In this study we evaluate a special form of business support - support to cover costs associated with business counselling. The policy question is whether firms that receive this support within the Regional Business Development programme have a positive outcome compared with firms that do not...

This paper exploits a unique universal educational policy - implemented in most German states between 2001 and 2008 - that compressed the academic-track high school curriculum into a (one year) shorter time span, thereby increasing time of instruction and share of curriculum taught per grade....

TThe major ski markets of the world are reaching a point of stagnation or decline. After a long period of increased demand and expansions, this also holds true for the Swedish ski resorts. Although the apparent stagnation, the main factors influencing the demand for skiing in Sweden are not...

This paper follows the industry employment histories of all individuals at some point affiliated with the declining German and dismantling Swedish shipbuilding industries 1970-2000. We analyse the situation of the individual workers leaving shipbuilding through investigating to what extent they...

There is an abundant literature on industrial ecology aiming at explaining the survival propensity of recently started firms. The majority of the contributions concentrate on the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the new firm or the industry. Only a small minority of the existing studies...

The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which rural regions benefit from closeness to large cities. It is often argued that rural regions can enjoy urban-based growth through urban sprawl, i.e. deconcentration of urban activities to rural regions. Analyses of rural regions in e.g....

The Forest as a Resource. Conflicts in the Northern Sweden Wooded land in the 19th century The forest as a resource played an important role in the structural transformation process which would change Sweden from an agrarian to an industrial economy during the 19th century. This paper will...