The geography of creative people in Germany

It has been argued that creativity is an important source of regional growth. This paper investigates the geography of people in creative occupation in Germany. The population share of the Creative Class as well as of bohemians and artists is relatively high in larger cities, but smaller places and rural regions may also have a considerable proportion of people with a creative job. While ethnical and cultural diversity and a high level of public supply in health care and education can explain the distribution of creative people, employment opportunities seem to play only a minor role. A high share of creative occupations seems to be conducive to regional growth; however, the exact nature of this relationship is still unclear

Entrepreneurship, entry and performance of new business compared in two growth regimes: East and West Germany

The paper provides an outline of the concept of regional growth regimes and empirically illustrates the relevance of the concept. The empirical examples are entrepreneurship, entry and the performance of new businesses in East and West Germany. The differences of the factors determining the formation of new businesses as well as their development between these two growth regimes are immense and clearly demonstrate the relevance of region specific factors. -- Der Aufsatz skizziert das Konzept regionaler Wachstumsregime und illustriert die Relevanz des Konzepts mit einem empirischen Beispiel. Als Beispiel dienen Entrepreneurship, Marktzutritt und Erfolg von neu gegründeten Betrieben in Ost- und Westdeutschland. Die Unterschiede hinsichtlich der Bestimmungsgründe von Gründungen als auch die Unterschiede ihrer Entwicklung sind immens und belegen klar die Relevanz von regionalspezifischen Faktoren.Growth regimes,new business formation,new business performance,location,regional influences,Wachstumsregime,Betriebsgründungen,Gründungserfolg,Standort,regionale Einflüsse

How and why does the efficiency of regional innovation systems differ?

Literature suggests that location should matter for R&D activities. However, attempts to empirically detect differences in innovation activity between regions have so far been rather unsuccessful. Using a unique data set which contains comparable information about manufacturing enterprises in eleven European regions, a number of significant regional differences in the efficiency of innovation activities can be found. This variation is in correspondence with a center-periphery pattern indicating that agglomeration economies are conducive to R&D activities. The paper investigates whether the differences in efficiency of regional innovation systems can be explained by differences in R&D-cooperation behavior. -- In der Literatur finden sich vielfältige Hinweise darauf, dass von den Standort-bedingungen ein Einfluss auf Innovationsaktivitäten ausgeht. Allerdings haben entsprechenden empirische Untersuchungen bisher nur recht schwache Evidenz hierzu erbracht. Auf der Grundlage von Daten über Industriebetriebe in elf eu-ropäischen Regionen können eine ganze Reihe von signifikanten interregiona-len Unterschieden hinsichtlich der Effizienz von Innovationsaktivitäten identi-fiziert werden. Dass diese Unterschiede tendenziell einem Zentrum-Peripherie-Muster entsprechen deutet darauf hin, dass für FuE-Aktivitäten bestimmte Ag-glomerationsvorteile bestehen. In dem Aufsatz wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwieweit die feststellbaren Unterschiede der Effizienz regionaler Innovations-systeme mit entsprechenden Unterschieden im Kooperationsverhalten erklärt werden können.Innovation,R&D productivity,R&D cooperation,regional innovation systems,knowledge production function,Innovation,FuE Produktivität,FuE Kooperation,Regionale Innovationssysteme,Wissensproduktionsfunktion

Does R&D-cooperation behavior differ between regions?

This paper investigates interregional differences in cooperative behavior of manufacturing establishments in the field of research and development (R&D). The empirical analysis for eleven European regions reveals a number of significant differences between these regions in the propensity to cooperate as well as with respect to the number of cooperation partners between the regions. -- Die Arbeit geht der Frage nach, inwiefern interregionale Unterschiede des Kooperationsverhaltens von Industriebetrieben auf dem Gebiet der Forschung und Entwicklung (FuE) bestehen. Die empirische Analyse für elf europäische Regionen ergibt eine Reihe an signifikanten Unterschieden zwischen diesen Regionen sowohl hinsichtlich der Kooperationsneigung als auch in Bezug auf die Anzahl der Kooperationspartner.Innovation,R&D-cooperation,regional innovation systems,Innovation,FuE-Kooperation,Regionale Innovationssysteme

Do regional systems of innovation matter?

