Recent Research

A recent paper from the Kauffman Foundation on women entrepreneurs finds that while women are making significant strides in advancing to high rank within corporations, several barriers are keeping them from breaking out to start their own high-growth firms.

Pointing to the untapped potential of women's contributions to the economy, the author correlates support for women's entrepreneurship with significant economic expansion and job creation. The types of high-growth firms described in the paper ideally would become prominent niche firms, creating jobs prolifically and serving global or national markets.

International collaboration in science and technology (S&T) research has risen over the past 15 years from approximately 25 percent to over 35 percent, according to Knowledge, Networks and Nations: Global Scientific Collaboration in the 21st Century — a new report from the Royal Society Science Policy Center. The special advisory group established by the Royal Society analyzed data that include research articles in international journals, citations in those articles, national rates of patent registration, number of researchers per nation, national expenditures on research and development (R&D) and the impacts of S&T research. Data was collected using several methods and sources including a call for evidence, data mining and face-to-face and telephone interviews.

Manufacturers face a growing talent deficit due to an outdated education system based on 19th and 20th century principles, according to the Roadmap to Education Reform for Manufacturing. The report, coauthored by the Manufacturing institute and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), is a compilation of books and research related to education reform and manufacturing topics available on NAM's website. Two broad recommendations are outlined that may address systemic educational deficits and reduce long-term education costs while developing a skilled workforce able to handle the increasing complexities of 21st century advanced manufacturing. The recommendations include the adoption of competency-based curriculums and increasing industry's role in developing and refining learning standards and assessments.

Metropolitan areas with population densities of about 4,000 people per square mile tend to produce the highest rate of patenting, according to a recent article in the American Journal of Economics and Sociology. In a study of U.S. metro areas over a ten-year period, the authors found that metro population density has a significant positive correlation with patenting rates. At about 4,000 people per square mile, the benefits of agglomeration, such as knowledge spillovers and diverse labor pools, are at their highest, compared to negative effects of congestion, such as increasing costs of real estate and other scarce resources. Few U.S. cities, however, approach this level of population density. The authors advise against taking the averaged optimal density level as a basis for policy, but use their data to suggest that cities play a vital role in the innovation economy and that increasing urban density could lead to higher innovation rates in some U.S. urban areas.

Basic biomedical research has a greater academic impact and clinical research a greater societal impact over a 15 to 20 years timescale, according to the findings of Project Retrosight — a multinational, four-year study from RAND Europe and the Health Economics Research Group (HERG) at Brunel University. This study was based on data collected from 29 case studies on basic biomedical and clinical cardiovascular and stroke grant-funded, research projects in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. In a press release, Steven Wooding, researcher leader at RAND Europe, said: "The study showed that research is important, that it has real tangible benefits for society and that how you fund it matters. If you want to make a difference to patients over a 15-20 year time-scale, clinical research is more effective. If you want to build knowledge for the longer-term, then basic research is better."

With the fears of rising state deficits and high unemployment, states must make tough decisions regarding their economic development efforts in the coming years. Researchers at the Brookings Institute contend that states should focus on regional economic clusters because it provides a "low-cost means" to reignite innovation, entrepreneurship and job creation. "Organic" job growth should be the focus of state economic development, according to the report — Job Creation on a Budget. The researchers say, "Some 95 percent of all job gains in a year in an average state come from the expansion of existing businesses or the birth of new establishments (i.e., organic factors of job growth)." These efforts also take significantly smaller financial commitments by the state and provide a more streamlined approach to achieve meaningful job growth than other more conventional economic development efforts.