After less than two years from its accession to the EU, Romania was seriously hit by the global financial and economic crisis. Compared to other former transition countries, the turmoil was deeper and lasted longer and a modest recovery was recorded only in the second half of 2011, given deep...

Romania's communist regime used forced industrialization and urbanization policies as a solution for speeding-up the pace of development in the lagging areas, which resulted in reducing regional disparities. However, after 1989 there areas were the first that suffered the hardships of economic...

Place-based policies commonly target underperforming areas, such as deteriorating downtown business districts and disadvantaged regions. Principal examples include enterprise zones, European Union Structural Funds, and industrial cluster policies. Place-based policies are rationalized by various...

This paper proposes a framework for a regional economic policy in Colombia. The regional characteristics and disparities of the country are studied, and regional disparities are shown to be both significant and persistent over time. This calls for a policy initiative to promote the development...

This chapter seeks to provide useful advice for local government policy towards economic development programs. The chapter: Reviews the size and scope of local economic development programs in the United States; critically analyzes the various rationales offered for these programs; makes...

This paper discusses investments in transport infrastructure and incentives for commuting taxes in a multiregional setting. We study the horizontal and vertical interactions between governments. We identify incentives for strategic and tax exporting behavior that might lead to underinvestment in...

Erhebliche regionale Disparitäten werden in Deutschland von einer Abwanderung aus strukturschwachen Regionen begleitet. Theoretische Modelle liefern keine eindeutigen Aussagen über die Effekte der Wanderung. Empirische Befunde zeigen dagegen, dass die Mobilität zu einem Abbau der Unterschiede...

Over the last decade or so, the debate on the planning and development of the Paris (Île-de-France) region has revolved around two little words: "Grand Paris", or Greater Paris. Despite existing political and scientific controversies surrounding the future of the capital region, three major...

Recently, the number of state interventions and of firm subsidies has largely increased. However, the possible outcome of such interventions is rather am-biguous. This paper investigates the impact of firm subsidies granted by Ger-man regional policy. The long experiences made with regional...