detected in peripheral regions. This lack of dynamism is related to the fact that numerous peripheral areas in southern Europe have become increasingly dependent on factors such as transfers or public investment and employment, and therefore are less exposed to changes in market conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural areas in Europe have increasingly become cast as places of nature, and so consideration of sustainable rural development is preoccupied with the management and protection of environmental and natural resources. Yet rural areas are also places of business, commerce and living. This paper examines the character and treatment of rural economies in England over the past decade. It sets out some of the challenges for the socio-economic development of rural areas, and explains how concerns about sustainable rural economies have come to be eclipsed within central government by those of ‘greening farming’ on the one hand and urban policy on the other. The paper concludes by discussing how the role of rural areas and rural economies might be creatively rethought in the context of regional and sub-regional territorial development strategies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the controversial issue of regional development incentives. Although extensive research has been conducted, a review of the literature gives an inconclusive answer to whether economic incentives are effective. Why do researchers arrive at different conclusions, even after analysing the same programmes? Among the problems that we find, for example, is the fact that for some researchers ‘effective’ means the significant location of new firms in targeted areas, while for others the creation of jobs regardless of whether new firms are arriving in a significant fashion. Furthermore, as we elaborate, the selection of an econometric model will have a significant impact on expected results. Different models, with different limitations, will lead researchers to evaluate the same incentive programme but arrive at different conclusions regarding its effectiveness. The contribution of the paper is to inform policymakers about the potential opportunities and pitfalls when designing incentive strategies. This is particularly relevant, given that both the US and Europe have been promoting incentives as a tool for regional economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political competition between European countries has been viewed as being a stimulus to the innovation process and part of the reason why Europe was the first region of the world to experience sustained growth. Countries that fell behind their rivals technologically and economically became more vulnerable to exploitation. In this way, the presence of rival states provided added incentive to innovate. This paper uses a simple model of conflict between countries to study the role of political competition in economic growth. The governments of each country are threatened politically by innovation and, hence, face a trade-off between the stability of their regime and keeping up with their rivals. The model shows that “institutional spillovers,” such as a decrease in the level of rent-seeking in one country, can affect growth in a competing country. Thus, political fragmentation can be growth enhancing as it can result in more political competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1980 and 1997, municipal waste in OECD countries increased by around 40%. This paper outlines the very real negative effects of this increase and then introduces the two main European Union policies that have been established to address this problem: a landfill directive and legislation on extended producer responsibility (EPR). The paper then describes and compares the four alternative strategies to reducing end-of-life waste within the context of extended producer responsibility: namely repairing, reconditioning, remanufacturing or recycling. It also introduces a more robust definition of remanufacturing, validated by earlier research, which differentiates it from repair and reconditioning. From a consideration of the different factors involved, it concludes that remanufacturing may well be the best strategy. This is because it enables the embodied energy of virgin production to be maintained, preserves the intrinsic ‘added value’ of the product for the manufacturer and enables the resultant products to be sold ‘as new’ with updated features if necessary. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I apply the recent nonparametric multi-sector production-frontier methodology of Walheer (), tailored to analyse the economic growth and convergence of countries taking the sector heterogeneity and interdependence into account, to the European countries from 1995 to 2014. Thanks to a simple rewriting of his initial model, I also provide results at the sector level, which was not possible with the initial version of the methodology. My results confirm the non-neutrality of technological change and highlight that human capital accumulation plays the biggest role in the increase of labour productivity. Technological change and capital accumulation also play an important, if smaller, role in the increase of output-labour productivity. My results also confirm the presence of heterogeneity between sectors in Europe, which supports the use of multi-sector analysis. Finally, my results confirm the presence