Employment and Growth in the Knowledge-based Economy


Book Description

Papers from the OECD conference on employment and growth in the knowledge-based economy, Copenhagen, November 1994




Growth and Innovation of Competitive Regions


Book Description

Time Time b a Space Space Time Time c d Space Space Fig. 1 Different possible scales for growth and innovation analyses spatial dimension, the sectoral dimension and the time dimension are represented. In Fig. 1a, regional developmentanalyses are revealed, where the economyis sliced vertically into regions and their dynamics are investigated. The study of the evolution of industries, typical of evolutionary industrial e- nomics, is represented in Fig. 1b, where the economy is divided horizontally into sectoral slices. This approach has progressed considerably in recent years (see Malerba 2006, for a recent survey). Modi?cations of industries have important spatial implications, which however are not normally at the core of these ana- ses even though spatial patterns of innovation differ greatly from sector to sector (Breschi 2000). Our approach operates in the manner of Fig. 1a and we will focus on regions, extending the analysis to industries only where this is regionally and structurally relevant. Hence, the approach in the book belongs to the tradition of regional development theories, but, in contrast to the more traditional analyses, we will not consider the region as an economic unit per se. Rather, interactions between and within regions are very relevant to the performance of individual regions in an integrated world and will be at the core of the analyses of the following chapters.




The Knowledge Economy


Book Description

Revolutionary account of the transformative potential of the knowledge economy Adam Smith and Karl Marx recognized that the best way to understand the economy is to study the most advanced practice of production. Today that practice is no longer conventional manufacturing: it is the radically innovative vanguard known as the knowledge economy. In every part of the production system it remains a fringe excluding the vast majority of workers and businesses. This book explores the hidden nature of the knowledge economy and its possible futures. The confinement of the knowledge economy to these insular vanguards has become a driver of economic stagnation and inequality throughout the world. Traditional mass production has stopped working as a shortcut to economic growth. But the alternative—a deepened and socially inclusive form of the knowledge economy—continues to lie beyond reach in even the richest countries. The shape of contemporary politics on both the left and the right reflects a failure to come to terms with this dilemma and to overcome it. Unger explains the knowledge economy in the truncated and confined form that it has today and proposes the way to a knowledge economy for the many: changes not just in economic institutions but also in education, culture, and politics. Just as Smith and Marx did in their time, he uses an understanding of the most advanced practice of production to rethink both economics and the economy as a whole.




Services and the Knowledge-Based Economy


Book Description

First published in 2000. Over the past two decades, the service sector have increased dramatically and now occupy the largest share of the economy of advanced industrial societies. Certain business services are regularly cited as evidence for the emergence of a "knowledge economy". In this pioneering book, leading researchers in the fields of service industries and innovation studies investigate the reasons for the growth of the service sectors and this emergent knowledge economy. Drawing on material as diverse as macroeconomic statistics and firm-level case studies, the contributors demonstrate that services are often important innovators in their own right, as well as contributing to innovation and economic performance in their user industries. The question of how far services are special cases, and what specific processes and trajectories characterize their innovative activity is treated systematically. Additionally, a variety of original analyses and information resources are presented. This book should be of value to the student of the modern industrial society, to those seeking to forge policies appropriate to the new context of economic development, and to researchers who are confronting the challenges of the knowledge economy.




The Mind at Work


Book Description

Featuring a new preface for the 10th anniversary As did the national bestseller Nickel and Dimed, Mike Rose’s revelatory book demolishes the long-held notion that people who work with their hands make up a less intelligent class. He shows us waitresses making lightning-fast calculations, carpenters handling complex spatial mathematics, and hairdressers, plumbers, and electricians with their aesthetic and diagnostic acumen. Rose, an educator who is himself the son of a waitress, explores the intellectual repertory of everyday workers and the terrible social cost of undervaluing the work they do. Deftly combining research, interviews, and personal history, this is one of those rare books that has the capacity both to shape public policy and to illuminate general readers.




Education, Skills, and Technical Change


Book Description

Over the past few decades, US business and industry have been transformed by the advances and redundancies produced by the knowledge economy. The workplace has changed, and much of the work differs from that performed by previous generations. Can human capital accumulation in the United States keep pace with the evolving demands placed on it, and how can the workforce of tomorrow acquire the skills and competencies that are most in demand? Education, Skills, and Technical Change explores various facets of these questions and provides an overview of educational attainment in the United States and the channels through which labor force skills and education affect GDP growth. Contributors to this volume focus on a range of educational and training institutions and bring new data to bear on how we understand the role of college and vocational education and the size and nature of the skills gap. This work links a range of research areas—such as growth accounting, skill development, higher education, and immigration—and also examines how well students are being prepared for the current and future world of work.







Industrial Restructuring in East Asia


Book Description

Divided into three parts, this volume covers industrial restructuring in Southeast Asian economies, restructuring in Asia's newly industrialized economies, and industrial restructuring in the two large Asian economies.




Services Industries and the Knowledge-based Economy


Book Description

Services industries account for almost three-quarters of both gross domestic product and employment in Canada, a trend that Canada shares with other G-7 countries. Furthermore, the services sector has been responsible for most of Canada's employment creation and much of its productivity growth over the past decade and the sector's importance to the Canadian economy continues to increase. Thirty renowned experts contribute to this volume, which is aimed at better understanding the dynamics of Canadian services industries and identifying the types of policies most likely to improve their innovation and productivity performance.




Bioeconomy


Book Description

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book defines the new field of "Bioeconomy" as the sustainable and innovative use of biomass and biological knowledge to provide food, feed, industrial products, bioenergy and ecological services. The chapters highlight the importance of bioeconomy-related concepts in public, scientific, and political discourse. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the authors outline the dimensions of the bioeconomy as a means of achieving sustainability. The authors are ideally situated to elaborate on the diverse aspects of the bioeconomy. They have acquired in-depth experience of interdisciplinary research through the university’s focus on “Bioeconomy”, its contribution to the Bioeconomy Research Program of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, and its participation in the German Bioeconomy Council. With the number of bioeconomy-related projects at European universities rising, this book will provide graduate students and researchers with background information on the bioeconomy. It will familiarize scientific readers with bioeconomy-related terms and give scientific background for economists, agronomists and natural scientists alike.