News from the IPL
INTRODUCTION
This newsletter is published by The Innovation Policy Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, and sponsored by the Ministry of Research and Innovation. The views and ideas expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Ontario Government.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
I-CUBE an On-Campus Accelerator Opens at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto Mississauga
I-CUBE, a new accelerator designed to help student entrepreneurs take a new product or process to market, opened today at the University of Toronto Mississauga. The accelerator, housed within the Institute for Management & Innovation (IMI) in the Innovation Complex, was established with $110,000 of U of T’s $3 million in funding from the Government of Ontario through Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), a member of Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs (ONE).
Editor's Pick
World Cities and Nation States: Promoting a New Deal for the 21st Century
Greg Clark and Tim Moonen, Moscow Urban Forum
This report explores this new ground in examining the different ways that world cities and nation states are contributing to each other’s shared success. Each city’s organizational and legal framework is different and complex, and the range of institutional dynamics in the world’s major cities has not been analysed in this way before. The report draws on the latest practical experience of 12 cities around the world to identify the trends and innovations in relations between central governments, state or provincial governments, and their main international gateway city. Using a combination of local and global expertise, it identifies recent innovations and good practice in governance, communication, investment and planning between different tiers of government. It will also pinpoint the future potential for nation states to leverage their world city to achieve mutually beneficial national outcomes.
Innovation Policy
U15
To prosper in this dynamic global economic environment, Canada must aggressively develop new long-term competitive advantages. In a world where innovative techniques, technologies and businesses created anywhere disrupt markets everywhere, the country can protect and enhance its economy and quality of life only by turning its innovation ecosystem into its core competitive advantage.
America’s Advanced Industries: What They Are, Where They Are, and Why They Matter
The Brookings Institution
The need for economic renewal in the United States remains urgent. Years of disappointing job growth and stagnant incomes for the majority of workers have left the nation shaken and frustrated. At the same time, astonishing new technologies—ranging from advanced robotics and “3-D printing” to the “digitization of everything”—are provoking genuine excitement even as they make it hard to see where things are going. This report asserts the special importance to America’s future of what the paper calls America’s “advanced industries” sector.
Christian Reimsbach-Kounatze, OECD
This working paper describes the potential of the proliferation of new sources of large volumes of data, sometimes also referred to as “big data”, for informing policy making in several areas. It also outlines the challenges that the proliferation of data raises for the production of official statistics and for statistical policies.
Cities, Clusters & Regions
The Buffalo Billion at 3: A Conversation with NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Howard Zemsky
The Brookings Institution
Three years ago, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo surprised his state with an ambitious commitment: $1 billion to restore the greater Buffalo economy over 10 years. The vision and selection of investments for the “Buffalo Billion” has been led by local leaders, in partnership with the state and building on work by Western New York’s Regional Economic Development Council. Over the last three years, the Buffalo Billion effort is proving to be distinctly different both in process and plan. Informed by a data-intensive regional strategy, the Buffalo-Niagara area is now benefiting from a series of highly coordinated and targeted investments in the assets that make this market unique: the concentration of biomedical expertise, the falls, water and historic assets in and near downtown, and the advanced production industries that power high-quality, long-term growth. This conversation explores progress and lessons learned to date.
The Geography of the UK’s Creative and High-Tech Economies
Hasan Bakhshi, John Davies, Alan Freeman and Peter Higgs, NESTA
Echoing Nesta’s previous research findings using business registry data, the authors detect strong tendencies for creative and high–tech employment to co–locate. The creative economy is, however, less equally distributed across the UK, with London being more prominent than it is in the UK’s high–tech economy. There is some evidence though of a slight catch up since 2011 as London’s creative economy workforce has grown more slowly than most parts of the country.
Statistics & Indicators
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: 2014 Global Report
GEM Consortium
The GEM 2014 Global Report finds that high levels of entrepreneurial optimism, ambition and innovation are vital to advancing economies. The report also finds that entrepreneurship worldwide has recovered from The Great Recession.
Policy Digest
Tax Incentive Programs: Evaluate Today, Improve Tomorrow
The Pew Charitable Trusts
From 2012 to 2014, 10 states and the District of Columbia passed laws that will require regular evaluation of economic development tax incentives or will improve existing evaluation processes. These laws stand to provide lawmakers with hard evidence on the outcomes of their incentives, information they can use to shape policies that obtain the best possible results for the states’ taxpayers and economies. A number of additional states are considering similar actions. This issue brief advises states on how to design and implement these laws, so that tax incentives are evaluated regularly and rigorously and so that lawmakers can use the findings to improve economic development policy. Building on the best practices developed in the 11 jurisdictions and elsewhere, the recommendations focus on three steps states should take to improve the accountability and performance of their tax incentives.
1. Make a plan: Determine who will evaluate, when, and how:
- Ensure that incentives are regularly and rigorously reviewed;
- Establish a strategic schedule;
- Assign responsibilities for evaluation;
- Identify clear, measurable goals for each incentive;
- Access reliable and relevant data;
- Ensure that future incentives will be evaluated effectively.
2. Measure the impact: Assess the results for the state’s economy and budget:
- Select metrics to determine how well incentives are working;
- Develop a reasonable time frame for analysis;
- Consider cause and effect;
- Estimate net effects;
- Compare the results with other economic development strategies.
