Likelihood functions of spatial autoregressive models with normal but heteroskedastic disturbances have been already derived [Anselin (1988, ch.6)]. But there is no implementation for maximum likelihood estimation of these likelihood functions in general (heteroskedastic disturbances) cases....

The recent development of high speed train in Europe means significant modifications in the accessibility conditions of the inhabitants. But the development of the new network also provides a unique opportunity for the surroundings of the stations. This development depends strongly on the...

Power laws appear widely in many branches of economics, geography, demography and other social sciences. In particular, the upper tail of city size distributions appear to follow power laws, as many researchers have shown for different countries and different periods of times. A crucial point in...

Lodz, the third of the largest cities in Poland, is inhabited by 745 000 of people and covers the area of 294 km². Today Lodz is transforming from the textile industry into the multifunctional metropolis. City authorities in collaboration with scientists from the European Regional...

Pollutants emitted by pollution generation sources do not only deteriorate the water quality, but the emissions of greenhouse gas also contribute to the green house effect. Material balance of biomass wastes shows there is a trade-off between water pollution and global warming. Therefore, in...

A question how to position and measure the value of social capital (SC) of a company, country or region has come to predominate the debate over society and governance. We argue that social capital is of static or dynamic nature. We provide a tool to suitably measure it under both concepts. Also,...

In modelling spatial economic interactions such as embodied in the movements of people and goods, the study area is usually subdivided into geographic units, i.e. zones, to represent the origin, destination and any stop-over locations. In most cases, model precision tends to improve as the study...

The present paper considers urban sprawl in Europe from a multi- dimensional and exploratory point of view. Several literatures on the topic (mainly from urban economics, but also from other fields such as urban planning or regional science) are reviewed to extract the main dimensions of the...

A wide urban-rural disparity is observed in employment growth in the United States. For example, employment growth averaged 2.1 percent in urban counties during 1998-2007, compared with just 1 percent in rural counties. In this study, we examine the sources of U.S. employment growth using the...

The lack of convergence across Italian Regions has been widely cited as an incontrovertible proof of failure of Cohesion policy. This paper aims to provide a twofold contribution to the debate on the effectiveness of these policies in Italy. Firstly, we provide an up-to-date view of convergence...