The changing face of infrastructure facilities management worldwide is characterised by high demand for investments in renewal and maintenance, governmental budget constraints and innovations in information systems. The authors highlight the growing demand for accurate, complete and continuous disclosure of information related to management activities, expenditures, stock availability and shadow prices. This study discusses how infrastructure facilities, commonly considered as a public good, have been traditionally funded by the public sector but that the efficiency of this approach has come into question at the same time as the ability of governments to leverage funds for new facilities and for maintenance and rehabilitation of existing ones has decreased. These factors, they argue, have led to increasing interest in private sector participation in financing, building and operating public infrastructure. The main purpose of this book is to: * present recent theoretical and practical advances as well as new concepts and paradigms in infrastructure systems * provide a state-of-the-art overview of current research * stimulate new research and innovative thinking on the interface between infrastructure measurement and management. The book, written by numerous experts in the field, will appeal to national and regional infrastructure ministries and agencies, companies engaged in infrastructure financing, construction, management and maintenance as well as students at graduate level and above and researchers in civil engineering, infrastructure planning and infrastructure economics and management.

This book provides a state-of-the-art overview of spatial industrial clusters and inter-firm networks. Given the prevailing political belief that clusters can be a major vehicle for economic development and growth, it is important to have a sound understanding of clusters and how they emerge, grow, eventually stagnate and disappear. It is also vital to know when and how to apply policy measures to support cluster development in order to increase economic welfare. This book illuminates both the theoretical and empirical issues relating to clusters and inter-firm networks, and presents a number of interesting case studies from a variety of different countries. The authors study a number of important issues including interaction within and between clusters, the spatial dimensions and characteristics of this interaction, the factors which contribute to cluster formation, and the conditions and policies conducive to the development and sustainability of successful clusters. They also investigate whether firms in clusters perform better than those that are excluded, and illustrate how the importance of clusters can vary significantly between different industries. The authors go on to address the role of clusters in knowledge spillovers and their implications for the functioning of the overall economy, and highlight the effect of new information and communications technologies on cluster configurations and operations. Regional economists, economic geographers and regional scientists will welcome this comprehensive new volume. It will also be a useful reference tool for policymakers and planners involved in industrial and regional economic development.

This book provides a balanced, empirically-based view of the "Digital Economy," and explores its regional and geographical import in areas where the Digital Economy meets more traditional patterns. More than just an interpretive analysis, this book utilizes empirical evidence in its assessment of the dynamics of specific regions in different parts of the world. The book also examines the policy implications of the rising Digital Economy.

Providing a picture of the processes of economic change in Europe, of which EU harmonization policies and transition policies form an integral part, the editors present a collection of articles on current issues in central and east European countries. Perhaps the most dramatic phenomenon to impact on Europe in the next two decades will be the economic integration of central and east European countries with the rest of Europe. Consequently, significant impacts should be seen in regional and international patterns of trade, demography, employment, and financial flows. The editors discuss the problems transitional economies will face and the strategies they may adopt in the context of the European economic integration process and these sectoral issues. Bringing together novel research by those within the emerging market economies, this book will be of great interest to researchers and policymakers and planners in organizations dealing with economic integration and transitional economy issues.

In recent decades, the world has witnessed the emergence of a global knowledge economy in which functional regions increasingly play a role as independent and dynamic market places. These are integrated with other functional regions by means of flows of information, knowledge, and commodities. This contemporary and illuminating book provides a state-of-the-art overview of current research on innovation and entrepreneurship in functional regions. There are numerous questions regarding entrepreneurship and innovation in functional regions that have not yet been answered - until now. Some of the issues that the expert contributors in this field question are - How do firms compete and how do they develop their competitive strategies? How important are entrepreneurial actions and innovation? How important are firm size, firm maturity and corporate structure for innovation? Entrepreneurship and Innovations in Functional Regions will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of entrepreneurship, business economics, innovation and regional science.

