People have various motivations for becoming an entrepreneur. A common assumption is that entrepreneurs in deprived or remote regions are more likely to be motivated by necessity, as employment opportunities are limited and people have little to lose in starting their own business. However,...

The term urban sprawl is often used to describe apparent inefficiencies of spatial development, including disproportionate growth of urban areas and excessive leapfrog development. In Switzerland, where open space is a scare resource, sprawl takes place all over the country. It goes at the...

New firm formation is often highly prioritized by local governments, particularly for regions that are declining. Entrepreneurship can play an important role in keeping declining regions vital through job creation. Yet, the way in which new firm formation exerts its influence on employment...

There is a high research and political interest in regional disparities now. Regional disparities are at the heart of prominent theories of regional development as well as of the ambitious project of European integration. Moreover, regional policies at various spatial levels are formulated in...

"Urbanization and Decentralization: The changing urban-rural linkages and opportunities of decentralization of services" Joachim von Braun, Center for Development Research (ZEF) University of Bonn, Germany This paper explores the relations between urbanization and decentralization. Ever stronger...

For more than ten years the topics creative class, creative industries and creative regions are on the agenda in economic geography literature. Contributions mainly focus on the distribution, mobility and economic impact of creative individuals or companies from a regional perspective. It is...

Do regional identities determine different levels of FDI-induced growth? This paper analyses the impact of FDI on the growth rates of European regions. In so doing, it discusses the role of different components of territorial capital in magnifying or daunting such an impact. The paper starts...

The economic crisis has affected the EU regions very differently over the last five years, depending on the region's strengths or weaknesses, its sectoral structure and the response of national and regional governments. In some countries, downturns can lead to narrower interregional disparities,...

In this article, we quantitatively analyze changes in the size distribution of municipal jurisdictions in Japan by using their rank-size distribution to capture the change. In Japan, the central government sometimes enacts large-scale municipal mergers, aimed at the creating of municipalities of...

A review of the types of Innovation System identified in the literature points to different models. Besides the very well-known National, Regional, Local, sectorial, and technological innovation systems, combinations of the previous can be identified, proposing sub-models such as National Open...