Over the past decade the 'cluster model' has been seized on as a tool for promoting competitiveness, innovation and growth on local, regional and national scales. However, despite its popularity there is much about it that is problematic, and in some respects the rush to employ 'cluster ideas'...

The interaction of inequality and growth and the direction of causality in this relationship have been an extensively discussed topic with several questions but without clear answers both in the theoretical and empirical literature. The current paper contributes mainly into the new economic...