In recent years, the European Commission has attached increasing importance to the use of financial engineering instruments rather than traditional grant-based financing for the microcredit sector, considering these to be the most efficient option available. This book presents a study of...

Philipp Mohl evaluates the macroeconomic effects of EU Cohesion Policy with the help of empirical methods. His findings indicate that in particular the part of EU Cohesion Policy which is spent for the poorest regions (the so-called Objective 1 funding) has a positive and statistically...

This book's thirteen contributions bring together the results of recent research on determinants of regional specialization, growth, and convergence in the context of European integration. They offer fresh theoretical and empirical evidence on patterns of regional production structures,...

This book presents an interdisciplinary analysis of EU regional cohesion based on a network and clusters approach. The author explores the question if and how the presence of network structures supports the effectiveness of transformation in EU regions, in particular with a focus on...

This work examines the political economy of exchange-rate policies in the eastward expansion of the eurozone. Analysis shows that prospective members of the EMU are likely to pass on some costs of convergence to the current EMU members. The mechanism is an altered exchange-rate policy that...

This volume assesses the implementation of the EU's cohesion policy and the role that the policy has in stimulating ten new member states from eastern and southern European countries to join the EU in 2004 and another three to four countries that will join in the near future

This book focuses on the questions of how territorial differences in productivity levels and unemployment rates arise in the first place and why territorial differences in labor market performance persist over time. Unemployment divergence and unemployment club convergence have been touched on...

Introduction -- Disputed Notions and Definitions in Rural and Regional Studies -- From the Early Literature to the Contemporary Approaches to Regional and Territorial Development -- Policies of Regional Development and Planning -- In Search of Rural Development -- Rural Development Policies --...

1 Introduction -- 2 Theoretical Frameworks: A Spatial Perspective on Innovation and the Genesis of Regional Growth -- 3 Geographical Accessibility and Human Capital Accumulation -- 4 The Role of Underlying Socio-Economic Conditions -- 5 Knowledge Flows and Their Spatial Extent -- 6 Innovation in...

Economic and financial crises have brought the rise of unemployment, reduction of economic growth and emergence of global imbalances and tensions as countries and regions have suffered the effects of a variety of internal and external shocks. In this context of constant disruption, the...