This book analyses the conception of economic development in modern regions, which has gone through a fundamental change since the early 1980s. Regions are today increasingly looked upon as independent market places that are connected via interregional and international trade and not as administrative units embodied in a national state. Two complementary theoretical frameworks explain the specialization of economic activity at the regional level. The traditional approach assumes that the comparative advantages of regions depend upon differences in the supply of lasting resources. In contrast the new complementary framework called the New Economic Geography, assumes that the dynamic interaction between geographical market potentials and rational firms in its own way creates the comparative advantage of regions. The contributors to this book examine the policy implications of the complementarity of the competing views in a variety of geographic and functional contexts. The first set of papers examines the effect of regional policy on firm locational decision-making. This leads to another set evaluating a variety of regional policy efforts. New and different methodological approaches are examined in another set of papers. The final part of the book focuses on new concepts. Economists, geographers and readers interested in regionalization, trade and development will find this book informative.

Thisbookisbasedonpaperspresentedataninternationalworkshoporganisedin Jonkoping,Sweden,inJune2005tocelebratethe60thbirthdayofProfessorBorje .. Johansson-adearfriendandadmiredcolleagueofours. Thebookprovidesa limited sample of Borje Johansson's broad ranging research interests. In this volume, some of his friends and colleagues have contributed chapters on the themeof"Innovation,DynamicRegions,andRegionalDynamics". Thisisa?eld ofresearchinwhichBorjeJohanssonhasbeenagreatinspirationtousall,andto whichhehim-selfhascontributedwithcharacteristicenthusiasmandinsightaspart ofhisprodigiousoutput. TheworkshopandthecreationofthisbookweresponsoredbytheAlfaSavings BankFoundationinJonkoping,JonkopingInternationalBusinessSchool,andthe SchoolofPublicPolicy,GeorgeMasonUniversity,Fairfax,VA. Wethankthemfor theirgeneroussupport. TheauthorsandtheeditorsthankKerstinFerroukhiforall her efforts to organise the workshop and Ulla Forslund-Johansson and Uma Kelekarforworkingtirelesslytogetthepapersrefereedandrevised,toputtogether multipleeditsofthisbookandforpreparingitforthepublisher. Itwouldhavebeen impossibletoproducethisbookwithouttheirdedicatedwork. Sweden CharlieKarlsson Sweden AkeE. Andersson UK PaulCheshire USA RogerRStough v Contents 1 Innovation,DynamicRegionsandRegionalDynamics...1 ? CharlieKarlsson,AkeE. Andersson,PaulCheshire,andR. R. Stough 2 ThePureTheoryofSpatialMarkets...35 MartinBeckmann 3 Smith-RicardoSpecializationinthePresenceofTiringEffects...47 TonuPuu 4 DynamicsofInnovationFieldswithEndogenousHeterogeneity ofPeople ...59 MasahisaFujita 5 EconomicsofCreativity ...79 ? AkeE. Andersson 