This publication was produced in the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, as part of the programme of work of the Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC).
The report was co-ordinated and edited by Abel Schumann under the supervision of Joaquim Oliveira Martins, Deputy Director of CFE, and Rüdiger Ahrend, Head of the Economic Analysis, Statistics and Multi-level Governance Section of CFE. Abel Schumann drafted Chapters 1-3 with contributions from Claire Charbit, Alexander C. Lembcke and Anna Rubin (Chapter 1); Marco Bianchini, Matteo J. Schleicher and Yingyin Wu (Chapter 2); and Marissa Plouin and Andres Sanabria (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 combines contributions from Anna Bolengo, Claire Charbit, Jonathan Crook, Federica Daniele, Jared Gars, Peter Haxton, Taekyeong Jung, Lukas Kleine-Rueschkamp, Alexander C. Lembcke, Tadashi Matsumoto, Chris McDonald, Anna Piccinni, Oriana Romano, Andres Sanabria, Håkan Tropp and Paolo Veneri. Chapter 5 was drafted by Dorothée Allain-Dupré, Isabelle Chatry, Yingyin Wu and Isidora Zapata. It includes contributions from Jonathan Crook, Enrique Garcilazo, Tamara Krawchenko, Tadashi Matsumoto, Varinia Michalun and Antti Moisio. Eric Gonnard provided statistical inputs for the report. Rüdiger Ahrend, Aziza Akhmouch, Lucia Cusmano, Alain Dupeyras, Sylvain Giguere, Taku Honiden and Karen Maguire supervised contributing staff. The report was copy‑edited by Jennifer Allain and prepared for publication by Pilar Philip.
The country profiles that are published as an online appendix to this report were drafted by Spencer McMurray and Matteo J. Schleicher under the supervision of Abel Schumann, based on inputs provided by the delegates of the OECD Regional Development Policy Committee.
The OECD is especially grateful for contributions from senior policy makers and distinguished scholars to the Policy Forum of this Regional Outlook. The essays published in the Policy Forum were provided by Corina Creţu, European Commissioner for Regional Policy; Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and Chair of the OECD Champion Mayors for Inclusive Growth; Richard Florida, University Professor, University of Toronto; and Jacques Lévy, Professor of Geography and Urbanism, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.
The OECD Secretariat thanks the delegates to the Regional Development Policy Committee and its Working Parties for Rural Policy, Urban Policy and Territorial Indicators for comments on earlier versions of this report that shaped and improved the final draft. The report was approved by the Regional Development Policy Committee through written procedure on 18 January 2019 (CFE/RDPC(2018)24).