Edward Elgar Publishing Economic Growth and Change: National and Regional Patterns of Convergence and Divergence

The pursuit of economic growth is at the top of every nation's policy agenda at the end of the 20th century. This authoritative and comprehensive book goes beyond the narrowly-based convergence model of economic growth by considering global, national and regional patterns of growth from a comparative perspective. Issues examined include: • the evolution of the firm and the role of R&D• long-term implications of the loss of national sovereignty • international 'openness'• social and political institutions• patterns of regional harmonization in the United States, particularly income and earnings trends across states and the reasons for convergence• persistent regional disparities in Europe including the roles of sectoral transformation, regional spillovers, human capital formation and the allocation of structural funds• the experience of convergence in individual countries including Italy, the UK, Spain and Germany Review '. . . this is an interesting book containing on the whole respectable well-tried approaches typical of the mid-to-late 1990s and addressing serious issues of real practical concern to human welfare, rather than being an expose of avant-garde innovations in methodology or theory. . . the contributions are well written and accessible, so that the book could profitably be used as supplementary reading by advanced students of regional economics, regional science or quantitative economic geography. The editors and authors, have made a significant and important contribution.' About the Author Edited by the late John Adams, formerly Visiting Scholar, Center for South Asian Studies, University of Virginia, US and Francesco Pigliaru, Professor of Economics, University of Cagliari, Italy and Research Fellow, Centre for North-South Economic Research (CRENoS), Italy