Behind the Pan‐European Convergence Path: The Role of Innovation,Specialisation and Socio‐economic Factors

The paper analyses the determinants of regional disparities in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and their evolution over time in the enlarged European Union (EU). With reference to the literature it groups EU regions on the basis of three different factors—specialisation, socio‐economic features, and innovation. It then analyses regional disparities in per capita GDP (EU‐relative and country‐relative) across groups over 2004–2011 using both non‐parametric tools and traditional regression analysis with spatial effects. The paper finds that EU‐wide convergence actually conceals growing divergence across old member regions and within new members. Coming to the factors that lie at the heart of regional disparities, country factors lose importance for newcomers but become more important for older members, notwithstanding longstanding integration. Socio‐economic factors and innovation instead become increasingly important for all areas, socio‐economic factors lying at the heart of within‐country differences and innovation more of those between regions. Finally, specialisation appears to have a lower explanatory power.     

Regional Innovation Systems: Implications for Nonmetropolitan Areas and Workers in the South

ABSTRACT A public policy response to global competition is the creation of a geographic concentration of innovative activity (regional innovation systems [RIS]) that will enhance metropolitan economic development through knowledge spillovers, product development, and new firm spin‐offs. This article identifies three types of RIS in the thirteen southern states based on a cluster analysis of twenty indicators of innovative and entrepreneurial activity. Next, regression analysis is used to determine if the 1990–2000 growth rates of nonmetro county population, employment, and earnings were related to proximity to an RIS after controlling for other county characteristics associated with local economic development. The research findings indicate that nonmetro counties near an RIS experienced more rapid population and employment growth; however, changes in nonmetro growth rates varied by type of regional innovation system. In addition, proximity to an RIS had a stronger impact on nonmetro population change than on nonmetro job growth.     

Regional Growth Dynamics in the Service Sector: The Determinants of Employment Change in UK Regions, 1971–2005

There is a need to better understand the dynamics relating to the evolving economic structure of regions, in particular factors concerning deindustrialisation and the growth of services. In order to unpick the dynamics relating to contemporary regional evolution, this paper examines regional employment in the UK's services sectors from 1971 to 2005. The analysis utilises the statistical technique of multi‐factor partitioning to examine the evolutionary dynamics of employment change in the UK service sector. Overall, differing growth trajectories in services employment across regions appear to be the result of the different underlying industrial structures observed within the regions themselves. The findings indicate that the industrial structure of a region has a significant influence on employment change in services, with related variety being of greater consequence than specialisation. This suggests that diversity, or urbanisation, effects have a greater influence than specialisation effects on “lighter” industries than “heavier” industries. Spatio‐temporal variations within the development of services are evident in the analysis, and there is evidence of convergence across the regions for all sub‐sectors examined. It concludes that in an increasingly services‐dominated economy, diversity and related variety have some weight in explaining regional development paths.     

Technology Search and Firm Bounds in Biotechnology: New Firms as Agents of Change

Schumpeterian perspectives on industrial change suggest a relationship between new firms and the regionally specific technological bases for innovation. However, the links between such firms and the knowledge bases for innovation are more implicit than explicit. The innovation process in new firms reflects both the capabilities found within the firm as well as information sourcing from without. This paper seeks to articulate the nature of change in relationships between firms in science-based industries and the technological infrastructure accessed to support innovation, as such industries mature out of the birth phase. Innovation is treated as decision making, identifying the firm as innovator and agent of change. Survey research suggests that a shift in the sourcing of information, and an associated shift in the character of information accessed, occurred with maturation in the study industry, comprised of biotechnology firms in the U.S. “Early” and “later” forming firms show somewhat different technology sourcing patterns. Interviews were conducted to help interpret these findings. Implications for industry development are suggested.     

Innovating in less developed regions: What drives patenting in the lagging regions of Europe and North America

Not all economically disadvantaged—“less developed” or “lagging”—regions are the same. They are, however, often bundled together for the purposes of innovation policy design and implementation. This paper attempts to determine whether such bundling is warranted by conducting a regional level investigation for Canada, the United States, on the one hand, and Europe, on the other, to (a) identify the structural and socioeconomic factors that drive patenting in the less developed regions of North America and Europe, respectively; and (b) explore how these factors differ between the two contexts. The empirical analysis, estimated using a mixed‐model approach, reveals that, while there are similarities between the drivers of innovation in North America's and Europe's lagging regions, a number of important differences between the two continents prevail. The analysis also indicates that the territorial processes of innovation in North America's and Europe's less developed regions are more similar to those of their more developed counterparts than to one another.     

