We analysed 90,000 contracts involving UK local authorities between 2015 and 2019 to examine patterns and potential drivers of regional sourcing. We found councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are much more likely to select suppliers based within their regions compared with their...

The COVID pandemic caused the political competition between the prime ministers of the German states to reach its peak. Whoever is the best at announcing, launching, or implementing policies to combat the pandemic can hope to capitalize most politically. In this paper, we attempt to document...

The consolidation of a new legal framework for Brazilian urban policy has been emphasizing the possibility of citizen participation and social inclusion in urban policies. At the same time, current socio-spatial inequalities contribute to cities with increasingly complex problems and a reduction...

This paper provides some elements to explain the observed takeover in some urban areas of a new kind of elite associated with new economy jobs, also known as "bourgeois boheme" (bobos). This takeover has been associated with greater investment in urban amenities and "clean" means of transport,...

Public sector activities are often neglected in economic approaches to analyze the driving forces of urban growth and changes in urban hierarchies. One crucial aspect of public sector activities is the institutional status of cities as regional capital. The paper is reporting on a quasi natural...

Das Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH) veranstaltet unter Federführung der Forschungsabteilung Stadtökonomik alle zwei Jahre das „Hallesche Kolloquium zur kommunalen Wirtschaft“. Vor dem Hintergrund der kommunalen Gebietsreformen in Ostdeutschland befasste sich die...

Das vorliegende Paper stellt den ersten Beitrag dar, der sich mit dem innovativen Konzept des Regionalen Gewerbeflächenpools aus wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher Sicht beschäftigt. Der hier analysierte aus der kommunal- bzw. regionalpolitischen Praxis kommende Poolansatz geht über das bisher...

Recent studies point to a positive correlation between ethnic heterogeneity due to immigration and the propensity of opting out from public schools for private alternatives. However, immigration across regions is hardly exogenous, which obstructs attempts to reveal causal mechanisms. This paper...

We examine the efficiency properties of labor taxation. A spatial model of an economy is introduced whose key feature is a new approach to restricted labor mobility. We characterize the efficient allocation of labor and properties of a decentralized equilibrium. An efficient allocation of labor...