Looking into the future and trying to visualize long-run regional disparities is difficult. There is no agreed single theory to guide our model building, although some insight can be gained from analysisofthe past and by looking at the differ- ent theoretical positions to see if there is any agreement at least in terms of out- come ifnot in terms of mechanism. This is what is attempted in this book, which brings together specialists with a common interest in European regional growth and in applying quantitative analytical and simulation techniques in order to pro- vide different perspectives...