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Issue #16 April 1, 2001
Studies
& Publications: Editor's Pick | Innovation
Policy | Clusters | E-Commerce | University Research
Events
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This newsletter is published by ONRIS at the Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, and jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade and the Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology. The views and ideas expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Ontario Government.
Next issue: April 15, 2001
EDITOR'S PICK [Table of Contents]
INNOVATION & RELATED POLICY [Table of Contents]
Investment
and Productivity Growth: a Survey From the Neoclassical and New Growth
Perspectives
Kevin J. Stiroh,
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
This paper reviews the wide
literature on investment and productivity with the debate between the neoclassical
and the new growth theories providing a context for discussion. Both schools
of thought regard investment, broadly defined to include purchases of tangible
assets, human capital expenditures, research and development efforts, etc.,
as the fundamental source of improved productivity and economic growth,
but the two views diverge on the exact transmission mechanism. Most importantly,
the neoclassical framework focuses on internal returns to investors who
appropriate the benefits of new investment, while new growth models emphasize
external effects as productivity gains spill over to others. This crucial
dichotomy leads to differences regarding the role of investment as a source
of growth, policy prescriptions, and implications for long-run gains in
productivity and living standards. The paper then reviews several empirical
and conceptual issues relating to investment and productivity and outlines
areas for future research.
Economic
Report of the President
Council of Economic Advisors
This year's Economic Report
of the President, published in January, is a farewell to the Clinton Administration's
economic agenda, providing an overview of their economic strategy, and
a comprehensive analysis of America's economic performance and structural
changes that took place during their reign. The report is framed
within the language of the 'New Economy', with chapters explaining in detail
its creation and diffusion, its impact on living standards and the relation
of the New Economy to global trends.
Sectoral
Systems in Europe: Innovation, Competitiveness and Growth
Here is a collection of
papers on the Sectoral Systems in Europe, a project sponsored by the European
Commission, which encourages a systems perspective to analyze and compare
the salient features of six key sectoral systems in different European
countries in regard to innovation, competitiveness and growth. Among
the papers are: Sectoral
Systems of Innovation and Production (F. Malerba) National
Innovation Systems. A Critical Survey (, F. Montobbio), Geographical
Boundaries of Sectoral Systems (S. Breschi, F. Lissoni) and Distributed
Innovation Systems and Instituted Economic Processes (B. Andersen,
J.S. Metcalfe, B.S. Tether).
Tragedy
of the Public Knowledge 'Commons'? Global Science, Intellectual Property
and the Digital Technology Boomerang
Paul A. David
Radical legal innovations
in intellectual property protection introduced by the European Database
Directive of March 1996, may, according to David, seriously jeopardized
the conduct of open, collaborative science. "Over-fencing," which
is to say, the erection of artificial cost barriers to the production of
reliable public knowledge by means of reliable public knowledge, threatens
the future of "the public knowledge commons" that historically has proved
critically important for rapid advance in science and technology.
Such is the concern of David's paper which sets out the economic case for
the effectiveness of open, collaborative research, and the forces behind
the recent, countervailing rush to strengthen and expand the scope of intellectual
property rights protection. The discussion concludes by advancing
a number of modest remedial proposals that are intended to promote greater
efforts to arrive at satisfactory policy solutions for this aspect of "the
digital dilemma."
Creativity,
Innovation and Business Practices in the Matter of Knowledge Management
R. Landry, Université
Laval
This paper addresses one
question: Do business practices in the matter of knowledge management determine
creativity of manufacturing firms? To deal with this question, the
authors review the literature on innovation in order to see why creativity
and knowledge came to be added to the traditional explanatory variables
of innovation. The data used for this paper come from an innovation
survey administered from April to June 2000 to 440 manufacturing firms
of diverse industries in Montérégie, a region in the South-West
of Montréal.
CLUSTERS
AND LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT [Table
of Contents]
The
Greater Edmonton Competitiveness Strategy
This Greater Edmonton Competitiveness
Strategy has been developed and implemented by Economic Development Edmonton
(EDE) and its regional partners to ensure that the Edmonton region remains
strong for future generations. Comprising of four phases, the blueprint
focuses on strategies to promote regional clusters and develop important
flagship initiatives such as branding of the Edmonton area and developing
a leading research and development center.
E-COMMERCE [Table
of Contents]
UNIVERSITY
RESEARCH [Table
of Contents]
EVENTS [Table of Contents]
- The Implications of State
Universities' Claims to Immunity from Current Patent Law;
- Comparing Academic and
Industrial Perspectives on University Patenting and Licensing;
- Effects of Patenting and
Technology Transfer on Commercialization; and
- Effects of Patenting and
Licensing on Research.