6 SimpleMemesandComplexCulturalDynamics ...97 DavidBattenandRogerBradbury 7 TheFashioningofDynamicCompetitiveAdvantageof EntrepreneurialCities:RoleofSocialandPolitical Entrepreneurship ...107 LataChatterjeeandT. R. Lakshmanan 8 TheSocialCapitalofRegionalDynamics:APolicyPerspective...121 HansWestlund 9 HiddenOrderinTraf?cFlowsUsingApproximateEntropy: AnIllustration...143 KingsleyHaynes,RajendraKulkarni,andRogerStough vii viii Contents 10 RegionalInput-OutputwithEndogenousInternalandExternal NetworkFlows...161 JohnR. RoyandGeoffreyJ. D. Hewings 11 RegionalUnemploymentandWelfareEffectsoftheEU TransportPolicies:RecentResultsfromanAppliedGeneral EquilibriumModel ...177 ArtemKorzhenevychandJohannesBrocker 12 InfrastructureProductivitywithaLongPersistentEffect...1 97 TsukaiMakotoandKobayashiKiyoshi 13 ScienceParksandLocalKnowledgeCreation:AConceptual ApproachandanEmpiricalAnalysisinTwoItalianRealities ...221 RobertaCapelloandAndreaMorrison 14 TheLowParticipationofUrbanMigrantEntrepreneurs: ReasonsandPerceptionsofWeakInstitutionalEmbeddedness...247 EnnoMasurelandPeterNijkamp 15 TheLocationofIndustryR&DandtheLocationofUniversity R&D:HowAreTheyRelated?...267 CharlieKarlssonandMartinAndersson 16 GrowingUrbanGDPorAttractingPeople?DifferentCauses, DifferentConsequences ...291 PaulCheshireandStefanoMagrini 17 Urban-RuralDevelopmentinSweden...317 JohanKlaessonandLarsPettersson 18 Patents,PatentCitationsandtheGeographyofKnowledge SpilloversinEurope...331 ManfredMFischer,ThomasScherngell,andEvaJansenberger 19 Co-authorshipNetworksinDevelopmentofSolarCellTechnology: InternationalandRegionalKnowledgeInteraction ...347 KatarinaLarsen 20 Off-shoringofWorkandLondon'sSustainabilityasan InternationalFinancialCentre ...373 IanGordon,ColinHaslam,PhilipMcCannandBrianScott-Quinn 21 TheGenesisandEvolutionoftheStockholmMusicCluster ...385 PontusBraunerhjelm Index ...409 Contributors ? AkeE. Andersson ? JonkopingInternationalBusinessSchool,JonkopingUniversity,Hogskoleomradet, Gjuterigatan5,55318Jonkoping,Sweden,Ake. Andersson@ihh. hj. se MartinAndersson ? JonkopingInternationalBusinessSchool,JonkopingUniversity,Hogskoleomradet, ...Gjuterigatan5,55318Jonkoping,Sweden,Martin. Andersson@ihh. hj. se DavidBatten The Temaplan Group and CSIRO, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, PrivateBag1,Aspendale,Victoria3195,Melbourne,Australia David. Batten@csiro. au MartinBeckmann EconomicsDepartment,BrownUniversity,64Waterman StreetProvidence,RI 02912,USA,Lauren_Gallo@brown. edu RogerBradbury TjurungaandtheAustralianNationalUniversity,9ScottStreet,Narrabundah,ACT 2604,Canberra,Australia PontusBraunerhjelm DepartmentofEconomics,TheRoyalInstituteofTechnology,DrottningKristinas Vag30,10044Stockholm,Sweden,pontusb@infra. kth. se JohannesBrocker Institute for Regional Research, University of Kiel, Olshausenstrasse 40, 24098 Kiel,Germany RobertaCapello DepartmentofManagement,EconomicsandIndustrialEngineering,Politecnico diMilano,ViaGiuseppeColombo40,20133Milano,Italy Roberta. Capello@polimi.

