Production and transfer of academic knowledge: policy targets and implications for the health industry.

The article deals with the relation between academic research and industrial development taking into particular consideration the health-related sectors. International experiences are analysed

"L'industria della salute\u201d : oltre il contenimento dei costi

Health systems in wealthy industrialized countries vary considerably. The most visible differences are in their structure, including the size and form of government activity, and the size of their national wealth allocated to health care. More subtle, but equally important, are differences in the level of research and development (R&D) and adoption of new technology that characterize each system. How do we explain these differences in the rates of technological innovation? And if a country desires to increase the level of R&D in its health industry, what industrial policies might it use to accomplish this goal? In this paper we explore these issues by developing a new perspective for viewing the health sector - one that considers the health system as more than an enterprise that produces health, but as a collection of industries that also produces scientific breakthroughs and spillovers and attempts to capture world-wide markets for health services and products

Small and medium-size firms in high technology industries: The experience of biotechnology firms in the United States

Many nations and regions throughout the world are attempting to promote development of high-technology industries. Firms in hightechnology industries tend to be small and medium-sized, suggesting that industrial policy toward this sector might optimally be different from policies that would be directed toward firms in other industries and sectors. In industrialized economies high-technology industries are considered desirable because it is hoped that they will protect economies from challenges of international trade and employment migration. In addition, research suggests that high-technology industries tend to create positive externalities and support for one another. Conversely, a decline in one of these industries (e.g. biotech) is often associated with declines in others (e.g. computer chips and genetics). In developing economies the benefits of successful hi-tech industries are similar. In addition, development of these industries may attract relatively high-wage jobs from industrialized countries through outsourcing, and also may help retain the country’s brightest people and prevent human capital outflows – the ‘brain drain’. These justifications for promoting hi-tech industries explain why development policy toward hi-tech industries exists in countries that span a wide income range. Industrial policy directed at this sector is likely to be different, however, in the wealthiest and industrialized countries, from those in countries that are less affluent. These economic spillovers have two implications. The first is that these firms tend to locate near one another in multi-industrial clusters, as they attempt to take advantage of economies of agglomeration. The second is that growth in one hi-tech industry may stimulate growth in other hi-tech industries, and that successful growth in these industries has a synergistic effect, reflecting back upon all industries to increase innovation. Many of our observations pertain to high-technology industries in general, but we look especially at the experience of one particular industry, biotechnology. This chapter draws from analyses that we have done on the biotechnology industry in the United States. We will highlight areas in which the experience of biotech in the United States is likely to be generalizable to other industries and other countries, and also areas where this experience may not be so generalizable. This chapter will focus on three issues. (a) First, we discuss the comparative size of hi-tech firms. In doing so, we will attempt to better understand why it is that biotechnology and other hi-tech firms tend to be smaller than firms in other industries. A better understanding of the reasons for relatively small firm size will suggest more appropriate policies that might be undertaken in order to promote hi-tech industries. (b) Next, we discuss the clustering phenomenon of hi-tech firms. At first glance, it appears to some that hi-tech clusters are an anomaly, because many characteristics of hi-tech industries, including biotech, have been thought to be inconsistent with the explanations that have been offered for clustering behavior in older, more traditional industries. (c) We conclude with observations on industrial policy toward hightechnology industries and especially biotechnology. We will attempt to differentiate between industrial policies that are likely to be most effective in industrialized countries, and those that might be best adapted to less industrialized countries and regions. We will draw from our observations on firm size, the unique nature of the firms’ knowledge base, and the phenomenon of clustering to point out industrial policies that are best suited to this unique group of industries

The Health Industry Model: New Roles for the Health Industry

There is wide variation in technological development and innovative capabilities of industrialized countries. What explains these differences in the pace of innovation and dissemination of new scientific knowledge?What are the policy actions that might be undertaken if governments wanted to stimulate technological innovation?To what extent are these actions consistent with traditional health policy approaches?Can the health industry be used as a leading sector, stimulating other high-tech industries? In this paper we suggest that answers to these complex questions can be suggested by seeing the health care sector from a new perspective

Nuovi percorsi di sviluppo per l’industria italiana. Può "the Health Industry" contribuire al cambiamento?

