This book aims to bring together different contributions highlighting how the recent changes that modify universities' activities, such as the necessity to internationalize and crucially rely on third party funding, and the new entrepreneurial trajectories stemming from the recent economic-financial crisis, contribute to emphasize the existing differences between successful and lagging regions, as occurred at a country level (e.g. Southern Europe). This book should be of interest to economists, sociologists, political scientists as well as to policy makers and practitioners involved in the creation of value at a local level.

​This book aims to bring together different contributions highlighting how the recent changes that modify universities’ activities, such as the necessity to internationalize and crucially rely on third party funding, and the new entrepreneurial trajectories stemming from the recent economic-financial crisis, contribute to emphasize the existing differences between successful and lagging regions, as occurred at a country level (e.g. Southern Europe). This book should be of interest to economists, sociologists, political scientists as well as to policy makers and practitioners involved in the creation of value at a local level.

This volume of selected articles was released in light of the new economic, social and environmental challenges Europe and the United States have been faced with following the end of the Cold War and in the evolving era of globalization. National security, immigration, and the provision of health and other key social services call for a radically different outlook in terms of policy discussions. The contributors of this book focus on seven key policy issues and challenges that currently affect the United States and Europe: income distribution, the gender pay gap, crime and security, unemployment, health care, the demographic question, and environmental regulation. The purpose of this volume is to analyze how public policy within the European context is responding to the challenges posed by this new global era.