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Many studies in economics and regional science claim a positive link between interpersonal trust and innovation by demonstrating a positive effect of trust on patenting. This contrasts many findings from organization level studies on trust and innovation, who report a variety of findings including inverted‐U type relations. A possible explanation is that trust exhibits different roles in invention and innovation, as the former relies on knowledge commons while the latter directly embeds commercialization and the market context. This study attempts to reconcile the two set of findings by studying indicators of invention and innovation in relation to trust at the same unit of observation, by using the regional variation in Europe. I study the relationship between interpersonal trust and patent applications (a measure of invention), trademark applications (a composite indicator) and the share of innovative sales in turnover by SMEs (a direct indicator of commercialization), across European regions. I show that trust positively affects trademark applications with an effect that is comparable to that on patent applications. However, trust exhibits an inverted‐U type relationship with innovative sales. Results collectively point to a strong role of trust in all three creative activities, including a negative effect at the higher end when the indicator is directly contingent on commercialization and sales. I also estimate the extent of spatial spillovers in the effect of trust on all three creative outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the majority of studies and reports highlight, during the 2001-2013 period the Eastern eu states showed accelerated rhythms of economic convergence. The general conclusion stays that as the economic performance of the Eastern EU countries approaches that of the Western EU states, the level of internal disparities also increases, indicating that the trends of convergence might be affected by the territorial context of data aggregation and specific processes of economic accumulation at each NUTS scale. This paper analyzes how the territorial scale of data aggregation can explain different intensities of the economic convergence, in a flexible multi-scalar approach to the indicators. A top-down descriptive approach is employed, starting with the national level and continuing to the nuts3 spatial frame of data modeling, estimating how the trends of the convergence process are shifting when the scale of analysis is modified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze the impact of the quality of human capital on the main economic indicators of South-Eastern Europe countries [SEE] at the NUTS 2 level. The subjects of this research are the human capital indicators of regional competitiveness. The quality of human capital depends largely on the age structure of the population and the quality of education. Those regions, which have the highest percentage of the working-age population and highly educated people, are able to achieve higher productivity and gain a competitive advantage over other regions. As main indicators of the quality of human capital we identified: population; persons aged 25-64 with tertiary education attainment; students in tertiary education and participation of adults aged 25-64 in education and training and human resources in science and technology. As main economic indicators, we identified: regional gross domestic product; employment and income of households. The aim of this paper is to determine whether there is a correlation between the indicators of the quality of human capital and economic indicators. As a main methodology we have used the correlation coefficient which shows interdependence of the analyzed indicators. As part of our analysis, we consider only EU member states that belong to the SEE countries: Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. We conclude that in all countries there is a high multiple correlation coefficient between the indicators human resources in science and technology, number of students and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current increase of regional inequalities in Europe, and in particular in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has led to the reconsideration and revival of the concepts of "polarisation" and "convergence" in academic fi elds like regional economics, economic geography and spatial planning as well. In contrast to the classical view on these concepts determined by functionalism and topology, the new theoretical and empirical perspectives are emphasising a multidimensional perspective. In addition, there is an important debate about the relation between economic inequalities and growth. This article provides a critical overview and assessment of the theoretical and empirical work on regional inequalities with special emphasis on theories of economic and social polarisation, regional economic growth, convergence, and social inequalities. We att empt to combine two powerful concepts of polarisation and convergence, emphasising their relational and multi-scalar nature. Building on this basis, we propose a multidimensional concept of socio-economic polarisation, which comprises processes of convergence and divergence, growth and mobility in economic and social dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article contributes to the ‘new’ European regionalism by discussing the role that regional identity can play in regional development. It is based on the concept of ‘regional identity’ as the keystone of the institutionalization of the region and as consisting of two intertwined and complementary components: the regional consciousness of the inhabitants and the identity of a region. Through the heuristic study of relevant scholarly articles, the authors critically discuss six case studies from European countries dealing with the relationship between regional identity and regional development and published in the first decade of the new millennium. To date, research has examined the role of regional identity as both a successful and unsuccessful driver in regional development. From the case studies, a third possible role of regional identity is identified: regional identity as a barrier to regional development. Further, the article discusses the relationship between these three roles and attempts to identify factors causing the differentiation of the effects of regional identity in the context of regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For elaboration of strategy and spatial planning of sustainable coastal regions development it's very important to know a real potential of development of the region. As parameter, which is comprehensively characterized marine economic, political and military power of the coastal region, it is possible to use the marine economy potential with comprehensive estimations of socio-economic, political, environment and military profits (damages) from coastal planning decisions. Some results, including the European and Russian coastal regions are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the work of the European Cluster Observatory (ECO) in light of current debates around the notion of clusters. Examining the definitions employed by the ECO, questions are posed about how effective policy can be when using highly restrictive means of analysis. Further, the work contends that, far from this being purely an analytical problem, there also exists a fundamental semantic issue regarding the term ‘economic cluster’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rising focus of politicians as well as scientists in the EU on the large urban agglomerations as centres of economic growth is accompanied by political efforts to identify and to demarcate such agglomerations under the label ‘metropolitan regions’. This study develops a theoretical framework broaching the issue of cooperation between municipalities from the perspective of regional economics as well as political science. The framework is applied to the empirical case of the polycentric metropolitan region of the ‘Saxony triangle’ in east Germany. The results show that various intervening factors prevent intense co-operation between the actors in the region. Policy implications and conclusions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, we test the creativity and diversity hypothesis of Richard Florida for European regions. Florida argues that the level of regional economic development depends on the levels of technology, talent, and tolerance that regions harbour. Tolerance, in this case, is a measure for diversity of lifestyles, the creativity that results from it and population's openness towards non-traditional lifestyles. Using data for 94 European regions we investigate whether differences in creativity and diversity are a good predictor of differences in regional wealth in additive and multiplicative regression models. The results indicate that regional differences in diversity are directly related to differences in regional wealth. Moreover, we find that the synergetic effect of technology and talent on the level of regional wealth depends on the degree of diversity that resides within regions. Our findings support the idea that creativity and diversity deserve a more prominent place in economic geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the Knowledge-based Economy spatial distribution across the European Union (EU) regions (NUTS II), linking recent research approaches on innovation and structural change with approaches to regional economics. As a means of conducting this research, we classify economic activities according to six sectors based on their knowledge/technology intensity. Our results show that the higher the knowledge/technology content of the economic activity, the higher the concentration level of the activity. We find that some service activities (those considered knowledge intensive) have similar concentration levels to those operating in high or medium tech manufacturing. With regard to specialization, the most outstanding result is the strong presence of high and medium knowledge intensive service activities in metropolitan/capital regions. In general, our results reinforce the notion that an oligocentric model persists in Europe, with the southern German regions leading high and medium tech manufacturing, the south-east of England leading in high knowledge-intensive services, and with the mid-core model exemplified by the European metropolitan archipelago (particularly capital cities) in both northern and southern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional financial arrangements and monetary integration in East Asia and Europe have made considerable progress in recent years. This paper discusses whether governments in both regions, Japan and Germany as the most advanced regional economies in particular, can use the new dynamics as levers to raise their status vis-à-vis the United States. It will be argued that activities are defensive rather than offensive, aiming at protecting the respective region from financial risk. Japan, in particular, would find it difficult to raise its status vis-à-vis the United States significantly by promoting regional financial and monetary integration, principal reasons being actor heterogeneity, the role of China, hesitation to bear burden and risk, and the historical legacy of a bank-oriented system. [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]