of two groups, in terms of labour productivity, within the European counties: Eastern and Central European countries and the EU12. These two groups diverge over time. The results are not affected by robustness checks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY It is the purpose of the present paper to replace the traditional theory of industrial stages by a better model based on the criteria of capital and control. In constructing the new model we became aware of the fact it is necessary to distinguish between 'capital'-intensive and 'capital'-extensive industries and again within the latter between those which worked for local consumption and for the export trade, respectively. Only for the 'capital'-extensive industries working for the export trade something like stages in the industrial development can be discovered. In fact, the stage reached in these industries in the eighteenth century brought them organizationally close to the older 'capital'-intensive industries, so that for that period we subsume both under the head of protofactory. The protofactory of the model based on capital and control shows the essential characteristics of the factory, although in reality there were some elements distinguishing the protofactory from the full-fledged factory. In the second section of the paper we describe in detail the organizational features of the protofactory after clearing up the etymological confusion in that ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Der Beitrag zielt darauf ab, die traditionelle Theorie der industriellen Stufen durch ein auf den Kriterien ≪Kapital≫ und ≪KontroIle≫ basierendes, besseres Modell zu ersetzen. Beim Aufbau dieses neuen Modells zeigte sich die Notwendig-keit einer Unterscheidung zwischen kapitahntensiven und kapitalextensiven Industrien, welche letztere wiederum unterteilt werden mussen in solche, die fiir den einheimischen Verbrauch arbeiten, und solche, die fiir den Export produ-zieren. Nur fiir die im Export tatigen kapitalextensiven Industrien lasst sich so etwas wie Stadien der industriellen Entwicklung entdecken. In der Tat brachte das Stadium, welches diese Industrien im 18. Jahrhundert erreicht hatten, sie organisatorisch in enge Verbindung zu den alteren, kapitahntensiven Industrien, so dass fiir jene Periode beide unter dem Oberbegriff'Ur-Fabrik' (protofactory) zusammengefasst werden konnen. Das auf ≪Kapital≫ und ≪K.ontrolle≫ aufge-baute Modell der Urfabrik bringt wesentliche Merkmale der Fabrik zum Aus-druck, obwohl sich in Wirklichkeit die Urfabrik von der fliigge gewordenen Fabrik in einigen Punkten unterschied. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit werden die organisatorischen Grundziige der Urfabrik im Detail beschrieben; zuvor wird die in diesem Bereich herrschende etymologische Verwirrung geklart. Abschliessend wird gezeigt, dass weder der im organisatorischen Aufbau der Industrie tatige Geschaftsmann noch der zeit-genossische Okonom erfasst hatten, was sich vor ihren Augen abspielte. Es brauchte Jahrzehnte, bis der Industrielle die Notwendigkeit regelmassiger Ab-schreibungen erkannte, und der klassische Okonom lehrte noch lange die inverse Korrelation zwischen Lohn und Profit und die Vcrschiebbarkeit des Kapitals von Industrie zu Industrie, nachdem diese beidenfiir das putting-out system typischen Wesensziige mit dem Erscheinen der Urfabrik verschwunden waren. RÉSUMÉ Cet article a pour but, de remplacer la théorie traditionelle des stades industriels par un modèle meilleur, basé sur les critères de capital et de contrǒ1e. En construisant ce nouveau modèle, nous nous rendons compte de la nécessité, de distinguer entre industries intensives en capital et celles extensives en capital et ces dernieres de nouveau, en celles qui travaillent pour la consommation interne, et celles qui produisent pour l'exportation. C'est uniquement pour les industries extensives en capital produisant pour l'exportation, qu'on peut d^couvrir des soi-disants stades du developpement industriels. En fait, le stade atteint dans ces industries au dix-huitieme siecle les amenait du point de vue de I'organisation en relation étroite avec les industries plus vieilles et intensives en capital, de facon a ce que pour cette periode, les deux pouvaient ětre résumés sous le terme de ≪protofabrique≫. La protofabrique du modele, basee sur le capital et le contrdle met en relief les principales caracteristiques de l'usine, malgre que la protofabrique se distingue en realite en beaucoup de points de l'usine evoluée. Dans la deuxieme partie de cet article, les elements organisateurs de la protofabrique sont decrits en detail, apres avoir eclairci les confusions etymologiques. Finalement l'auteur montre, que ni le commercant actif dans le developpement organisateur de l'industrie, ni l'economiste classique contemporain ont saisi ce qui se deroulait devant leurs yeux. II a fallu des dixaines d'annees jusqu'a ce que I'industriel reconnaisse Futility d'amortisations regulieres, et l'econome classique enseignait encore longtemps la correlation inverse entre le salaire et le profit et Pajustement du capital d'une industrie a l'autre, malgre que ces deux faits typiques par le 'putting-out system', avaient disparu avec l'apparition de la protofabrique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces articles in the September 2005 issue of "European Environment" about environment and sustainable regional development.

