regions

This article identifies three types of RIS in the thirteen southern states based on a cluster analysis of twenty indicators of innovative and entrepreneurial activity. Its findings indicate that nonmetro counties near an RIS experienced more rapid population and employment growth; however, changes in nonmetro growth rates varied by type of regional innovation system. In addition, proximity to an RIS had a stronger impact on nonmetro population change than on nonmetro job growth.

This paper uses regional variation in labor markets, the industry structure and the educational system to explain the training decisions of firms. Using a representative firm-level data set, the results show that firms are less likely to offer training if the number of competing firms situated in the same geographical area is high.

The authors analyze the relationship between knowledge accessibility and regional growth. The knowledge resource used in the model is R&D conducted at universities and in companies. The findings in the paper provide support for the theories that emphasize the role of knowledge for growth. However, the paper demonstrates that spatial proximity to
knowledge resources is important to materialize the positive effect of such resources.

This report recommends ways in which universities and their municipalities can work together to achieve economic development. According to the report, great public universities have global footprints, but they are also intricately linked to their local and regional economies and to broad strategic economic development initiatives.Virginia Tech’s worthy goal of reaching the top 30 institutions in total research spending by 2010 will be doubly meaningful if it can translate into a larger benefit for the Commonwealth and the New Century Region.

This report focuses on the changing role and character of large cities and city regions in Canada and their importance to the future of the country. It reviews alternative definitions of what a large city is, constructs a hierarchy of Canadian cities and then illustrates how the characteristics of the largest cities differ from those of smaller places. It then identifies the key trends, challenges and opportunities of large cities, compares the performance rankings of Canadian cities with those of cities abroad, and suggests what is needed for those cities to be successful.

This paper relates to two understudied, but increasingly important concerns: the measurement of regional integration, and the regional benefits to North American economic integration. The objective is to measure Canadas regional integration in manufacturing industries with that of the United States, and examine the regional impact of growing trade integration on productivity growth and select other economic performance variables.

This paper examines how technology specialization, measured by citations-weighted patents, affects trade flows. The paper analyzes (1) the relationship between technology specialization and export specialization across regions and (2) how the technology specialization of origin and destination affect the size and structure of link-specific export flows.

deals with social capital as an extra-market externality, and its role for innovations and growth. It analyses the changes of innovation activity over time, from early industrialism to the global knowledge economy, how the relations between the actors of today’s innovation systems have developed and the role of social networks for innovations. The role of public policy in building social capital for innovations and growth is analyzed.

This paper analyses empirically the link between regional inequalities and economic development. Results provide strong support for such a bell-shaped curve and are robust to changing the regional administrative units and the time period, as well as controlling for other possible determinants of regional inequalities.

Fifteen years after German reunification, the facts about slow regional convergence have born out the prediction of Barro (1991), except that migration out of East Germany has not slowed down, the author states. This paper documents that in particular the 18-29 year-olds are leaving East Germany and that the emigration has accelerated in recent years.