Role of Networking in Innovation Promotion and Cluster Modernization: “House of the Future” Case

This paper stresses the potential of innovative business cooperation networks in promoting regional competitiveness. It is based on the case study of a cooperation network, named “House of the Future”, carried out in the framework of a project where the University of Aveiro has an important role. It suggests success factors in the development of co-operation networks between firms from various sectors and a university. The aim of the “House of the Future” initiative is to promote an innovative approach to inter-organizational cooperation joining together firms from a number of different industrial activities related with the habitat meta-sector. This collaborative effort can function as an experiment for the design of regional innovation policies.

Competitiveness and Public-Private Partnerships: Towards a More Decentralised Policy

In this contribution, we analyse the pattern of the so-called PIP (Partnerships and Public Initiatives) that have been approved between 2000 and mid-2003 in the POE1 framework. In particular, we will evaluate the extent of decentralisation that this new instrument has generated in competitiveness policy. Partnership approaches are a relatively recent phenomenon, but partnerships have received widespread attention and support from economic and political agents, including policy makers at national, regional and local levels. In fact, the term “public-private partnership” covers a wide range of concepts and practices. In our contribution, we will focus on partnerships in a competitiveness policy framework. In a first section, we discuss briefly the meaning and the extent of what we call competitiveness policy. Then, in a second section, we focus our attention in public-private partnerships as a specific instrument for policy. In particular, we make a first assessment on the distinctive principles that differentiate public-private partnerships from more traditional instruments such as direct investment in public agencies or direct subventions to firms. We follow the perspective that these principles, mainly decentralization of policy, may contribute to a greater effectiveness of policy, because a more decentralised policy is supposed to increase focus and accountability and to involve agencies with specialized skills and a more narrow range of objectives. But, also, we will refer that some inefficiencies and some lack of equity may arise from the use of private-public partnerships instrument. Finally, in the main section of this contribution, we will analyse the above-mentioned questions considering the case of the 131 PIP projects approved and financed by the POE between 2000 and mid-2003. As the major part of the variables used are nominal, and in order to define the decentralization pattern induced by this new instrument, we will use multivariate data analysis techniques in order to establish associations between several variables linked to decentralisation criteria and, also, to identify clusters of projects.

REFORMING THE CAP: AN AGENDA FOR REGIONAL GROWTH?

This paper aims at analysing the recent CAP reform from the perspective of the current general and strategic objectives of the EU as defined by the Lisbon Strategy. A critical appraisal of the CAP impact in terms of regional growth is carried out. Firstly from a strictly conceptual and methodological point of view, then by analysing more in detail how CAP reform (of both Pillar I and II) might have actually affected the role of the CAP in promoting (or hindering) regional growth and, therefore, convergence. Empirical evidence provided by the different available methodologies has progressively emerged in the very last years. Though a conclusive answer on the impact of the reform can not be drawn, it still emerges that the role of CAP design and implementation in affecting regional growth and convergence is usually underestimated and often neglected in the discussions about the future of the CAP. At the same time, however, this role is not univocal and strongly case-specific, as it substantially differs across regions according to their socio-economic structure and how reforms are jointly implemented.Common Agricultural Policy, Regional Growth and Convergence, Lisbon Strategy, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Q180, R110, O410,

Population, health, and nutrition : fiscal 1991 sector review

The theme of this year's annual sector review blends two special topics: poverty alleviation and the development of management and institutional capacity. Based on a review of project experience, both within and outside of the population, health and nutrition (PHN) sector, this report distills lessons that should assist task managers in the design and implementation of interventions to develop poverty-sensitive management and institutional capacity in the PHN sector. The Bank's ability to strengthen institutions, especially those needed to alleviate poverty, are constrained by the number and the skills mix of PHN staff, by the absence of standards and guidelines for analyzing and addressing institutional and management issues, and by too little time to spend on institutional and management issues. Therefore, the sector review recommends : a) improving the sector staff not only in numbers but in access to guidelines and training; b) revising Bank priorities and practices to ensure that enough time is spent on supervision and on upstream diagnostic work; c) grounding PHN policies in a macroeconomic and multisectoral framework oriented toward growth with poverty reduction, together with a sound strategy for building institutions and the capacity to implement and manage policy; and d) seeking more creative use of Bank instruments through a review and assessment of the best use of lending instruments for PHN sector interventions.Banks&Banking Reform,Poverty Assessment,Urban Services to the Poor,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Economics&Finance

Competitiveness and Public-Private Partnerships: Towards a More Decentralised Policy