The article presents information on the XXI Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology. Through European policies and regulations rural development the here and the there are unavoidably connected. From this perspective it is interesting to explore how agricultural and other economic activities are re-allocated in rural Europe. The XXIst Congress in Keszthely takes an important current event the one-year anniversary of the European enlargement as starting point for engaging in the ongoing questions around change and continuity, diversity and cohesion in rural Europe.

The paper offers some reflections on the convergence of productivity in the United States and Europe, which essentially stopped in the 1990s. It argues that the barriers preventing further convergence in the early 1990s were removed subsequently. But since then trends in productivity growth have been importantly affected by the advent of the New Economy, which poses further challenges for Europe. Without additional reform of European labor markets, financial markets, and university systems, we may be on the eve of another era of persistent divergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze whether there are negative (positive) long‐term effects of austerity measures (stimulus measures) on potential output growth. Based on the approach of Blanchard and Leigh () and Fatás and Summers () and using a novel data set of narratively identified fiscal policy shocks, we estimate the impact of these shocks on potential output. We robustly find a considerable underestimation of multiplier effects and their persistence for most European countries in the early years after the financial crisis and subsequent Euro Area crisis. We conclude that fiscal consolidation was badly timed and thus not only deepened the crisis but may have caused evitable hysteresis effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building upon the companion paper in this issue, this essay analyses five case studies that can be taken as prototypes of the system-wide cultural district culture-led developmental model. The research targets five cities in Europe and the U.S.: Valencia, Austin, Newcastle/ Gateshead, Linz, and Denver. Each presents specific characteristics but also some deep, structural common traits. The case studies are compared and their future viability is evaluated in terms of the factors presented in the companion piece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper employs Hong's (2001) causality-in-mean and causality-in-variance tests to investigate the spillovers between business confidence and stock returns for the four economically distressed Southern European countries, namely Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. The sample uses monthly data and covers the period from January 1988 to December 2010. Our causality-in-mean results indicate that there is feedback relationship between stock returns and business confidence in Portugal. The direction of causality-in-mean runs from business confidence to stock returns in Italy, but it is in the reverse direction in the case of Spain. Nevertheless, there is still evidence of a contemporaneous interaction between business confidence and stock returns in both Italy and Spain. On the other hand, causality-in-variance indicate the presence of volatility spillovers from business confidence to stock returns in Portugal, while a causal relationship is found in the current month in the case of Italy. Business confidence causes stock returns only in the mean in Greece. These results indicate that the stock market and business confidence relationship has its own idiosyncratic properties and that the stock market reactions to the current macroeconomic environment and expectations about the future developments might evolve differently in each country. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The migration-development nexus has been of increasing importance in international relations between African and European countries since 2000. Linking migration to development has spurred political interest in the development potential of migrants as a substitute for official development assistance. This paper analyses the convergence in discourse and practices on migration and development in the context of migration policies formulated to manage migration between Africa and Europe. The discourse on migration and development is mobilised by different actors to justify their actions; it stems from different migration management concepts and frameworks advocated by the European Union, particularly in its Global Approach to Migration. The migration and development discourse is sustained by increased funding from the European Union and some member states to instil a particular view of the nexus between migration and development. The case of Senegal in this paper illustrates the application of the dominant discourse. The first section provides an analysis of the discourse mobilised by different actors at the European and African levels to justify the promotion of the migration-development nexus. The second section scrutinises the practices and roles of the actors involved in the design and implementation of recent programmes in Senegal. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first analyzes the question why did Czarist Russia and Ottoman Turkey fall behind the West? It is argued that interstate rivalry forced West European rulers to respect the private property rights of producers and subjects earlier and to a greater degree than czars or sultans ruling over huge contiguous territories ever had to. Incentives to work were better in Europe than elsewhere. The mobilization of available knowledge for productive purposes was easier than elsewhere. Limited government implied less political obstacles to innovation. Comparatively secure private property ownership in the means of production made the establishment of scarcity prices and the rational allocation of resources easier than elsewhere. Whereas the Western past was feudal, the Russian or Turkish past was patrimonial or even sultanistic. Feudalism is a much better starting point for establishing the rule of law and safe property rights than patrimonialism. The second issue has been the question why Czarist Russia could outperform Ottoman Turkey. Here the political consequences of the Muslim tolerance of slavery and polygyny matter. Being slaves, many members