Mateusz Najsztub (p), Michał Myck

In this paper we focus on peripheral localities of the largest Polish administrative district, the Mazovian voivodeship, and address the question of whether being on one or the other side of the administrative fence matters for regional development. Do peripheral localities gain on being included under the administrative control of a large growth center, or would they be better off on the other side of the administrative fence? To identify the role of administrative boundaries we use a major reform implemented in Poland on January 1st 1999, which decreased the number of districts (voivodships, NUTS 2 level) from 49 to 16 and created a large central region with Warsaw – the country’s capital – as its regional administrative center. The reform redrafted the administrative boundaries and assigned adjacent peripheral localities either to this central Mazovian district, or to districts with much less powerful regional centers.

We use several sources of data available at municipality level including population, employment, municipal revenues and expenses, income and corporate tax information and infrastructure development. On top of that we take advantage of nighttime illumination data as a proxy for overall regional economic growth. For each of the outcomes we estimate difference-in-difference models to identify if being on the Mazovian side of the border had any influence on the economic performance at the local level.

We find significant effect of the reform on the municipalities adjacent to the newly created Mazovian voivodship border. We found that the population dropped significantly in the municipalities being part of the Mazovian voivodship after 1999 reform compared to those outside. A negative effect was present in terms of working age population as well, although the number of persons employed and employment rate increased significantly in Mazovian municipalities after the reform. Analyzing municipal finance we also observe a significant increase in revenues and expenditures in the Mazovian municipalities after the reform. A positive effect can be seen on both housing area per capita and total length of water lines. Lastly, looking at nighttime lights as a proxy for economic activity we find no significant effect. With the exception of population decrease these results consistently indicate that municipalities finding themselves on the inside of the Mazovian voivodship after the 1999 administrative reform fared better than their neighbours who were left outside.

Artur Ochojski (p)

Smart cities have been at the forefront of attention for years now. Unfortunately, their phenomenon has been mainly set by the normative (policy-based) approach. The positive (theoretical) approach or rather growth theory-cantered studies have hardly been considered important in literature. Thus, we argue that in conditions formed by: a) a rapid transformation of urban space formed in the processes of implementation of new technologies, b) the creation of new types of specific public spaces, c) the evolution of the institution of the market and d) new behaviour patterns of stakeholders, new and exceptional foundations of knowledge economy are generated. They indeed change the functioning of the city and its organization, as well as add new value to the variety of knowledge - that can be parameterised and in fact presented in the form of a new economic and public value.
The main objective of this investigation is to attempt an epistemological verification whether the specific nature of city knowledge in conditions set by contemporary urban spaces, markets and technologies which allow for adding economic and public value to its effects can be considered a significant factor strengthening urban and regional growth. As mentioned before, the attempt of such reasoning is based on positive, not normative approach (Bish & Nourse 1975: 4). Cities are defined as knowledge hubs where knolwedge is produced and consumed (Carillo, 2004).
The adopted assumptions allow for asking the question to what extent cities are ready for and interested in the analysis of such processes in the economic sense and what is the main mechanism of embedding and embodding knwoledge in cities. Finally, we put forward a question what the economic model for a proposed stylised concept of *intelligent city* is?

John Parr (p)

A curious feature of regional analysis is the lack of attention given to the region. With certain notable exceptions, most introductory texts and advanced treatments of the subject fail to discuss adequately the type of region being employed in a particular analysis, particularly with respect to its definition, its significance and its limitations. There are, of course, obvious reasons for such omissions. One is the need to rely on official statistics, published or otherwise, so that the researcher has no choice but to accept the data based on official region and their possible weaknesses. This failure to comment on the nature of the region is important for several reasons, including the suitability of the region for the problem being investigated, and the sensitivity of the results to the type of region being used.

Bearing in mind this state of affairs, attention is initially directed to what is meant by the term “region” in regional analysis. Perhaps the most widely cited of typology of regions is the one proposed by Richard Meyer (AER, 1963). This involves the homogenous region, the nodal region, and the programming region (referred to as the policy region). There are other types of region that do not fit easily into this classification. These include the river-basin region, the urban-system region, and the polycentric urban region. After briefly examining each of these regions, consideration is given to the regional economy.

Important here is the extent to regional economy can be treated as a scaled-down of the national economy. While certain similarities between the two can be identified, the differences are of crucial importance. The region has a further relevance in regional analysis in terms of its importance as a governmental and/ or administrative and governmental entity. This varies considerably among nations, being prominent federal systems (Germany, the US and Canada), and also in certain unitary states (France, Italy and Spain), though absent in others such as Eastern Europe, most of Scandinavia and the UK.

Francesco Perugini (p), Diego D'Adda , Donato Iacobucci

In 2012 the Italian Parliament issued a law intended to promote start-up firms and the growth of new innovative enterprises with a high technological value (Start-up Act). The law introduced into the Italian legal system a definition of a new type of enterprise: the “innovative start-up”. This enterprise must comply with some requirement and must be registered in a special section of the Business Register created and administrated by the Italian Chambers of Commerce system. Once registered, an innovative startup can take advantage of a set of fiscal and financial benefits, and simplified procedures.
The general aims of the new legislation were to promote sustainable growth, foster technological advancement and create favourable conditions for innovation. Other specific aims were generating new employment, especially for the youth, enhancing social mobility and reinforcing the links between universities and businesses.
A large body of empirical literature has demonstrated that the ability to growth by innovative start-ups is greatly influenced by the local context. This is especially true for new companies operating in knowledge intensive sectors. Indeed, much of the policy debate about these start-ups is concerned with the creation and development of so-called ‘innovative’ or ‘entrepreneurial’ ecosystems generally associated to rather narrow territorial areas, often centred around a city. This means that a national law, such as the Start-up Act may have a rather different territorial impact. The differences depend primarily on the presence of sufficiently large urban areas and on the characteristics of the innovative ecosystem of the area.
The main aim of this paper is to analyse the factors responsible for the performance of innovative start-ups at local level. The performance is defined in terms of: 1) firm birth rate and 2) growth of employment and value added. The territorial unit is the province (NUTS-3 level). Data about innovative start-ups are taken from the Chambers of commerce and from Bureau Van Dijk Aida database. Financial data are available for about 4,500 firms, about 50% of the total innovative start-ups registered at the end of 2017. Data about the provincial ecosystems are taken from ISTAT, the National Institute of Statistics. Preliminary results shows that local factors play a significant role for the performance of innovative start-ups. This suggests that the adoption of policy measures at local level may play a critical role to take advantage of a national policy.