The IPL newsletter: Volume 12, Issue 238

Sizing the Clean Economy: A National and Regional Green Jobs Assessment

Mark Muro, Jonathan Rothwell and Devashree Saha, The Brookings Institution
The “green” or “clean” or low-carbon economy—defined as the sector of the economy that produces goods and services with an environmental benefit—remains at once a compelling aspiration and an enigma. As a matter of aspiration, no swath of the economy has been more widely celebrated as a source of economic renewal and potential job creation. Yet, the clean economy remains an enigma: hard to assess. Not only do “green” or “clean” activities and jobs related to environmental aims pervade all sectors of the U.S. economy; they also remain tricky to define and isolate—and count. The measurements, trends, and discussions offered here provide an encouraging but also challenging assessment of the ongoing development of the clean economy in the United States and its regions. In many respects, the analysis warrants excitement. As the nation continues to search for new sources of high-quality growth, the present findings depict a sizable and diverse array of industry segments that is—in key private-sector areas—expanding rapidly at a time of sluggish national growth. With smart policy support, broader, more rapid growth seems possible. At the same time, however, the information presented here is challenging, most notably because the growth of the clean economy has almost certainly been depressed by significant policy problems and uncertainties.

The Startup Factories: The Rise of Accelerator Programs to Support New Technology Ventures

NESTA
Over the past six years, a new method of incubating technology startups has emerged, driven by investors and successful tech entrepreneurs: the accelerator program. The number of accelerator programs has grown rapidly in the US over the past few years and there are signs that more recently, the trend is being replicated in Europe. Early evidence suggests they have a positive impact on founders, helping them learn rapidly, create powerful networks and become better entrepreneurs. Despite growing interest in the model from the investment, business education and policy communities, there have been few attempts at formal analysis. The Startup Factories report is a first step towards a more informed critique of the phenomenon, as part of a broader effort among both public and private sectors to understand how to better support the growth of innovative startups.

A Plan for Growth in the Knowledge Economy

Charles Levy, Andrew Sissons and Charlotte Holloway, The Work Foundation
Only the knowledge economy can provide the jobs and balanced growth needed to secure the UK’s future prosperity. The report sets out a vision of what a balanced and sustainable economy could look like in 2020 and provides a detailed picture of the measures needed to secure this future. The report argues that while the government has taken some positive steps – such as creating Technology and Innovation Centres – it has yet to establish a coherent approach to the knowledge economy. Some of its most expensive policies, for example enterprise zones and the corporation tax cut, are based on a backwards looking view of the economy and will do relatively little to drive lasting growth.

Best Practices in Investment for Development: How to integrate FDI and skill development Lessons from Canada and Singapore

UNCTAD
Improving the national skill set is an important policy objective for both developed and developing countries. The level of skills in the local population – a nation’s human capital – is a key determinant of economic development and growth. At the same time, globalization has made human capital and skills development even more important. The reduction in trade barriers and the surge in international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) by transnational corporations (TNCs) have resulted in the need for workers and businesses to be competitive on a global scale. Policies need to be carefully designed and sequenced for the FDI-skills circle to initiate and function effectively. Inadequate attention to specific policy areas may result in discontinuations and interruptions of the upward sloping cycle and lead to unsatisfactory or even unintended outcomes. By reviewing the trends, institutions and policies related to education, migration, FDI promotion, and the subsequent dissemination of skills to the local economy, this study identifies lessons on how countries can effectively integrate FDI in pursuit of their broader skills development objectives.

The Atlantic Century II: Benchmarking EU & US Innovation Competitiveness

Robert D. Atkinson and Scott M. Andes, ITIF
This report updates ITIF’s 2009 report on the United States’ innovation-based competitiveness compared with a diverse group of countries. Using 16 key indicators, such as scientists and engineers, corporate and government R&D, venture capital, productivity and trade performance, the 2011 report finds that America has made little or no progress since 1999. Of the 44 countries and regions surveyed, the United States still ranks fourth behind Singapore, Finland and Sweden. But this is down from the number one position in 2000. Of greater concern, however, is the fact that the U.S. continues to rank at the bottom – second only to Italy – on progress in improving its innovation capacity and competitiveness over the last decade. But the updated report contains encouraging news for some individual states. Measured against the foreign countries and regions, Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, Delaware, Maryland, Colorado, and New Hampshire would all be ranked number one in innovation-based competitiveness if they were their own countries. The updated report adds six new countries – Argentina, Chile, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey – to the survey.

Innovation Cities Top 100 Cities of the Global Innovation Economy

2thinknow
This ranking lists the top cities to live, work and play in due to their strong innovation economies. This year, Paris and Amsterdam contested the top spot with Boston, being ranked second and third, respectively, in the 2thinknow Innovation Cities Top 100 Index. Since 2009 Vienna has moved to fourth place and New York to fifth place. The cities of Frankfurt, San Francisco, Copenhagen, Lyon and Hamburg, rounded out the top ten places. Australia’s strong relative economy was represented by Melbourne and Sydney, placed 19th and 28th respectively. The top 100 cities were ranked from 289 cities scored, compared with 256 cities with last year.  Scored cities were classified in five groupings for their importance to the innovation economy. Nexus cities dominate the globally innovation economy across many sectors, followed by hub cities. Node and influencer cities have regional industry influence on innovation, so whether these were ideal places to live and work was based more on choice of industry.

The Global Innovation Index 2011

INSEAD
This edition of the Index goes to the press in the second quarter of 2011, while the global economic recovery is strengthening in most parts of the world. With the global economy forecasted to grow at a rate of more than 4% in 2011, innovation is coming into its own as an essential element of resilience as economies aim to sustain their growth while creating new jobs for their citizens. Innovation has featured prominently over the years in INSEAD’s focus. For this fourth edition, INSEAD collaborated with Alcatel-Lucent, Booz and Company, the Confederation of Indian Industry and the World Intellectual Property Organization (a specialized agency of the United Nations), as Knowledge Partners.The Report covers 125 economies, accounting for 93.2% of the world’s population and 98.0% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (in current US dollars).