Public Universities and Regional Growth


Book Description

Public Universities and Regional Growth examines evolutions in research and innovation at six University of California campuses. Each chapter presents a deep, historical analysis that traces the dynamic interaction between particular campuses and regional firms in industries that range from biotechnology, scientific instruments, and semiconductors, to software, wine, and wireless technologies. The book provides a uniquely comprehensive and cohesive look at the University of California's complex relationships with regional entrepreneurs. As a leading public institution, the UC is an examplar for other institutions of higher education at a time when the potential and value of these universities is under scrutiny. Any yet, by recent accounts, public research universities performed nearly 70% of all academic research and approximately 60% of federally funded R&D in the United States. Thoughtful and distinctive, Public Universities and Regional Growth illustrates the potential for universities to drive knowledge-based growth while revealing the California system as a uniquely powerful engine for innovation across its home state.




Innovation and Regional Growth in the European Union


Book Description

This book investigates the EU’s regional growth dynamics and, in particular, the reasons why peripheral and socio-economically disadvantaged areas have persistently failed to catch up with the rest of the Union. It shows that the capability of the knowledge-based growth model to deliver its expected benefits to these areas crucially depends on tackling a specific set of socio-institutional factors which prevents innovation from being effectively translated into economic growth. The book takes an eclectic approach to the territorial genesis of innovation and regional growth by combining different theoretical strands into one model of empirical analysis covering the whole EU-25. An in-depth comparative analysis with the United States is also included, providing significant insights into the distinctive features of the European process of innovation and its territorial determinants. The evidence produced in the book is extensively applied to the analysis of EU development policies.




The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies


Book Description

Today, the Bay Area is home to the most successful knowledge economy in America, while Los Angeles has fallen progressively further behind its neighbor to the north and a number of other American metropolises. Yet, in 1970, experts would have predicted that L.A. would outpace San Francisco in population, income, economic power, and influence. The usual factors used to explain urban growth—luck, immigration, local economic policies, and the pool of skilled labor—do not account for the contrast between the two cities and their fates. So what does? The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies challenges many of the conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings. The authors argue that it is essential to understand the interactions of three major components—economic specialization, human capital formation, and institutional factors—to determine how well a regional economy will cope with new opportunities and challenges. Drawing on economics, sociology, political science, and geography, they argue that the economic development of metropolitan regions hinges on previously underexplored capacities for organizational change in firms, networks of people, and networks of leaders. By studying San Francisco and Los Angeles in unprecedented levels of depth, this book extracts lessons for the field of economic development studies and urban regions around the world.




Strategic Approaches to Regional Development


Book Description

The existence and persistence of regional disparities between European regions require context-tailored policies to promote structural change. This book explores the congruence between place-based development and regional competitiveness in the EU context. Drawing on a range of social science disciplines, this book unpicks the complexity of regional transformation processes, aiming to enhance the applicability and transferability of theoretical approaches to innovation and place-based regional development in diverse European territorial settings. The contributors have a particular focus on less-favoured regions and on the application of Smart Specialisation – a strategic approach to innovation-based regional development – to the issues at hand. The book comes at a critical moment, meeting the growing demand of academics, practitioners and policymakers with an interest in promoting regional economic growth and well-being.




Environmental Amenities and Regional Economic Development


Book Description

Economic development and the environment are presumed to be in conflict, but the latter part of the twentieth century experienced a series of economic changes that increasingly questioned this view. Economic activity became more footloose and the ability to attract productive labor became a prominent regional development concern. Consequently, environmental amenities began to have a larger role in determining the patterns of regional growth and development, and subsequently moved to the forefront of current regional economic development thought and practice. Environmental amenities provide non-pecuniary benefits to area residents, and induce in-migration flows to regions that possess high levels of environmental amenities. The attraction is particularly strong for those individuals with higher incomes and wealth. The combined forces of increased demand for environmental amenities and increased spatial flexibility of production has brought environmental amenities to the forefront of current regional economic development thought and practice. Regional economic development policy needs to consider the tradeoffs of attracting firms or people, which requires an understanding of the role the environment plays directly or indirectly in attracting firms and households. This book presents key papers that explore the role of the natural environment in regional economic development. The papers contain critical insights and information for both researchers and practitioners interested in the nexus between environmental amenities and regional economic growth and development. The book covers varied dimensions of this issue, including: the relative importance of amenities in recent variation in regional growth; the role of local infrastructure in promoting amenity-led development; socio-economic distribution concerns and sustainability of amenity-based growth; and the effects of local environmentally protected areas on other economic activities. This book will be of most value to practitioners and academics, specifically related to the areas of environmental economics, regional economic development, local and regional planning, public administration and public policy.




Economics of Agglomeration


Book Description

This book provides the first unifying treatment of the range of economic reasons for the clustering of firms and households. Its goal is to explain further the trade-off between various forms of increasing returns and different types of mobility costs. Although referring to agglomeration as a generic term is convenient, it should be noted that the concept of economic agglomeration refers to distinct real world situations. The main focus of the treatment is on cities, but it also explores the formation of agglomerations, such as commercial districts within cities, industrial clusters at the regional level, and the existence of imbalance between regions. The book is rooted within the realm of modern economics and borrows concepts from geography and regional science, which makes it accessible to a broad audience formed by economists, geographers, regional planners, and other scientists. It may be used in coursework for graduate students and upper-level undergraduates.




OECD Regions and Cities at a Glance 2020


Book Description

Regions and Cities at a Glance 2020 provides a comprehensive assessment of how regions and cities across the OECD are progressing towards stronger, more sustainable and more resilient economies and societies. In the light of the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the report analyses outcomes and drivers of social, economic and environmental resilience.




The Theory, Practice and Potential of Regional Development


Book Description

Canadian regional development today involves multiple actors operating within nested scales from local to national and even international levels. Recent approaches to making sense of this complexity have drawn on concepts such as multi-level governance, relational assets, integration, innovation, and learning regions. These new regionalist concepts have become increasingly global in their formation and application, yet there has been little critical analysis of Canadian regional development policies and programs or the theories and concepts upon which many contemporary regional development strategies are implicitly based. This volume offers the results of five years of cutting-edge empirical and theoretical analysis of changes in Canadian regional development and the potential of new approaches for improving the well-being of Canadian communities and regions, with an emphasis on rural regions. It situates the Canadian approach within comparative experiences and debates, offering the opportunity for broader lessons to be learnt. This book will be of interest to policy-makers and practitioners across Canada, and in other jurisdictions where lessons from the Canadian experience may be applicable. At the same time, the volume contributes to and updates regional development theories and concepts that are taught in our universities and colleges, and upon which future research and analysis will build.




Regional Growth


Book Description




Regional Economic Development


Book Description

Regional economic development has attracted the interest of economists, geographers, planners and regional scientists for a long time. And, of course, it is a field that has developed a large practitioner cohort in government and business agencies from the national down to the state and local levels. In planning for cities and regions, both large and small, economic development issues now tend to be integrated into strategic planning processes. For at least the last 50 years, scholars from various disciplines have theorised about the nature of regional economic development, developing a range of models seeking to explain the process of regional economic development, and why it is that regions vary so much in their economic structure and performance and how these aspects of a region can change dramatically over time. Regional scientists in particular have developed a comprehensive tool-kit of methodologies to measure and monitor regional economic characteristics such as industry sectors, employment, income, value of production, investment, and the like, using both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis, and focusing on both static and dynamic analysis. The 'father of regional science', Walter lsard, was the first to put together a comprehensive volume on techniques of regional analysis (Isard 1960), and since then a huge literature has emerged, including the many titles in the series published by Springer in which this book is published.