This article discusses the idea of city as a platform. The analysis focuses on the forms and implications of citizen involvement in publicly-supported participatory innovation platforms that facilitate urban economic development in the welfare society context. The discussion opens with a review of the smart city discourse, which in the context of economic development policy translates into citi...

Small and medium scale enterprises are considered important in both developed and developing countries. They are produce goods and services which help to increase economic growth and contribute significantly to employment creation. Although they play a crucial role in economic growth and employment their operations are often crippled by lack of adequate financing from financial institutions. Th...

Based on China’s inter-provincial panel data from 1999–2009, this paper has tested the impact and extent of marketization, government governance, and legal environment of sustainable economic development by controlling physical capital, human capital and productivity, so as to find the institutional reality for the difference in China’s economic development and another explanation for it. It tu...

Several Chinese cities have invested billions of dollars to construct new industrial parks. These place based investments solve the land assembly problem which allows many productive firms to co-locate close to each other. The resulting local economic growth creates new opportunities for real estate developers and retailers that develop properties and stores close to the new park. The city mayo...

Private banks often blame state guarantees to distort competition by giving public banks the advantage of lower funding costs. In this paper I show that if borrowers perceive the public bank as supporting economic development, private banks may be able to separate firms by self selection, enter the market, and obtain profits in equilibrium despite their cost disadvantage. The public bank’s comp...

We study whether foreign and domestic banks in Central and Eastern Europe have reacted differently to business cycle conditions and host country banking crises. Our unique panel dataset comprises data of more than 300 banks for the period 1993-2000, with detailed information on bank ownership. Our analysis shows that during crisis periods domestic banks contracted their credit and deposit bases...