Institutional context and place-based policy: The case of Coventry & Warwickshire

A key problem of downscaling or transferring policies across regions is embedding these policies into a place for them to unleash the full potential of regional economies. This paper elaborates on the analytical framework of “institutional context” to bridge the gap between rich theorizations and poor empirical capture of institutions in studies of regional development. The institutional context is constituted by three pillars—regulations, organizations, and institutions—as well as by the interrelations between these pillars. Applied to the British region of Coventry and Warwickshire, a qualitative analysis of expert interviews finds institutional patterns of short-termism, moderate levels of social capital and an embryonic relational infrastructure to constrain the place-based strategy for industrial diversification. This regional case illustrates the more general challenge for regional policy in the UK of devising place-based strategies under conditions of continuous rescaling of regional governance and the implementation of a new National Industrial Strategy. In conclusion, the analysis suggests a shift from “nodal” to “linking” policies that support cross-network connections and help grow a regional field for collective action to cross-fertilize knowledge and foster innovation and entrepreneurship in emerging industries.     

Who leads regional industrial dynamics? “New industry creators” in Chinese regions

Recent evolutionary economic geography studies have argued that regional diversification emerges as a path‐dependent process, as regions often branch into industries that are related to its industrial structure. However, it is less clear who are creating new industries and under what regional conditions. This research seeks to fill this gap and identify “new industry creators” in regional industrial diversification. We differentiate two types of new industry formation—path‐breaking and path‐dependent—and examine whether some new industry creators are more path‐breaking than others, by incorporating two factors that have been largely overlooked in recent literature on technological relatedness—firm heterogeneity and regional institutions. Based on a firm‐level data set of China’s manufacturing industries, this paper shows that path‐breaking and path‐dependence coexist. Empirical results confirm that firm heterogeneity and regional institutions not only affect the firms’ capabilities in creating new industries, but also encourage/discourage firms to be adventurous and path‐breaking. This research implies that lagging regions can catch up with developed regions by coordinating regional resources and adjusting local institutional arrangements to attract more path‐breaking firms.     

The elusive quest for balanced regional growth from Barlow to Brexit: Lessons from partitioning regional employment growth in Great Britain

The British Government’s economic strategy for post‐Brexit Britain of achieving balanced regional growth by “driving growth across the whole country” echoes the objectives set by the Barlow Report of 1940. The regional policies that followed the Barlow Report were heavily influenced by papers written for the Commission by G D A (later Sir Donald) MacDougall. The first of these papers was included as an appendix to the report itself and introduced the shift‐share methodology to the analysis of regional employment growth, and subsequently shown to be flawed. The second paper considered the urban hierarchy and growth but was never fully developed. Consequently post‐war regional policy focussed on the contribution of industrial structure to employment growth without fully taking into account the urban hierarchy or regional locations of that employment. This article replaces the flawed shift‐share methodology with multifactor partitioning (MFP) and applies it to regional employment growth for the period 1971‐2012, a span of special interest because it largely coincides with British membership of the European Union (EU). The deficiencies in the second paper are addressed by introducing allometry to measure the employment growth of each region relative to that of Great Britain and then regression analysis to relate the allometries to distance from London. The results of the two sets of analyses highlight the need for a multiple‐factor, comprehensive, and integrated approach to regional policy and provide a benchmark against which to gauge the success of Britain's post‐Brexit policy of driving future growth across the whole country.     

The launch and evolution of a technology‐based economy: The case of Austin Texas

This paper uses the lens of institutional theory to explain the launch and evolution of Austin, Texas's technology‐based economy. The case underscores the importance of context, contingency, and the evolution of key local development organizations in explaining how regional economic development trajectories can change and evolve. The case history provides insights into how economic development networks form and operate to “set off” processes of industrial specialization and agglomeration and how they can promote successful adaptation to change in technology and industrial structure. The Austin story further suggests a “stage” process of regional technology‐based evolution where the development of industrial agglomerations linked to a substantial local research base is seen as a necessary precursor to increasing endogenous innovation and start‐up activity. Successfully navigating these stages is bolstered by the formation of institutions and networks that are durable, strategic, and adaptive, and which, at the right time, recognize and support entrepreneurial firm development to help sustain technology‐based growth.     

Innovation and Regional Growth in the Enlarged Europe: The Role of Local Innovative Capabilities,Peripherality, and Education

ABSTRACT In this paper, a formal model for the relationship between innovation and growth in European Union regions is developed drawing upon the theoretical contribution of the systems of innovation approach. The model combines the analytical approach of the regional growth models with the insights of the systemic approach. The cross‐sectional analysis, covering all the Enlarged Europe (EU‐25) regions (for which data are available), shows that regional innovative activities (for which a specific measure is developed) play a significant role in determining differential regional growth patterns. Furthermore, the model sheds light on how geographical accessibility and human capital accumulation, by shaping the regional system of innovation, interact (in a statistically significant way) with local innovative activities, thus allowing them to be more (or less) effectively translated into economic growth. The paper shows that an increase in innovative effort is not necessarily likely to produce the same effect in all EU‐25 regions. Indeed, the empirical analysis suggests that in order to allow innovative efforts in peripheral regions to be as productive as in core areas, they need to be complemented by huge investments in human capital.     

