Place names, or toponyms, provide insight into the initial geographical characteristics of settlements. We present a unique dataset of 3,705 German toponyms that includes the date of the first historical record mentioning the settlement and the date it was granted city rights. We show that the...

Population forecasts indicate that the world is facing massive demographic changes during the 21st century. This does not only involve the development of the total global population, but (more importantly) will also affect the population and age distribution across countries in a fundamental...

With the completion of EMU, tax competition and, more in general, locational competition is high on the EU policy agenda. In contrast to the standard neo-classical reasoning, recent advances in the theory of trade and location have shown that tax competition does not necessarily lead to a 'race...

We construct a unique data set to analyze whether or not a large temporary shock had an impact on German city growth and city size distribution. Following recent work by Davis and Weinstein (2001) on Japan, we take the strategic bombing of German cities during WWII as our example of such a...

The availability and composition of labor is fundamental for the structure of international trade. This points towards the importance of demographic transitions that affect trade through, for example, changing capital-labor ratios, urbanization dynamics, or changes in the composition of demand...

The multinational firm and its main vehicle, foreign direct investment, are key forces in economic globalization. Their importance to the world economy can be seen in the fact that since 1990 foreign direct investment has grown more rapidly than the world GDP and world trade. Despite this, the...