The paper deals with the significant impact of location on innovation activity that has been found in many empirical studies. Main elements of such an explanation are the specific problems of a division of innovative labor. Based on an outline of these issues the concept of a regional innovation system is presented in some detail and an overview of results from recent research on regional innovation systems is given. The paper then discusses basic policy options and names a number of important questions for further research. -- Der Beitrag behandelt den Einfluss regionaler Gegebenheiten auf Innovationsakti-vitäten, wie er in diversen empirischen Studien nachgewiesen wurde. Ein wesentliches Element bei der Erklärung der Bedeutung von Standortgegebenheiten sind die besonde-ren Probleme der Arbeitsteiligkeit von Innovationsprozessen. Ausgehend von einem Abriss dieser Besonderheiten wird das Konzept des regionalen Innovationssystems er-läutert und ein Überblick über neuere Forschungsergebnisse gegeben. Schließlich wer-den grundlegende innovationspolitische Strategien diskutiert und wesentliche For-schungsfragen benannt.Innovation,regional innovation systems,division of innovative labor,clusters,technology policy,Innovation,regional innovation systems,division of innovative labor,clusters,technology policy

Contests for Cooperation: A New Approach in German Innovation Policy

A new approach in German innovation policy organizes contests of proposals for developing innovation networks. Based on an overview of the different programs, we investigate the advantages, problems and limitations of such an approach. We find that this type of policy may have a relatively large impact and can, therefore, be regarded as a rather efficient instrument of innovation policy. Compared to conventional policies, administration of the program is a much more critical issue. The contest approach may stimulate learning effects on the side of the administration but may also require a high degree of flexibility. The main disadvantage is the additional time that is required for conducting the contest. As a distinct "picking the winner" approach, the contest approach is not suited as a means for achieving a leveling-out of regional welfare levels. -- In einem neuen Ansatz der deutschen Innovationspolitik werden Wettbewerbe für Vorschläge zur Entwicklung von Innovationsnetzwerken organisiert. Ausgehend von einem Überblick über diese Programme diskutieren wir Vorteile, Nachteile und Grenzen dieses Ansatzes. Es zeigt sich, dass diese Art der Innovationsförderung große Wirkungen erzeugen kann und daher vermutlich effizienter ist, als andere Typen von Programmen. Im Vergleich zu konventionellen Formen der Innovationsförderung ist allerdings die Administration des Programms sehr viel anspruchsvoller. Der Wettbewerbs-Ansatz kann Lerneffekte der Administration stimulieren aber auch ein relativ hohes Maß an Flexibilität erfordern. Der wesentliche Nachteil ist die zusätzliche Zeit, die für die Durchführung des Wettbewerbs benötigt wird. Da ein Wettbewerb ein ausgesprochenes ?Pick the Winner?-Vefahren darstellt, ist dieser Ansatz für eine ausgleichsorientierte Regionalpolitik kaum geeignet.Innovationspolitik,Wettbewerb zwischen Regionen,Innovationsnetzwerke,Innovation policy,regional competition,innovation networks

The Distribution and Heterogeneity of Technical Efficiency within Industries: An Empirical Assessment

This paper analyzes the distribution of technical efficiency within manufacturing industries. Using a representative sample of 35,000 firms in 255 industries of the German cost structure census, technical efficiencies are estimated by applying a deterministic frontier production function with firmspecific fixed effects. A new measure is also introduced for characterizing the extent of heterogeneity within an industry that is robust with regard to extreme values of a few small firms. It was found that the level of intra-industry heterogeneity is mainly determined by an industries' average technical efficiency, average firm size, capital intensity and the rate of new firm formation. Most strikingly, we find that in about 95 percent of industries the distribution of technical efficiency is skewed to the right, not to the left as is commonly assumed.Technical efficiency; Heterogeneity; Deterministic production function frontier

Measuring the efficiency of regional innovation systems: an empirical assessment

We measure the efficiency of regional innovation systems (RIS) in Germany by means of a knowledge production function. This function relates private sector Research and Development (R&D) in a region to the number of inventions that have been registered by residents of that region. Two approaches are followed. First, it is assumed that differences in the productivity of private sector R&D between regions affect the slope of the KPF, which represents the marginal productivity of R&D input. The second approach assesses regional differences within the framework of a stochastic frontier knowledge production function. This approach mainly reveals differences with regard to the intercept of the knowledge production function and, therefore, with regard to the average productivity. We compare the results of both approaches and discuss a number of critical issues such as the properties of the distribution of efficiencies, the appropriate size of RIS, and how to deal with the issue of spatial autocorrelation. --Knowledge,innovation,spillovers,patents,regional analysis

Does Quality Make a Difference?: Employment Effects of High- and Low-Quality Start-Ups

This paper investigates the impact of new firms' quality on the magnitude of their employment effects. Our results clearly show that the quality of start-ups, measured by their affiliation with sectors and innovative industries, strongly influences the direct and the overall employment contribution of new firms. In particular, start-ups in manufacturing industries generate larger direct and overall growth effects than those in services. Moreover, new businesses in innovative manufacturing and in knowledge-intensive service industries make a larger direct contribution to employment than start-ups affiliated with other industries. We also find a relatively strong overall effect of new business formation in knowledge-intensive service industries. However, the impact of start-ups in innovative manufacturing industries on overall regional employment growth is not statistically significant, which may be mainly due to their rather small share in all start-ups and because they impact more on firms and employment in other regions than do start-ups in non-innovative manufacturing. Finally, we discuss the implications for entrepreneurship policy that can be derived from our findings.Entrepreneurship, new business formation, innovative industries, regional development, entrepreneurship policy