of Ottoman ruling elites were at the mercy of their owner, the sultan. Therefore, they became tools of arbitrary rule. Moreover, the practice of polygyny generated downward social mobility and political instability and thereby added another obstacle to the establishment of safe property rights for producers or merchants. The final issue is the economic prospects of Russia or Turkey. Economic freedom is better in Turkey than in Russia. Moreover, Russia is graying, whereas Turkey may look forward to a growing labor force. Although a rich endowment in natural resources seems to favor Russia, the resource curse has prevented other resource rich countries from developing. Therefore, the Turkish prospect looks much brighter than the Russian one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops multi-dimensional analyses of socio-spatial relations. Building on previous research, we identify some tensions associated with different dimensions of socio-spatiality and introduce the theme of compossible and, more importantly, incompossible socio-spatial configurations. Two short studies are deployed to highlight the socio-spatial implications of the principle that not everything that is possible is compossible. The first shows the power of thinking varieties of capitalism compossibly (via the concept of variegated capitalism) and then examines the successive strategies adopted by the European Communities and European Union to address the significance of changing patterns of variegation for approaches to European integration, spatial strategies, and economic and social policies. The second case discusses some related problems for state spatial projects, starting in the 1980s with spatial planning, promotion of a Europe of the Regions and/or of Europe and the regions, and then turns to examine city-regional development strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1247) Johan F. M. Swinnen Dramatic changes took place in agricultural policies in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 1860s European nations agreed on a series of trade agreements which spread free trade across the continent. In the 1960s European nations concluded an international agreement which spread heavy government intervention and protection against imports across the continent. This paper quantifies these changes in protection over the course of a century, relates them to changes in policies, and offers a political economy explanation for the growth in agricultural protection in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of the literature on fiscal decentralization has tended to stress that the greater capacity of decentralized governments to tailor policies to local preferences and to be innovative in the provision of policies and public services, the greater the potential for economic efficiency and growth. There is, however, little empirical evidence to substantiate this claim. In this paper we examine, using a panel data approach with dynamic effects, the relationship between the level of fiscal decentralization and economic growth rates across 16 Central and Eastern European countries over the 1990–2004 period. Our findings suggest that, contrary to the majority view, there is a significant negative relationship between two out of three fiscal decentralization indicators included in the analysis and economic growth. However, the use of different time lags allows us to nuance this negative view and show that long-term effects vary depending on the type of decentralization undertaken in each of the countries considered. While expenditure at and transfers to sub-national tiers of government are negatively correlated with economic growth, taxes assigned at the sub-national level evolve from having a significantly negative to a significantly positive correlation with the national growth rate. This supports the view that sub-national governments with their own revenue source respond better to local demands and promote greater economic efficiency [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson have dramatically challenged the tendency of economists to confine their empirical search for the causes of economic growth to the recent past. They argue that the kind of institutions established by European colonialists, either protecting private property or extracting rents, resulted in the poorer parts of the pre-colonial world becoming some of the richest economies of today; while transforming some of the more prosperous parts of the non-European world of 1500 into the poorest economies today. This view has been further elaborated for Africa by Nunn, with reference to slave trading. Drawing on African and comparative economic historiography, the present paper endorses the importance of examining growth theories against long-term history: revealing relationships that recur because the situations are similar, as well as because of path dependence as such. But it also argues that the causal relationships involved are more differentiated than is recognised in AJR's formulations. By compressing different historical periods and paths, the ‘reversal’ thesis over-simplifies the causation. Relatively low labour productivity was a premise of the external slave trades; though the latter greatly reinforced the relative poverty of many Sub-Saharan economies. Again, it is important to distinguish settler and non-settler economies within colonial Africa itself. In the latter case it was in the interests of colonial regimes to support, rather than simply extract from, African economic enterprise. Finally, economic rent and economic growth have often been joint products, including in pre-colonial and colonial Africa; the kinds of institutions that favoured economic growth in certain historical contexts were not necessarily optimal for that purpose in others. AJR have done much to bring development economics and economic history together. The next step is a more flexible conceptual framework, and a more complex explanation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article a semiparametric spatial Durbin model is employed to analyse the growth behaviour of 155 European regions in the period 1988–2000. This specification combines the semiparametric approach with the usual parametric spatial econometric technique to accommodate both spatial dependence and nonlinearities as suggested by recent neoclassical growth models with spatial technological