Regional policy

""Depuis 2004, le gouvernement de Turquie a mis en place différentes réformes de « décentralisation ». Plusieurs lois ont été votées, visant à réorganiser la répartition des tâches et les relations entre l’État central et les collectivités territoriales, auxquelles elles confèrent une autonomie et des moyens accrus. Le changement est de taille. Jusqu’ici en effet, il n’existait pratiquement pas de niveau intermédiaire entre le pouvoir central et le citoyen et les centres de décision à Ankara constituaient de véritables goulets d’étranglement, régulièrement contournés. 
Une telle évolution suscite plusieurs interrogations : quelles logiques ont présidé à la mise en place de ces réformes ? Celles-ci ont coïncidé avec le début des négociations d’adhésion de la Turquie à l’Union européenne (UE), en 2005 ; mais des dynamiques politiques internes ont-elles également été à l’œuvre ? Quels changements réels ces réformes ont-elles introduits ? Quels sont leurs effets sur les recompositions des échelles de pouvoir et leurs articulations et, d’une manière plus générale, sur la scène politique turque ?
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This article empirically assesses the evolution of European regions in terms of both employment and unemployment during the recent financial crisis and global recession. Our specific research questions are as follows: (i) has there been a reversal in employment and unemployment dynamics at a regional level during the crisis (2007–10) compared with the previous period (2004–07)? (ii) have the western regions (‘old’ EU states) behaved differently in response to the crisis compared with the eastern regions (NMS)? Finally, (iii) are the differences between the two groups of regions related to structural or institutional variables? After a review of the literature on the key determinants of regional unemployment, we summarise our main findings concerning the impact of the global crisis on the labour market. Our econometric investigation aims to answer the questions we pose. Structural characteristics are considered in terms of sector specialisation of regional economies. In addition, we consider certain institutional characteristics, by including indicators of the share of temporary workers and of long-term unemployed. Our analysis is then targeted at sub-samples of western and eastern European regions: we show that the critical factors for labour market performance during the crisis in these two groups differ greatly. From a methodological viewpoint, we exploit a spatial filtering technique which allowed us to greatly reduce any unobserved variable bias – a significant problem in cross-sectional models – by accounting for latent unobserved spatial patterns.

The article first describes characteristics of major infrastructure projects. Second, it documents a much neglected topic in economics: that ex ante estimates of costs and benefits are often very different from actual ex post costs and benefits. For large infrastructure projects the consequences are cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and the systematic underestimation of risks. Third, implications for cost–benefit analysis are described, including that such analysis is not to be trusted for major infrastructure projects. Fourth, the article uncovers the causes of this state of affairs in terms of perverse incentives that encourage promoters to underestimate costs and overestimate benefits in the business cases for their projects. But the projects that are made to look best on paper are the projects that amass the highest cost overruns and benefit shortfalls in reality. The article depicts this situation as ‘survival of the unfittest’. Fifth, the article sets out to explain how the problem may be solved, with a view to arriving at more efficient and more democratic projects, and avoiding the scandals that often accompany major infrastructure investments. Finally, the article identifies current trends in major infrastructure development. It is argued that a rapid increase in stimulus spending, combined with more investments in emerging economies, combined with more spending on information technology is catapulting infrastructure investment from the frying pan into the fire.

""Since the mid‐1990s, cooperative research centers (CRCs) have emerged as critical sites for the implementation and coordination of multi‐scalar innovation policy in many industrialized and industrializing countries (Perry 2007; Lal 2011). Although economic geographers have engaged in an extensive policy debate about the role of the region in economic development and governance, in science and technology (S&T) policy discussions of the scale of policy interventions have lagged behind a focus on the technologies themselves (Pike, Rodríguez‐Pose et al. 2006). Innovation + development (I+D) centers‐‐‐functioning as cooperative research centers sited at the intersection of regional economic development strategies and federal and state R&D policy‐‐‐ are the notable exception.
This chapter argues for an increased role for the region‐‐‐‐as an economic unit rather than political factor‐‐‐in the placement and coordination of I+D Centers. Through a comparison of how a “conscious geography” informs the organization of I+D research centers in the US and Canada, this analysis focuses on the variation in the models of multi‐scalar policy coordination deployed through the I+D Center networks in the US and Canada.""

