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on Economic Geography |
| By: | Dario Diodato; Anet Weterings |
| Abstract: | Although increasing attention is paid to the resilience of regions to economic shocks, theoretical and empirical insights in the determinants of regional resilience are still limited. This paper aims to make a first step in quantifying regional resilience. Using a model, we explore how three regional factors jointly contribute to the resilience of regions to economic shocks: 1) the network of buyer-supplier relationships within and between regions, 2) the level of relatedness between industries, which facilitates intersectoral labor mobility and, 3) the geographical position of a region which determines the possibilities of commuting for workers. The supply network mainly determines the propagation of the shock, while possibilities for intersectoral and interregional labor mobility affect a regional economy’s capacity to recover from the shock. To illustrate the workings of the model, it is applied to the case of the Netherlands using data on buyer-supplier relationships within and between Dutch regions, as well as on intersectoral and interregional labour mobility. |
| Keywords: | regional resilience, input-output network, labor mobility, related labor flows, commuting flows, the Netherlands |
| JEL: | J61 O18 R11 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1215&r=geo |
| By: | Erik Stam; Jan Lambooy |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the spatial aspects of the conditions of entrepreneurship on the one hand, and the consequences of entrepreneurship on the other hand. The consequences are the effects of individual interactions that may lead to the emergence of complex systems that are largely the "result of human action, but not of human design" (Hayek, 1967). These emergent systems have spatial coordinates and localized effects on the growth of knowledge and economic activity. The emergent systems - new organizations, institutions, industrial clusters, cities, and regions - in turn form the context for subsequent entrepreneurial actions. We show the strengths and opportunities of Austrian economics for the indeterminate dynamic analysis of entrepreneurship and evolving selection environments, and the spatial aspects of these processes and structures. We explicitly investigate the bridge between evolutionary economic geography and Austrian economics. The paper is structured as follows: in the second section, we introduce Austrian as well as evolutionary geographic treatments of entrepreneurship. In the third section we investigate entrepreneurship and its conditions of space and place. In the fourth section, we elaborate on the urban aspects of the conditions of entrepreneurship as it is approached in evolutionary theories. The fifth section centers on the spatial aspects of the consequences of entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on its impact on urban and regional development. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, space, place, evolutionary economic geography, Austrian economics, regional development |
| JEL: | B52 B53 L26 M13 R11 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:1211&r=geo |
| By: | Gust-Bardon, Natalia Irena |
| Abstract: | Globalisation and the advent of information and communication technology (ICT) change the role of spatial distance in innovation activities. Geographical proximity used to be seen as a necessary condition to share tacit knowledge and to enhance trust between innovators; now this approach is being challenged by claiming that the role played by spatial distance diminishes with time. The aim of this paper is to present territorial innovation models as examples of theories based on assumptions of a crucial role of local environment and spatial distance in innovation processes and to present arguments against the said assumption. The paper concludes advocating the encouragement to cooperate both within the local network area and with distant partners and the creation of territorial innovation models as open systems engaged in interactive learning by global connectivity. -- |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisifr:r42012&r=geo |
| By: | Edward L. Glaeser (Harvard University); Sari Pekkala Kerr (Wellesley College); William R. Kerr (Harvard Business School, Entrepreneurial Management Unit) |
| Abstract: | Measures of entrepreneurship, such as average establishment size and the prevalence of start-ups, correlate strongly with employment growth across and within metropolitan areas, but the endogeneity of these measures bedevils interpretation. Chinitz (1961) hypothesized that coal mines near Pittsburgh led that city to specialization in industries, like steel, with significant scale economies and that those big firms led to a dearth of entrepreneurial human capital across several generations. We test this idea by looking at the spatial location of past mines across the United States: proximity to historical mining deposits is associated with bigger firms and fewer start-ups in the middle of the 20th century. We use mines as an instrument for our entrepreneurship measures and find a persistent link between entrepreneurship and city employment growth; this connection works primarily through lower employment growth of start-ups in cities that are closer to mines. These effects hold in cold and warm regions alike and in industries that are not directly related to mining, such as trade, finance and services. We use quantile instrumental variable regression techniques and identify mostly homogeneous effects throughout the conditional city growth distribution. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, Industrial Organization, Chinitz, Agglomeration, Clusters, Cities, Mines. |
| JEL: | L0 L1 L2 L6 N5 N9 O1 O4 R0 R1 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbs:wpaper:13-015&r=geo |
| By: | Gust-Bardon, Natalia Irena |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to identify main components and driving forces behind an innovation process in order to support regions in organising their endogenous innovation process. To that end, we study models of an innovation process and analyse the case of Sophia Antipolis. This theoretical study allows us to identify general inputs leading to creation of an endogenous innovation process in a region. -- |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisifr:r52012&r=geo |
| By: | Charlot, S.; Crescenzi, R.; Musolesi, A. |
