The rising attention of politicians as well as scientists in the EU to 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...

Throughout this dissertation agglomeration and specialization tendencies of both industrial and services sectors in the European Union, the driving forces behind and dynamic developments are investigated. Whereas industrial agglomeration increased by about 25 percent from 1970 to 2005,...