Der vorliegende Hauptbericht beinhaltet eine Zusammenfassung der Untersuchungsergebnisse zur EU-Osterweiterung, die in der Regel in den Teilberichten ausführlicher dargestellt sind und gibt eine Übersicht über wirtschaftliche Entwicklung, Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und Wirtschaftsstruktur der...

Die Integration Mittel- und Osteuropäischer Staaten (MOEL) in die Europäische Union hat unterschiedliche Blickwinkel je nachdem, ob sie aus der Sicht der derzeitigen Unionsländer, der MOEL oder der Regionen betrachtet wird, die an der Nahtstelle liegen, wo die Grenzen fallen werden. Im...

This article analyses the evolution of employment rates by sector in Germany, in comparison with the European Union averages. We explain the main causes of the differences of employment rates among regions, the inter-relation between the evolution of employment and the spatial distribution of...

The main emphasis of labour policies in several EU countries seem to have been addressed during the period 1985-2005 to contain the increases of real wages, under the misleading belief that lower wages could lead the policies to get higher employment rates. We show that the main policies to...

More recently, there has been a renewed interest in cluster policies for supporting industrial and regional development. By virtue of the linkage between growth and innovation, R&D intensive industries play a crucial role in cluster development strategies. Empirical cluster research has to...

Econometric analysis of convergence processes across countries or regions usually refers to a transition period between an arbitrary chosen starting year and a fictitious steady state. Panel unit root tests and panel cointegration techniques have proved to belong to powerful econometric tools if...

The present work discusses possible methodological approaches for the assessment of employment effects of rural development measures. A special focus is on measures of the so called integrated rural development. Methods that are considered non-appropriate are considered nevertheless. Therefore,...

Applying an outlier robust extension of the data envelopment analysis (DEA) followed by a geoadditive regression analysis, this study identifies and decomposes the efficiency of 439 German regions in using infrastructure and human capital. The findings show that the regions' efficiency is driven...

Die Neugründung und der Ausbau von Hochschulen gehören zu dem gängigen Instrumenten der regionalen Strukturpolitik. Welche Auswirkungen aber hat die Existenz einer Hochschule in ökonomischer Hinsicht tatsächlich für eine Region? Das vorliegende Paper analysiert und vergleicht die...

This work investigates the interrelation between production efficiency and population size of German cities. The productive efficiency in this context is the scale efficiency, which is a result of positive and negative agglomeration externalities. The investigation is performed in a two-stage...