Growth and Innovation of Competitive Regions

This volume investigates the dynamics of regional performance in advanced countries and the mechanisms that allow some regions to grow more rapidly than others, to become and remain more competitive in the long run.

Time Time b a Space Space Time Time c d Space Space Fig. 1 Different possible scales for growth and innovation analyses spatial dimension, the sectoral dimension and the time dimension are represented. In Fig. 1a, regional developmentanalyses are revealed, where the economyis sliced vertically into regions and their dynamics are investigated. The study of the evolution of industries, typical of evolutionary industrial e- nomics, is represented in Fig. 1b, where the economy is divided horizontally into sectoral slices. This approach has progressed considerably in recent years (see Malerba 2006, for a recent survey). Modi?cations of industries have important spatial implications, which however are not normally at the core of these ana- ses even though spatial patterns of innovation differ greatly from sector to sector (Breschi 2000). Our approach operates in the manner of Fig. 1a and we will focus on regions, extending the analysis to industries only where this is regionally and structurally relevant. Hence, the approach in the book belongs to the tradition of regional development theories, but, in contrast to the more traditional analyses, we will not consider the region as an economic unit per se. Rather, interactions between and within regions are very relevant to the performance of individual regions in an integrated world and will be at the core of the analyses of the following chapters.

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Inhalt
Foundations of Growth in Interconnected Territories.- Regional Growth, Connections and Economic Modelling: An Introduction.- Sustainable Interrelated Growth: A Phenomenal Approach.- A Model of Local Development.- The Dynamics of an 'Innovation Driven' Territorial System.- Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Regions Faced with External Competition.- The Co-Evolution of Entrepreneurship and Clusters.- Learning, Innovation and Growth Within Interconected Clusters: An Agent-Based Approach.- Knowledge-Based Economy and Knowledge Creation: The Role of Space.- Systems of Innovation and Regional Growth in the EU: Endogenous vs. External Innovative Activities and Socio-Economic Conditions.- Some Conjectures on the Tie Between Digital Divide and Regional Disparities.- The Factors of Development in Advanced Regions.- Interconnection-Infrastructure as a Prerequisite for the Development of Territories The Role of Network Externalities.- Regional Growth and the Co-Evolution of Clusters: The Role of Labour Flows.- Intra-National Disparities, Regional Interactions and the Growth of Countries.- Creativity, Cultural Investment and Local Development: A New Theoretical Framework for Endogenous Growth.- Methods and Theories for the Study of Interconnected Territories.- Modelling Individual Behaviour of Firms in the Study of Spatial Concentration.- The New Approach to Regional Economics Dynamics: Path Dependence and Spatial Self-Reinforcing Mechanisms.- Conclusions.- What Policy for Interconnected Territories? Conclusions and Openings.