Public-private partnerships are a recent instrument for social and economic development policies. A more decentralised policy is supposed to increase focus and effectiveness and to involve agencies that are closer to firms and that have a more narrow range of objectives. In this contribution, we analyse the pattern of the so-called PIP (Partnerships and Public Initiatives) projects, approved between 2000 and the 30th June of 2003 in the framework of the Portuguese Operational Program for the Economy. By using HOMALS and K-means cluster analysis, we were able to characterise the decentralisation pattern and to identify typical clusters for the PIP projects. The results show clearly that a greater decentralisation is linked to partnerships while public initiatives are closer to the conventional pattern of public intervention. The results also show that partnerships are mainly focused in specific sectors and / or in specific regions, being conducted by private agencies that have chiefly a sectoral or regional nature. However, we have observed a trade-off between policy decentralization and structural change goals because decentralization has originated a bias towards the present more representative sectors. Also, decentralization has generated an extremely unequal access of local economies to the PIP instrument, favoring the more developed areas of the country.Public-private partnerships; Competitiveness policy; Decentralization

Multisectoral Initiatives, Sectoral Inertia: A Dilemma of Governance for Development Policy-makers

The opinion of development professionals at home and abroad has converged on the point that bad governance lies at the root of the loss of the momentum of economic growth, increasing poverty and failed investment in social sectors. Early concern of development economists with market failure brought in the arguments for the role of government. Government failure was the dominant issue of the eighties. The last decade of the twentieth century is witnessing a focus on governance failure, a broader concept in that the government is not viewed as the only governing entity. This paper addresses an issue which has been there during the reigns of all these “failure” paradigms. It arises from the inability of governments, organised traditionally into the vertically operating line departments, to deal effectively with multisectoral or cross-sectoral problems and cross-cutting issues. The paper traces the evolution of multisectoral issues and looks at the standard approach of treating multisectoral initiatives as a horizontally fathomed coordination problem to show that it has been an unmitigated disaster. It argues that the multisectoral issues can be better addressed by internalising the elements of coordination, particularly in social sectors, though there have been situations which raise questions about this approach as well. The large majority of the newly emergent nations of the postwar world adopted a planned course of development, some impressed by the high industrial growth achieved by the Soviet Union and others convinced by the analytical case for overcoming the market imperfections.

Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, and Nutrition in Bangladesh: Can Building Toilets Affect Children's Growth?

This report provides a systematic review of the evidence to date, both published and grey literature, on the relationship between water and sanitation and nutrition. It also examines the potential impact of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) on undernutrition. This is the first report that undertakes a thorough review and discussion of WASH and nutrition in Bangladesh

Resources and Technologies

This Working Paper joint two previous articles by the authors: The economic theory of exhaustible natural resources, in “Enciclopedia degli Idrocarburi”, vol. IV, Istituto della Enciclopedia Treccani, Roma, 2008, pp. 3-10;Technological innovation, relative scarcity, investments, in “Enciclopedia degli Idrocarburi”, vol. IV, Istituto della Enciclopedia Treccani, 2008, pp. 11-22. In the first one (cap. 1-4), we consider the contribution of economic theory (partly through a reevaluation of history) in order both to interpret and predict events, and to identify economic policies; this happens especially when the world economy feels the significant constraints imposed by some natural resources and raw materials, partly due to the rapid growth of a number of developing countries, and when there is an urgent need to increase resources rapidly to ensure continuing availability. Even if the problem of scarce resources (of which natural resources are the most obvious category) has been central to analysis for centuries, natural resource economics is contradictory. The main reason for this is that economic theory is out of step with prevailing economic conditions, as a consequence of the varying concern for a crucial phenomenon in the dynamics of economic systems: the opposition-coexistence of the scarcity of natural resources and the producibility of commodities. Natural resource economics can be summarized by dividing it into three main lines of thought: the theory of producibility and scarcity developed by classical economists; the theory of general and natural scarcities developed by marginalists and neoclassicals; the theory of dynamics with and without natural scarcities developed by macroeconomists, structuralists and empirical stylizers. Using this three-way subdivision, which is not clearly codified in economic theory, the basic features of each approach will be examined with special attention to its early exponents. The historical starting point is the second half of the Eighteenth century, although we will ignore contributions such as those made by the Physiocrats who, during the same period, developed a theory of production based on the surplus generated by agriculture. In the second one (cap. 5-6), we consider that the role of technological innovation for resources use and conservation is often measured by empirical indicators of intensity or efficiency which express the evolution of resource use in relation to variables such as population and GDP. The historical evolution of these indicators tends to indicate a process of decoupling – in other words, a decrease in the energy/emissions intensity of economic activity or an increase in the efficiency/productivity of resource use. These empirical regularities have led to the proposition of stylized facts representing the relationships between resource-use efficiency and economic growth known as environmental Kuznets curves. However, the economic interpretations of the innovation mechanisms underlying the progress suggested by efficiency indicators, nonetheless, remain open and complex at the very time when there is increasing demand for further substantial advances in resource-use efficiency. We will survey the empirical evidence on the medium- and long-term dynamics of these indicators and will discuss their significance. This will be followed by an analysis of the possible role played by economic factors (especially resource prices and markets) and institutional factors (especially climate policy) in triggering and supporting progress in the use efficiency of energy resources.natural resources; technological innovation; relative scarcity; investments