This article explores the linkages between pre-2008 crisis national macroeconomic conditions, regional resistance factors and depth of the crisis in the regions of the EU27. The results suggest that only a limited set of macroeconomic factors shape the regional reaction to the crisis. A healthy current account surplus is associated with stronger economic performance during the post-2008 recession. Conversely, high public debt countries are more successful in sheltering their regional economies in the short run. When looking at regionallevel resistance, human capital is the single most important positive factor. Conversely, research and development-intensive regions are more exposed to negative shocks.

There is mounting evidence in the developed world to suggest that there is geographical variation in access to finance. At the same time, there is a growing interest in the advantages of major cities in emerging economies in providing better access to services. Yet there is little evidence on spatial variation in access to finance in the developing world. In this paper, we address this gap. We propose that one important function of big cities is to provide better credit markets, but thatas countries develop-this 'big city bias' is likely to decline. We test these hypotheses using data on over 80,000 firms in 97 countries and provide new evidence that firms in large citieswith more than 1 million inhabitantsare less likely to perceive access to capital as a constraint. However, this big city bias in credit markets declines as countries develop.

Relatively little research has explored whether there is a systemic urban-rural divide in the political and socioeconomic attitudes of citizens across Europe. Drawing on individual-level data from the European Social Survey, we argue that there are strong and significant differences between the populations in these different settings, especially across western European countries. We suggest that this divide is a continuum, running on a gradient from inner cities to suburbs, towns and the countryside. The differences are explained by both composition and contextual effects, and underscore how a firmer appreciation of the urban-rural divide is integral to future place-based policy responses.

One of the most important decisions that governments face is how to allocate the public resources necessary for development, given each country's budget constraints. According to the literature on the links between wealth and institutional performance, highly kleptocratic countries are expected to show higher levels of politicisation of the public purse. The article tests the extent to which socioeconomic criteria (equity and efficiency) or electoral concerns Moreover, in contrast to official regional development policy principles, the Turkish state tended to favour areas with a higher level of development over those with greater 'socioeconomic need'. Our results therefore challenge much of the distributive politics literature, which has overly emphasised the role of pork-barrel in public policy-making. At the same time, they underline the need of paying more attention to the political economy of regional development strategies.