interdependence. The results provide evidence of nonlinearities in the effect of initial per capita incomes and human capital investments. Moreover, the specification used allows identifying the effect of the interaction between the characteristics (initial conditions and structural variables) of each region and those of its neighbours. Finally, it shows some indication of global spillovers across-country and local spatial spillovers from domestic neighbours. Resumen En este artículo se emplea un modelo semiparamétrico espacial de Durbin para analizar el comportamiento del crecimiento de 155 regiones europeas durante el periodo 1988–2000. Esta especificación combina el enfoque semiparamétrico con técnicas econométricas espaciales paramétricas habituales para reconciliar la dependencia espacial y las no linealidades, tal y como sugieren los modelos de crecimiento neoclásicos recientes con interdependencia tecnológica espacial. Los resultados ofrecen pruebas de no linealidades en el efecto de ingresos per capita iniciales e inversiones en capital humano. Además, la especificación utilizada permite utilizar el efecto de la interacción entre las características (condiciones iniciales y variables estructurales) de cada región y las de sus vecinos. Finalmente, da una idea de spillovers (efectos de derrame) globales entre países y spillovers espaciales locales de regiones vecinas dentro del país. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a game theoretic model to explain empirical research which has revealed higher relational satisfaction among married couples than cohabiting couples, as well as among married couples who did not cohabit before marriage. Despite these findings, in recent decades cohabitation rates have dramatically increased in both Europe and the United States. Instrumental variables estimations on data from 28 industrialized countries and 50 U.S. states show cohabitation strongly correlated with increases in women's labor force participation, where a 10 percent increase in women's labor force participation results in a 6.4 to 14.6 percent increase in cohabitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, it is widely accepted that knowledge and learning are the core of competitiveness, international division of labour and agglomeration and exclusion phenomena. Yet we are still in need of a better understanding of the processes which allow access by individual regions both to codified knowledge and RTD networks as well as tacit knowledge and know-how at the international/interregional level. This paper will discuss possible approaches to analyse the mechanisms which operate at the international/interregional level and lead to higher forms of integration of industrial and service firms, not only in a commercial or financial perspective but also in knowledge and innovation networks. It will point to a need to develop policy strategies in support of institutions that create and transfer knowledge on a European scale and outline open questions for the creation of the necessary institutional background for the creation and the support of knowledge and innovation networks at this level and for the conditions of its transferability to Objective 1 regions and the EU new member states and candidate countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines some recent analyses of alternative agro-food networks (AAFNs) and claims that these innovative modes of food provisioning are emblematic of a new rural development paradigm in Western Europe. A political-economic critique of the territorialised, farm-centric value added strategies underlying these claims suggests that this characterisation is overdrawn and premature. The neglect of the consumption side of the rural development equation also argues for a more modest assessment of AAFNs and their paradigmatic potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union entered a new phase of integration in 2002. The single currency, the European Convention, and enlargement signalled progress. The conflict over the Stability and Growth Pact, the tensions between the member states, and the political turmoil in a number of core countries suggested retreat. This paper examines the resulting pattern of integration. It argues that the European Union is becoming more legalistic than leader-oriented, and that it rests on common principles rather than accepting the imposition of some grand design. Such a European Union cannot challenge the United States for global leadership. But it is likely to prove stable nonetheless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Community agreements with third countries frequently contain provisions on State aids. These provisions are designed to achieve a range of different objectives, related both to developing trade between the contracting parties and to economic and legal/regulatory development within the partner State. This paper takes a particular model of State aid clause—those found in the Europe Agreements (EAs) and the Stabilisation and Association Agreements (SAAs)—in order to explore the implications of a harmonisation obligation applied within the context of accession to the EU. In these agreements the State aid rules—and in particular those relating to the application of Community-based criteria—are intended to contribute to the pre-accession adoption of the acquis communautaire by the associate States (including those who are not yet candidates). These clauses are striking in their emphasis on the full adoption of Community-based standards for the approval of aids, including large quantities of ‘soft law’, while saying very little as to the appropriate procedures for enforcement. The experience of implementing these clauses illustrates the practical difficulties of applying Community norms and standards outside the procedural structures, integration mechanisms and single market objectives of actual EU membership. The associate States are required to demonstrate their capacity for applying and enforcing the Community-derived rules while balancing the needs of their own economic development against an undefined ‘common interest’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the impact of foreign direct investment inflows on economic growth in Europe. Discrepancy in formulating an economic theory and econometric evidence; Accumulation of minimum threshold stock of human capital; Differences between foreign and domestic capital.

