Die Bekämpfung der Steuer- und Wirtschaftskriminalität steht seit vielen Jahren in besonderem Fokus der Strafverfolgungsbehörden. Dabei können selbst kleine Differenzen und Unachtsamkeiten heute schnell in kritische Steuer- und Wirtschaftsstrafverfahren übergehen - mit hohen Haftungsrisiken...

Regional unemployment rates in the European Union (EU-15) reveal a core-periphery structure. Large ?core? regions in the middle of the continent have low unemployment rates, whereas excessive mass unemployment is predominantly found in the peripheral regions at the outside borders of EU-15. This...

We address the effects of wages on employment growth on the basis of a theoretical model from which cost and demand effects can be derived. In the empirical analysis we take a highly disaggregated perspective and apply a newly developed shift-share regression technique on an exhaustive and very...

In this paper we describe the development of regional specialisation and geographical concentration in Germany between 1993 and 2001. Somewhat contrary to theoretical expectations derived from the recent literature in location theory, we neither find compelling evidence for a specialisation...

A very prominent instrument of regional policy is to foster education and human capital for-mation in economically lagging regions. However, this type of regional policy might actually hurt instead of help the recipient areas. The reason is that individual geographical mobility increases with...

Regional differences in unemployment rates in the EU, both within and across member countries, are far more pronounced than regional income disparities. Yet, standard models of the new trade and location theories (new economic geography, new trade theory etc.) usually assume full employment and...

This paper studies the social desirability of agglomeration and the efficiency arguments for regional policy in a simple, analytically solvable ‘new economic geography’ model with two trade integrating regions. The location pattern emerging as market equilibrium is ?-shaped, featuring...

We address the effects of wages on employment growth on the basis of a theoretical model from which cost and demand effects can be derived. In the empirical analysis we take a highly disaggregated perspective and apply a newly developed shift-share regression technique on an exhaustive and very...

In times of high and persistent unemployment, it has become one of the most important policy tasks in many developed countries to trigger a process of sustained employment growth. An illustrative example is the policy of regional "growth-poles”, which assumes that a local concentration of a...

In this paper I analyze the impact of initial human capital on subsequent city employment growth for the case of West Germany (1977-2002). I find robust evidence that skilled local areas have grown stronger than unskilled ones. But this observed positive relation need not indicate a localized...