Identification and characterization of important sterile and maintainer lines from various genotypes for advanced breeding programmes of onion (Allium cepa)

Onion is one of the major vegetable crops in terms of production as well as consumption. In the current research, available onion genetic stock was evaluated to identify male-sterile lines and produce high-yielding F₁ hybrids for future breeding programmes. A mitochondrial DNA-based marker was mapped and correlated with phenotypic traits to isolate male-sterile plants. Based on the floral and pollen structure, nine putative male-sterile lines were identified. On the other hand, for nuclear marker identification at Ms locus, two sets of primers were used, one for Ms dominant allele and another for sterile and maintainer plants. Results revealed that 70% of open pollinated varieties (OPVs) possess plants with sterile cytoplasm coupled with genetic sterility at Ms locus, called sterile “A” line. Approximately 20% of plants in some genotypes were identified with normal (N) cytoplasm having recessive fertility gene at Ms locus, called maintainer “B” line. Based on the present findings, “A”, “B” and “R” (restorer line), future F₁ hybrid seed production systems in onion is discussed.     

准噶尔盆地南缘沙产业发展差异与影响的多元统计分析

为了研究新疆沙产业发展区域差异性,分析沙产业发展与环境、经济的关系,选取准噶尔盆地南缘的19个县市（兵团）作为主要研究对象,数据来源为实地调查和新疆统计年鉴、各地2013年统计公报等面板数据,筛选出当地沙产业发展、经济发展以及环境状况的16个典型指标,运用因子分析、聚类分析等方法,对调查区19个不同区域的沙产业发展进行了综合评价与分类比较,采用多元线性回归,分析了沙产业发展与环境、经济之间的相互关系。得出以下结论：（1）沙产业发展能够改善环境,拉动经济;（2）沙产业发展的焦点和难点为均衡性不足;（3）沙产业前期发展的短板是“挤出效应”。提出以下建议：（1）因地制宜,发展特色沙产业;（2）加大科技创新投入力度,合理规划投资规模。     

Reflections on the “Old” Economy, “New” Economy,and Services

ABSTRACT Economic competitiveness now has less to do with new materials than with new ways of producing, utilizing, and combining diverse knowledges. It is branded as symptomatic of a “new” economy and is often juxtaposed against the “old” economy. As accelerating technological change has greatly increased the volume and quality of the information available to organizations, to firms, and to individual employees, it is asserted that the economy has become more “new” than “old.” But this is predicated on the assumption that there is a “new” economy and that it is somehow distinguishable from the “old.” This paper explores the basis for this dichotomy and whether it really adds anything to understanding contemporary economies and their ongoing development. It will be argued that it is more useful and constructive to examine the economy through a lens dominated by service industries that are now the key drivers of change (innovation, competition, employment) and development. The paper is concluded with a discussion of some items that could usefully be part of an agenda for further research by economic geographers on the evolving spatial and structural attributes of service work and organizations and their impact on cities or regions at different scales of analysis.     

How does financial agglomeration affect green development? Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta of China

An extensive economic growth mode leads to resource depletion and environmental degradation. Green development is the best way to solve this problem. We analyzed the sample data of 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta of China from 2007 to 2019. We used the spatial Durbin model and interaction term model to study the effects of regional financial agglomeration (FA) on green development and the moderating role of green technology innovation. The results show that FA promotes local green development but inhibits the green development of neighboring areas. Because the polarization effect of the growth pole is greater than its dispersion effect, cities with high levels of FA have a strong “siphon effect” on the surrounding areas. Green technology innovation positively moderates the promoting effect of FA on green development; the higher the level of green technology innovation and the degree of emphasis on it, the stronger the promoting effect. The government should encourage green finance to promote green technology innovation and promote the green development of the regional economy. These findings provide new insights for developing countries to achieve sustainable development under environmental constraints.     

