The conference will take place in Pisa, Italy, on 12-14 September 2013. An abstract of no more than 1500 words should be submitted (better if along with the whole paper) no later than June 30th.

Objectives

Since Adam Smith, social and economic institutions and technology have been considered as particularly influential in determining the historical patterns of income growth and distribution among nations. More recently, economists have also emphasized that industrial sectors grow at different rate.
This phenomenon has been called Structural Change.  Regions within a nation and national economies within the world also grow at different rates, giving structural change important spatial and institutional dimensions.
The goal of this conference is to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of different approaches to the analysis of technological, spatial and institutional structural change and explore their theoretical, empirical, historical, and methodological implications.
This conference is a sequel of previous conferences held in Pisa or Lucca:
http://growthconf.ec.unipi.it/
http://growth-distribution.ec.unipi.it/
http://growth-institutions.ec.unipi.it/.

Topics

Conference topics will include, but will not be limited to, the relationships among (i) industry or economy sectors, (ii) regions or geographical entities, and (iii) political or economic institutions. Of particular interest will be the analysis and the discussion of the following issues:
 
•    Structural change in industrial sectors
•    Structural change in R&D and economic growth
•    Structural change in the labor market (skilled/unskilled),  labor mobility, and economic growth
•    Structural change and spatial analysis
•    Structural change, democracy and fairness
•    Structural change, institutions, and the underground economy.

Also of interest are theoretical, methodological, empirical and historical aspects of structural change and its relation with economic dynamics and growth at the regional/economy-wide/international levels.

Submitting a Paper

A combination of invited and submitted papers will be chosen for the final program. Submissions of whole sessions are also welcome. The submissions will be reviewed by a Scientific Committee.

Special issue of Metroeconomica

A selection of papers presented at the Conference will be considered for publication in a special issue of Metroeconomica. Papers that will be published in Metroeconomica will meet the journals’ standards. All papers will be made available on the Internet until the end of the Conference.
A dedicated software site (Conference Maker) will be used for paper submission and program management through the site https://editorialexpress.com/cgi-bin/conference/conference.cgi?action=login&db_name=STCHANGE. All details are available in the site of the Conference at http://growthstchange.ec.unipi.it/.

Confirmed keynote speakers

•    Costas Azariadis (Washington University in St. Louis)
•    Raouf Boucekkine (Aix-Marseille School of Economics)
•    L. Rachel Ngai (London School of Economics)

Deadlines

An abstract of no more than 1500 words should be submitted (better if along with the whole paper) no later than June 30th. Authors will receive notification of acceptance by July 15th. The final version of a paper is expected to be submitted within August 30th. Registration must be completed within August 01st.

Attendance and fees

The Conference fee is € 220. This fee will cover meals (two dinners, two lunches, all coffee-breaks) and printed material. All participants will be required to provide for their own expenses. Details on accommodation opportunities will be available in due course on the conference website. A late submission fee (after August 1) of € 300 will allow participants to attend the Conference, but will not allow inclusion into the final program of the Conference.