The paper focuses on the analysis of spatial clusters of creative industries in Slovakia using micro-geographic data. The notion of spatial clustering of creative industries is deeply embedded in the literature, showing that firms in creative industries tend to cluster mostly in large cities or...

Using a panel data model, we study the effects of regional and industry-level traits on new business formation (NBF) for 164 industries across 266 Chinese prefectures between 1998 and 2007. The objective is to provide empirical estimates on effects of prefecture traits on entry rates, and in...

Wir zeigen, dass in schrumpfenden Städten die Gesamtausgaben langsamer zurückgehen als die Einwohnerzahl. Dadurch steigen die kommunalen Ausgaben je Einwohner an. In wachsenden Städten beobachten wir diesen Effekt hingegen nicht; die Gesamtausgaben wachsen im gleichen Maß wie die...

Urban systems, and regions more generally, are the epicenters of many of today's social issues. Yet they are also the global drivers of technological innovation and thus it is critical that we understand their vulnerabilities and what makes them resilient to different types of shocks. We take...

This paper surveys recent research on decentralization and natural disasters. The first part discusses results from theoretical models that have been used to study the issues that arise when natural disasters occur in a country with more than one level of government. The next section discusses...

Reducing disparities among regions within European countries together with economic development is the aim of European and national structural policies. In particular, a European grant contributes to the German governmental program for reducing and equalizing regional unemployment. The goal is...

German structural policy is characterized by a composite indicator with three targets:(1) minimization of unemployment, (2) maximization of GDP, and (3) equalization of regional unemployment rates. The composite indicator with given target weights is maximized subject to budget constraints and...

In this paper we analyze if an 'urban mortality penalty' exists for today's developing countries, repeating the history of industrialized nations during the 19th century. We analyze the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) of 19 Sub-Saharan African countries for differences in child and adult...

The basic purpose of the study is to find a metric-variable of competitiveness for each country's tax regime and to assess the impact of tax regime differentiation across the common market. A country adopting competitive taxation policies manages to attract productive factors, funds and...

The paper investigates empirically how costs per inhabitant depend on population density, considering public water and sewerage industry as example. Diverging from prior work, spatial differences in distribution costs within a German municipality are calculated for both industries by using...