According to the literature, historical episodes of local self-governing institutions can explain why differences in socio-economic performances among different territories can persist over centuries. Such assumption has been tested comparing free city-states (Communes) and feudal towns in...

We explore the long run socio-economic impact of a medieval urban governance setting , the king-owned towns (KOTs). For a town the KOT status implies special fiscal, commercial and administrative prerogatives between the community and the Crown, where such as status could be renovated, modified...

This chapter discusses factors that contributed to different economic dynamics across European regions and the prevailing disparities. The impact of EU Cohesion Policy in reducing disparities is studied based on the empirical evidence on the effects of EU regional policy. With more than thirty...

This paper compares the publication and citation behaviour of economic geogra- phers and geographical economists. Based on a unique data set and consciously limited to researchers in the German-speaking world, empirical analyses show more parallels than expected. Convergence of scholars from...

We identify the impact of local firm concentration on incumbent performance in a historic setting that has quasi-experimental characteristics. When Germany was divided after World War II, many firms in the machine tool industry fled the Soviet-occupied zone to prevent expropriation. We show that...

As institutional change is an integral part of economic development, institutionalism ought not to be left behind in favour of an evolutionary economic geography despite the attention the ‘evolutionary turn' has recently received. Rather, we need to re-address our treatment of institutions...

We consider the role of local geographic peers in determining equilibrium firm behavior. We exploit in-transitivity in local peer-firm networks and utilize spatial econometric techniques to circumvent well-known challenges in estimating and interpreting empirical models of peer effects. We find...

Based on unique data covering individuals, firms, industries and regions for the 1999–2005 period, we contribute with new knowledge concerning the impact of regional variables on spin-offs. Implementing a large number of controls, as well as different estimation techniques and robustness...

This paper investigates the potential of frontiers to shape the economic geography of countries. I focus on the case of Spain to explore how historical frontier warfare affects the colonization of the territory and the distribution of the population across the space. Exploiting a spatial...

We build upon previous work by Dixit and Stiglitz (1977) and Krugman (1990) to introduce a model of economic geography in which agglomeration of production, a zero-profit competitive equilibrium, and an endogenously-driven industrial revolution arise out of the profit-maximizing choices made by...