Per secoli i paesi industrializzati hanno fatto ricorso all’intervento del governo per rafforzare e guidare le proprie economie. Uno dei più convinti sostenitori del potere dell’intervento statale negli affari economici era il Ministro delle Finanze francese durante Re Luigi XIV, Jean Baptiste Col-bert (1619-1683). Colbert promosse in particolare la dottrina mercantilista volta ad incoraggiare un’economia orientata alle esportazioni. Utilizzando incentivi finanziari e investimenti in infrastrutture, è riuscito a sviluppare un’industria nazionale competitiva incoraggiando percorsi commerciali che hanno favorito gli interessi francesi. Il mondo d’oggi è molto diverso da quello di Colbert, ma la crisi economica del 2009 dimostra che i governi hanno ancora molto da imparare riguardo a come adattarsi a condizioni in rapido mutamento definendo le proprie strategie di politica industriale. Cosa può fare il governo per fornire risposte appropriate alla crisi attuale? Più in generale, quali azioni possono intraprendere i paesi per favorire il proprio sviluppo industriale? Cosa possono fare le nazioni avanzate a fronte della crescente capacità dei paesi in via di sviluppo di acquisire capacità produttiva ed occupazione? Esistono modi per proteggere i paesi ad industrializzazione consolidata dalle minacce di perdite occupazionali e declino industriale? Queste azioni sono in li-nea con i limiti regolatori imposti dalle organizzazioni multinazionali e dalle istituzioni internazionali come l’Unione Europea e il WTO (World Trade Organization)? Questo capitolo si concentra sul caso italiano e suggerisce che, data la struttura dell’industria nazionale, il governo potrebbe giovare un ruolo importante nella promozione di settori manifatturieri ad alta intensità di conoscienza e nello sviluppo del settore terziario. Sia il settore dei servizi che quello manifatturiero ad alta intensità tecnologica sembrano intersecarsi in un punto specifico, ossia l’industria della salute (Schweitzer e Di Tommaso, 2005). Per questa ragione, dopo un’analisi dei cambiamenti nelle specializzazioni industriali dell’Italia e dei suoi principali concorrenti, questo capitolo si concentra sui potenziali benefici che potrebbero derivare all’economia nazionale da un’espansione dell’industria della salute italiana. La domanda che ci poniamo è la seguente: dato il bisogno di incoraggiare un progressivo cambiamento strutturale, l’industria della salute italiana potrebbe guidare tale cambiamento

The Geography of Intangibles: the case of the Health Industry

Industrial policy for the promotion of high-tech sectors is desirable under certain circumstances. In particular this could be the case for health care-related sectors, which are usually characterized by advanced technological content. Furthemore traditional industrial policy objectives applied to health sectors can be useful in the light of a new approach to health care policy. According to Di Tommaso and Schweitzer, traditional health policies, focused only on cost containment, should be replaced by more comprehensive policies, considering health care expenditures not just as a cost, but as an investment that can have remarkable returns in terms of innovation, employment and trade. In this view, health care is considered as a broad industrial sector

The Health Industry Model: New Roles for the Health Industry

There is wide variation in technological development and innovative capabilities of industrialized countries. What explains these differences in the pace of innovation and dissemination of new scientific knowledge?What are the policy actions that might be undertaken if governments wanted to stimulate technological innovation?To what extent are these actions consistent with traditional health policy approaches?Can the health industry be used as a leading sector, stimulating other high-tech industries? In this paper we suggest that answers to these complex questions can be suggested by seeing the health care sector from a new perspective

Chinese demand for health and business opportunities for Western medicine industries. How industrial policy might encourage the link

The analysis starts from the recognition of the difficulties that both Europe and the US are facing in dealing with the current economic crisis and of the emergence of a new middle class in China with increasing needs in terms of welfare. This paper suggests that the exportation of high-quality, health-related goods and services from the West to China could represent a possible way to support knowledge-intensive sectors in Europe and the US on one side, while allowing a growing part of the Chinese population to access advanced health goods and services on the other. In terms of industrial policy, this means to facilitate the destruction of barriers to entry in the China market (unfair competition, predominance of traditional Chinese medicine and producer-consumer information asymmetries) but also the creation or the enforcement of innovation networks that are a pre-requisite to maintain a high quality level in the production of Western Medicine products and services