Spontaneous vs. policy-driven: The origin and evolution of the biotechnology cluster

The biotechnology industry is at the heart of the fast-growing knowledge-based economy. One of the distinguishing characteristics of this industry is clustering. A cluster, like an organism, experiences origin, growth, and decline/reorientation. Our study constructs a framework to analyze biotechnology clusters with different origins, “spontaneous” and “policy-driven”, through their life cycles. We use the Bay Area in the United States and Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in China as two cases to represent spontaneous and policy-driven biotechnology clusters. This study fills the gap in the literature by comparing these two types of biotechnology clusters in an evolutionary perspective. The key success factors of both biotechnology clusters are their own human and financial capital, but they differ in their underlying processes for creating and sharing these resources. The most fundamental differences arise from the impact of entrepreneurship, social capital and network patterns on the cluster's configuration.     

Knowledge spillovers in biotechnology: sources and incentives

This paper sheds light on the questions, Why does knowledge spill over? and How does knowledge spill over? The answer to these questions we suggest lies in the incentives confronting scientists to appropriate the expected value of their knowledge considered in the context of their path-dependent career trajectories. In particular, we focus on the ability of scientists to appropriate the value of knowledge embedded in their human capital along with the incentive structure influencing if and how scientists choose to commercialize their knowledge. We conclude that the spillover of knowledge from the source creating it, such as a university, research institute, or industrial corporation, to a new-firm startup facilitates the appropriation of knowledge for the individual scientist(s) but not necessarily for the organization creating that new knowledge in the first place.     

The evolution and performance of biotechnology regional systems of innovation

The paper maintains that biotechnology regions develop as complexsystems: they start with star scientists in research universities,generating knowledge spillovers, then move progressively towardsregional technology markets. In the process they attract venturecapital (or modify the behaviour of existing venture capitalfirms with the addition of biotechnology portfolios). The routinesof universities are also modified with the addition of intellectualproperty and technology transfer offices intervening as sellersin the newly created knowledge markets. The paper also considerswhether companies located in regional agglomerations grow fasterthan isolated ones, and whether companies spun-off from universitieshave a better performance than start-ups. The study is basedon about 90 Canadian-based publicly quoted biotechnology companies.     

The impact of the biotechnology industry on local economic development in the Boston and San Diego metropolitan areas

High-technology/knowledge-intensive industries have become of increasing importance as sources of job growth and revenue to communities seeking to develop their economies. Communities want these industries so that they can be as economically vigorous as possible. However, although high-tech industries such as biotechnology are coveted as drivers of economic development, the local development impact of these clusters of regional innovation is not entirely positive. This is especially true with regard to the impact upon the low and semi-skilled populations. In some regions, the new growth generated by high-tech clusters has converted relatively inexpensive open space into haphazard commercial and industrial use that has contributed to sprawl, transportation congestion, lack of affordable housing, and gentrification. These problems are particularly evident in the Boston and San Diego metropolitan areas, which rank as the second and third largest U.S. biotechnology clusters respectively. This paper seeks to gauge the local economic development impact—especially with regard to the labor and real estate markets—of the biotechnology clusters in the San Diego and Boston metropolitan areas.     

The biological determinants of long-wave behavior in socioeconomic growth and development

In this paper, it is claimed that the effective causality of long-term macroeconomic rhythms, most commonly referred to as long waves or Kondratieff waves, is founded in our biological realm. The observed patterns of regularity in human affairs, manifest as socioeconomic rhythms and recurrent phenomena, are constrained and codetermined by our natural human biological clocks, themselves the result of instructions impressed in the human genome and human cognitive capacity by the physical regularity of fixed cosmic cycles. Considering that a long wave can be conceived as an evolving learning dissipative structure consisting of two successive logistic structural cycles, an innovation cycle and a consolidation cycle, and applying considerations from population dynamics, chaos theory and logistic growth dynamics, a Generational-Learning Model is proposed that permits comprehension of the unfolding and time duration of the phenomenon. The proposed model is based on two kinds of biological constraints that impose the rhythm of collective human behavior — generational and cognitive. The generational consist of biologically based rhythms, namely, the Aggregate Virtual Working Life Tenure and the Aggregate Female Fecundity Interval, both subsets of the normative human life span or human life cycle. The cognitive consist of a limiting learning growth rate, manifest in the alternating sequence of two succeeding learning phases, a new knowledge phase and a consolidation phase. It is proposed that the syncopated beats of succeeding effective generational waves and the dynamics of the learning processes determine the long-wave behavior of socioeconomic growth and development. From the relationship between the differential and the discrete logistic equations, it is demonstrated that the unfolding of each structural cycle of a long wave is controlled by two parameters: the diffusion-learning rate δ and the aggregate effective generation t_G, whose product maintained in the interval 3<δt_G<4 (deterministic chaos) grants the evolution and performance of social systems. Moreover, it is speculated that the triggering mechanism of this long-term swinging behavior may result from the cohesion loss of a given technoeconomic system in consequence of reaching a threshold value of informational entropy production.     

