The European Union is one of the most prosperous areas of the world. However, huge disparities remain among its member states and regions. Given the persistence of those large regional inequalities, it is pertinent to analyse the efficiency of structural funds. In light of the neoclassical...

The persistent increasing duration of unemployment has become an issue during economic crises. Although lay-offs at large firms normally make headlines during crises, we still know little about the potential impact of firm size on adjustment behavior in a crisis. We studied effects of firm size...

The purpose of this research is to examine students' understanding and interest about economics. We furthermore explore the impact of students' family and school contexts, and their individual characteristics, on their understanding of economic issues. The data is based on a questionnaire...

Unconditionally, pushed spin-offs are found to survive longer than their pulled counterparts. Using matched employer–employee data and novel multivariate decomposition techniques, we show that pushed spin-offs’ relative survival advantage is mostly explained by their larger human capital...

This paper reports a comprehensive study on the dynamics of nascent business owners using a unique longitudinal matched employer–employee dataset. We follow over 157,000 individuals who leave paid employment and become business owners during the period 1992–2007. The contributions of this...

This paper evaluates the link between foreign ownership and firm exit during crises, using a longitudinal micro dataset over an 18-year period. We address two main questions: first, if foreign affiliates have different failure rates than domestic firms during economic downturns, and second if...

Structural Funds’ effectiveness for cohesion promotion within the European Union has been frequently questioned. Given the challenges brought about by recent enlargements to the Central and Eastern Europe and the discussion about limits on EU budget, we analyse the role of EU transfers...

Purpose The article aims to introduce the strategic question and demonstrate its relevance and reality. It also profiles the articles selected for the annual global trends issue and explains how they illustrate the various angles impacting the adoption of a new paradigm to measure tourism...

Purpose The purpose of this article is to critically review the contributions made by the global trends issue participants and to present the lines of action in the form of a proposal for measuring tourism success that is based on a clear move towards sustainability. Design/methodology/approach...