Concepts such as ‘reciprocity,’ ‘embeddedness,’ and ‘social capital’ have been the main tools for description and analysis of social relations sustaining economic activities in areas defined as regional economies or industrial districts, becoming models for successful development in Europe. Historicizing these concepts, stressing the concrete political agendas of the scholars who produced them, reveals them as paradoxical in that, though they are abstract, their main force lies in their social, cultural, historical, and spatial situatedness. This situation points to the awkwardness of ‘ethnographic realism’ and the need for a kind of ‘reflexive historical realism’ to enhance viable anthropological communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we contribute to the longstanding discussion on the role of knowledge to economic growth in a spatial context. We observe that in adopting the European policy strategy towards a competitive knowledge economy, the Netherlands is—as most European countries—mainly oriented towards industrial, technological factors. The policy focus is on R&D specialized regions in their spatial economic strategies. We place the knowledge economy in a broader perspective. Based on the knowledge economy literature, we value complementary indicators: the successful introduction of new products and services to the market (“innovation”) and indicators of skills of employees (“knowledge workers”). Using econometric analysis, we relate the three factors “R&D”, “innovation” and “knowledge workers” to regional economic growth. We conclude that the factors “innovation” and “knowledge workers” are more profoundly related to urban employment and productivity growth than the R&D-factor. Preferably, urban research and policy-makers should therefore take all three knowledge factors into account when determining economic potentials of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of regional integration as a system of conflict resolution. It identifies key referents that integration and conflict resolution have in common such as functionalist foundations, the integrative capacity of conflict, actors and a causal mechanism of outcome creation based on compromise. The peace-building effects of European integration are examined.

