The Impact of Public Research Units on Regional Innovation Processes and Regional Economic Development

It is well-known today that innovation activities of private firms play a significant role for economic growth in less-developed regions. There are many studies on these interrelations and on explaining how regional innovation processes are working and which factors are important for them. However, some important questions have still not been completely answered by these studies. One of these questions is that of the role of public research units (PRU, which include publicly financed universities and research institutes) in the process of regional innovation. There have already been several studies on the economic impacts of selected PRU on economic growth. But it is not comprehensively answered so far to what extent the impact on economic growth of a PRU is concentrated on the region where the PRU itself is located. In other words: Whether the ”knowledge transfers offered by a PRU will have more effects on firms located nearby (at a small distance from the PRU) than on firms at other locations - or if other factors than spatial distance are more important for the decision of private firms to use knowledge transfers from certain PRU. The paper presents the results of a research project for answering this question for the case of the Halle region (= the southern part of the German Land Saxony-Anhalt). It is based on an empirical analysis (two postal surveys on PRU and on knowledge-based private firms) with a focus on the most important types of knowledge transfers. For those firms which are cooperating with PRU, if it is shown that spatial distance is an important factor, in the sense that firms which are located nearer to the PRU are cooperating more intensively with the PRU than firms which are located in other regions. But also important for the firms is the import of knowledge transfers from PRU which are located outside Saxony-Anhalt. With regard to the determining factors which are important for the spatial direction of knowledge transfers, it is shown that apart from spatial proximity, also various factors on the demand side may inhibit knowledge transfers. Therefore, for being effective, regional policy should also deal with the demand side (and not just with public research units) to create better conditions for knowledge transfers in structural weak regions.

Abschaffung der Gemeinschaftsaufgaben von Bund und Ländern

In der aktuellen Diskussion über die Reform der deutschen Finanzverfassung wird u.a. die Forderung erhoben, daß der Bund auf seine Beteiligung an den heutigen „Gemeinschaftsaufgaben von Bund und Ländern“ zukünftig verzichten sollte. Der Artikel geht den Fragen nach, welche Vorteile die Beteiligung des Bundes an den heutigen Gemeinschaftsaufgaben mit sich bringt, und welche dieser Vorteile auch mit anderen Regelungen erreicht werden könnten. In bezug auf einen Teil der heutigen Gemeinschaftsaufgaben gibt es durchaus plausible Argumente für eine Bundesbeteiligung; wenn diesen Argumenten ein hohes Gewicht zugebilligt werden soll, so müßte die Bundesbeteiligung für die betreffenden Aufgaben erhalten bleiben. Für die anderen Gemeinschaftsaufgaben läßt sich die Beteiligung des Bundes an der Aufgabengestaltung und -finanzierung demgegenüber heute nicht mehr überzeugend begründen. Allerdings müßten zur Abdeckung des gesamtstaatlichen Steuerungsbedarfs im Bereich dieser Aufgaben neue Institutionen geschaffen werden, wie etwa Verfahren zur Beihilfen-Kontrolle bei der regionalen Wirtschaftsförderung oder eine Ausweitung der originären Steuereinnahmen der Länder.

Kommunalfinanzen in Ostdeutschland – Entwicklung, strukturelle Probleme und mögliche Lösungsansätze –

Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung der Städte und Gemeinden in Ostdeutschland wird wesentlich von der Verfügbarkeit über finanzielle Ressourcen beeinflusst. Der vorliegende Beitrag geht den Fragen nach, inwieweit das kommunale Finanzsystem im Osten Deutschlands heute den Anforderungen entspricht, die aus der Sicht der Theorie des Fiskalföderalismus an ein funktionsfähiges kommunales Finanzsystem zu stellen sind, ob sich hinsichtlich des Erreichens der Anforderungen systematische Unterschiede zwischen Ost und West feststellen lassen und welche Veränderungen des Finanzsystems gegebenenfalls erfolgen sollten. Im Vergleich zu den Verhältnissen in West-deutschland sind die Grundprobleme der Kommunalfinanzen in den Neuen Ländern in den geringen Steuererträgen und in der flächendeckenden Zuweisungsabhängigkeit der Kommunen zu sehen. Es lässt sich vermuten, dass die hohen Zuweisungen teilweise nicht nur Folge der schwierigen wirtschaftlichen Lage sind, sondern ihrerseits auch zu einer ungünstigen wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung beitragen. Gerade für den geringen Beitrag der Steuern zu den kommunalen Haushalten, aber auch für andere Defizite der ostdeutschen Kommunalfinanzen spielen neben der wirtschaftlichen Situation auch institutionelle Aspekte eine Rolle, wie z. B. die gegenwärtigen Regelungen der Steueraufteilung zwischen Bund, Ländern und Kommunen oder die heutige Ausgestaltung der kommunalen Steuern. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist zu erwarten, dass sich ohne institutionelle Neuregelungen mittelfristig keine nachhaltige Verbesserung der kommunalen Finanzsituation in Ostdeutschland erreichen lässt. Insbesondere sollten die seit langem geforderten Reformen im Bereich der Gemeindesteuern umgesetzt werden; zudem spricht vieles dafür, auch für die Systeme des Kommunalen Finanzausgleichs (auf Länderebene) zu einer Neuordnung zu kommen.

IWH-Thesen zur regionalen Strukturpolitik der EU in der Diskussion - Bericht über einen Brüsseler Round Table on Regional Policy in Europe

Mit der EU-Osterweiterung wird eine Reform der EU-Regionalpolitik erforderlich sein. Für Deutschland und vor allem für die neuen Länder hat dies erhebliche Bedeutung, weil Ostdeutschland derzeit als sogenannte Ziel-1-Region die höchste Förderpriorität genießt. Das IWH hat Thesen zur Regionalpolitik in Europa vorgelegt, die bei der Auftaktveranstaltung eines Brüsseler „Round Table on Regional Policy in Europe“ präsentiert und diskutiert wurden.

The Pattern of Spatially Concentrated Industries in East Germany - A Contribution to the Discussion on Economic “Clusters“

Throughout the literature in regional economics, most authors agree that spatially concentrated industrial activities are important for regional economic growth. Agglomeration economies, which may occur in the context of spatial concentration and “clusters“, may lead to lower costs of production and may reduce transaction costs of all kind, e. g. information costs, including the costs for R&D activities. There is much less agreement on (and: knowledge about) the empirical identification of existing spatially concentrated economic activities in the real world. For the last decade, the discussion on spatial concentration has been dominated by praising the benefits of economic “clusters“. Many case studies on regions with economic “clusters“ are describing how the mechanisms of these specific “clusters“ work. But there have been only a few attempts, so far, to look at a greater region or even at an economy as a whole, in order to find out – with empirical data which allow to compare between the sub-regions – for all sub-regions what their specific „competences“ in the field of spatially concentrated industrial activities are and whether there is a typical spatial pattern of concentrated industrial activities. The proposed paper is presenting the empirical results of a study on spatially concentrated industries in the Eastern part of Germany, where the current regional policy scheme, which de facto follows the “watering can principle”, is under debate. In the first part of the paper, the possible dimensions and the “ingredients” of economic “clusters“ and industrial agglomerations will be discussed. One important dimension is the existence of intra-regional value-added chains for certain products. But, at the moment, it is not possible to identify such value-added chains by using existing empirical data at the more aggregated levels of an economy. Therefore, our study and the paper are concentrating on just three main dimensions of economic “clusters” and industrial agglomerations: (1.) Particular high spatial concentrations of certain industries are identified (based on employment data by NACE 2 digit level) for all East German counties. (2.) The existence of business networks (and their main characteristics, e. g. industry classification) in the East German regions is discovered by a broad exploration of internet sources and an inquiry among regional development agencies. (3.) Spatially concentrated innovation activities are recorded for each region by using data on patent applications (by IPC classes). It will be discussed in the paper what is implicated with these three dimensions and their operationalization with empirical data. Finally, the findings from the first three steps of research are synthesized for showing how sectoral concentration, business networking and innovation competencies in the individual regions are overlapping. The findings reveal that spatially concentrated industries are mainly located in and around the largest East German cities in Saxony and Thuringia, and in Berlin and its hinterland. In contrast, a number of less densely populated, rural or former industrialized areas in the northern and central parts of East Germany have no or only some elements of spatially concentrated industries. The presented method for identifying spatially concentrated industries could be applied to other regions and economies for bringing more light into the debate on economic “clusters“. With regard to regional policy in East Germany, one may conclude from our findings that the present use of the “watering can principle” had not been able to stimulate economic agglomerations in economically weak peripheral regions. It could be a better strategy to support the existing “clusters” and industrial agglomerations.

