Regional Growth against all odds

The overarching aim of the proposed project is to advance the understanding of determinants of regional economic growth by answering the following overarching research question:
Why do some regions grow more (or less) than others with similar structural preconditions?

Most contemporary explanations of regional economic growth rest upon structural preconditions such as the regional industry composition, physical and human capital endowments, infrastructure, etc. Yet, after taking account of structural preconditions a large share of regional growth differences remains unexplained. One reason for the growing residuals is that the relationship between structural preconditions and growth depends on regional and temporal contexts. Also, quantitative regional growth models have a limited capacity to address the role of agency and institutional frameworks.

Departing from these shortcomings, the specific objectives of the project are:
1.To calculate the effect of structural factors on regional growth;
2.To identify regions that in certain periods of time show exceptional regional growth;
3.To explain exceptional high or low growth in certain regions and time periods by focusing on the role of actors, networks, and institutions at multiple spatial scales (regional, national, global);
4.To develop a context-sensitive model of regional economic growth that accounts explicitly for the regional heterogeneity and time dynamics.