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We analyze the determinants of the internal and foreign migrants’ decision regarding their employment status and examine the importance of second-language proficiency in bilingual economies. When arriving at a bilingual territory, migrants must decide if it is worth to learn the second official language.  If one of the languages predominate in economic activity, there are less incentives for migrants to make the effort of learning the second language. However, if a local language contributes to build or strengthen a regional identity, learning it could help immigrants’ immersion in the receiving region. We use the Spanish Census in 2001, which exceptionally asked all participants about their knowledge of the co-official language in the bilingual regions. Our results show that second-language proficiency reduces the probability of being unemployed and stimulates self-employment. The impact becomes stronger among foreign migrants without Spanish as a first language and migrants arriving after primary school and living in non-urban areas.

This study examines how political and fiscal decentralization are associated with subjective well-being across 140 European NUTS-2 regions using 2022 data. The results show that political decentralization is more strongly associated with life satisfaction in lower-governance regions in pooled models, suggesting a compensatory pattern. However, this relationship disappears once country fixed effects are introduced, indicating that the pooled association is driven primarily by cross-country institutional differences rather than robust within-country regional variation. Fiscal decentralization results are more mixed: broad expenditure, revenue, and transfer indicators are sensitive to specification, while regional discretion over personal income tax emerges as a more substantive form of fiscal autonomy within countries. Overall, the findings suggest that decentralization is not uniformly associated with higher well-being; its relationship with life satisfaction depends on the type of authority decentralized, governance quality, and broader national institutional context.

This research analyses the existence of structural breaks and the composition of convergence clubs in the EU-27 using GDP per capita (PPS) over 2003–2023. To this end, the Phillips–Sul log-t approach is combined with the Bai–Perron multiple structural break test. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first EU-27 convergence club analysis at the NUTS-3 level. The results suggest that incorporating structural breaks and highly disaggregated regional data improves the understanding of European convergence dynamics and may help reduce the risk of “accidental winners” in the allocation of EU cohesion funds.

The paper addresses two research questions: first, what factors explain the continuity of the Cohesion Policy (CP); and second, to what extent such policy has contributed to reducing territorial disparities across the EU and to achieve other objectives. The article advances some hypotheses, and the analysis highlights the core pillars of the CP: its ‘philosophy’, evolving objectives, financial resources, and institutional architecture. It further evaluates outcomes in some key areas: convergence trends, infrastructure investment, human capital formation, and support for SMEs.  The findings suggest that while CP has contributed to reducing territorial disparities and other positive achievements linked to the European economic and welfare growth, its effectiveness varies across regions, and some policy domains face persistent challenges such as effectiveness, bureaucratization, and regional/sectoral policy conflicts which give support to important criticisms.

This paper continues from the discussion of Florax et al. (Florax, R., H. Folmer and S. Rey, 2003. Specification searches in spatial econometrics: the relevance of Hendry’s methodology. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 33, 557–579.), regarding the properties of various specification strategies for spatial econometric models. Habitual practise has popularised a technique based on the well-known Lagrange Multipliers, characterized as a Specific- to-General approach, and which seems to give good results. In our work, we contemplate other alternatives, some of which may be seen as slight variations of this proposal, including the selection tests of Vuong (Vuong, Q., 1989. Likelihood ratio-tests for model selection and non-nested hypotheses. Econometrica, 57, 307–333.) and of Clarke (Clarke, K., 2003. Nonparametric model discrimination in international relations. Journal of Conflict Resolutions, 47, 72–93.). We also examine an approach of the General-to-Specific type, as clearly opposite to the others. The comparison of the two strategies is carried out through a Monte Carlo experiment, the results of which are quite diffuse, in the sense that we do not find conclusive evidence in favour of either of these two approaches. However, it should be recognized that the General-to-Specific strategy seems to be more robust to the existence of anomalies in the Data Generating Process.

This special issue of Investigaciones Regionales is published in memory of Professors Jesús Mur and Ana Angulo, both faculty members of the Department of Economic Analysis at the University of Zaragoza. Their research made a decisive contribution to consolidating spatial econometrics within regional science, with a sustained emphasis—both methodological and empirical—on the importance of model specification and selection when incorporating spatial structure. As a tribute, the issue includes the re-publication (with permission) of their paper “Model selection strategies in a spatial setting: Some additional results”, originally published in Regional Science and Urban Economics (2009), which remains an indispensable reference in the literature. The remaining articles extend this legacy from complementary perspectives. Taken as a whole, the monograph highlights the continued relevance of Mur and Angulo’s central message: when space is part of the data-generating mechanism, reliable inference requires taking specification strategy seriously.

Access to housing constitutes a growing global problem, with a particular impact on young people and vulnerable groups. The sustained increase in housing prices, together with stagnant incomes, has generated an excessive financial burden for lower-income households. Spain’s new Law 12/2023 on the right to housing incorporates the concept of affordability, defined as a level of housing expenditure that does not exceed 30 per cent of household income. The study shows that this definition has substantial limitations. The literature on affordability, its indicators, and measurement methods is reviewed, and a redefinition of the term is proposed for a more effective housing policy. The proposal integrates vertical equity, minimum residual incomes, and territorial differences.

This paper examines the entry of new financial actors into the Castellón ceramic cluster between 2010 and 2024. By exploring the relationship between changing ownership structures and corporate growth strategies, it analyses three types of company acquisition with varying effects on the region. Drawing on a selection of news sources and corporate information, this study argues that financial actors do not always contribute to the broader aim of regional development, as they tend to focus on short-term speculative goals, while overlooking other social aspects that enable local companies to offer innovative and distinctive products and services linked to the territory. These concerns are particularly evident in the case of investment funds (IF) that manage a portfolio of investments in various businesses and engage primarily in financial strategies. These new owners have accelerated two different processes in the territory: business concentration and acquisition. However, there is no clear long-term benefit for the future of the acquired companies. The short-term approach driven by the temporary pressures of investment funds reduces incentives to invest in specific assets, and discourages investment in high-risk projects.

Recently, in 2025, Edward Elgar published the Thematic Encyclopedia of Regional Science. This massive work, over 800 pages long, contains more than 300 entries and features contributions from nearly one hundred researchers worldwide, coordinated by the editors: Peter Nijkamp, ​​Karima Kourtit, Kingsley E. Haynes, and Zeynep Elburz.

This paper presents a methodological framework for the development of a multiregional economic forecasting and simulation model for Spain’s 19 Autonomous Communities and Cities over the medium and long term. Within a context of increasing decentralization and the pressing need for homogeneous statistical data, there is a notable lack of consistent regional data from an aggregate demand perspective. To address this limitation, an annual regional database (1995–2023) was constructed, comprising 40 variables per region. This dataset includes domestic and external demand components—in both nominal and volume terms—as well as labor market indicators.

The model employs a hybrid “bottom-up” and “top-down” approach, implemented in EViews, and is grounded in structural econometric models with error correction mechanisms (ECM). Each region is represented by an independent model that is subsequently reconciled with a national framework. The methodology incorporates region-specific prices, interregional interactions, and exogenous national and international variables. Furthermore, the model facilitates the generation of simulations and alternative scenarios, proving instrumental in evaluating policies such as the implementation of European funds or the impact of tariff fluctuations. Currently, the model generates projections through 2050, providing a robust tool for regional economic planning.