Does a clustered location matter for high-technology companies' performance? The case of biotechnology in the Netherlands

Young entrepreneurial companies in biotechnology tend to cluster in space, nearby research universities and research centers. This pattern is often ascribed to the availability of external economies, mainly local knowledge spillovers that help to reduce the uncertainty from a disruptive technology faced by these companies. Given a shortage of empirical research on cluster advantages and performance of clustered companies, we present results of a comparative analysis of clustered and non-clustered companies in biotechnology and Bionanotechnology in the Netherlands. It appears that, among other influences, a clustered location has no significant influence on innovation and speed of growth. However, a location in the largest cluster (Leiden) does contribute to a better performance in terms of innovativeness compared with all other locations. The kind of external economies involved seems to vary according to the stage in the knowledge value chain and the segment in biotechnology industry. Knowledge spillovers tend to be local for companies involved in new drugs and diagnostics research only in the first stage of the knowledge chain and for service companies regardless of the stage in the knowledge chain.     

上海公园绿地滨水植物景观特点分析

通过对上海的延中绿地、闵行体育公园、上海植物园、静安公园等十几个具有代表性的公园绿地滨水植物的调查,研究了上海市公园绿地滨水植物的应用现状、景观营造特点以及滨水植物造景存在的问题,希望对今后公园绿地滨水植物的景观设计有一定的借鉴作用。     

上海人才外流的动因及对策研究

中国城市化进程的推进,新兴城市的快速崛起,加速了对上海、北京、广州、深圳一线城市的人才竞争。上海作为全国人才的聚集地,面临着基础性与高级人才流失的挑战。基于对上海市人才的抽样调查,采用Logistic回归及交互分析方法,研究上海人才外流的动因,并提出应对之策。研究表明,平衡的工作与生活设计、职业发展是影响上海市人才流动的主要因素。学历与职业发展、薪酬满意度与城市工作环境、当前公司工作年限与城市工作压力共同对离开上海的工作意愿产生作用。     

Micro and macro dynamics: Industry life cycles,inter-sector coordination and aggregate growth

Technological change directly affects economic growth by exploiting and exploring technological opportunities, thus determining productivity growth and income. However, technological change also affects the composition of the economic system, which itself constitutes an important prerequisite for economic growth. The first aim of this paper is to show that the growing variety of the economic system, determined by the emergence of new products and services and leading to new industrial sectors, can allow the long term continuation of economic development, even when the employment creating capacity of individual sectors falls. The second aim is to illustrate the impact of micro variables on the meso-level, that is, on the sectoral composition of an economy, as well as on its macro-economic performance.      

The role of new ICTs in the sustainable development of industrial cluster： a case study of Yangxunqiao textile cluster

The wide application of new information and communication technologies （ICTs） has been argued to be critical in local economic development, while the application of new ICTs will affect the development of industrial cluster, especially those small and medium-sized enterprises （SMEs）. This paper examines Yangxunqiao textile cluster located in Zhejiang Province as a case study to focus on the role of ICTs in the sustainable development. We argue ICTs application in firms boost flexible and customized production approach, improve e-commerce market channel and raise supply chain management. We also pay special attention to the spatial implication of ICTs adoption in industrial cluster, and suggest that application of ICTs tend to lead to further clustering of SMEs in the location with mature production chain. Our analysis shows that new ICTs are a facilitator in the sustainable development of the industrial cluster.     

The effect of output growth volatility on output growth: empirical evidence from Turkey

This article assesses the effect of output growth volatility on output growth within a stochastic-volatility-in-mean model with a time-varying framework for an open small economy: Turkey. Until now, the empirical evidence on industrial production mainly reveals that this relationship is negative. However, in further examining different sectors and sub-sectors of industrial production, we find the sign of the relationship changes depending on the sector. Moreover, there is limited evidence that the sign of the relationship changes over time. Thus, the evidence reveals that the nature of the output growth volatility–output growth relationship is not uniform across sectors.     

Harrod's dynamics and the theory of growth: the story of a mistaken attribution

Post-Keynesian growth theory is normally seen as originatingfrom Harrod's 1939 'Essay in Dynamic Theory'. Harrod, however,was trying to lay the foundations of a new approach to economicdynamics, and often complained of misinterpretation. In thispaper, the grounds of Harrod's argument are examined and comparedwith the 'textbook' interpretation. The latter is shown to beextremely reductive, as it ignores both Harrod's interest inthe trade cycle and his methodological criticism of the 'time-lagtheories of the cycle', and it also underrates the interestingimplications of his non-linear approach and the epistemic implicationsof the instability principle.     