This book reveals the key importance, in terms of international competitiveness, of firms' capability to adapt to, and develop, new technologies. At the same time, the authors argue that the sheer complexity of emerging technologies is such that the knowledge involved in their creation is likely to be dispersed and distributed between many individuals and over numerous locations. The authors argue that even if one assumes that the internal knowledge base is of strategic importance to many companies, most of the knowledge used by the majority of companies is developed outside the company. Since much knowledge is tacit in nature, the location of companies and their different departments become vital in accessing such knowledge, and there are strong reasons to believe that spillover effects are geographically bounded. Hence, it may often be of strategic importance to companies and their competitiveness to be represented in the 'right' industrial clusters. This book highlights a number of issues at the leading edge of both research and policy making, such as knowledge generation/production, knowledge distribution/transfer, knowledge spillovers, learning, knowledge management, information logistics, industrial clusters, industrial networks and regional innovation systems. This book will appeal to academics and researchers of knowledge management, technology and innovation and industrial organisation. Policy makers and planners in international organisations, national and regional governments - in particular those dealing with R&D policies, industrial policies and regional policies - will also find much to engage them.

`"Think Global, Act Local" has become the policy mantra for innovation, growth and competitiveness in the global economy. In this important and insightful book, Karlsson, Johansson and Stough assemble an all star team of international scholars to explicitly draw out the key role that entrepreneurship plays for local economic performance. The interdisciplinary approach contained in this book yields a pathbreaking set of insights for regional policy that will be of great value to both scholars and policy makers.' - David Audretsch, Indiana University, Bloomington, US and WHU, Germany `The world is experiencing the fourth globalization trend since the collapse of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago. This trend unlike previous ones is characterized by both broader global interconnection and deeper localization. In other words, the world is both flatter and spikier at the same time. The key to a successful development policy is to integrate these two seemingly counter intuitive trends. The solution to this is a more or less regional strategy with a very strong focus on entrepreneurship. While this approach is not new and is not the first, it is the best one that I have seen. The editors of this collection are some of the best informed, most careful and deep thinking scholars in the business and have produced a work worthy of their stature.' - Zoltan J. Acs, George Mason University, US Perhaps the most exceptional aspect of the current era of globalisation is that entrepreneurship has become the engine for local processes of economic, social and cultural development throughout the world. This important new book brings together a number of leading scholars in the field to explore the development aspects of globalisation, in particular those that foster the evolution of entrepreneurs in local-global processes. The expert contributions consider local processes such as entrepreneurship, new firm formation, creativity, media clustering, migration, and many more. They examine how the footprints of these processes reveal themselves in the contemporary global context, characterized by increasing economic interdependence as evidenced by the expanding trade in goods and services, and the growth in capital, knowledge and technology flows. The authors highlight the fact that global patterns of change are the result of innumerable local processes driven by economic, political and social entrepreneurs in localities, regions and nations around the world. With a variety of geographic perspectives, this book will appeal to researchers, students and policymakers in a range of fields including urban and regional economics, economic geography, international trade, and entrepreneurship and innovation policy.

This book provides a state-of-the-art overview of current research on regional competition and co-operation. Developing our current understanding of the new role of regions and their behaviour, this book addresses questions such as: How and why do regions compete? How does competition between border regions operate? Which regions are successful and which regions fail? What are the implications of regional competition in terms of resource allocation, the location of economic activities and the distribution of incomes? The book illuminates a number of critical theoretical end empirical issues relating to the competitive and cooperative nature of regions, as well as highlighting a number of new case studies from a variety of countries. The book will be a useful enhancement to undergraduate and post-graduate courses in economics, economic geography, regional science, regional planning, business administration, and international and industrial management. It will also be an invaluable guidance tool for researchers, consultants and policy makers in international organizations such as the EU, the World Bank and the OECD.

In recent years, policy makers have given much credence to the role of entrepreneurship in the transformation of regions. As a result, a new set of policy responses have emerged that focus on the support of new venture creation, small business growth and idea generation and commercialization. While there is a wealth of research about entrepreneurship in general, less attention has been given to the development of new tools and programs in support of entrepreneurial activities, and to the ways in which the emergence, the character and the types of entrepreneurship policies might differ between countries. In particular, the transatlantic perspective is of special interest because of the pioneering role of the United States in this area, and also due to the European Union's focus on economic competitiveness. The contributions included in this book explore the emergence of entrepreneurship policies from a transatlantic comparative perspective and address different aspects of entrepreneurship policies including local entrepreneurship policies and the relationship between knowledge-based industries and entrepreneurship policies.

In the last four decades the developed economies have developed into veritable knowledge economies at the same time as more and more economies have entered the road to economic development. Typical for the developments during this time has been substantially increased investments in research and development (R&D) to generate new knowledge and new technologies and increased investments in diffusing existing knowledge by means of education and thereby raising the volume of human capital.

However, many member states and regions within the EU are struggling with their economic development. This book explores the uneven patterns of development within the EU, discusses the relative effect of investments on innovation and productivity growth and looks at the mechanisms involved in economic development and policy.

In recent years, policy makers have given much credence to the role of entrepreneurship in the transformation of regions. As a result, a new set of policy responses have emerged that focus on the support of new venture creation, small business growth and idea generation and commercialization. While there is a wealth of research about entrepreneurship in general, less attention has been given to the development of new tools and programs in support of entrepreneurial activities, and to the ways in which the emergence, the character and the types of entrepreneurship policies might differ between countries. In particular, the transatlantic perspective is of special interest because of the pioneering role of the United States in this area, and also due to the European Union's focus on economic competitiveness. The contributions included in this book explore the emergence of entrepreneurship policies from a transatlantic comparative perspective and address different aspects of entrepreneurship policies including local entrepreneurship policies and the relationship between knowledge-based industries and entrepreneurship policies.

In the last four decades the developed economies have developed into veritable knowledge economies at the same time as more and more economies have entered the road to economic development. Typical for the developments during this time has been substantially increased investments in research and development (R&D) to generate new knowledge and new technologies and increased investments in diffusing existing knowledge by means of education and thereby raising the volume of human capital.