3. Inform policy choices: Build evaluation into policy and budget deliberations:
- Identify opportunities for improvement;
- Encourage lawmakers to regularly review incentives.
Conclusions
Policymakers want tax incentives to provide the best possible outcomes for states’ economies and budgets. For that reason, measuring the results of these programs is critical. Doing so involves three steps: creating an evaluation plan, measuring incentives’ impact, and connecting the results to the policymaking process. When states have taken these actions, they have been able to identify what is working and what is not. Then, lawmakers have succeeded in using that information to improve the effectiveness of their incentives. In this way, regular, rigorous, policy-relevant evaluations of tax incentives stand to make states more economically prosperous and fiscally sound, to the benefit of businesses, workers, and taxpayers.
Events
Broadbent Institute Progress Summit 2015: Building a Better Canada 
Ottawa, 26-28 March, 2015
The Broadbent Institute is holding its second annual Progress Summit 2015 in Ottawa from March 26 to 28 — bringing together an exciting group of progressive minds, influential thinkers, policy experts, and organizers to help build a better Canada. A special training day is also being held to teach progressive organizers cutting-edge campaign strategies.
Toronto, 21 April, 2015
Global connectivity is the fundamental challenge of our generation. Gain insight into the future made possible through digital infrastructure. Speakers include: Kristina Verner is the director of intelligent communities for Waterfront Toronto, where she is responsible for a variety of strategic initiatives for one of the world’s pre-eminent intelligent communities. John Helliker is the director of strategic partnerships and the Screen Industries Research and Training Centre at Sheridan College. Glenn Smith, P.Eng., draws on over 20 years of experience in broad business, technology development and commercialization with leadership roles in two University of Waterloo spinoff companies as well as Centres of Excellence in commercialization. Campbell Patterson is the founding partner of CP Communications (CPC). Campbell’s extensive career has seen him as a vice president of J. Walter Thompson Advertising and McDonald’s Restaurants licensee. Anita Simpsonis a superintendent of education for program and innovation with the Simcoe County District School Board. She is also the Canadian Cluster lead for New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NPDL), an international learning lab involving 10 countries and 1,000 schools from around the world.
Delivering Smart Specialization and Economic Transformation Through Clusters
Brussels, Belgium, 27-28 April, 2015
The emphasis on economic transformation and on building interregional value chains calls for a new generation of cluster policy approaches. Clusters can be key delivery instruments for national and regional smart specialisation strategies, internal market, re-industrialisation and SME policy. Using interactive formats, this conference will provide a unique opportunity for regional policy makers and cluster actors to share experiences on how smart specialization strategies and clusters can help transform your region and drive growth. Building upon success stories and innovative practices, participants will learn about novel ways of implementing smart specialisation through cluster-based activities and cross-clustering actions. They will also have the chance to explore new partnerships for joint activities in the context of the new generation of European programmes such as ERDF, COSME and Horizon2020. This is an event jointly organised by DGs GROW and REGIO of the European Commission
The Organization, Economics and Policy of Scientific Research
Torino, Italy, 11-12 May, 2015
LEI & BRICK with financial support from the Collegio Carlo Alberto are organizing their annual workshop on “The Organization, Economics and Policy of Scientific Research”. The aim of the workshop is to bring together a small group of scholars interested in the analysis of the production and diffusion of scientific research from an economics, historical, organizational, and policy perspective. The deadline for paper submission is January 31, 2015.
The Global City, Past and Present
St. Andrews, Scotland, 14-15 May, 2015
This first Call for Papers invites submissions from scholars of all humanities and social science disciplines working on the issue of “Space” in the early modern colonial city and its modern descendants. At the intersection of empires, cultures, and economies, urban spaces and structures were, and continue to be, shaped by the cities’ global connections. Through an exploration of all aspects of the urban built environment, the workshop will start a conversation between scholars working on the spatial characteristics of those cities that first rose to prominence in the early modern imperial world.
Tech Leadership Conference: What Worked Yesterday is Obsolete Tomorrow
Kitchener, 28 May, 2015
Tech and society change quickly. The best business ideas can be outdated in months. To stay on top today takes visioneering: the process of building a dream into a workable application. Communitech’s Tech Leadership Conference is the largest annual all-day gathering of tech decision makers in Waterloo Region. It’s about creating market expectations and establishing the region as the best place on the planet for tech companies to start, grow and succeed. On May 28, gain insights from renowned keynotes and take part in sessions led by industry experts.
DRUID 15 – The Relevance of Innovation
Rome, Italy, 15-17 June, 2015
Since 1995 DRUID has become one of the world’s premier academic conferences on innovation and the dynamics of structural and geographic change. Presenting distinguished plenary speakers, a range of parallel paper sessions, and a highly attractive social program, the conference aims at mapping theoretical, empirical and methodological advances, and contributing novel insights.
Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy
Atlanta, Georgia, 17-19 September, 2015
The Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy provides a showcase for the highest quality scholarship addressing the multidimensional challenges and interrelated characteristics of science and innovation policy and processes. The conference attracts over 300 researchers from more than 35 countries and includes a series of plenary talks; parallel paper sessions to discuss ongoing research; and a young researcher poster competition. Next year’s session will explore the research front addressing the broad range of issues central to the structure, function, performance and outcomes of the science and innovation enterprises.
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This newsletter is prepared by Jen Nelles.
Project manager is David A. Wolfe.