Dynamics of Inventor Networks and the Evolution of Technology Clusters

Clusters are important drivers of regional economic growth. Although their benefits are well recognized, research into their evolution is still ongoing. Most real‐world clusters seem to have emerged spontaneously without deliberate policy interventions, each cluster having its own evolutionary path. Since there is a significant gap in our understanding of the forces driving their evolution, this study uses a quantitative approach to investigate the role of inventor collaboration networks in it. Inventor collaboration networks for 30 top‐performing American metropolitan clusters were constructed on the basis of patent co‐authorship data. The selected clusters operate in hi‐tech fields: information technology, communications equipment and the biopharmaceutical industry. Starting from a widely accepted hypothesis that the ‘small‐world’ structure is an optimal one for knowledge spillovers and promotes innovation effectively, the authors statistically tested the impact of ‘small‐world’ network properties on cluster innovation performance proxied by patent output. The results suggest that the effect of the small‐world structure is not as significant as theorists hypothesized, not all clusters benefit from the presence of inventor collaboration networks, and cluster performance can be affected by policy interventions. Our analyses also suggest that cluster typology moderates the impact of inventor network properties on cluster innovation performance.     

AIRLINE SERVICES AND METROPOLITAN AREAS IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION 1970 - 1990

This paper looks at the ways in which air transport has affected economic growth in metropolitan areas in the Asia-Pacific region. Two primary influences are identified: level of service to a particular airport; and local airline industry activities. The paper examines the former by means of an historical overview of the factors influencing the development of economic 'control centers' in the Pacific Rim. The level of a service at an airport in the region has depended greatly on local economic activity, as well as on geography, aircraft technology, and intergovernmental regulation. Data on non-stop international flights in the Asia-Pacific region for 1970, 1980, and 1990 are used to document the emergence of major hubs such as Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Tokyo. It is argued that as technology advances, services will become even more concentrated in a few places, causing further congestion and strain on infrastructure capacity.     

INVESTMENT PATTERNS AND THE COMPETITIVENESS OF GREEK REGIONS

This paper aims at mapping and analyzing the determinants of industrial activity in Greek regions in order to assess current investment patterns. For this purpose, we estimate a conditional logit model of 226 new established firms for 1996 and 1997. Results give interesting insights that are likely of particular importance to regional policy makers. Noteworthy is the spatial concentration of firms in different prefectures while the large metropolitan cities, Athens and Thessalonica, although with declining shares, prevail as the dominant hosts. European regional policy seems to enhance firms'entry via its effect on economic development variables, in contrast with the Greek Development Law, which turns out non-influential.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION IN EAST ASIA: FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF SPATIAL ECONOMICS

This paper examines the recent evolution of regional integration in East Asia, and discusses the prospects and tasks of further integration. After an overview of the globalization and regional integration trend in EU, NAFTA and East Asia during the past half-century, we introduce the basic framework of spatial economics, often called the new economic geography. In terms of globalization and regional integration, it is important to examine the general effects of decreasing transport costs (broadly defined) on spatial distribution of economic activities. Given this theoretical framework, we examine the changing economic interdependency within East Asia, as well as that between East Asia and the rest of the world over the last three decades. Next, we focus on regional diversity and disparity in East Asia. Finally, we compare the regional integration in EU with that of East Asia, and examine the tasks and prospects of further promotion of East Asian integration.     

THE REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY OF U.S. BUSINESS SERVICES GROWTH, 1977–1987: EVIDENCE AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Regional analysts and policy makers have long struggled with problems arising from the uneven development of industrial systems. Most efforts have focused on manufacturing even though the business services sector continues to gain importance as a source of employment. This paper provides rigorous analyses of the regional organization of business services employment growth in the United States and discusses some implications of regionalism for the development of industrial policy. The analyses use chi-square goodness-of-fit tests and spatial statistics to examine regional structure. State-level employment data in ten business service industries for two periods, 1977–1982 and 1982–1987, are used in the analyses. The results show that although employment growth varies across the United States, it does not exhibit consistent regional organization. Instead, growth is organized more around metropolitan complexes. The lack of regional organization suggests that industrial policy should focus on the urban concentration of growth, telecommunications infrastructure and urban-rural linkages.     

