A common viewpoint held by many New-Urbanist and Neo-Traditional planners is that characteristics of the built environment, such as population density, mixed land use sett ings and street confi guration, exert a strong infl uence on travel behavior. The empirical evidence for this relation, however, as portrayed in many primary studies, is somewhat mixed. This paper off ers an application of statistical meta-analysis in an att empt to sett le the contradictory fi ndings reported in the single studies. The fi ndings reaffi rm the role of residential density as the most important built environment element infl uencing travel choice. The fi ndings also reinforce the land use mixing component of the built environment as being a strong predictor of travel behavior. The fi ndings do not, however, support the most controversial claim of the New Urbanism regarding the role of street patt ern confi guration in infl uencing travel behavior.

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of the literature on demand-driven innovation, using a generic national innovation ecosystem map as a unifying framework. We organize the literature review around four key innovation dimensions and seven related demand-driven processes. Our review reveals that business networking which accelerates access to new markets and technologies is vital for free markets. But classical competition alone cannot sustain the creation of new technologies or innovation paths. Rather, national policy is essential in creating lead markets. On the other hand the private sector has a crucial task in leading R&D activity. We found that the relationship between R&D stock and productivity is mostly positive. With regard to cluster strategies our literature review suggests that increased variety of innovative activities strengthens regional economic growth through "spillover effects" between products and industries. Based on the literature, we found that universities are evolving to play a major role in the research of innovation. The enormous innovative potential of universities therefore should be directed toward shaping more effective tools for public–private cooperation. But innovation, whether its origin is in academe or elsewhere, must follow a standardization process in order to converge into a well-defined technology. Our paper highlights a fundamental paradox underlying pro-innovation policies: while innovators often express the desire for a liberal, open and flexible market system with minimal bureaucracy and governmental interference, to allow market-driven innovation to flourish, they often benefit greatly from a variety of governmental interventions that include direct or indirect financial support (such as tax credits).

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The aim of this paper is to assess the short-term impact of transportation improvements on the reduction of socio-economic disparities between core and peripheral cities. Data used in the analysis was extracted from the 1995 Israel Census. The methodology applied in the study was to estimate discrete choice models in an attempt to identify key variables affecting commuting decisions. Policy simulations are employed to illustrate the effect of diminishing spatial friction on wage convergence between poor southern towns and affluent core cities. The empirical evidence suggests that transportation improvements, especially in the form of introducing new rail links in underserved cities, could significantly contribute to the alleviation of spatial wage disparities between core and peripheral cities.

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