Two main factors influence the changes in the spatial organisation of financial institutions : the higher competition in the financial sector and the communication technologies rise. More and more, financial institutions delocalise their standard activities in the cities where the costs are...

History of population and employment suburbanization, mainly in the United States, suggests three characteristics of the phenomenon. 1/ Suburbanization results in urban sprawl in such a way that population and employment increase more rapidly in the periphery than in the center. 2/...

In this article, we look back to the causes of the efficiency of the coordination in the Local Productive Systems. We first try to see how the firms cope with the deficiencies when they happen in a bilateral relationship. We use the HIRSCHMAN?s exit/voice model which says that three kinds of...

After a long period of building, the microelectronics cluster in the Marseilles Metropolitan Area appears to have reached a critical size and investment dynamics capable to ensure its durability. In this paper we aim to enlighten such an assumption by analysing the nature of the process that led...

The increase in atypical working forms and more particularly in temporary work reveals structural changes in the labour market since the 70?s. Despite a substantial development of temporary work agencies in France over the last thirty years, great location disparities appear and can be explained...

Thanks to games theory and within the french institutional framework, the aim of this paper is first to explain why we observe a spontaneous tax competition between local governments with similar size and then to show that « l?intercommunalité » in other words consolidation of...

This article proposes an analytical framework regarding the geography of innovation by Dedicated Biotechnology Firms. The framework is based on the comparison of 61 French DBF?s and their 129 founders. Four distinct business models are drawn from the empirical material. Each corresponds to a...

This paper aims at analysing territorial competition through a spatial differentiation model as Hotelling?s. So it shows that an equilibrium can be found, but also that the famous « minimal differentiation » principle is far from being verified. On the contrary, in matter of territorial...

The relations between public services and local public services are analysed. The local communities are now obliged to consider the requirements of sustainable development, with new constraints and new possibilities for the local public services. The objectives and means of action of the local...