This research provides new data and insight metropolitan areas worldwide. It summarizes new data, derived from satellite images of the world at night, to provide systematic estimates of the economic activity generated by cities and metropolitan areas worldwide. It identifies 681 global...

The importance of metropolitan regions as national growth and development engines, and in particular as driving forces in national as well as global innovation processes is well recognized. This paper highlights the role of metropolitan regions in different contexts in order to lay a foundation...

Research has suggested that night-time light (NTL) can be used as a proxy for a number of variables, including urbanization, density, and economic growth. But, just how close is the relationship between NTL and economic activity? This paper uses a combination of correlation analysis and...

Human capital theory suggests that higher education, as a means of capability creation and of ability screening, is positively associated with individuals’ success as entrepreneurs. This paper argues that social capital perspectives, in particular the theory of local embeddedness and team...

The importance of cities to economic dynamism and growth cannot be emphasized enough. It is crucial for our understanding of what drives economic growth to understand how cities emerge, develop and prosper. This paper investigates the emergence of cities from a spontaneous order and urban...

New knowledge generated by an economic agent in a region will tend over time to flow to other economic agents in the same region but also to economic agents in other regions. It is quite common in the literature to use the concept of knowledge spillovers for such knowledge flows, irrespective of...

Increased urbanization, global warming and sustainable growth belong to the major contemporary policy challenges. Today cities are home to more than 50% of the world population, the largest 600 urban centers generate about 60% of global GDP, and the agglomerated areas are responsible for 75% of...

Nowadays it is well-established fact that urban regions and large ones in particular are crucial for promoting creativity, innovation and subsequent economic growth in the economy. There-fore, it is important to focus policies in Europe on how to improve the existing conditions of urban regions...

The extent and importance of spin-offs for industrial dynamics have been analysed in a number of previous studies, yet knowledge is surprisingly scarce about the determinants that trigger such entrepreneurial ventures. In the current analysis we use unique and detailed Swedish data to...

This paper explores the role of retail as an amenity and how it contributes to place attractiveness. In this investigation the impact of accessibility to shops on average house prices is investigated using a fixed effect estimation. The analysis use data for Swedish municipalities through the...