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While conventional views of foreign investment activity primarily relate to efficiency-seeking investments, the authors argue that most other outward foreign direct investments (OFDIs) likely have positive effects on income development in the home region. Data on the US urban system not only illustrates this but also shows that this impact is not equal in all city-regions. The purpose of this paper is to develop an explanation as to why high- and low-income cities are associated with self-reinforcing cycles of OFDI activity that have different home-region impacts.

Conventional views assume that inward foreign direct investments (IFDIs) have a positive impact on target regions, while OFDIs are often treated as the flip side of this story, being seen as having negative effects by shifting jobs and income abroad. This paper counters this logic by developing a conceptual argument that systematically distinguishes different types of OFDIs and relates them to economic development effects in the home (investing) region.

Using a co-evolutionary conceptualization, this paper suggests that many high-income cities are characterized by a virtuous cycle of development where high, successful OFDI activity generates both positive income effects as well as incentives to engage in further OFDIs in the future, thus leading to additional income increases. In contrast, it is suggested that low-income cities are characterized by what we refer to as vicious cycles of development with low OFDI activity, few development impulses and a lack of incentives and capabilities for future investments.

This paper develops a counter-perspective to conventional views of OFDI activity, arguing that these investments have a positive impact on regional income levels. The authors develop a spatially sensitive explanation which acknowledges that OFDIs do not trigger a linear process but are associated with diverging inter-urban development paths and may contribute to higher levels of intra-urban inequality. From these findings, the authors derive conclusions for future research and public policy.

This article aims to evaluate the entry and exit of companies from local productive structures, with a specific focus on the sectoral complexity of these activities and the complexity of these portfolios. The study focuses on empirically demonstrating the thesis that related economic diversification exacerbates the development gap between more and less complex regions.

The article uses indicators formulated by the economic complexity approach. They allow a relevant descriptive analysis of the economic diversification process in Brazilian micro-regions and provide the foundation for the econometric tests conducted. Through three distinct estimation strategies (OLS, logit, probit), the influence of complexity and relatedness on the entry and exit events of firms from local portfolios is tested.

In all estimated models, the stronger relationship between an activity and a portfolio significantly increases its probability of entering the productive structure and, at the same time, acts as a significant factor in preventing its exit. Furthermore, the results reveal that the complexity of a sector reduces the probability of its specialization in less complex regions while increasing it in more complex regions. On the other hand, sectoral complexity significantly increases the probability of a sector leaving less complex local structures but has no significant effect in highly complex regions.

Due to the data used, the indicators are calculated considering only formal job numbers. Additionally, the tests do not detect the influence of spatial issues. These limitations should be addressed by future research.

The article characterizes a prevailing process of uneven development among Brazilian regions and brings relevant implications, primarily for policymakers. Specifically, for less complex regions, policies should focus on creating opportunities to improve their diversification capabilities in complex sectors that are not too distant from their portfolios.

The article makes an original contribution by proposing an evaluation of regional diversification in Brazil with a focus on complexity, introducing a more detailed differentiation of regions based on their complexity levels and examining the impact of sectoral complexity on diversification patterns within each group.

The decision to engage in entrepreneurial activities is grounded in personal characteristics (motivation) and external environmental factors. One of the main external factors might be the structure of the regional economic activity. Does a high share of the public sector affect positively regional entrepreneurship or vice versa? Does the diversity in regional economic activity is conducive for entrepreneurial development or the regional comparative advantage as expressed by spatial economies of scale offering more entrepreneurial opportunities? Even though economic analysis has extensively examined the impact of the public sector size on the overall national economic activity (the crowding out effect), this impact has not been into scrutiny at regional level on microeconomic issues, such as the decision to engage in entrepreneurial activities. The authors further investigate the relation between diversity and entrepreneurship at regional level. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper uses data for 264 NUTS II EU regions. The time span of the data set is 1999-2008. The paper applies panel data analysis to explain the cross-time cross-section variation of the dependent variable: the self-employment share in total employment at regional level. In order to measure the existence of crowding out from public sector to regional entrepreneurship, the authors use the share of regional public sector gross value added over total regional gross value added. The diversity of the regional economic activity is measured by the Herfindahl-Hirschman Concentration Index across sectors.

