European Integration,Urban Economic Change,and Public Policy Responses

Most empirical work on changing disparities in income during recently increased European integration examines the European Union (EU)‐defined regions because of a dearth of readily available urban units of analysis and economic indicators. Moreover, a lack of systematic data on urban entrepreneurial efforts fuels debate over their effectiveness in enhancing urban prosperity. I combine a quantitative analysis of trends in income disparities for the Western European urban system for 1980‐1994, with comparative case studies using qualitative and quantitative information for three problem cities in Britain that were selected in order to investigate the types and effectiveness of their urban entrepreneurial efforts. On the one hand, the macro analysis provides no clear evidence of convergence in urban incomes. On the other hand, while the public‐private partnerships in the problem cities vary somewhat depending on local context, their entrepreneurial strategies are remarkably similar. Higher levels of economic development spending, however, do not translate necessarily into improved urban performance.