Cluster policy has become a method of choice for policymakers in many countries. Promoting strong localized industries is an appealing perspective for practitioners, as it can be seen as a way to anchor economic activity in regions in an era of globalization. If cluster policy is successful, it...

The main objective of this paper is to compare the European Union's (EU) Regional Policy with the Regional Policy in Brazil. In this context, the transformations that have occurred in the last two decades in the policies and instruments that promote the economic and social development of the...

I focus on the independent role of social innovation in economic progress. Modern theory of economic growth and development emphasizes endowments, power, incentives, and physical technology, paying scant attention to knowledge of social systems as a scarce resource. I reverse these procedures by...

Die Bund-Länder-Gemeinschaftsaufgabe "Verbesserung der regionalen Wirtschaftsstruktur" (GRW) ist ein zentraler Baustein der regionalen Wirtschaftspolitik in Deutschland. Von 1991 bis 2008 wurden auf diesem Weg gewerbliche Investitionen von Unternehmen in strukturschwachen Regionen mit 26...

In Western economies, the concrete design of fiscal federalism is determined by the status the federation grants to regionally comparable economic and social conditions, and to what extent this status is anchored in the constitution. If the political and social acceptance of regional differences...

This paper studies the social desirability of agglomeration and the efficiency arguments for policy intervention in a simple, analytically solvable ?new economic geography? model with two trade integrating regions. The location pattern emerging as market equilibrium is ?bubbleshaped?, i.e. it...

If one cluster increases local competitiveness, can politicians, by interlinking clusters, achieve an even better effect at the state level? To answer this question, the paper analyzes the Cluster Initiative" introduced in 1999 by the Bavarian State Government. The purpose of the initiative was...

If one cluster increases local competitiveness, can politicians, by interlinking clusters, achieve an even better effect at the state level? To answer this question, the paper analyzes the Cluster Initiative introduced in 1999 by the Bavarian State Government. The purpose of the initiative was...