CITO/OCRI
Techtalk Workshop: On Enhanced Services for Voice-over-IP
Ottawa, April 17, 2001
This TechTalk offers a selection
of experts from industry and academia who will explore how to get the most
out of Voice-over-IP by examining the issues surrounding the creation and
deployment of enhanced services. Shifting to Voice-over-IP (VoIP)
holds the promise of enhanced services that combine voice, data and even
video in ways that we have never been able to build easily. The potential
of "all IP, all the time" simplifies the management of media, but not necessarily
applications. The range of issues to consider runs the gamut from signaling
the VoIP network, to managing application features, user configurations,
and the impact on people and privacy.
Regionalism
in the European Union
Atlanta, April 20, 2001
The Regionalism Policy Network
of the European Union Center of Georgia invites proposals for papers to
be given at a multidisciplinary conference in Atlanta. The conference
will examine the impact of EU integration on regional patterns of political,
economic, and cultural development. Organizers especially welcome
papers addressing one or more of the following themes: promotion and defense
of regional political and cultural identities, EU regional policy to combat
economic and social disparities and cross-border, inter-regional cooperation
(development, commerce, environment).
Half
A Century High! IT @2001
Toronto, April 23-24,
2001
Building on the premise
that Canadian society is only now beginning to reap the productivity improvements
made possible by advances in computer/communications, this conference will
focus on developing technologies and the alternative futures they may enable.
Internationally known industry leaders, technologists and analysts will
be invited to speculate on the further development of information technology
and its potential role in the solution of current social problems of concern
to Canadians.
CITO
InnoTalk - E-Commerce Executive Tutorial: Internet Business in a Post Dot-Com
World
Toronto, April 26, 2001
This CITO InnoTalk offers
an intensive one-day review of the theory and practice of electronic commerce,
covering Web and wireless technology, process and market forces. This workshop,
aimed at business and technical managers who need a hype-free overview
of the field, will include case studies and demonstrations of state-of-the-art
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce systems.
Partners
2001 : Linking Education and the Local Economy
Winnipeg, April 26 -
28, 2001
Join over 400 leaders and
executives from education, business and government at the 12th Annual Partners
2001: Linking Education and the Local Economy Symposium and showcase.
Learn and share how to develop links and partnerships among business, education
and communities to ensure economic competitiveness, prosperity and community
development.
CITO/ToRCHI
InnoTalk: Universal Principles of Humane Interface Design
Toronto, May 14
Jef Raskin, father of Apple's
Macintosh computer, and more recently, author of the best selling book,
"The Humane Interface" will be exposing the flaws of computer-human interfaces
in a day long seminar. "While we have been mucking about with questions
of tailoring interfaces for this or that group and making ever more exotic
hardware and software widgets, " remarks Raskin " the ugly fact remains
that almost every computer-human interface is fundamentally flawed. We
are trying to repair cracks in the foundation by painting over them. It
is time to do things right from the ground up."
21st
century policies for sustainable technological innovation: The role of
STS higher education
Oslo, Norway, May 20-21,
2001
Organised by the Centre
for Technology, Innovation and Culture (T.I.K.), University of Oslo, this
will be the fourth and final international conference organised as part
of the European POSTI project: "Policies for Sustainable Technological
Innovation in the 21st Century". The conference will deal with two different
concepts of innovation: sustainability-related objectives and measures
incorporated in innovation processes or outputs and, innovation processes
or outputs which aim directly at improving the present or future quality
of the environment, in a broad sense.
Strategic
Alliances 2001 Conference: Strategy and Partnering Tools
Ottawa, May 30-31, 2001
This conference will give
business leaders the unique opportunity to hear how to form alliances that
stimulate growth and, find out the value of having a clear view of what
kinds of alliances should be pursued to leverage specific strengths,
execute growth strategies or fill capability gaps. Also, case studies
are discussed that explore the pitfalls and benefits of alliances
Nelson
and Winter Conference
Aalborg, Denmark,
June 12-15, 2001
To commemorate the 20 years
since Dick Nelson and Sid Winter published their seminal book An Evolutionary
Theory of Economic Change DRUID (Danish Research Unit of Industrial Dynamics),
in collaboration with the journals Research Policy and Industrial and Corporate
has organized this conference to address six main themes. These include,
'Growth, Development and
Structural Change', 'National Systems of Innovation, Institutions and Public
Policies' and, the 'Production and Use of Knowledge.'
The
5th International Conference on Technology, Policy and Innovation
The Hague, Netherlands
Congress Centre, June 26-29, 2001
Theme: Critical Infrastructures
The conference focuses on
infrastructures such as those enabling transportation of goods and people,
telecommunications, and the supply and distribution of energy and water
have become vital to the daily functioning and security of society.
Proposals are invited for workshops or presentations dealing with vulnerability,
institutional management, historical lessons, innovation, and methodologies
for interdisciplinary analysis and design, all related to critical infrastructures.
WILL YOU BE ONE OF OUR REGIONAL REPORTERS? [Table of Contents]
SUBSCRIPTIONS
& COMMENTS [Table
of Contents]
This newsletter is prepared
by Tijs Creutzberg.
Project manager is David
A. Wolfe.