However, many member states and regions within the EU are struggling with their economic development. This book explores the uneven patterns of development within the EU, discusses the relative effect of investments on innovation and productivity growth and looks at the mechanisms involved in economic development and policy.

The phenomenon of entrepreneurship has attracted researchers from a variety of disciplines and a diverse number of analytical approaches. Currently, there is a considerable amount of confusion and a variety of conflicting theories which are being used interchangeably and ambiguously. In this important new book, the authors argue that there are analytically distinct forms of entrepreneurship, each of them having an individual logic of their own. They highlight the role of individual economic agents with endowments of new knowledge or new combinations of old knowledge as entrepreneurs, and thus identify them as dynamic factors in the knowledge economy. Overall, this book not only provides a contemporary overview of current research in the field, but also summarizes the policy conclusions that can be drawn from current research.

The phenomenon of entrepreneurship has attracted researchers from a variety of disciplines and a diverse number of analytical approaches. Currently, there is a considerable amount of confusion and a variety of conflicting theories which are being used interchangeably and ambiguously.

In this important new book, the authors argue that there are analytically distinct forms of entrepreneurship, each of them having an individual logic of their own. They highlight the role of individual economic agents with endowments of new knowledge or new combinations of old knowledge as entrepreneurs, and thus identify them as dynamic factors in the knowledge economy.

Overall, this book not only provides a contemporary overview of current research in the field, but also summarizes the policy conclusions that can be drawn from current research.

Metropolitan growth has been dramatic in the past several decades, and today metropolitan regions are recognized as the main driving forces in national growth and development as well as in national and global innovation processes. The purpose of this book is to contribute to a better understanding of how metropolitan regions and their subsystems interact and compete, why they differ in their capacity to nurture innovation and growth, and how metropolitan policies must be designed to secure the region's long-term vitality. To that end, it presents new contributions on theories of urban growth, institutions and policies of urban change, and case studies of urban growth prepared by international experts.

Metropolitan growth has been dramatic in the past several decades, and today metropolitan regions are recognized as the main driving forces in national growth and development as well as in national and global innovation processes. The purpose of this book is to contribute to a better understanding of how metropolitan regions and their subsystems interact and compete, why they differ in their capacity to nurture innovation and growth, and how metropolitan policies must be designed to secure the region's long-term vitality. To that end, it presents new contributions on theories of urban growth, institutions and policies of urban change, and case studies of urban growth prepared by international experts.