Abstract: We study a cross section of 54 European regions. The central question is whether regional differences in economic growth are related to social capital, in the form of generalized trust and associational activity. Substantiated by extensive robustness tests, we present evidence that growth differentials in European regions are positively related to social capital measured as associational activity. Hence, our results suggest that the thesis of Putnam et al. (1993) thesis on social capital in Italian regions can be generalized. Our analysis also suggests that it is not the mere existence of network relationships that stimulates regional economic growth, but active involvement in these relationships. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the planned reviews of the European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON). The work of ESPON carries forward the Study Program on European Spatial Planning organized by Nordregio in seeking a better understanding of spatial development trends across Europe. The program differentiates the thematic policy impact and cross-thematic projects.

Comments on the popularity of restructuring in the regional economics in Europe and Asia. Relevance of economic geography in understanding the concept and process of restructuring; Pros and cons of restructuring; Definition of functional lock-in; Reason behind the popularity of restructuring in Asia.

This article presents predictable view of the editor of the April 2004 issue of the journal "European Urban and Regional Studies," regarding the geographies of the new Europe in the new millennium. The editor describes that towards the end of the 21st century social scientists increasingly colonized one of geographers' defining territories and became more interested in issues of space and spatiality in the constitution of economies and societies. Several important points related to conceptualization in terms of relations, between circuits, flows and spaces, are discussed, both in general and more specifically in providing a conceptual framework through which to comprehend the evolving geographies of the New Europe.

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]

The trade liberalization associated with NAFTA has affected the pattern of state exports by altering the origin as well as the destination of merchandise exports. We find that NAFTA has increased US merchandise exports to Mexico and Canada by just over 15%, and has increased total US merchandise exports by nearly 8%. We also find that although many states have seen large increases in exports to both Mexico and Canada, others have seen large decreases. NAFTA has also affected states’ exports to non-NAFTA regions of the world, tending to decrease exports to Europe and Latin America and increase exports to Asia. States in the northeast regions of the United States have seen the smallest increases in exports in the wake of NAFTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes an empirical investigation of regional trade flows following a cross-section method. For this purpose, the author refers to a regional context looking at a chosen sample of European regions. She mainly intends to assess the role of the home market effect and the level of transport costs in driving regional export flows. In particular, she is interested in testing the importance of spatial components in regional trade analysis. By simply adapting the gravity model approach to her framework, she is able to prove that physical distance smooths the intensity of trading flows while local transport facilities as well as local demand foster them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work argues that the formation of an economic union requires that the homogeneity of domestic economic institutions and the process of regional integration reinforce each other. Granger causality tests on four cases of regional integration in the Americas, Asia and Europe (1975 through 1995) confirm our thesis. These cases include the Andean Pact, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Central American Common Market and the European Union. The most successful case of integration - the European Union - does evince a pattern of positive interaction between the two variables, while less successful cases, found in Latin America, are lacking in this mechanism of mutual influence. We further discuss several regional groups that have recently emerged and use our theoretical implications to assess their future development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1990s have seen a strong surge in the number of cross-border regions all over Western and Eastern Europe. The article analyses the emergence of these local cross-border institutions in public governance by addressing their context, dimensions and causal underpinnings. First, it offers a brief background on the history of cross-border regions in Europe and related EU policies to support them. Second, it provides a conceptual definition of crossborder regions and their various forms and positions within the wider context of other transnational regional networks. Third, it analyses the empirical dimensions of European cross-border regions, including their frequency, geographic distribution and development over time. It concludes by linking cross-border regions and their various forms to institutional conditions in specific countries as well as the effects of European regional policy. It is argued that small-scale cross-border regions have flourished in particular because of their increasingly relevant role as implementation units for European regional policy in a context of multi-level governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addresses the question of interfacing, innovation policy and regional policy at the European level. Conditions under which the European research will be compatible with cohesion objectives; Ways by which policy-makers policy-makers can take into consideration the variety of local contexts; Development potential of regions.

