Complex spatial economic systems: migration, industrial location, and regional asymmetries

The economy can be conceived as a complex system characterised by multi-layered interconnected structures with a spatial dimension. At each layer, different types of decisions or interactions take place involving international or regional trading partners at the macro-level; institutions, markets and industries at the meso-level; and individual firms and households at the micro-level. Within these structures the spatial distribution of economic activities evolves through time following complex patterns. These structures themselves are subject to continuous changes triggered by different sorts of factors, which test their resilience and their ability to develop and to evolve. These concepts have been explored by a worldwide research within a four-year research project. Each of the five papers present in this special issue is representative of one of the main fields of analysis of this research network.