This article claims that a predator-prey model of cyclical growth is a useful concept for studying the dynamic relationship between wage and salary shares of GDP and employment. The rate of growth of employment is considered as an indicator of union bargaining strength: the change of the wage share is treated as a reflection of an ongoing distributional conflict between profits and wages. The paper discusses some of the analytic properties of the formal model. It continues with an attempt to fit the model to West German data for the period from 1960 to 1985. Given the formal rigidity of the model, this strategy is only partially successful. As a consequence, a more complex model is introduced which also relies heavily on the idea of a predator-prey cycle. As a fully-fledged political-economic model of the OECD type of systems, it allows us to study, among other issues, the implications of different union policies under the constraint of a serious unemployment problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sources of economic growth in Japan and in compare the results with those in the U. S. and Europe as studied by E. F. Denison. The method used by Denison is followed as far as possible. The character of this paper is of fact finding, and the interpretation of results or the originality of methodology is not dealt with here. The results may be summarized as follows. (1) Japan's growth rate is two times that of Europe and three times that of the United States. (2) The contributions of labor, capital, and the residual to economic growth are all higher for Japan than for the U. S. or Europe. (3) Factors which account for the higher contribution of labor to economic growth are (a) the higher rate of increase in employment, (b) less shortening of working hours, and (c) improved age and sex composition. (4) Factors which account for the higher contribution of capital to economic growth are a higher rate of increase in capital input and the high elasticity of production with respect in capital. (5) Other notable points include: (a) the contribution of education is lower for Japan; (b) the capital-labor ratio in Japan increased remarkably; (c) capital's share of national income is higher; and (d) 60% of Japan's economic growth is accounted for by the residual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the paper "An Economic Theory of the Growth of the Western World," by professors Douglas C. North and Robert Paul Thomas. The paper is related to European economic growth. The theory proposed by North and Thomas relies heavily upon three components. The first is a model for cyclical fluctuations in the pre-industrial economic life of Europe. This model defines the relative changes in the cost of land and labor as changes in population alter the ratio between the two. It incorporates the relative elasticities which have been found in the supply and demand curves for foodstuffs as opposed to those for raw materials and industrial products. North and Thomas then elaborate this last observation into the second major element of their model, a "theory of institutional change." The shifts in factor proportions so heightened the possibilities of profit from production for the market that they exceeded the costs of the institutional innovations needed to change the organization of production and distribution of income. The result was the steady introduction of "secondary" institutional changes such as enclosures, joint-stock companies, government support of certain guilds, and regulation of quality.

This article presents a list of papers related to economic history of Europe. Some of the papers are: "An early Garolingian Mint in the Low Gountries: Bona-Tiel," by M. Metcalf; "Financial Intermediaries and Economic Development, the Belgian Case," by R.J. Morrison; "Middeleeuwse sociale structuren. Enkele kanttekeningen,"by J. Mertems; "Dutch Theology, Trade and War: 1590-1610," by C. Bangs; and others.

Presents a supportive argument for Ron Boschma regarding the implications of the European Monetary Union (EMU) for regional development. Significant regime change in economic policy; Arithmetic scope of regional divergence; Importance of the regional level as a policy factor in EMU.

During the pre-crisis period, Europe experienced substantial cross-country variation in domestic credit growth and cross-border capital flows. We investigate the inter-relations between domestic credit growth and international capital flows during the period 1993-2008, with a special focus on the boom period of 2003-2008. We establish that domestic credit growth in European countries is strongly related to net debt inflows but not to net equity inflows. This pattern also holds for an extended sample of 54 advanced and emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]