EPRC has won a competitive tender to undertake a study assessing the concept of place-based policy approaches to regional development and the implications for regional policy in Switzerland. Commissioned by the Swiss Federal State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the context for the study is the paradigm shift in regional policy - part of a wider trend away from traditional sectoral policies to so-called 'place-based policies' : which accords a greater recognition of the importance of place in modern growth theories and, especially, the spatially-contingent economic and institutional factors that contribute to economic agglomeration.
The aim of the study is to explore the significance of 'place-based policy' for the economic development policy of SECO both in conceptual terms and specifically with respect to the organisational and methodological issues for the design and implementation of the 'Neue Regionalpolitik' (New Regional Policy) introduced in Switzerland in 2008.