Iryna Lendel

The Impact of Research Universities on Regional Economies: The Concept of University Products

In what ways do research universities interact with regional economies? The answer to this central question can be found in a framework of the interaction of university products and necessary factors for technology-based economic development. The bundled nature of university products makes it impossible to separately assess the impact of universities on their regional economies. The National Science Foundation’s ranking of top research universities and retrospective data on academic R&D expenditures are used in regression models to measure universities’ long-term effects over the phases of the latest business cycle. The pattern of statistical significance and the signs of the regression coefficients suggest that the presence of research universities has a positive effect on metropolitan economies above cyclical economic changes. The effect differs depending on the scale of university R&D expenditures and suggests that the most prominent research universities have a stronger impact on their regional economies.

Under the Lens: The Geography of Optical Science as an Emerging Industry

abstract Optical science is the study of light and the ways in which light interacts with matter. Although its origins coincide with the earliest scientific inquiry, modern optics is an enabling technology that is applied to a variety of intermediate markets—telecommunication equipment, medical devices, scientific instruments, semiconductors, imaging and reproduction, defense and security, and retail logistics. One difficulty in studying emerging technology is the limitation of current industrial categories and patent classes. This article examines the geography of optical science inventions using a new methodology that can be applied to study other emerging industries. We rely on companies that self-identify as working on optics on the basis of their voluntary membership in the Optics Society of America. We investigate the inventive activity of these companies from 2004 to 2007 and identify a set of International Patent Classes that defines the emergent technology space in optical science. Using this definition, we then analyze all the organizations that are inventing in optical science. We find that inventive activity is geographically concentrated: patenting takes place in 240 urban areas, although 84 percent of the patents were invented in 30 metropolitan areas and almost 50 percent were attributed to 11 metropolitan areas. The article considers the organizations that are shaping the emerging technology and the consequences for geographic clusters. Our results reveal that the geographic distribution of inventive activity does not reflect the location of self-designated regional optics clusters in the United States but suggests a more nuanced understanding of the emergence of industries. We conclude by considering lessons about the development of clusters in emerging industries.

The Impact of the Reputation of Bio-Life Science and Engineering Doctoral Programs on Regional Economic Development

Retrospective data on the academic reputation of PhD programs in the biological and life sciences and engineering are used in regression models to measure the influence of academic quality on the growth in employment and in per capita income for metropolitan areas in the United States over the two parts of the recently completed business cycle (1994 to 2000 and 2001 to 2003). The quality of doctoral research programs in science and technology fields was positively associated with growth rates in employment and per capita income in metropolitan areas during the expansion phase of the business cycle. Regions with quality science and technology doctoral programs experienced declines in employment growth rates following the recession. There was an inverse relationship between academic quality and per capita income following the recession, indicating that regional earnings bubbles built up during the expansion. Strong path dependencies are exhibited in the models.

Experiments in the Laboratories of Democracy: State Scientific Capacity Building

State initiatives that build innovation capacity by supporting local academic research, attracting eminent scholars, and building research excellence have become prominent among the 50 states over the past 30 years. This article focuses on three programs: University Research Grants, Eminent Scholars, and Centers of Excellence. We include examples for each of the state programs and trace the historical evolution of program attributes. Our objectives are to differentiate program attributes to improve understanding of state science initiatives and to begin to assess how programs contribute to the ultimate goal of creating economic growth. Our empirical analysis demonstrates evidence of the long-term impact of these three programs in building state innovative capacity. The article concludes by outlining how these data may be used in future analyses.

Focus on State Economic Development Policy

The U.S. federalist structure intentionally distributes the management of public policies across the various levels of government. The federal government places greater attention on issues like defense and monetary policy; state governments have taken the lead on a range of policies that include education and business conduct, whereas local municipalities have directed greater attention to a range of issues that include public works. For some public policies, the appropriate governmental distribution and management is clear. With others, however, the line is not as clearly defined. Economic development policy is among one of these that is of great interest to multiple levels of government. Economic development as a concept is often only loosely defined. This is rather difficult to admit as we oversee this focus issue of Economic Development Quarterly (EDQ), but economic development is simultaneously a theoretical concept—a set of actions and incentives and a professional practice. Often when a term becomes popular it becomes conflated in popular use and the meaning becomes unclear. It was something that the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) felt strongly enough about that we have worked with EDA to put forward a definition, which we would like to offer here:

The Emerging Industry Puzzle: Optics Unplugged

Introduction 1. Territorial and Relational Dynamics in Knowledge Creation Diffusion and Innovation: An Introduction Harald Bathelt, Maryann P. Feldman and Dieter F. Kogler Part 1: Agglomeration - Aspects of Specialization and Diversity 2. Where do They Come From, and to Whom do they Flow? W. Mark Brown and David L. Rigby 3. Local Diversity and Creative Economic Activity in Canadian City-Regions Greg Spencer 4. Technological Relatedness and Regional Branching Ron Boschma and Koen Frenken 5. Evolution of the Geographical Concentration Pattern of the Danish IT Sector Christian R. Ostergaard and Bent Dalum Part 2: Beyond Territory - Evoutionary Spatio-Sectoral Dynamics 6. The Emerging Industry Puzzle: Optics Unplugged Maryann P. Feldman and Iryna Lendel 7. Food Geography and the Organic Empire Modern Quests for Cultural-Creative Related Theory Phil Cooke 8. Beyond Spillovers - Interrogating Innovation and Creativity in the Peripheries Andrey N. Petrov 9. The BioValley - Knowledge Dyanmics in a TNC headquarter location Bernhard Fuhrer and Paul Messerli Part 3: Making Connections - Bridging the Local and the Global 10. Islands of Expertise - Global Knowledge Transfer in a Technology Service Firm Johannes Gluckler 11. The Changing and Diverse Roles of RIS in the Globalizing Knowledge Economy: A Theoretical Re-Examination with Illustrations from the Nordic Countries Bjorn Asheim, Arne Isaksen, Jerker Moodysson, Markku Sotarauta 12. Globaal Buzz at International Trade Fairs: A Relational Perspective Nina Schuldt and Harald Bathelt 13. Dyanic Geographies of Knowledge Creation, Diffusion and Innovation: Present and Future Diections Dieter F. Kogler, Harald Bathelt and Maryann P. Feldman