A stochastic model of the evolution of the firm population in a regionand industry is developed. This model is used to make predictions about theexpected probability distribution of the firm number in regions and their dynamics.Data on the spatial distribution of firms in Germany is used to...

The paper Investigates stability and change of regional economic activities in the longrun.As the unit of analysis we selected the machine tool industry in West Germany forthe years 1953 to 2002. We spot a strong variance in the activities between the differentregions. These differences are...

We test Krugman’s (1991) notion of risk sharing in pooled labormarkets as one of the micro-foundations of agglomerationeconomies, i.e. we examine whether firms share risks fromidiosyncratic and sector specific shocks through labor pooling.Estimating wage functions we find that job turnover...

In this paper we survey the recent developments in two empirical literatures at the crossroadsof labor and urban economics: Studies about localized human capital externalities (HCE) andabout the urban wage premium (UWP). After surveying the methods and main results of eachof these two...

We analyze the equilibrium and the optimal resource allocations in a monocentric city undermonopolistic competition. Unlike the constant elasticity of substitution (CES) case, wherethe equilibrium markups are independent of the city size, we present a variable elasticity ofsubstitution (VES)...

The main argument in this paper is that new information and communication technologies (ICT) in the financial industry will increase specialisation and competition within the European financial centre system and thereby lead to a ‘re-bundling’ of functions of the various financial centres....

This paper sheds new light on the role of regional labor market conditions for regional mobility. We study competition for vacant jobs along two dimensions - between employed and unemployed job searchers, and between resident and non-resident job searchers - within a simple matching framework....

We analyze empirically the impact of urban agglomeration on Italian wages. Using micro-data from the Bank of Italy'sSurvey of Household Income and Wealth for the years 1995, 1998, 2000 and 2002 on more than 22,000 employeesdistributed in 242 randomly drawn local labor markets (30 percent of the...

Recent studies suggest that the correlation of stock returnsincreases with decreasing geographical distance. However, there is some debateon the appropriate methodology for measuring the effects of distanceon correlation. We modify a regression approach suggested in the literatureand complement...

We analyze empirically the effects of urban agglomeration on Italian college graduates’ workpossibilities as entrepreneurs three years after graduation. We find that each 100,000inhabitant-increase in the size of the individual’s province of work reduces the chances ofbeing an entrepreneur...