After less than two years from its accession to the EU, Romania was seriously hit by the global financial and economic crisis. Compared to other former transition countries, the turmoil was deeper and lasted longer and a modest recovery was recorded only in the second half of 2011, given deep...

Policy makers agree that vacant houses are undesirable. Moreover the existence of empty houses is used as an argument for allocating less land for new construction. So higher vacancy rates tend to trigger tighter restrictions on the supply of land. Such tighter restrictions lead to higher prices...

In Turkey, after the 1999 Gölcük Earthquake, urban redevelopment has been seen as a major solution for removal or rehabilitation of low quality urban settlements. Several laws and bylaws have been passed to this end. One of the major tasks of this transformation and/or redevelopment is to...

Modeling a micro-structure of agglomeration economies, this article derives a second-best benefit evaluation formula for urban transportation improvements. Without explicitly modeling the sources of agglomeration economies, Venables (JTEP 2007) investigated the same problem. This article...

Germany like many other European countries subsidize commuting by granting the right to deduct commuting expenses from the income tax base. This regulation has often been changed and has regularly been under debate during the last decades. The pros (e.g. causing efficiency gains with respect to...

The last one and a half centuries have witnessed dramatic changes in the world economy. The service (tertiary) sector, which at the beginning of the 20th century was of little importance relative to agriculture and manufacturing, has become the dominant sector today, accounting for 80% and more...

The issue of the possible adverse effects of a reduction in pollution on the economy is a very real one for China, given its public commitment to substantial cuts in CO2 emissions by 2020. An important part of this issue is the regional dimension - the pollution reduction is likely to have...

Chile is one of the most concentrated country in the world. Most of the 40 percent of the population live in the capital city, Santiago, where around 45 percent of the GDP is produced. At the same time, most of the policies promoting welfare are focus on people and they are spatially blind. This...

Combining a spatial equilibrium model with a search-matching unemployment model, this paper analyzes the willingness to pay for regional amenities and the regional quality of life when wages, rents, and unemployment risk compensate for local amenities and disamenities. The results are compared...