To explain the links between population distribution and economic integration, we construct a spatial economics model with endogenous fertility. A higher population concentration increases real wages and child-raising costs, thus lowering the fertility rate. However, people migrate to more populated regions to obtain higher real wages. We show that mobility across regions results in more people...

This paper studies how firm performance is influenced by the strength of the industrial cluster (or industrial district) in which it is located. The paper presents estimates of firm-level growth models for a range of two-digit industries in the UK. In these models, employment in the firm’s own sector and employment in other sectors is taken as a measure the strength of the cluster. Strong posit...

In this paper we study learning and cooperation in repeated prisoners’ dilemmas experiments. We compare interaction neighbourhoods of different size and structure, we observe choices under different information conditions, and we estimate parameters of a learning model. We find that naive imitation, although a driving force in many models of spatial evolution, may be negligible in the experimen...

This study disentangles experimentally imitation, reinforcement, and reciprocity in repeated prisoners’ dilemmas. We compare a simple situation in which players interact only with their neighbours (local interaction) with one where players interact with all members of the population (group interaction). We observe choices under different information conditions and estimate parameters of a learn...

In this paper we study learning and cooperation in repeated prisoners’ dilemmas experiments. We compare interaction neighbourhoods of different size and structure, we observe choices under different information conditions, and we estimate parameters of a learning model. We test robustness of the estimator. We find that naive imitation, although a driving force in many models of spatial evolutio...

This paper examines the effect of FDI activity on manufacturing exports in four MENA countries. The sensitivity of manufacturing exports and the share in manufacturing exports in total exports to two measures of FDI activity is tested. The findings of this analysis suggest that FDI activity may have a positive effect on the host country’s manufacturing exports. The magnitude of the effect howev...

We model core demands for better governance (political, economic and institutional), more employment and less consumer price inflation using a methodological innovation on the complete elimination of cross-country differences in signals susceptible of sparking social revolts. The empirical evidence based on 14 MENA countries show that the Arab Spring was predictable in 2007 to occur between Jan...

This paper examines the stable outcomes of organization choice between single-plant and multi-plant under asymmetric two regions. A typical implicit assumption on monopolistic competition models for trade and economic geography is that firms can produce and sell only at one place. This paper allows endogenous determination of the number of plants in a new economic geography model. In particular...

We develop an urban equilibrium job search model with employed and unemployed individuals where residential mobility of the unemployed is restricted. We assume a standard mono-centric model (firms are located in one location), but allow for imperfect labour markets. In contrast to models with perfect labour markets, the model predicts that the employed are only partially compensated for commuti...

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it shows the properties that regional economics is implicitly assuming when “relative” inequality measures, such as the Gini coefficient and the generalized entropy family of indexes, are used to quantify the geographic concentration of economic activity. Second, it proposes a new geographic concentration index that is based on an “absolute” inequality m...