Shift-share analysis is a decomposition technique widely used in regional studies to quantify an industry-mix effect and a competitive effect on the growth of regional employment (or any other relevant variable) relative to the national average. This technique has always been subject to...

The optimal size of an urban area is a controversial topic. We take optimal urban size to be that which minimizes net costs of city size, with larger cities first having various economies of scale (e.g. waste pickup) then later diseconomies of scale (e.g. pollution, congestion)

MFA (Minimal Flow Analysis) is a method of qualitative input-output analysis used for identifying national of regional industrial clusters. It is based on the analysis of layers (in an input-output model, flow matrices generated at each iteration toward equilibrium). We show through theory that...

This paper analyzes the optimal investment strategy of two firms confronted with the option to adopt a new technology. I add two key features: location and learning. A firm gains relative advantage entirely due to its geographic placement - this is the location benefit. Firms also learn from the...

This paper examines the effects of state borders on the performance of metropolitan areas in Europe. A multi-dimensional conceptualization of border effects is elaborated and empirically tested with the help of statistical modelling. The results suggest that Swiss cases and metropolitan areas...

The purpose of this study is to determine if and to what extent the states of North Carolina and Virginia display regional income convergence. This study utilizes growth theory as the theoretical foundation to explore this phenomenon. This paper uses OLS (ordinary least squares) as the proposed...

We consider the role of local geographic peers in determining equilibrium firm behavior. We exploit in-transitivity in local peer-firm networks and utilize spatial econometric techniques to circumvent well-known challenges in estimating and interpreting empirical models of peer effects. We find...

The present volume is the collection of the conference papers presented on The 10th International Symposium Agricultural economics and Rural Development - Realities and Perspectives for Romania, organized by The Research Institute for Agrarian Economy and Rural Development during 14 of November,...

Even if Romania succeeded to become a member of the European Union, the development gaps between its regions and those in the other member states continue to be significant. The paper will focus on analyzing the regional disparities in Romania, in terms of GDP/capita, FDI and possibly state...

This article considers welfare reform's impact in rural America. Professor Pruitt asserts that federal welfare reform legislation, the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), reflects an urban political agenda that failed to consider rural realities. Based on her...