中国在上海合作组织框架下开展区域经济合作的必要性

上海合作组织是第一个由中国倡导建立的区域性组织,中国作为上海合作组织的重要成员,有必要积极推动上海合作组织的发展.从宏观政治经济格局来看,在上海合作组织框架下开展区域经济合作有利于推进中国参与国际区域经济一体化进程;而从微观收益来看,在上海合作组织框架下开展区域经济合作有利于中国培养新的出口市场,平衡国内经济发展,并促进区域经济协调发展,为中国可持续发展营造和平的外部环境.     

Earnings growth and the bull market of the 1990s: Is there a case for rational exuberance?

This paper examines whether permanent earnings growth, crucial to stock valuation, increased during the 1990s, as suggested by proponents of the new economy. Using S&P 500 earnings for the period of 1951–2000, we do not find strong evidence of either a one-time structural break or gradual change. However, the confidence interval on permanent earnings growth is wide enough to include an increase that is roughly consistent with the bull market of the late 1990s. Thus, we cannot reject a rational basis for that exuberance.     

中国经济增长的特征、可持续性与潜在增长率估算:一个综述

在本文通过对中国经济增长的表现特征、可持续性和潜在增长率估算三方面的理论综述,进一步论述了中国经济增长的发展脉络,并在此基础上提出研究中国经济增长理论尚需改进的空间.     

Efficiency, depth and growth: Quantitative implications of finance and growth theory

We develop a parsimonious finance and endogenous growth model with microeconomic frictions in entrepreneurship and a role for credit constraints. We demonstrate that though an efficiency–growth relation will always exist, the efficiency–depth–growth relation may not. This has implications for the connection between the theory and empirics of finance and growth. We go on to ask whether the model can account for some historical trends in growth, financial depth and financial efficiency for the UK over the period 1850–1913. The best model of finance and growth is one that departs from the standard depth–growth link.     

On Closed Systems and the Language of Economic Discourse

This article addresses a few of the major points identified by Tony Lawson in his book Reality and Economics(Routledge 1997). Traditional economic models are profoundly closed, emanating from reasoning processes that are both deductivist and positivist by nature. Here, individuals are prescribed to behave according to mechanical, socially abstracted fashions that, in fact, belie any semblance of real human choice. Moreover, as Lawson observes, relationality in these models is strictly external, in that the natures of individuals are not affected by their participation in market activity. Under these conditions, models can be easily constructed by which markets yield unique equilibrium outcomes, whereby the constancy of the conjunctions of events yield law-like economic assertions.

Instead, Lawson embraces a critical realist perspective that posits human behavior to be both structured and internallyrelational, i.e., where interactions with others can affect the very natures of those individuals. As such, human relations can be temporally situated in the context of structured social contracts, while still embodying the organic elements from which those agents and structures can be reproduced and transformed.

From these principles, this essay explores some recent work in Keynesian and Post Keynesian thought. In addition, this critical realist framework considers some developments in New Keynesian Economics and Endogenous Growth Theory.     

上海市交通能源消费碳排放的测算与分解分析

依据IPCC清单指南报告,以能源消耗为对象,测算2000—2010年上海市交通运输业能源消费碳排放量、人均碳排放量以及碳排放强度的变化趋势。以2000年为基年,采用LMDI分解方法,对上海市交通运输领域能源消费碳排量的变化进行分解分析。结果表明:①交通碳排放强度整体呈下降趋势,其中能源强度的下降起主要作用。能源结构对促进碳排放强度的下降作用较弱,但有增强趋势。②交通碳排放量不断增加。其中人口数量和人均GDP始终表现为正效应,起促进作用;能源强度除2004年外均表现为负效应,起抑制作用;能源结构始终表现为负效应,对减少碳排放有重要作用。     

The network of networks: Localized technological change in telecommunications and productivity growth

Radical innovations in the usage of telecommunication services have drastically changed the role of telecommunications in the economy. Today the usage of telecommunications services is associated with the opportunity to extract significant quasi-rents. An empirical analysis of the Italian case in the mid-eighties confirms the significant difference between telecommunications cost share and marginal productivity levels. The opportunity to reap transient quasi-rents has in turn pushed users to innovate so as to become major players in the arena of technological change in telecommunications and information technologies. In this context the notion of network of networks, implemented in the European Union, seems most appropriate to push the dynamic efficiency of the system and accommodate both centrifugal and centripetal innovations, yet also to retain network interoperability and interconnectivity.     

Rate of profit and interest in a growth theory with endogenous money

This paper attempts to incorporate an endogenous money approachinto post-Keynesian growth theory in order to derive the fullemployment equilibrium rate of interest as well as that of profit.This rate of interest, named the ideal rate of interest, differsfrom the rate of profit in that it is in proportion to a monetaryvariable, not a real variable. Further, the rate of profit alsodiffers from the rate of interest as a premium because it isproductive. The rate of interest could be important in explainingcircumstances in which financial capital has been accumulatedin excess.