| Abstract: | The paper looks at the genesis of innovation in the EU regions in ordre to shed light on the link between innovative inputs (R&D and Human Capital) and the genesis of economically valuable knowledge. The 'traditional' regional Knowledge Production Function (KPF) is innovatively developed in three complementary directions. Firs, the KPF is 'augmented' in order to control for all possible 'unobsrevable' and 'immesurable' time varying factors that influence the genesis of innovation (i.e. localised institutional and relational factors, regional innovation policies). Second, a semi-parametric approach that relaxes any arbitrary assumption on the 'shape' of the KPF is adopted. Finally, the assumption of homogeneity in the impact of R&D and Human Capital is relaxed by explicity accounting for the differences between 'core' and 'peripherial' regions. The econometric results confirm the importance of accounting for time varying unobserved heterogeneity through the adoption of a 'random growth' specification: R&D efforts exert a significant influence on innovation only after controlling for regional specific time varying unobserved factors. In addition, the semi parametric approach uncovers significant threshold effects for both R&D expenditure and Human Capital and highlights a strong complementarity between these two factors. However, 'core' regions benefit from a persistent advantage in terms of the 'productivity' of their innovation inputs. This has important implications for the EU innovation policies at the regional level. |
| Keywords: | INNOVATION;REGION;KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION FUNCTION;SEMI PARAMETRIC MODEL;EUROPE |
| JEL: | R11 C14 C23 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gbl:wpaper:2012-06&r=geo |
| By: | Revoredo-Giha, Cesar; Leat, Philip M.K.; Renwick, Alan W. |
| Abstract: | The relationship between unemployment and growth (i.e., the so-called Okun’s Law) has long standing in macroeconomics and regional economics. In this paper we estimate such a relationship for Scotland and at the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) level 3 regions using a panel dataset. The main motivations behind this interest are twofold: first, to test whether such a relationship exists in Scotland and how different these estimates are from those produced for the UK. Second, whether there exist regional differences in the estimates. The latter is particularly important in the context of the current budgetary cuts, which may affect both GDP growth and unemployment in different ways rural and urban areas. Results indicate that the Okun’s coefficient for Scotland is slightly higher than the one computed for the UK (1.7 Scotland versus 1.39 and 1.45 for the UK), and although an Okun relationship seemed to be valid for most of the regions, there were no statistical differences between rural and urban areas. However, as regards the effect of economic growth on unemployment, the results indicate a different and stronger effect in urban areas than in rural areas. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment, Scotland, growth, panel data, cointegration, Labor and Human Capital, Public Economics, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saclwp:131465&r=geo |
| By: | Erik Stam; Ron Martin |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses mechanisms of decline and renewal in high-tech regions, illustrated with empirical evidence on the Cambridgeshire high-tech region in the UK. The paper contributes to ecological ('carrying capacity') and evolutionary (path dependence) theories of regional development. It provides a longitudinal, multilevel analysis of invention, firm, and industry dynamics and change in the supply and costs of resources in order to explain the decline of high-tech regions. While expansion of the Cambridgeshire high-tech region has been sustained over time, recently forces of decline have been stronger than those of renewal. Decline in employment has been most marked in the local telecommunications and biotech sectors, while the creation of variety by new firms has fallen off most strongly in the local IT software & services industry. Increasing diseconomies of agglomeration are in evidence, together with a contraction of finance that may have been a harbinger of financial stringency to come. |
| Keywords: | high-tech regions, industrial dynamics, innovation, entrepreneurship, cluster decline |
| JEL: | L22 M13 O31 R11 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:use:tkiwps:1210&r=geo |
| By: | Donato Iacobucci (Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Università Politecnica delle Marche); Alessandra Micozzi (Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, Università Politecnica delle Marche) |
| Abstract: | The paper proposes a framework to evaluate the impact of academic spin-offs at regional level and applies it to the context of the Marche region (Italy). Spin-off creation is the most complex way of commercializing academic research, compared to licensing and R&D collaborations, but with the highest potential impact on the regional context. The empirical analysis shows that when measured in quantitative terms the impact of spin-offs on local economies is rather low; however, there are qualitative direct and indirect effects that must be taken into consideration. By focusing on providing R&D services, spin-offs play an important role in promoting the up-grading of the regional industrial system, which is mainly based on small and medium-sized firms in low and medium-tech sectors. Though not very successful in terms of growth and job creation in the short run, spin-offs provide an entrepreneurial experience for a high number of young researchers. We can expect that in the longer terms these people can play an important role within the local system in the start-up of new companies or as agents of innovation for established firms. |
| Keywords: | spin-offs, technology transfer, regional innovation system |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cme:wpaper:1204&r=geo |
| By: | Olivier Bouba-Olga (CRIEF - Centre de Recherche sur l'Intégration Economique et Financière - Université de Poitiers); Marie Ferru (CRIEF - Centre de Recherche sur l'Intégration Economique et Financière - Université de Poitiers) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this article is to provide possible answers, at an empirical level, to the question "Does geographical proximity still matter in collaborations for innovation?", since the lack of available data has made it impossible to provide real answers up to now. Relying on two real long-term relational databases relating to science-industry collaborations in France, and on two complementary indicators of geographical proximity, we will show that proximity continues to count (number of significant intradepartmental collaborations and low average distance between the partners). However, this dynamic analysis does allow us to state that the closest partnerships and the most distant ones increase the most over the study period. We shall also show that the role of geographical proximity and its evolution over the course of time differ according to the type of science-industry contract and the sectoral specialisation of the partners. |
| Keywords: | geographical proximity, collaborations, research, science-industry |
| Date: | 2012–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00725073&r=geo |