Wealth from Diversity, 1996 Innovation, Structural Change and Finance for Regional Development in Europe Economics of Science, Technology and Innovation Series, Vol. 9

x. Vence-Deza & J.S. Metcalfe U. of Santiago de Compostela & U. of Manchester This book contains selected papers presented at the International Congress "European Periphery Facing the New Century" held in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, at the end of 1993. The general aim of this congress was to rethink the great economic and social changes in Europe during the last decade from a critical view, specially focused on peripheral regions and the conditions for an enduring process of development. Both economic, social and political changes affect the characteristic diversity of Europe and they have a special impact on the countries and regions that were traditionally known as the periphery within Western Europe. The list of concerns is long: regions with different levels of development compete within a new single market; the free movement of productive factors modifies the traditional pattern of industrial location, increasing tendencies to regional concentration shift the balance of income generation; new competitors enter traditional markets; information technology creates new possibilities of industrial organization and cooperation; competitivity is based on different capabilities to innovate and to promote structural change, and these capabilities differ among regions; traditional regional policies fail in the present even more than in the past. Hence the central concern of this volume, to explore the links between diversity and regional development.

1 Introduction.- 2 Changes in Structure and Relations between Productive Systems.- 3 Economic Dynamics and Regional Diversity — Some Evolutionary Ideas.- 4 Uneven Technological Development.- 5 The Changing Economics of Technological Learning: Implications for the Distribution of Innovative Capabilities in Europe.- 6 Industrial Districts and the Globalization of Innovation: Regions and Networks in the New Economic Space.- 7 The Diversity of European Regions and the Conditions for a Sustainable Economic Growth.- 8 Innovation, Regional Development and Technology Policy: New Spatial Tends in Industrialization and the Emergence of Regionalization of Technology Policy.- 9 Strategic Technology Policy for New Industrial Infrastructure: Creating Capabilities and Building New Markets.- 10 Local Synergy and Innovation in Peripheral Areas.- 11 Inter—Finn Cooperation: A Mode for the Internationalization of SME.- 12 External Control and Regional Development in an Integrated Europe.- 13 European Monetary Integration, Endogenous Credit Creation and Regional Economic Development.- 14 Banking and Finance in the Italian Mezzogiorno: Issues and Problems.- 15 The Regional Impact of the Internal Market: An Analysis for Lagging Regions.- 16 Boosting European Growth: Strategies for Integration and Strategies for Competition.- Author Index.