The globalized economy remains deeply rooted in historically shaped territories, in opposition to the common-place image of a footloose economy of flows. Regions provide the market economy with immaterial resources essential to its development. This is strongly reinforced, in my opinion, by a range of complex effects primarly linked to the change in competition patterns in global markets. Firms are driven to adopt quality - and innovation-based strategies, and still are obliged to reduce costs. Traditional, rigidly fragmented, Taylorist production organization, highly efficient in a stable price-based competition environment, is becoming counterproductive in this new context. The competitivness of companies lies no longer in the mere intensification of work and traditional productivity effects. It results mainly from the density and the relevance of co-operation established between the different actors in a value chain. And this co-operation cannot be set up - this is the point I wish to emphasize - either by the decisionmaking of a more or less centralized technostructure or through sheer market forces. The ability to promote inter-firm co-operation and confidence, to share values and anticipations, the convergence of projects, the relevance of institutionnal frames and finally the quality of local public and private governance are the key factors of success, instead of traditional geographic location factors, more or less neutralized by the decrease of communication costs. In other words, the key resources for development are socially and politically built up,and not a given of nature, as in the past. Potentially, all regions and cities, whatever their size, stand to benefit from this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflects on the innovation turn in regional policy in Europe. Changes in the context and rationale for regional policy-making; Emergence of the concept of clusters and learning regions; Role of knowledge and organizational change in the domain of regional policy.

Discusses the effects of technology transfer agencies on regional economic development in Western Europe. Effective organizational model for technology transfer infrastructures; Impact of national political framework on the organizational model; Strategies for approaching customers that can be used by individual technology transfer agencies.

Focuses on tourism as an instrument of regional economic growth in Europe. Overview on regional tourism development for the period 1961 to 1974; Enactment of various government decrees intended to facilitate economic development through the promotion of the tourism industry; Identification of ways in which tourism can contribute to the process of economic growth.

This paper investigates performance drivers of microfinance suppliers in Europe. As such suppliers, in contrast to advanced microfinance suppliers in developing economies, typically focus on uncollateralized microcredit services to individuals at the margins of society and of labor markets, we draw on the theory of social capital and empirically investigate the role that social capital may play in the overall performance of European microfinance suppliers. We build a unique, unbalanced panel data set of 302 microfinance service providers in Europe covering the years 2008–2015, and measure their performance in terms of credit risk, financial and social performance, and efficiency. Pursuing an econometric approach, we test a series of hypotheses using various measures of conditions conducive to building social capital on both the institutional and the country level, such as the client base of a microfinance supplier and the level of cultural fractionalization in a society. Our findings confirm that a higher intensity of social capital is positively associated with all areas of the performance of microfinance suppliers in Europe. Our conclusions could help in the design and launch of microfinance institutions in those European countries in which microfinance markets are developed not at all or only to a very limited extent. Our paper thus contributes to the nascent literature on microfinance in developed economies by applying and extending the theoretical framework and empirical models on social capital and microfinance that were originally elaborated for developing economies. • Social capital has a positive influence on repayment, profitability, and depth of social outreach. • Higher proportion of clients from rural areas improves most MFI performance indicators. • Smaller lending entities perform better than their bigger counterparts. • Profit-oriented institutions outperform not-for-profits in all the areas of performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on R. Shields and P. Le Gales' articles on the relationship between economics and culture in European geographical or urban and regional research. Role of institutions and political struggles; Importance of shared representations.