Thisbookisbasedonpaperspresentedataninternationalworkshoporganisedin Jonkoping,Sweden,inJune2005tocelebratethe60thbirthdayofProfessorBorje .. Johansson-adearfriendandadmiredcolleagueofours. Thebookprovidesa limited sample of Borje Johansson's broad ranging research interests. In this volume, some of his friends and colleagues have contributed chapters on the themeof"Innovation,DynamicRegions,andRegionalDynamics". Thisisa?eld ofresearchinwhichBorjeJohanssonhasbeenagreatinspirationtousall,andto whichhehim-selfhascontributedwithcharacteristicenthusiasmandinsightaspart ofhisprodigiousoutput. TheworkshopandthecreationofthisbookweresponsoredbytheAlfaSavings BankFoundationinJonkoping,JonkopingInternationalBusinessSchool,andthe SchoolofPublicPolicy,GeorgeMasonUniversity,Fairfax,VA. Wethankthemfor theirgeneroussupport. TheauthorsandtheeditorsthankKerstinFerroukhiforall her efforts to organise the workshop and Ulla Forslund-Johansson and Uma Kelekarforworkingtirelesslytogetthepapersrefereedandrevised,toputtogether multipleeditsofthisbookandforpreparingitforthepublisher. Itwouldhavebeen impossibletoproducethisbookwithouttheirdedicatedwork. Sweden CharlieKarlsson Sweden AkeE. Andersson UK PaulCheshire USA RogerRStough v Contents 1 Innovation,DynamicRegionsandRegionalDynamics...1 ? CharlieKarlsson,AkeE. Andersson,PaulCheshire,andR. R. Stough 2 ThePureTheoryofSpatialMarkets...35 MartinBeckmann 3 Smith-RicardoSpecializationinthePresenceofTiringEffects...47 TonuPuu 4 DynamicsofInnovationFieldswithEndogenousHeterogeneity ofPeople ...59 MasahisaFujita 5 EconomicsofCreativity ...79 ? AkeE. Andersson 6 SimpleMemesandComplexCulturalDynamics ...97 DavidBattenandRogerBradbury 7 TheFashioningofDynamicCompetitiveAdvantageof EntrepreneurialCities:RoleofSocialandPolitical Entrepreneurship ...107 LataChatterjeeandT. R. Lakshmanan 8 TheSocialCapitalofRegionalDynamics:APolicyPerspective...121 HansWestlund 9 HiddenOrderinTraf?cFlowsUsingApproximateEntropy: AnIllustration...143 KingsleyHaynes,RajendraKulkarni,andRogerStough vii viii Contents 10 RegionalInput-OutputwithEndogenousInternalandExternal NetworkFlows...161 JohnR. RoyandGeoffreyJ. D. Hewings 11 RegionalUnemploymentandWelfareEffectsoftheEU TransportPolicies:RecentResultsfromanAppliedGeneral EquilibriumModel ...177 ArtemKorzhenevychandJohannesBrocker 12 InfrastructureProductivitywithaLongPersistentEffect...1 97 TsukaiMakotoandKobayashiKiyoshi 13 ScienceParksandLocalKnowledgeCreation:AConceptual ApproachandanEmpiricalAnalysisinTwoItalianRealities ...221 RobertaCapelloandAndreaMorrison 14 TheLowParticipationofUrbanMigrantEntrepreneurs: ReasonsandPerceptionsofWeakInstitutionalEmbeddedness...247 EnnoMasurelandPeterNijkamp 15 TheLocationofIndustryR&DandtheLocationofUniversity R&D:HowAreTheyRelated?...267 CharlieKarlssonandMartinAndersson 16 GrowingUrbanGDPorAttractingPeople?DifferentCauses, DifferentConsequences ...291 PaulCheshireandStefanoMagrini 17 Urban-RuralDevelopmentinSweden...317 JohanKlaessonandLarsPettersson 18 Patents,PatentCitationsandtheGeographyofKnowledge SpilloversinEurope...331 ManfredMFischer,ThomasScherngell,andEvaJansenberger 19 Co-authorshipNetworksinDevelopmentofSolarCellTechnology: InternationalandRegionalKnowledgeInteraction ...347 KatarinaLarsen 20 Off-shoringofWorkandLondon'sSustainabilityasan InternationalFinancialCentre ...373 IanGordon,ColinHaslam,PhilipMcCannandBrianScott-Quinn 21 TheGenesisandEvolutionoftheStockholmMusicCluster ...385 PontusBraunerhjelm Index ...409 Contributors ? AkeE. Andersson ? JonkopingInternationalBusinessSchool,JonkopingUniversity,Hogskoleomradet, Gjuterigatan5,55318Jonkoping,Sweden,Ake. Andersson@ihh. hj. se MartinAndersson ? JonkopingInternationalBusinessSchool,JonkopingUniversity,Hogskoleomradet, ...Gjuterigatan5,55318Jonkoping,Sweden,Martin. Andersson@ihh. hj. se DavidBatten The Temaplan Group and CSIRO, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, PrivateBag1,Aspendale,Victoria3195,Melbourne,Australia David. Batten@csiro. au MartinBeckmann EconomicsDepartment,BrownUniversity,64Waterman StreetProvidence,RI 02912,USA,Lauren_Gallo@brown. edu RogerBradbury TjurungaandtheAustralianNationalUniversity,9ScottStreet,Narrabundah,ACT 2604,Canberra,Australia PontusBraunerhjelm DepartmentofEconomics,TheRoyalInstituteofTechnology,DrottningKristinas Vag30,10044Stockholm,Sweden,pontusb@infra. kth. se JohannesBrocker Institute for Regional Research, University of Kiel, Olshausenstrasse 40, 24098 Kiel,Germany RobertaCapello DepartmentofManagement,EconomicsandIndustrialEngineering,Politecnico diMilano,ViaGiuseppeColombo40,20133Milano,Italy Roberta. Capello@polimi.

