Urban growth drivers in a Europe of sticky people and implicit boundaries
利用欧盟12国功能定义城市的数据，检验人力资本、欧盟一体化与城市政府碎片化对人均GDP增长的影响，发现国家边界仍是经济调整的重要障碍，欧洲人口流动性低，空间差异不会自动消失。
We investigate urban GDP per capita growth across the EU12 using data for functionally defined cities—rather than administrative regions. We test hypotheses on the role of human capital, EU integration and fragmentation of urban government and explore spatial dependence and mechanisms of spatial interaction. Results are acceptable on standard econometric tests without measures of spatial interaction but there is spatial dependence. If variables reflecting spatial adjustment are included, they are statistically significant and eliminate spatial dependence. Not only do the results now provide consistent estimates of parameters, but they also support relevant theoretical insights and show national borders are still significant barriers to economic adjustment. People in Europe are sticky so it is unreasonable to assume spatial disparities will disappear. Our findings also imply that cities in Europe form national rather than a single continental system.