国家现代农业示范区创新发展模式研究

以北京市整建制推进国家现代农业示范区建设为背景,较为系统地总结了房山区在建设国家现代农业示范区过程中取得的明显成效。房山区创建了独具房山特色的“房山模式”,由6个子模式构成：特色产业支撑子模式、龙头企业带动子模式、休闲农园子模式、沟域经济子模式、农产品质量安全子模式和智慧农业子模式。在此基础上,总结了“房山模式”的典型经验,即因地制宜抓产业,夯实“房山模式”发展基础;政府重视出政策、扶持“房山模式”快发展;科技引领强内功、助推“房山模式”跨越式发展;体制机制求创新、为“房山模式”发展注入强劲动力;加强宣传与推介、提高“房山模式”影响力。概括提出了“房山模式”的六大特征：类型明确、业态丰富、功能多样、科技支撑有力、稳定性和动态性相结合、半开放性与开放性相结合。最后,提出了“房山模式”对北京市乃至全国现代农业示范区建设中的意义与作用,根据国家及北京市新形势、新目标、新定位,前瞻性地提出了未来“房山模式”发展的思路与设想。     

Challenging targets for future agriculture

This article points out the kinds of problems agriculture is facing, outlines and structures agricultural quality components and defined aims for them, discusses the shortcomings of organic farming, proposes some important research areas and presents an outlook. The quality components are a type of checklist of those factors that we should be aware of concerning protection of the environment, production of healthy food and the practice of good ethics. These components can be integrated into the general aims of sustainable agriculture. Many European and other countries focus on organic farming as a solution, but this approach is dangerous because it does not necessarily lead to a better environment or better food products. Concerning future agricultural research, the following issues are highly important: precision agriculture, low leaching cropping systems, management of soil biological processes and maximum recirculation. Finally, the article discusses some issues of future agriculture such as intensity, nutrient imbalances caused by regional farm specialisation, and the development of an agricultural quality assessment system.     

Optimization of differentiated regional land development patterns based on urban expansion simulation—A case in China

The advancing global urbanization puts great pressure on the society and ecosystem, especially in developing countries. Reasonable land-use policies adapted to local conditions are the key issues to prevent disordered urban expansion. Multi-scenario simulation provides a new perspective for differentiated policy formulation based on regional heterogeneity. Regarding the Shaanxi Province, a rapid urbanized area with high spatial heterogeneity in western China, as the study case, we tracked its past land-use changes and predicted the characteristics of urban expansion using the Future Urban-Regional Environment Simulation model. We found that (1) during the past 35 years, built-up land evidently increased accompanied by the loss of cropland, grassland, and unused land. (2) The urban expansion mainly will occur in the areas with flat terrain under three scenarios. (3) The urban expansion will transit into the “requiring land from mountains” pattern in the future, which means that it will gradually spread to areas with higher slopes. (4) Differentiated and optimal development patterns are proposed for different subregions by accounting the loss of ecosystem service in the procedure of urban expansion. This research can help local governments formulate differentiated future macro control of territorial spatial planning to optimize subregional land development.     

Spatial Divisions of Corporate Services Occupations in the United States, 1983–88

This article examines corporate services from a regional perspective, using the concept of “spatial divisions of labor.” We examine non-routine, control-related activity as well as routine activity, bridging the literatures on white- and pink-collar work. Using the Geographic Profile on Employment and Unemployment, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, we examine occupational data across the nine census divisions continuously from 1983 through 1988. This data source is unique because it reports on occupational data annually, in relatively disaggregate form, and does so by geographic regions. Location quotients for the occupational data serve to identify a “core” with respect to concentrations of control-related activity. This core comprises the New England, Middle Atlantic, and Pacific divisions. In contrast, routine activity generally is more dispersed, although some regional separation is evident for specific occupations, showing regional concentration in subordinate or “peripheral” regions. The results of the study identify regional patterns, which are heuristically valuable in raising questions regarding the complex processes responsible for spatial divisions of labor. In particular, the findings suggest a geography of modes of production, a subject that requires substantially more attention.     

Urban regeneration in urban functional areas in Poland as an instrument of implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy

This study examines the role of urban regeneration policies in planning and governance within urban functional areas (UFAs) in Poland, in the context of the EU Cohesion Policy (CP). The empirical part of this study is based on comparing the approaches adopted in two Polish regions: Pomerania and Silesia. We describe the first successes but also the bottlenecks of the process, from negotiations and programming up to the implementation of the first tranche of integrated projects. We consider the factors that strengthen planning and governance within UFAs, while simultaneously influencing the local development, and territorial impacts of the EU Cohesion Policy in the given regions. This study is based on interviews with national, regional, and local actors. It defines the role of urban regeneration policies in shaping local socio-economic and spatial development in these regions and identifies the conditions required for the implementation of urban regeneration in functional areas. We also draw lessons for the future CP programming period from the experience of Polish regions, among the main beneficiaries of the EU Cohesion Policy. By evaluating the influence of Cohesion Policy at different government levels, our study may influence the discourse on its future, particularly in the context of strengthening the cooperation and multilevel governance.