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at an international symposium on research and development, industrial change and economic policy organized and hosted by the University of Karlstad, Viinnland, Sweden. Situated about halfway between Stockholm and Oslo, Karlstad stands on the River Klara, which reaches north into the mountains of Norway. Founded by King Charles IX of Sweden, whose statue stands in the city centre beside the river, the city celebrated its 400th anniversary in 1984. For many decades the wealth of Karlstad has been based on traditional industries such as iron, timber and paper, and throughout the province of Viinnland there are a considerable number of industrial communities which grew up around mines, ironworks, sawmills and papermills. Even the cultural structure of these communities is heavily marked by the industrial environment in which they developed. However, for over a decade now a major structural reorientation has been taking place and the old industrial structures have been disappearing. For various reasons the importance of large scale, manufacturing companies has declined and as a result of intense development work with new ideas, new entrepreneurs and new technology, we have seen the rapid rise of small companies. In this context, recent research has shown that universities playing an increasingly central role in regional development. Thus the continued development of the University of Karlstad is of significant regional and national interest. Although fairly small in an international perspective (approximately 4000 students) the university is expanding rapidly.

Network economics is a new, rapidly developing field. In this volume theoretical and empirical contributions are collected, each deals with different aspects of the network economy. The book assesses networks as a complement to pure market relations and studies innovation networks and strategic alliances among innovative corporations. Product differentiation and specialization in reciprocal networks are emphasised as a strategy of sustainable development. The book presents econometric methods of barrier and network analysis, including communication and trade patterns.

During the last two decades a new growth theory has emerged - often labelled "endogenous economic growth." The contributions in the book develop these advances into a theoretical framework for endogenous regional economic growth and explain the implications for regional economic policies in the perspective of the new century. Endogenous growth models can reflect increasing returns and hence refer more adequately to empirical observations than earlier models, and the models become policy relevant, because in endogenous growth models policy matters. Such policies comprise efforts to stimulate the growth of knowledge intensity of the labour supply and knowledge production in the form of R&D.

This book provides a balanced, empirically-based view of the "Digital Economy," and explores its regional and geographical import in areas where the Digital Economy meets more traditional patterns. More than just an interpretive analysis, this book utilizes empirical evidence in its assessment of the dynamics of specific regions in different parts of the world. The book also examines the policy implications of the rising Digital Economy.

Few otherfacetsofsocial andeconomic life are sopoorly understood and yet so indisput- ablyvital for prosperous development as irifrastructure. Sincetheearly 1980sresearchers and policy makers in various OECD nations have started to readdress the issue ofinfra- structure investments. This renewed interest has been promptedby a varietyofconcerns. One observation was that such investments were declining from levels which mighthave been inadequate in the first place. A second observation was that the timing of these cutbacks in infrastructure spending seemed to roughly coincide with lower rates of growth in outputorproductivity. This raised the intriguing question ofwhetherthe latter might be attributable to the former. Coulditbe thatinfrastructureinvestmentscontrolan economy's rate of productivity growth? The response in many countries has been to initiate theirownresearch in an attempttoverify orrejectthis hypothesis. But the more welearn abouttheroleofinfrastructure anditsrelationships with therest of the economy, the more complicated it seems to be. Time itself is quite difficult to accommodate given the wide variety ofspeeds atwhich differentpartsofaneconomycan adjust. Because of this inherent complexity, we tend to break the problem down into "bite-sizedchunks", thereby enabling us toisolate the parts ofinterest to us - such as the impact of infrastructure on productivity. In this way we can ignore the complex inter- actions betweenour areaofinterest and the restofour world. By saying ceteris paribus, we overlook many otherkey infrastructuralimpacts like those on theenvironmentandon ouroverall qualityoflife. This distorts the true picture.

Why has the United States economy successfully moved beyond its chief competitors? This collection suggests that at least some of the answers to the pattern of divergent development can be found in the role of the entrepreneur. By examining the process that new firms and entrepreneurs play in the economy, the essays in this volume make a fundamental contribution to our understanding of the macroeconomy. The public policy implications of this process are clear. Countries that encourage entrepreneurship and free entry will have better macroeconomic performance than those that retard it.