Strategies of cities in globalised interurban competition: The locational policies framework
本文构建了一个跨学科的区位政策分析框架，通过比较瑞士卢塞恩和德国乌尔姆两座城市，揭示不同城市如何制定差异化政策应对全球化竞争，对城市管理者与区域研究者有参考价值。
Globalised interurban competition affects cities of various sizes and cities in various locations. Cities have to find ways to position themselves in global markets by formulating locational policies. To capture this wide range of policies, this paper develops an analytical framework of locational policies that is interdisciplinary informed by theories of economic geography and political science. We compare the cities of Lucerne and Ulm to illustrate the added value of the locational policies framework. We found that these two cities feature very different locational policies agendas. By employing a neo-institutional lens, we suggest that place-specific factors enable and constrain the formulation of locational policies. We outline three possible venues to tentatively explain these different locational policies, namely the economic sector mix, the national tax system, and politics. Beyond these empirical findings, this paper shows that the locational policies framework is able to capture a wide range of policies that aim to enhance the competitiveness of a city. Thus, the locational policies framework is a tool that can be used to reveal how cities face the globalised, and increasingly knowledge-intensive, interurban competition.