Taking Italy as a case study, this paper investigates the link between economies' structural similarities and convergence. Specifically, treating technology as sector-specific and modelling technological spillovers as a positive function of the degree of similarity between economies' sectoral...

This paper explores the impact of industrial clusters on regional growth at level of German labour market regions within a regional convergence model. It focuses on vertically connected industrial sectors, which can emerge parallel to horizontal interconnections. Based on works of Schnabl (2000)...

After the German reunification, interregional subsidies accounted for approximately four percent of gross fixed capital investment in the new federal states. We show that between 1992 and 2005 infrastructure and (small) business aid had a negative net impact on regional economic growth. This...

The question whether international openness causes higher domestic growth has been subject to intense discussions in the empirical growth literature. This paper addresses this issue using the fall of the Berlin wall in 1990 as a natural experiment. We analyze whether the slow-down in convergence...

Sektorale Spezialisierung wird in Deutschland häufig als eine sinnvolle Option zur Stärkung regionalen Wachstums angesehen: Während viele Städte (z. B. Wolfsburg, Frankfurt am Main) bereits durch starke Konzentration gekennzeichnet sind, versuchen auch andere Regionen solche Zentren zu...