Volume 70 (2012): Edizione 1 (February 2012)

The subject of the present study is based on an analysis by regions with regards to the mortality in Germany, divided into the “old” and “new” federal countries between 1998 and 2004. The results show that the new countries have caught up with the situation of mortality compared to the old countries, the process being however more distinct for women than for men. The equalising process of the mortality situation, observed in small regions, is connected with an increase in disparities in West Germany, while these are decreasing in Eastern Germany. The different structure of settlements clearly shows deviations between the mortality situation in the old and new countries. The urbanised regions in the old countries have the highest life expectancy from birth, while life expectancy in the new countries reduces from the agglomeration areas to the rural regions. Only the core cities in the agglomeration areas in the new countries have a higher life expectancy from birth compared to the old countries. The differentiation in socio-economic circumstances of the mortalities shows that the more the gradient of socio-economic circumstances varies, the higher are the regional differences in mortality. Using the indicator “avoidable deaths” as an output indicator, it is possible to show that medical precautions and care, during both the interpretation of the regional differences as well as during the examination of the development over time of the mortality, build an important and independent explanation.

This paper analyzes the functional relationships between the level of service of motorways and dual carriageways, respectively, and the growth of nonagricultural workplaces. The Austrian Eastern Region represents the study site and consists of the federal states of Burgenland, Lower Austria, and Vienna. A local autocorrelation statistic is applied to detect local spatial clusters of rates of workplace changes. Spatial regression models are used to investigate the relationships between workplaces and socio-economic determinants. The results show that municipalities located next to Vienna have a conspicuous growth of nonagricultural workplaces, even if they are not directly situated at junctions of motorways or dual carriageways. Furthermore, spatial proximity to motorways and dual carriageways have a decreasing effect on the rates of workplace changes since the 1960s.

This paper analyses the growth of firms subsidized by German regional policy. Empirical basis is a linked data set consisting of the social security statistics (“Beschäftigtenstatistik”) and the federal statistics of investment grants (“GRW-Förderstatistik”). Actually, 90% (23,516) of all firms subsidized between 1998 and 2008 are covered in this study. The performance of the subsidized firms was consistently positive. On average, their employment grew by + 4.6% per year from the respective year of subvention until 2008, the end of the period of analysis. Differentiated by the year of subvention, those firms which were recently subsidized grew faster. The growth of subsidized firms is particularly high if they are compared to non-subsidized firms of the same region. In the structurally weak regions of eastern Germany, the change of employment of subsidized firms exceeds the corresponding rate for non-subsidized firms by 11% points per year partly due to the strong increase of subsidized firms and partly due to low performance of the other firms. The growth difference is less distinct in the (few) assisted areas of western Germany. The sectoral structure of subsidized firms is rather unfavourable. Even so, their employment growth is much stronger than structurally expected.

Studies in Regional Economics require functional regions as statistical units. Regional labour markets are characterized by close commuter links in the regional labour markets and high seclusion towards other regional labour markets. From time to time a new delineation of regional labour markets is necessary, due to permanent changes in both, the economic and the commuter structure of a country. Particularly in Germany a new delineation is necessary, because in recent years reforms of the area of the German districts change the basis for the regional labour markets. Former delineations cannot be reconstructed with the new district boundaries. As a method to construct new regional labour markets in Germany we employ the factor analysis with oblique Oblimin rotation to German commuter structure. Additionally, the commuting distance is considered as a constraint, which improves the homogeneity of the regional labour markets, and within commuting distance of employment areas is limited to politically acceptable commuting distances. Hereby we delineate 141 regional labour markets in Germany.

For several years, the Academy for Spatial Research and Planning (ARL) and the Support Group for Spatial and Environmental Research (FRU) have jointly offered a mentoring-programme. The programme aims to increase the proportion of women in senior positions in the field of spatial and environmental planning through supporting young women pursuing careers in both research and practice. The mentoring programme thus serves as a means for the promotion of young talent and gender equality within the ARL. A one-year partnership between a mentee and an experienced mentor serves as the programme’s centrepiece.

This article introduces the main targets and contents of the mentoring-programme and, in addition, discusses the results of a survey of mentees and mentors from the last five years. The survey examined motivations for participating in the programme, assessed expectations with regard to the partnership and asked participants to provide an over-all evaluation of the programme. The article concludes by offering proposals for the future configuration of mentoring-programmes in research institutions. The authors form the managing committee of the FRU and jointly take the responsibility for the programme.