Applications such as iMessage, KakaoTalk, LINE, Signal, Skype, Snapchat, Threema, Viber, WhatsApp and WeChat have become an increasingly popular means of personal and business interaction. Surprisingly little academic effort has gone into understanding the nature and origin of these...

In Japan, many local mixed enterprises owned and operated jointly by local governments and private sectors had been established from the late 1980's to the early 1990's in order to provide public services more efficiently. At present, in Japan, many local mixed enterprises are confronted with a...

Three sources of tax interactions among local jurisdictions are usually considered in the literature: public expenditure spill-over, tax competition and yardstick competition. However, another source of interdependency has been suggested in recent years: the 'political trend'. According to this...

This paper analyzes the relationships between the degree of decentralization of public policy and the emergence of horizontal strategic interactions. We analyze the structural funds allocation process in determining how the structure of governance of cohesion policy a ects the development of...

This paper elaborates on how the global discourse on creative economy is interpreted in developing countries. We accomplish this by examining how the discourse has been institutionalized in several Indonesian cities. As an effect of decentralization, localities attempt to become a winner among...

How can agricultural inheritance traditions affect structural change and economic development in rural areas? The most prominent historical traditions are primogeniture, where the oldest son inherits the whole farm, and equal partition, where land is split and each heir inherits an equal share....