Regional Disparities in Small Countries

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-VI

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2. Introduction

   • Daniel Felsenstein, Boris A. Portnov

   Pages 1-9

3. Concepts, Theory and Methods

   1. The Liability of Smallness: Can We Expect Less Regional Disparities in Small Countries?

      • Daniel Felsenstein, Boris A. Portnov

      Pages 13-24

   2. Country Size in Regional Economics

      • Michael Beenstock

      Pages 25-45

   3. Measures of Regional Inequality for Small Countries

      • Boris A. Portnov, Daniel Felsenstein

      Pages 47-62

   4. Investigating Spatial Patterns of Income Disparities Using Coordinate Transformations and GIS Mapping

      • Boris A. Portnov, Rimma Gluhih

      Pages 63-81

4. Empirical Evidence

   1. Regional Employment Disparities in Belgium: Some Empirical Results

      • Olivier Meunier, Michel Mignolet

      Pages 85-107

   2. Regional Income Convergence and Inequality in Boom and Bust: Results from Micro Data in Finland 1971–2000

      • Heikki A. Loikkanen, Marja Riihelä, Risto Sullström

      Pages 109-127

   3. Regional Disparities in Ireland: The Roles of Demography, Profit Outflows, Productivity, Structural Change and Regional Policy 1960–1996

      • Eoin O’Leary

      Pages 129-146

   4. The Persistence of Regional Unemployment Disparities in the Netherlands

      • Oedzge Atzema, Jouke van Dijk

      Pages 147-167

   5. The Dynamics of Regional Disparities in a Small Country: The Case of Slovenia

      • Peter Wostner

      Pages 169-185

   6. Interregional Disparities in Israel: Patterns and Trends

      • Boris A. Portnov

      Pages 187-210

   7. Does Decentralisation Matter to Regional Inequalities? The Case of Small Countries

      • Carlos Gil, Pedro Pascual, Manuel Rapún

      Pages 211-231

   8. Regional Inequalities in the EU Enlargement Countries: An Analysis of Small Versus Large New Member States

      • George Petrakos, Yiannis Psycharis, Dimitris Kallioras

      Pages 233-247

5. Policy Issues

   1. Has the Financial Economy Increased Regional Disparities in Switzerland over the Last Three Decades?

      • José Corpataux, Olivier Crevoisier

      Pages 251-266

   2. Regional Policy Lessons from Finland

      • Hannu Tervo

      Pages 267-282

   3. The Globalisation of Austrian Regions: New Policy Challenges and Opportunities

      • Michael Steiner

      Pages 283-295

   4. Innovation Policy: An Effective Way of Reducing Spatial Disparities in Small Nations?

      • Stephen Roper

      Pages 297-312

6. Back Matter

   Pages 313-333

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1 2 Daniel Felsenstein and Boris A. Portnov 1 Department of Geography, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel 2 Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Haifa, Israel During the Candiot War of 1645-1669, the Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim I ordered his chief admiral to attack Malta. Fearing imminent defeat by the superior Venetian forces stationed on the island, the admiral decided to trick the sultan out of the idea. As the story goes, he placed a candle on his naval map, allowing the wax to drip on the tiny island until it was completely covered. Then he exclaimed in false surprise, “Malta Yok!” (There is no Malta!), and convinced the sultan to sail his fleet to the Island of Crete instead. Although Malta is not featured in this volume, most of the countries it covers are of “wax drip” size. Intuitively, it may be expected that everything in small countries is diminutive: distances, population, economies, and even regional inequalities. Thus, at a symposium on “The Challenge of Development” convened in Israel in 1957 to mark the inauguration of a new building for the Department of Economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the eminent US economist Simon Kuznets stated that “developed small states seem to have succeeded in spreading the fruits of economic growth more widely among their populations than the larger states at comparable levels of income per capita”.

• European Union (EU)
• Import
• development
• economy
• effectiveness
• innovation
• regional convergence
• regional development
• regional economics
• regional inequalities
• regional policy
• small countries
• transformation
• landscape/regional and urban planning

From the reviews:

"This volume revisits the common conception that countries characterized by small land area and small population sizes do not exhibit significant regional inequalities. … Together, these chapters convincingly demonstrate that small countries do not seem to have significantly small regional gaps than large ones, and inequalities are shown to have increased over time. … The book is recommended to any scholar studying spatial inequalities … peace researchers interested in the inequality-conflict nexus." (Gudrun Østby, Journal of Peace, Vol. 43 (5), 2006)

"All in all, the book stands out from many other edited volumes by being clearly focused on one particular topic, rather than being a collection of loosely related individual papers. This makes for an exciting and inspiring reading for geographical economists. Small countries—in the definition of Felsenstein and Portnov—do not appear to be much different from large countries when it comes to regional disparities."(Jens Suedekum, Journal of Regional Science, Vol. 46 (5), 2006)

• Department of Geography, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Israel

  Daniel Felsenstein

• Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel

  Boris A. Portnov

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