The key approach taken in this book is that all local economic clusters have something in common - specific case-studies are thus put into wider perspective in a masterly study that will be of keen interest to both economists and geographers.

Thomas Brenner is Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Research into Economic Systems at the University of Jena, Germany.

1. Introduction 2. Theoretical Approach 3. Empirical Study of Germany 4. Simulating Local Mechanisms 5. Conclusions and Policy Implications