Because of heterogeneity across regions, economic policy measures are increasingly targeted at the regional level and, therefore, require regional forecasts. The data available to compute regional forecasts are usually a pseudo panel of a limited number of observations over time and a large...

This article analyzes artificial neural networks (ANNs) as a method to compute employment forecasts at a regional level. The empirical application is based on employment data collected for 327West German regionsover a periodof fourteenyears. First, the authors compare ANNs to models commonly...

In this article, we link unique data on local social infrastructure expenditure with microlevel individual survey data of self-reported social capital measures of trust and participation in community activities. We use both probit and tobit models to estimate the impact of social infrastructure...

Official population projections are often based on cohort component methods in which migration levels or rates enter exogenously. When net migration accounts for a large proportion of population change and fluctuates strongly, more reliable population forecasts can be derived by explicitly...

Regions, independent of their geographic level of aggregation, are known to be interrelated partly due to their relative locations. Similar economic performance among regions can be attributed to proximity. Consequently, a proper understanding, and accounting, of spatial liaisons is needed in...

The extant literature has paid scant theoretical attention to the tripartite interaction among increasing environmental regulations, the resulting decision by a polluting firm to upgrade its capital stock, and the impact of innovation on this decision. Hence, the authors theoretically analyze...

This article is a reflection on the development and orientation of regional science in Europe in the past decade. It particularly views progress in regional science as a result of new combinations that follow from the pace of advance in theory, research tools and techniques, changes in the map...

This article presents a systematic method for spatial impact analysis in Third World countries. After a discussion of spatial development issues in this setting, a systems approach to spatial impact analysis is introduced that emphasizes qualitative information. Some analytical tools for soft...

The authors analyze two hitherto little studied but salient questions concerning the trinity of asymmetric information, entrepreneurial activity, and the scope of fiscal policy in an open regional economy. First, the authors use a two-period model to analyze the contractual relationship between...

This article summarizes Walter Isard’s important contributions to environmental economics and ecological economics. The former is the traditional field that incorporates some limited aspects of the environment into neoclassical economic theory, while the latter is a more comprehensive...