The findings of the paper show that there is a negative correlation between public sector share and regional entrepreneurship. Hence, as at national level, the increase in the role of the public sector in the regional economic system crowds out regional entrepreneurship. The second finding indicates that the impact of the diversity of the regional economic activity on regional entrepreneurship is inconclusive.

The originality of this paper is due to the fact that the role of the public sector on regional economic phenomena, such as entrepreneurship, is examined for the first time. Also, the investigation of the relationship between diversity (vs localization economies) and entrepreneurship is performed using data for the full sample of regions of the European Union. The findings of the paper have significant policy implications since they provide useful inputs for the design of the regional development policy. The reduction of the public sector at regional level may contribute in entrepreneurial development and finally in regional economic growth and prosperity. Besides, the regional industrial policy should focus on the exploitation of the spatially constraint economies of scope in the framework of the Triple Helix model.

The administrative structure of the Republic of Belarus; the main demographic, social, and economic problems currently encountered in regions, districts, cities, and other administrative divisions of the country; as well as trends and changes in regional development according to the statistics of spatial development of Belarus over the last quarter of a century have been considered. The legal and institutional framework established in Belarus for the formation, implementation, and improvement of the regional policy, as well as the related forms of state intervention in regional development (policies to minimize the effects of radioactive contamination in areas affected by the Chernobyl accident, environmental protection, town-planning and land-use policies) have been analyzed. The goals and objectives, subjects and objects, as well as the tools used by the Belarusian public authorities in the regional policy formation and implementation nationwide have been identified. The promising trends for its improvement pursued in Belarus have been formulated taking into account the foreign experience and the paradigm shift of regional development policy observed in the OECD member countries.

This paper aims to research the relationship between income gap (IG) and green economic growth based on the perspective of economic inequality.

Based on the panel data of 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper uses the super slack based model (Super-SBM) to measure the efficiency of regional green economic growth, and constructs a regression model of the IG and regional green economic growth.

Firstly, the IG has an inhibitory effect on the growth of regional green economy (GE). Secondly, the relationship between the IG and regional green economic growth will be affected by the threshold value of income level. Thirdly, environmental regulation and government competition will increase the inhibitory effect of the IG.

According to the characteristics of China's regional economy, the researchers construct an empirical model of the IG and green economic growth to study their relationship, the threshold effect of income level and the moderating effect of environmental regulation and local government competition. The research content, methods and conclusions of this paper provide new evidence for the sustainable growth of China's regional GE.

David Gordon’s early work included a focus on cities and their role in capitalist development, but he didn’t complete or publish an ambitious project called CAPITALopolis. Gordon instead developed a framework linking Marxian insights with historical analysis of institutional impact and change through his social structures of accumulation framework. Subsequent mainstream and radical urban analyses didn’t use Gordon’s work, but his early writings are consistent with his passion for fighting racial and economic inequality, and understanding those forces systematically as part of the history and logic of capitalism.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of knowledge spillover effects (KSE) on employment levels using a sample of 245 Italian Innovative startup companies created as a result of the legislative changes of Law Decree 179/12 introduced in Italy in 2012.

This study uses a parsimonious model with the employment level as the dependent variable. The paper tests for the impact that the measures of industry competition, specialization and diversity have on the level of employment in the Innovative Startup sector in Italy. The data uses a sample of 245 firms, across 20 geographic regions in Italy for three economic sectors at the 2-Dig NAICS classification.

The empirical results provide evidence in favor of regional specialization as the main force to create and transfer knowledge resulting in increased employment; while higher levels of competition and a more diverse regional production bases result in lower firm employment levels. Employment levels for these firms are also time-dependent, and thus mainly determined at the time of the firm’s creation. This study also found a lack of technological convergence across regions, that are inherent regional differences are not bridged by knowledge spillover effects.

This paper is based on a sample of Italian Innovative Startups and consequently, further research with a potentially larger sample and, perhaps, a sample across countries could also shed some light on the issues relating to KSE and their effects on employment generation and firm formation.

