New Firm Formation by Industry over Space and Time: A Multi-Level Analysis

Wir untersuchen den Einfluss von Branchenmerkmalen, Standort und Veränderungen im Zeitablauf auf Neugründungen von Betrieben mit einem Mehr- Ebenen-Ansatz. Die Analyse bezieht sich auf Westdeutschland im Zeitraum 1983- 1997. Innovationsaktivitäten und die Ausprägung des technologischen Regimes haben offenbar einen wesentlichen Einfluss auf Gründungsaktivitäten. Es bestehen erhebliche Unterschiede zwischen dem Industrie- und dem Dienstleistungssektor hinsichtlich der Bedeutung der verschiedenen Faktoren für das Gründungsgeschehen. Expandierende Nachfrage stimuliert Gründungsaktivitäten während sich ein hohes Niveau an regionaler Arbeitslosigkeit offenbar ungünstig auswirkt. We apply a multi-level approach to analyze simultaneously the effects of three groups of determinants on new firm formation: industry, location and change over time. The data is for West Germany and covers the 1983-97 period. Our analysis indicates that innovation activities and the technological regime play a significant role in new firm formation processes. There are some differences with regard to the impact of a number of variables on start-ups in manufacturing and the service sector. Changes in demand are conducive to new firm formation while a high level of unemployment in a region obviously creates a relatively uncomfortable environment for setting up new businesses.New firm formation, industrial economics, regional economics, entrepreneurship

Environmental governance: Participatory, multi-level - and effective?

Current international and European Union environmental policies increasingly promote collaborative and participatory decision-making on appropriate and multiple governance levels as a means to attain more sustainable policies and a more effective and lasting policy implementation. The entailed shifts of geographical scale of governance can be exemplified by the EU Water Framework Directive in that higher-level policies are devolved not only to the member states but to local collaborative decision-making bodies on natural as opposed to territorial scales. To date, empirical evidence and theoretical considerations have remained ambiguous about the environmental outcomes of such modes of governance. At the same time, the relationship between multi-level governance and non-state actor involvement remains a largely uncharted terrain. Accordingly, a twofold research agenda is mapped out: How does public participation work in different governance contexts? And what potential do multi-level governance environments have to foster the effectiveness of participatory governance? Drawing on scholarly literature on multi-level governance, policy implementation, public participation and complex systems, we develop five sets of hypotheses on how the number of policy levels and geographical rescaling affect citizen participation, actor interests and policy outcomes. We present empirical results based on a comparative meta-analysis of 47 case studies in environmental governance in North America and the EU, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. --Civic participation,multi-level governance,re-scaling,policy implementation,institutional fit,meta-analysis,case survey

New firm formation by industry over space and time: a multi-level analysis for Germany

We apply a multi-level approach to analyze the effect of three groups of determinants on new firm formation simultaneously: industry, location and changes over time. The data are for West Germany and cover the 1983-97 period. Our analysis indicates, that innovation activities and the technological regime play a significant role for new firm formation processes. There are also considerable differences with regard to the impact of a number of variables on startups between manufacturing and the service sector. Changes in demand are conducive for new firm formation while a high level of unemployment in a region obviously makes a relatively uncomfortable environment for start-ups. JEL classification: D21, L10, R10 Keywords: New firm formation, industrial economics, regional economics, entrepreneurship.

The effect of industry, region and time on new business survival: A multi-dimensional analysis

We analyze the effect of industry, region and time on new-business survival rates by means of a multi-dimensional approach. The data relate to West German districts in the 1983-2000 period. The survival chances of start-ups tend to be relatively low in industries characterized by a high minimum efficient size and high numbers of entries. Regional growth has a rather pronounced positive influence on survival rates, while the relationship between the nationwide development of the particular industry and survival tends to be negative. We also find a remarkably high level of spatial autocorrelation. -- Wir analysieren den Einfluss von branchenspezifischen Faktoren und Standortein-flüssen über die Zeit auf die Überlebensraten neu gegründeter Betrieben mit ei-nem multidimensionalen Ansatz. Die Untersuchung bezieht sich auf die Kreise Westdeutschland im Zeitraum 1983-2000. Die Überlebenschancen sind relativ niedrig in Branchen, die durch eine hohe mindesteffiziente Betriebsgröße und ein hohes Maß an Gründungen gekennzeichnet sind. Regionales Wachstum hat einen deutlich positiven Einfluss, während sich für die nationale Entwicklung der betreffenden Branche eher ein negativer Zusammenhang mit den Überlebens-chancen zeigt. In den Analysen ergibt sich ein bemerkenswert hohes Maß an räumlicher Autokorrelation.New-firm survival,hazard,entry,market selection,Überleben von Gründungen,Hazard,Marktzutritt,Marktselektion

