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In current discourse the knowledge economy is viewed as the primary saviour of European competitiveness. By increasingly focusing on economic activities that utilise knowledge and innovation as the primary value-adding feature rather than cheap labour or available raw materials the EU should be able to increase its constantly weakening competitive position vis-à-vis North America and the fast growing economies in South and Southeast Asia. In the Lisbon European Council in March 2000, the European Union set a strategic goal for the next decade "of becoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion". There is thus an implicit expectation that an increasingly knowledge-based economy would automatically generate larger economic growth and prosperity. Before trying to illuminate further on that issue there is however a need to establish exactly how the knowledge economy could be operationalised to quantifiable measures. A generally utilised option here is the division of the knowledge economy into input and output variables. The former could be characterised as the actual endowments of the knowledge production system and include such issues as the educational level and knowledge of the population, the social capital of the population, the amount of money invested into education or the number of students, investments into research and development (R&D), etc. Output variables could be regarded as measurements of the economic or other output of the regional research environment and include, in addition to direct economic measurements such as GDP, issues such as the number of issued patents or patent applications or employment within certain knowledge-intensive branches. Thus the main question here centres on the patterns of knowledge economy inputs and outputs in Europe and how are these distributed among the regions of the continent.

At the national level the employment system consists of the set of institutions, and policies affecting institutions, which together moderate the level of production, employment and unemployment in the country (Schmid, G. & Gazier, B. eds. 2002. The Dynamics of Full Employment. Edward Elgar). These institutions include employment legislation, taxation policy and the education and training systems. However, the dynamics and the complexity of the national labour markets could only be understood by analysing the systemic character of employment at the regional and local levels. The regional and local social systems function as filters or restrictions, resulting in differing performance of local labour markets. The interaction between the labour market and the local educational and private household systems – including its various preferences and life-style options - is reflected in, and allowing for, differing rates of transition between alternative statuses at the labour market. This seems particularly valid in a country like Sweden, where there is a wide variation of functional labour markets in terms of size, differentiation, settlement and demographic structure. Also, the recent cut backs and weakened intervention of the welfare state in general combined with an increasingly dominating role of the public sector as an employer in regions with an ageing population suggest an emerging divergence in the performance of local labour markets. In this paper, we suggest that the performance of local employment systems should be evaluated in terms of the rate of activation of local pools of labour force and of immigration. Well functioning employment systems should facilitate voluntary and temporary entries to and exits from employment to other statuses, e g to and from education and training. Rapid activation should be facilitated of the local pools of unemployed and other non-employed including persons on long-term sick leave. Preliminary results from empirical analysis based on longitudinal data reveal that there is a wide variation in performance of Swedish local labour markets in these terms and that there are no signs of convergence over the period 1990-99. The results suggest that national policies to affect institutions within the employment system has to be synchronized with and supported by regionally differentiated measures to improve the local social systems, in particular within the local education system, to improve working conditions in certain sectors and also to promote local mobility between economic and non-economic sectors.

Internal differences within the Nordic countries flit around the extremes of the pendulum. On the one hand, the capital and other metropolitan areas of the Nordic countries are amongst the fastest growing on the whole continent. On the other hand peripheral areas are, when placed in their national contexts, lagging behind and in dire need of active support. This is the traditional picture of the Nordic dichotomy. In the first years after the turn of the millennium small indications suggest that the overly excessive concentration to a few metropolitan areas has partially and at least currently reached the end of its path. Regardless whether these new patterns are a mere breather in the time line of peripheral decline or if they will prove to be more permanent trends, it is currently nonetheless one of the most important tasks for policy makers to try to strike a balance between the development trends in different parts of the Nordic countries. The task is further challenged by the shifting focus of the new EU Structural Funds 2007-2013 programming period away from the Nordic countries. The 2007 handbook in the series 'Regional Development in the Nordic Countries' provides a comprehensive picture of the current state of play of regional development challenges and the policies and tools utilised to tackle the problems now and in the years to come. This also includes an overview on the processes of administrative structural reforms of government in the Nordic countries. In addition Nordic relevant aspects of EU regional policy support and possibilities of territorial co-operation for the period 2007-2013 are covered. The report comes with 29 detailed maps, an A3 poster pin-up and numerous graphical illustrations, all of which featuring EU27 standards and the new Danish territorial divisions. In the statistical annex, comparable demographic and economic key indicators are given for all 1 366 Nordic municipalities and their corresponding regions, including each of the autonomous territories. All graphical material is ready-to-hand available for download at the Maps & Figures section of this website and can be used free of charge.

