This book intends to provide analytical and policy tools for investigating the question of the development of rural and peri-urban areas. The aim is to shed some light on this topic and in particular to contribute to a better understanding of the link between issues of regional or territorial development and issues of rural development. The text addresses the question of the disputed notions and definitions of rural development in rural and regional studies, examines the literature of regional and territorial development and the policies of regional development and planning. It also presents...

Industrial and technology parks are commonly regarded as a policy panacea. They tend to be considered as the ideal instrument to alleviate an assortment of institutional, political, economic, social and ultimately, technological weaknesses and often form the centrepiece of development strategies. Yet, the real impact of industrial and technology parks, especially in emerging countries is still poorly understood. Focusing on examples from Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, the book represents a first approach to understand the potential and reality of industrial and technology...

The evaluation of public policies is of paramount importance for modern policy making, especially in a period of severe budget constraints. The literature has proposed several methods to deal with the issue of causality and counterfactual evaluation in a variety of contexts, with an increasing attention to the local dimension. The book aims to present the state-of-the-art of evaluation techniques with a special focus on the consideration of geographical and spatial effects into existing methodologies (such as propensity score matching, regression discontinuity, difference-in-difference)....

This book deals with the creation of local innovation systems (LIS) in emerging countries. The authors analyze the role of the government, firms and research centers in the formation of LIS. Special attention is paid to the manner in which different leading actors implement their LIS development strategies. The book presents detailed case studies on different strategies used to implement LIS in Singapore, Dubai, Taiwan and Iran.

This open access book explores the role of innovation in technological convergence processes in the EU regional space and shifts the focus from absolute and conditional income convergence to technological convergence and its determinants. Presenting new theoretical and empirical evidence on the determinants and trajectory of the EU region’s development and convergence, this book will appeal to scholars of economics and regional science, as well as practitioners and policymakers interested in the policy implications of regional technological convergence. The presented findings will also...