"Some cities seem destined to become major financial capitals, yet never do - Seville, for instance, was the centre of Spain's opulent New World Empire, but failed to become a financial metropolis. Others, like former colonial backwater Hong Kong, defy the odds by growing into major trading...

Metropolitan growth has been dramatic in the past several decades, and today metropolitan regions are recognized as the main driving forces in national growth and development as well as in national and global innovation processes. The purpose of this book is to contribute to a better...