Abstract
This Introduction discusses aims, objectives, rationale and structure of the book and presents some general conclusions on the role of geography, institutions and culture in shaping regional economic dynamics. An agenda for future research in this multi-disciplinary field is also presented. Regional development is a complex multifaceted phenomenon whose in-depth understanding calls for the joint consideration of a variety of factors and structural characteristics of places and agents. The understanding of regional economic performance hence calls for an explicit consideration of both “hard” and “soft” factors of development, especially in terms of geography, culture and institutions.
JEL Classification Numbers: O18, R12
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Notes
- 1.
Assuming the same “structural” features (saving rates, population growth rate, level of technological development).
- 2.
From the “institutionalist” perspective, where innovation is not directly the outcome of a linear production function and the institutional environment acts directly as the generator of creative synergies and externalities (Dosi et al. 1988, Freeman and Soete 1997 among others) to the “evolutionary approach” (e.g. Nelson and Winter 1982) and the (regional) system of innovation approach (Freeman 1994; Lundvall 1992; Edquist 1997).
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Crescenzi, R., Percoco, M. (2013). Introduction. In: Crescenzi, R., Percoco, M. (eds) Geography, Institutions and Regional Economic Performance. Advances in Spatial Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33395-8_1
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