This paper explores local and global dynamics underlying the development of knowledge services clusters, which we define as new geographic concentrations of technical talent and service providers offering upstream technical and knowledge-intensive business services to regional and global clients. Taking a co-evolutionary perspective on the development of knowledge services clusters in Latin America, based on data from the Offshoring Research Network (ORN), we find that cluster growth results from intersecting trajectories: the emergence of local talent pools and capabilities initially serving local and regional demand; broadening global search for talent and expertise by multinational corporations; and internationalization strategies of service providers competing to serve global clients. Findings suggest that increasing commoditization of knowledge services opens up windows of opportunity for new clusters, but also involves challenges for sustainable growth. Results may stimulate future research on global sourcing and cluster development.

"Europe's inland waterways are drivers for inclusive growth.

"Fostering high-employment, delivering economic, social and
territorial cohesion.....improving skills, flexibility and security
in the labour market, enhancing the quality of jobs and conditions
for work creation.....reducing poverty by identifying best
practices, promoting learning, coordinating national actions,
establishing EU-wide rules and providing funds.""

"The theoretical development in several social disciplines identifies a transformation of the functionality of sub-state governments. It has been argued that regions progressively acquire functions of representation, legitimacy and governability within the state, at national but also at international scale. Furthermore, it has been claimed that the European Union (EU) rotating presidencies (which still co-exists even with the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon) constitute such an interesting opportunity for the Member States to –during a six months period- highlight their own interests, at European scale. And thus, influencing the EU political agenda. Within this context, we will seek to underline how the Member States regional participation affects the different EU presidencies.

Hence, the objective of this research will be to assess the influence of the regional institutional actors (regional parliaments, cabinets and representation offices in Brussels) on the main priorities and policies of the countries’ presidency of the EU. Very little scientific research has been done on the study of the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU and, to our knowledge; nothing has ever been done around the involvement of the regional actors in such process. Our aim is therefore to fill in this gap in the political science literature by identifying the key regional actors in the Presidency of the EU and drawing conclusions from the comparison of the recent experiences of two highly regionalised countries, i.e. the Spanish (January – June 2010) and Belgian (July – December 2010) presidencies. This attempt constitutes an innovative and unique opportunity to fully study the impact of the regions on the presidency of the Council of the EU (the next presidencies of the EU for Spain and Belgium are scheduled in 2023).
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"The investiture of a UK Coalition Government in 2010 heralded the (ongoing) production of new sub-national geographies of governance in England. Of primary concern is the disbanding of the English regions, outside of London, which were New Labour’s preferred scale for ‘managing’ economic regeneration during the 2000s. In a bid to rollback the role of the state as part of their deficit reduction plan, the Coalition embarked on a political rescaling strategy resulting in various institutional reconfigurations. This rescaling of state power has significant policy implications in the context of European funding, which is the focus of this paper. By analysing a field of policy activity during a period of significant motion, the intent is to highlight some notable dilemmas, aided by posing some practical questions; in order to prompt some much needed policy discussion and academic deliberation.

Key words: European funding, economic regeneration, sub-national development, state rescaling, governance, Regional Development Agencies, Local Enterprise Partnerships
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"Over the two last decades, the regional policies have increasingly met the need to foster the economic competitiveness of regional and local economies, in order to face globalisation challenges. However, these actions have privileged the direct competition, oriented to catch investment and consumption flows by improving the regional/local attractiveness, than the indirect one, which is based on the social and institutional interplay involving the regional/local actors.
The increasing relevance of the indirect competition brings back on stage the public sector, namely the various levels of territorial government. Yet, the most successful experiences in Europe demonstrate that this renaissance of the public guide in spatial policies is intimately linked to the involvement of local systems of actors and implies a ‘constructed’ idea of territory. This paper seeks to enlighten some features of this process, introducing the concept of multilevel governance and place-based policies as the basic building blocks of the regional policies."