The aim of the paper is to test the Benhabib and Spiegel (2005) productivity (TFP) catch-up framework on European regions. Differences in the stock of human capital across regions are hypothesized to be the cause of differences in the speed by which follower regions converge and catch-up with...

Changing pattern of global specialization and trade has affected the regional economic landscape in Europe significantly during the last decades, often even more than endogenous factors or policy measures. After a period of conversion, processes of diversion has reentered the scene, particularly...

The paper examines the impact of communication cost reductions on growth and welfare by means of an endogenous spatial growth model. Policy makers having to decide upon transport policies often claim certain policies such as infrastructure investments to have growth stimulating effects that...

The productivity generated by capital goods is not uniform along the time. When there exist conventional physical capital goods the productivity obtained is minor that the one generated by quality capital goods. To obtain a correct measure of growth in presence of this embodied technical...

The paper presents a multiregional endogenous growth model designed for calibration with real world data and for numerical policy evaluation. It integrates four strands of research: (1) the Ramsey model of consumer behaviour, (2) Tobin's q-theory of investment, (3) Romer's theory of endogenous...

Recently, there has been wide interest in the "economics" of population aging. Demographic change has crucial consequences for economic behavior; it e.g. implies that consumption and investment decisions vary over the life-cycle. The latter has important implications for economic growth, whereas...