La présente étude a pour but d'évaluer l'ampleur des disparités régionales au sein de l'Union européenne. Grâce à des méthodes et des outils scientifiques de pointe permettant une analyse critique, elle présente des données empiriques sur la dynamique des disparités régionales et des problèmes de cohésion territoriale. Elle s'appuie sur ces données pour proposer des moyens d'aborder la cohésion territoriale d'un point de vue statistique et politique. Enfin, l'étude propose plusieurs méthodes destinées à combler les lacunes actuellement présentes dans les données territoriales disponibles ainsi que des recommandations concrètes concernant les moyens d'améliorer la conception, la mise en oeuvre et le suivi de la politique de cohésion.

La présente étude a pour but d'évaluer l'ampleur des disparités régionales au sein de l'Union européenne. Grâce à des méthodes et des outils scientifiques de pointe permettant une analyse critique, elle présente des données empiriques sur la dynamique des disparités régionales et des problèmes de cohésion territoriale. Elle s'appuie sur ces données pour proposer des moyens d'aborder la cohésion territoriale d'un point de vue statistique et politique. Enfin, l'étude propose plusieurs méthodes destinées à combler les lacunes actuellement présentes dans les données territoriales disponibles ainsi que des recommandations concrètes concernant les moyens d'améliorer la conception, la mise en oeuvre et le suivi de la politique de cohésion.

La présente étude a pour but d'évaluer l'ampleur des disparités régionales au sein de l'Union européenne. Grâce à des méthodes et des outils scientifiques de pointe permettant une analyse critique, elle présente des données empiriques sur la dynamique des disparités régionales et des problèmes de cohésion territoriale. Elle s'appuie sur ces données pour proposer des moyens d'aborder la cohésion territoriale d'un point de vue statistique et politique. Enfin, l'étude propose plusieurs méthodes destinées à combler les lacunes actuellement présentes dans les données territoriales disponibles ainsi que des recommandations concrètes concernant les moyens d'améliorer la conception, la mise en oeuvre et le suivi de la politique de cohésion.

La présente étude a pour but d'évaluer l'ampleur des disparités régionales au sein de l'Union européenne. Grâce à des méthodes et des outils scientifiques de pointe permettant une analyse critique, elle présente des données empiriques sur la dynamique des disparités régionales et des problèmes de cohésion territoriale. Elle s'appuie sur ces données pour proposer des moyens d'aborder la cohésion territoriale d'un point de vue statistique et politique. Enfin, l'étude propose plusieurs méthodes destinées à combler les lacunes actuellement présentes dans les données territoriales disponibles ainsi que des recommandations concrètes concernant les moyens d'améliorer la conception, la mise en oeuvre et le suivi de la politique de cohésion.

La présente étude a pour but d'évaluer l'ampleur des disparités régionales au sein de l'Union européenne. Grâce à des méthodes et des outils scientifiques de pointe permettant une analyse critique, elle présente des données empiriques sur la dynamique des disparités régionales et des problèmes de cohésion territoriale. Elle s'appuie sur ces données pour proposer des moyens d'aborder la cohésion territoriale d'un point de vue statistique et politique. Enfin, l'étude propose plusieurs méthodes destinées à combler les lacunes actuellement présentes dans les données territoriales disponibles ainsi que des recommandations concrètes concernant les moyens d'améliorer la conception, la mise en oeuvre et le suivi de la politique de cohésion.