Sharing Competences: The Impact of Local Institutional Settings on Voter Turnout

Institutions are common predictors of voter turnout. Most research in this field focuses on cross-country comparisons of voting systems, like the impact of compulsory voting or registration systems. Fewer efforts have been devoted to understand the role of local institutions and their impact on political participation. Especially the impact of divided competences in relation to public good provision and its impact on voter turnout has been widely ignored. In the present paper, we analyze the effects of different institutional settings for inter-municipal cooperation on voter turnout. We use data from local elections in Germany, held in 2003 and 2004. Overall, we analyze aggregate voter turnout of 1661 municipalities and find strong evidence for our hypothesis that local institutional settings are influential in this context. Further, our results indicate that the better competences correspond to the spatial dimension of local public goods, the higher should be the voter turnout.voter turnout, local institutions, inter-municipal cooperation

The Impact of Public Research Units on Regional Innovation Processes and Regional Economic Development

It is well-known today that innovation activities of private firms play a significant role for economic growth in less-developed regions. There are many studies on these interrelations and on explaining how regional innovation processes are working and which factors are important for them. However, some important questions have still not been completely answered by these studies. One of these questions is that of the role of public research units (PRU, which include publicly financed universities and research institutes) in the process of regional innovation. There have already been several studies on the economic impacts of selected PRU on economic growth. But it is not comprehensively answered so far to what extent the impact on economic growth of a PRU is concentrated on the region where the PRU itself is located. In other words: Whether the ”knowledge transfers offered by a PRU will have more effects on firms located nearby (at a small distance from the PRU) than on firms at other locations - or if other factors than spatial distance are more important for the decision of private firms to use knowledge transfers from certain PRU. The paper presents the results of a research project for answering this question for the case of the Halle region (= the southern part of the German Land Saxony-Anhalt). It is based on an empirical analysis (two postal surveys on PRU and on knowledge-based private firms) with a focus on the most important types of knowledge transfers. For those firms which are cooperating with PRU, if it is shown that spatial distance is an important factor, in the sense that firms which are located nearer to the PRU are cooperating more intensively with the PRU than firms which are located in other regions. But also important for the firms is the import of knowledge transfers from PRU which are located outside Saxony-Anhalt. With regard to the determining factors which are important for the spatial direction of knowledge transfers, it is shown that apart from spatial proximity, also various factors on the demand side may inhibit knowledge transfers. Therefore, for being effective, regional policy should also deal with the demand side (and not just with public research units) to create better conditions for knowledge transfers in structural weak regions

Das Programm „Stadtumbau Ost“ und seine wirtschaftlichen Effekte für die beteiligten Städte

Political measures in the field of urban development have relevant impacts on the local and regional economy, for example on private investment, the value of real estate or the image of a city. An evaluation of national (federal) programs for the support of urban development would not be complete without considering these impacts. For the measures, which are supported by the federal program for support on “Urban Redevelopment in East Germany” (“Stadtumbau Ost”), the economic conditions of the supported cities have played, so far, only a minor role. One expression for this is that the measures for demolishing (“Rückbau”) were concentrated on quarters with prefabricated buildings. From the perspective of local and regional economic development, there have also been failures in the allocation of money for increasing the value of real estate (“Aufwertung”), as the article shows for the example of the state of Saxony.

Konsequenzen der EU-Erweiterung für die Regionalförderung in Ostdeutschland

Consequences of EU enlargement for regional policy in East Germany EU enlargement will change the status of regions currently assisted by EU regional policy. A number of regions will probably lose their status as “Objective 1 Region” and will hence have to exist without EU regional policy funding. Furthermore it has to be assumed that the EU will additionally reduce the maximal permitted regional aid rate for investment in the same regions. Most regions in the East German Länder will be affected by these changes. A “phasing out” of such Objective 1 Regions could ease the adjustment pressures. In anticipating to the probable reduction of the regional aid rate for investment, the development of infrastructure should already today be intensified in order to alleviate locational disadvantages as far as possible.