The Apple doesn't Fall far from the Tree: Location of Start-Ups Relative to Incumbents

New firm location decisions, relative to incumbents may be based on a choice between two types of advantages: natural advantages or those that arise from social embeddedness, the latter of which may particularly include knowledge spillovers. We analyze the relative importance of geographically bounded location factors based on data from 103 manufacturing industries across 327 West German and 111 East German districts. Our micro-geographic analysis reveals that the two parts of the country vary in their pattern of new firm location. In East Germany, only 5 percent of the industries reveal start-up localization patterns beyond what natural advantages would suggest compared to 40 percent in West Germany.entrepreneurship, location decision, natural advantages, local knowledge spillovers

The Phantom of the Opera: Cultural Amenities, Human Capital, and Regional Economic Growth

We analyze the extent to which endogenous cultural amenities affect the spatial equilibriumshare of high-human-capital employees. To overcome endogeneity, we draw on a quasinaturalexperiment in German history and exploit the exogenous spatial distribution ofbaroque opera houses built as a part of rulers’ competition for prestigious cultural amenities.Robustness tests confirm our strategy and strengthen the finding that proximity to a baroqueopera house significantly affects the spatial equilibrium share of high-human-capitalemployees. Then, a cross-region growth regression shows that these employees induce localknowledge spillovers and shift a location to a higher growth path.Cultural Amenities, Regional Economic Growth, Human Capital, Bohemians

The Phantom of the Opera: Cultural Amenities, Human Capital, and Regional Economic Growth

We analyze the extent to which endogenous cultural amenities affect the spatial equilibrium share of high-human-capital employees. To overcome endogeneity, we draw on a quasi-natural experiment in German history and exploit the exogenous spatial distribution of baroque opera houses built as a part of rulers' competition for prestigious cultural amenities. Robustness tests confirm our strategy and strengthen the finding that proximity to a baroque opera house significantly affects the spatial equilibrium share of high-human-capital employees. Then, a cross-region growth regression shows that these employees induce local knowledge spillovers and shift a location to a higher growth path.cultural amenities, regional economic growth, human capital, Bohemians

Governing Integrated Water Resources Management: Mutual Learning and Policy Transfer

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has become a global paradigm for the governance of surface, coastal and groundwaters. This Special Issue contains twelve articles related to the transfer of IWRM policy principles. The articles explore three dimensions of transfer—causes, processes, outcomes—and offer a theoretically inspiring, methodologically rich and geographically diverse engagement with IWRM policy transfer around the globe. As such, they can also productively inform a future research agenda on the ‘dimensional’ aspects of IWRM governance. Regarding the causes, the contributions apply, criticise, extend or revise existing approaches to policy transfer in a water governance context, asking why countries adopt IWRM principles and what mechanisms are in place to understand the adoption of these principles in regional or national contexts. When it comes to processes, articles in this Special Issue unpack the process of policy transfer and implementation and explore how IWRM principles travel across borders, levels and scales. Finally, this set of papers looks into the outcomes of IWRM policy transfer and asks what impact IWRM principles, once implemented, gave on domestic water governance, water quality and water supply, and how effective IWRM is at addressing critical water issues in specific countries

More input - better output: does citizen involvement improve environmental governance?

Bezug nehmend auf eine Analyse politischer Dokumente zeigen die Verfasser, dass die Partizipation zu einem integralen Element der offiziellen Rhetorik von EU-Institutionen geworden ist, die sie 'präventiv' den Vorwürfen bezüglich des Demokratiedefizits entgegensetzen. Es wird argumentiert, dass die Steigerung der Output-Legitimität oder der politischen Effektivität lediglich durch Erhöhung der Input-Legitimität (Inklusion, Verfahrenslegitimität) erreicht werden kann. Es wird davon ausgegangen, dass Partizipation die Legitimität und Effektivität der Governance steigert. Die Autoren analysieren einzelne Mechanismen, durch die eine positive Wirkung der Partizipation auf die Qualität der Entscheidungen und deren Implementierung gewährleistet werden kann. Abschließend werden empirische Forschungsergebnisse herangezogen, mit deren Hilfe die Bedeutung von Partizipation im Rahmen ökologiebezogener Entscheidungsprozesse verdeutlicht wird. (ICF