健康、环境、生产性基础设施与经济增长

在内生增长模型框架下,假设健康是由公共健康支出、生产性基础设施服务和环境质量共同组成,考察了公众健康意识的改变是如何通过影响政府对健康及环保的投入而影响经济增长。研究结果得出:存在环境质量作用于健康进而影响经济增长这一机制,福利最大化下的政府应当投入环保支出改善环境;当公众越是关心健康,政府可选择的税收支出、公共健康支出和环保支出越会不断上升,实现提升健康水平和环境质量的同时使经济持续增长。在此基础上,运用我国29个省1997—2013年的数据,通过面板计量模型验证了理论部分关于健康方程的假设,同时证实环境通过作用于健康进而影响经济增长这一传导机制的存在。     

THE MEDIUM TERM OUTLOOK

In this Forecast Release we consider the prospects for the economy after the present phase of cyclical recovery. Our central forecast, which we regard as the best medium-term planning assumption, is that the economy slows down to a sustainable growth rate of around 1% per cent. This is in line with the underlying growth of productive capacity but not sufficient to cure unemployment. We recognise that in practice the economy may be pushed away from the underlying growth trajectory by random shocks, and we look at three major risks surrounding the present forecast: a rise in the savings ratio; a slower world recovery; and a cut in investment. We contend that the most serious of these risks is to investment, since the company sector will face a major increase in its tax bill from 1985-6 onwards. A growth recession is thus distinctly possible in 1986, which could, for economic and electoral reasons, be the low point of the present cycle.     

Feasibility and optimality of sustainable growth under materials balance

Pollution from consumption and production is an inevitable part of economic processes. We employ a materials balance approach and develop an endogenous growth theory, with recycling activity, to examine the evolution of the economic and environment systems. This paper provides feasibility and optimality conditions for sustainable economic growth with rising environmental quality. The fundamental condition of feasibility is that the flow of natural resources, which eventually returns to the environment as waste and pollution, has a negative growth rate in the long run.     

COMMUTING PATTERNS IN THE OSAKA METROPOLITAN AREA: A GIS-BASED ANALYSIS OF COMMUTER RAIL PASSENGERS

The urban economic growth and suburbanization had increased the number of suburban commuters using rail transit in the Osaka metropolitan area for 40 years since the 1950s. This trend reversed to continuous shrinkage in the 1990s. The reduction in passengers may lead to financial problems for the operators and an increase in railway fares or decline in quality of service. This study investigates the factors responsible for the decline in demand for rail service by analyzing changes in population and commuters using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and small area statistics linked with locations of urban rail networks. The results indicate that the dispersion of jobs from 1990 to 2000 significantly reduced commutes by rail. Demographic analysis shows that because of low fertility rates and the rapidly aging population the decline in the number of commuters will intensify in coming decades, causing serious financial problems for railway operators.     

北美大都市区生产性服务业区位研究述评

经济转型的深刻影响引起学者和政策制定者展开了对服务业增长和区位的研究。基于生产性服务业的快速增长及其在城市和区域出口中的重要地位,以及它们在促进创新和技术变革中的战略作用,生产性服务业成为了20世纪90年代以来北美区域经济学界、地理学界研究的重点。在阅读文献的基础上,对北美大都市内部生产性服务业区位及其影响因素的研究成果进行了系统总结和归纳分析,以期为国内生产性服务业区位理论的构建和现代服务业集聚区的建设提供借鉴。     

ASSESSING THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF DEFENSE ACTIVITIES: A SURVEY OF METHODS

Defense activities exercised in a specific region may alter the region's economic performance. An accurate assessment of the potential economic impacts of defense activities is a valuable undertaking to enable regional planners to prepare for changes. The variety in the methods (among others, input–output models, economic base models, Keynesian regional multipliers, fixed‐effects estimators, and case‐study approaches) inspired by geography, sociology, and political science can pose a dilemma. We detail the historical and theoretical background of each method, as well as select exemplary cases where these methods were applied. By examining old and “new” methods, we aim to construct a typology that could be valuable to all stakeholders. In this sense, defense economics can also contribute to the allied social sciences by outlining evaluation methods that may be applicable to other fields.     

Forecasting ultimate resource recovery

This paper considers Hubbert's model for forecasting ultimate resource recovery and its extensions by Kaufmann (1991, Resources and Energy 13, 111–127) and Cleveland and Kaufmann (1991, Energy Journal 12, 17–46). The emphasis of the paper is on econometric and forecasting issues, and it discusses alternative methods of estimating Hubbert's model. Using data on oil production in the U.S. lower 48 states, the paper reports the results of estimating the various specifications of the model and its extensions by the maximum-likelihood method, and provides the implied estimates for ultimate resource recovery and their associated standard errors. When economic factors are taken into account the estimates of ultimate resource recovery become state-dependent, and we find that in this case the estimates are higher than those obtained from the various specifications of Hubbert's original model. Although the accuracy of the estimates of ultimate recoverable reserves cannot be evaluated before oil reserves are actually exhausted, we examine how the various models estimated over the periods 1926–1985 and 1948–1985 perform in predicting oil production over the 1986–1990 period.     

