In many European countries, wages are determined by collective bargaining agreements intended to improve wages and reduce inequality. We study the local and aggregate effects of collective bargaining in Italy and Germany. The two countries have similar geographical differences in firm...

Bridging the gap between the literatures on industrial change and human capital externalities we investigate the complementarity between aggregate regional education and job turnover. On the level of regional industries in Germany we find strong evidence for such complementarity. Thus, regional...

For the impartial observer of German regions, differences in regional industrial structures and prosperity are quite obvious. On the one hand, there are regions characterised by different industries, firm structures and labour qualification profiles. On the other hand, some of these regions are...

In this paper we study the dynamics of local employment growth in West Germany from 1980 to 2001. Using dynamic panel techniques, we analyse the timing of the impact of diversity and specialisation, as well as of the human capital structure of local industries. Diversity has a positive effect on...

Nascent entrepreneurs are people who are (alone or with others) actively engaged in creating a new venture and who expect to be the owner or part owner of this start-up. Given that newly founded firms are important for the economic development of nations and regions, and that nascent...