Regionaloekonomische Bedeutung groesserer Behinderteneinrichtungen am Beispiel des Dominikus-Ringeisen-Werkes Ursberg

Many studies on institutions within an infrastructure (here mainly in the field of education) have shown that these have a positive and stimulating impact on regional economy. Comparable surveys on the social infrastructure, particularly of facilities for the furtherance, welfare and care of the disabled, have as yet not been performed. For the first time now such an empirical survey on the economic importance of a large facility centre for the physically and mentally retarded is made, taking the "Dominikus-Ringeisen"-Centre in Ursberg (near the city of Guenzburg in the state of Bavaria/Germany) as an example and inves-tigating its impact on the surrounding county. Not only the immediate consequences for the region - factors such as expenditures, demand and employment - are determined for this particular institution, which is one of the largest in southern Germany; also on a sequelling level income-induced effects are quantified. As a main result it can be shown that such a large facility centre for the physically and men-tally disabled has quite considerable impetus on the surrounding region, with particularly enduring ef-fects on a predominantly rural region.