二级城市发展现代服务业的困境和解决途径--以苏州、无锡、杭州为例

近年来,我国大都市区中的二级城市在制造业的支撑下获得了快速发展,形成了制造业和首位城市水平分工,现代服务业高度依赖首位城市的产业分工格局.本文从维持二级城市经济持续成长的角度出发,以上海都市区的三座特大二级城市苏州、无锡和杭州为例,研究了二级城市现代服务业发展的现状,分析了二级城市现代服务业发展的限制性因素,从市场、优先发展的部门、产业组织、制度环境的营造等方面探讨了加速二级城市现代服务业发展的可能途径.     

The growth paradox,sustainable development,and business strategy

Economic growth is a two-edged sword. Expanding economies and industries create wealth and employment, but global economic expansion is having unprecedented deleterious impacts on vital planetary systems. Despite this, the core strategic goal of all economies and many businesses continues to be the pursuit of ongoing economic growth. To resolve this paradox, a reconceptualization of firm-level growth is presented. I describe and discuss the organizational characteristics of the growth paradox and follow this with a metatheoretical review of economic, organizational, and ecological perspectives on growth. From this review, a typology of firm-level strategy is developed that radically reconceptualizes business growth as developmental activity primarily concerned with social–ecological flourishing. The features of this typology and its implications for business strategy are discussed according to three principles that emerged from the analysis: multidexterity, resilience thinking for design, and inclusive balance (embeddedness). Together, these strategy principles form the prerequisite management competencies needed for the development, implementation, and evaluation of sustainable business strategies. Transformative firm-level responses to the growth paradox are needed if sustaining forms of organizational growth are to be achieved and this paper presents a novel integrative framework for informing those strategies.     

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE CYCLE?

The Chancellor reminded us in his Budget speech that "the British economy is now embarking on its seventh successive year of steady growth, at an average rate of getting on for 3 per cent a year". This experience contrasts markedly with that of the 1970s and is dissimilar from that of the 1960s. Here we examine the recent behaviour of the economy, particularly with regard to the cycle. We conclude that the cycle is not dead and that since the trough of 1981 the economy has passed through two further turning points. If a correction is made for the miners' strike, activity peaked in late 1984, reached a trough in 1985 and is currently once more growing at an above-trend rate.     

A SURVEY OF THE EVOLUTION OF QUEUEING THEORY

The evolution of queueing theory is sketched from its origin in Teletraffic, via its growth to maturity as a mathematical discipline in Operations Research, to its present position as an indispensable tool in the performance analysis of complex computer—and communication networks. The Dutch postwar contributions to this evolution receive some special attention, on the occasion of the celebration of the Dutch Society for Statistics and 'Operations Research' fourth decennium.     

AN INPUT–OUTPUT STUDY OF THE SINGAPORE INFORMATION SECTOR

The development and use of information and communication technologies is one of the key drivers of the ‘knowledge economy.’ In this paper, we investigate the impact of information technology on the output growth of the Singapore economy using the input–output framework. The input–output framework allows us to understand the impact of information sector in an integrated framework in terms of its linkages to the manufacturing and service sectors. In particular, we adopt the input–output approach to shed light on both production and diffusion activities of the information sector on the Singapore economy. The results indicate that the ICT sector provided the key linkages for the expansion of high-value added manufacturing activities and electronics export for the Singapore economy.     

Growth and social capital: an evolutionary model

In this paper, we analyze the role of cooperation between firms through a model of growth and social capital. In a growth model à la Solow we incorporate the set of resources that a relational network has at its disposals, as a distinct production factor, and thus examine its dissemination through evolutionary type processes in firm interactions. Dynamic analysis of the model demonstrates that cooperation is able to increase the productivity of factors, fostering a higher rate of growth in the long term. The most significant result is that scarcity of social capital can produce a general collapse of the economic system in areas in which long term growth is usually sustained by the learning by doing and spillover of knowledge phenomena. This conclusion leads to reconsider the role of local development economic policies that should concentrate on activities that promote repeated interaction between firms proven to be cooperative or that encourage the formation of technological consortia.     

Entrepreneurship,income distribution and economic growth

Traditionally different factors and variables have been considered in the economic growth models. Following Solow’s model, economists considered physical capital and technology during 1950s–1980s. With the introduction of endogenous growth models, new forms of capital were introduced in the production function; human capital, public capital and more recently social capital. However, the consideration of qualitative variables is necessary to improve the economic growth analysis. The improvement of statistical information has favored their introduction in the economic growth models. Recently, “entrepreneurship” concept has been considered in this type of analysis. Entrepreneurship considers the capacity and ability to create new business and production activity. It is an activity not an occupation. Some authors like Schumpeter have included it in their models and they have analysed its effects on economic growth. But it is also necessary to include the role of social climate, that in a schumpterian way it could be represented by income distribution. The main objective of the paper is to analyze the relationship between entrepreneurship, income distribution and economic growth following the ideas developed by Schumpeter and we will contrast them from a empirical analysis using the GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) data.