From a practical point of view, the results indicate that regional disparity and limited transmission of KSE across regions remain an impediment to the flow of knowledge. This in turn may limit the development of entrepreneurial activities and further development of new firms. Practical implications regarding knowledge management indicate that firms face time and spatial challenges when developing, transferring and acquiring knowledge. In sum, the evidence points out in favor of existent and persistent regional heterogeneity in terms of economic and technological specialization as sources of employment.

This research adds to the empirical evidence focusing on the effects of knowledge spillover effects in the Innovative Startup segment of the economy. This research highlights the applicability of knowledge spillover effects accounting for levels of industry competition, specialization and diversity. We also provide a measure of cluster formation and concentration at the sectoral and regional levels. Thus, the research provides a better understanding under which conditions knowledge is more likely to have positive or negative effects on employment generation.

This chapter examines the effects that airports have had on economic development in cities from 1950 to 2010. It uses a novel dataset consisting of previously unexploited data on the origins and history of the aviation system in the United States. Applying the method of synthetic controls to a set of medium and small airports, I examine both the overall impacts and the heterogeneity within the outcomes of various airports. Then, I use regression analysis to determine key factors differentiating successful airports from less successful ones, as it pertains particularly to population and employment growth. I find that, first, on average, cities have benefited from airports over this period. Airports, overall, provided a causal contribution of 0.2– 0.6% per year on population and employment growth over the time period. Second, I show that city-level factors contributing to airport success include: (1) closer proximity to a major research university, (2) a capital city location, and (3) climate factors, particularly higher January mean temperatures and/or hours of sunshine. City size is a consideration as well; cities in larger metropolitan areas, with larger shares of employment in nontradables in the 1950s, were also better positioned to reap the benefits that airports provided on city growth. Significant differences were not found across regions, airport governance structures, or other factors.

The purpose of the work is to model disproportions in development of regional economy of Russia and to determine perspectives and recommendations for overcoming them and achieving the balance of the economy. The applied methods are based on Popkova's methodology of calculation of “underdevelopment whirlpools,” which allows conducting dynamic modeling of disproportions in development of regional economy. The research is performed in three consecutive stages. At the first stage, the dynamic model of development of the Russia's regional economy is compiled with the help of the methodology of “underdevelopment whirlpools” in federal districts of the Russian Federation based on GDP per capita. At the second stage, the key factors of emergence of disproportions in development of the Russia's regional economy are determined and models of multiple regression of development of the Russia's regional economy are compiled. At the third stage, target parameters of the determined factors are set for reducing the “underdevelopment whirlpools” in the Russia's regional economy by automatized solution of the optimization task with application of the simplex method and recommendations for overcoming the disproportions in development of the Russia's regional economy are compiled. As a result, it is concluded that regional economy of Russia is not well-balanced, as it has deep structural disproportions. These disproportions are caused by insufficient attention to peculiarities of regional economic systems during development and implementation of regional strategies of state management of economy. For more precise accounting of the influence of the key factors of appearance of disproportions and highly-effective management of them for overcoming the “underdevelopment whirlpools,” the algorithm of overcoming the disproportions in development of the Russia's regional economy is developed by the authors, which envisages various managerial measures depending on peculiarities of each Russian region.

This chapter has documented the changing roles and dynamics of New Zealand’s airports between 2001 and 2016. New Zealand has well-developed airport systems for both international and domestic air passenger and air freight services. New Zealand airports have experienced marked growth during the study period and growth looks to continue throughout the country. Moreover, New Zealand’s airport system plays a direct role in New Zealand’s air transport and tourism sectors, as well as contributing to other major economic sectors. International and domestic connections to New Zealand airports facilitate the continued growth and importance of tourism, acting as a backbone to the New Zealand economy. In addition to tourism, airports play a crucial role in the facilitation of imports and exports and the development of regional business hubs and supporting activities for New Zealand’s other major industries. Importantly, New Zealand airports are a critical part of its economy and will continue to be so in the decades to come.