Edward M. Bergman

Modelling preferences and stability among transport alternatives

Abstract This research builds upon results of other studies aimed at understanding the context and shipment choices open to logistics managers. It further differentiates among such managers by characteristics of the production region and industrial cluster membership of their firms, which are positioned near or along one of the EUs primary accession borders where large increases in trade are expected. The article examines both the contingent valuation of transport choices and the stability of such choices. Earlier research applications are shown to be deficient on several points, such that the improved modelling procedures and novel possibilities of controlling for industrial or regional characteristics of firms are shown to provide better results. Finally, substantive findings offer both theoretical and policy perspectives.

Innovation system effects on technological adoption in a regional value chain

This paper examines the technology adoption rates of a sample of enterprises that are nominally members of the transportation equipment value chain. We utilize the regional innovation system (RIS) concept to identify and test key regional and corporate influences on technology adoption. Using data collected from a detailed survey instrument, our analysis considers adoption rates during the very period in which production equipment technologies are known to have grown very suddenly, i.e. the fourth quarter of 1994. Our findings indicate that the most important RIS factors are related to worker training and information spillover effects between proximate firms. In the main, our findings are supportive of policies that work indirectly through the market structure of regional economies and a firms value-chain, as opposed to directly through regional technology agencies.

Dynamics and Structural Change in Metropolitan Economies

Abstract This article is focused on two important measures of dynamic change which affect economic development policy and with which planners are generally unfamiliar: uneven business cycles of expansion and contraction and shifts in the underlying structure of metropolitan economies. The importance of these measures is traced to a series of national and international influences which appear to have permanently altered local economies. Each measure is presented within the context of its literature and in operational terms for all metropolitan economies during the 1970s. Implications for the development paths of local economies are discussed and basic policy considerations are posed for economic development planners and officials.

Infrastructure and Manufacturing Productivity: Regional Accessibility and Development Level Effects

Infrastructure — and its consequences for regional development — has been treated in business, urban economics, regional science, geography and engineering literatures. Depending upon the tradition favored by the analyst, one might frame rather different questions. Duffy-Deno and Eberts (1991), for example, claim “The importance of public capital for regional growth stems from its effect on production and location decisions of private industry”. Accordingly, infrastructure might be studied to detect whether its early availability stimulates substantial accumulations of private capital investment. Assuming first that infrastructure is fixed capital — subsidized or wholly provided by the state — this could be approached as some variant of the industrial location question. Roads, bridges, railways, water supply, basic utilities (gas, electricity), assembled land and public services, and traditional public works are the staple infrastructure elements considered in such studies.

Institutional Arrangements For State And Local Industrial Policy

Abstract The pursuit of industrial policies to revitalize state and local economies brings with it a series of policymaking realignments that deserve the attention of planners. Although considerably different views now revolve around the question of industrial policy, all anticipate greater involvement of producer interests (variously defined) and movement away from familiar pluralist policymaking models. Several industrial policies at the national, state, and city levels are examined to provide a better understanding of these alternative views and the probable tradeoffs between policy efficacy and political democracy.

Regional and Technological Determinants of Company Productivity Growth in the Late 1980s

KE S. and BERGMAN E. M. (1995) Regional and technological determinants of company productivity growth in the late 1980s, Reg. Studies 29, 59–71. This paper estimates the impacts on productivity growth of regional factors and technological inputs. Two unique data sets for US textile-apparel and computer-electronics companies are combined with secondary data to estimate a total factor productivity (TFP) growth equation, a neutral technological progress (NTP) equation and an equation of scale economies. The estimates show that regional factors and technological inputs are more significant contributors to TFP and NTP in computer-electronics production than in textile-apparel. Similarly, regional factors and technological inputs have stronger influence on scale economies in computer-electronics than in textile-apparel. Scale economies, as traditionally measured, show a complicated pattern of empirical performance and may not be a straightforward indicator of productivity growth in an era of downsizing and flex...

Evidence-Based Policy Research to Inform the ENP: Five Recommendations for Europe and its Neighbours

Motivated by neoliberal normativism, the ENP drew on a now outdated mix of political and economic reasoning that does not reflect recent scientific evidence on regional development, and is compromised by having been formulated at arms-length from implementing contexts. An expansion of the ENP discourse that builds upon research findings and sustained feedback with field experts in neighbourhood countries is thought to increase the probability of long-term policy success. Rather than trade liberalisation as the primary stimulant, the results specifically suggest innovation support as the default strategy, and migration policy structures to back labour and capital flows.

Hirschman Mobility, Governance and Loyalty in Europe’s Top Research Universities

The emergence of Europe’s knowledge economy has been slower than expected, if one takes the USA as a baseline, particularly in terms of anticipated knowledge productivity and related economic growth. But knowledge diffusion has also expanded more slowly than hoped. Many factors have been advanced as responsible, ranging from the incomplete integration of existing and new EU member economies to the ongoing reorganisation of traditional regimes of higher education throughout Europe.