The IPL newsletter: Volume 19, Issue 382

Testimony to the Joint Economics Committee on Regulatory Red Tape and the Innovation Economy

Joe Kennedy, ITIF
The task of regulating the economy is a necessary, but very difficult problem. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation has written widely on the need for regulatory reform, both in general and as applied to specific sectors. Some of the sectors they have examined include automation of the transportation industry, telecommunications, agricultural biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals. In addition, they have focused extensively on regulations affecting the Internet, including privacy and cybersecurity. ITIF believes that better regulation is needed and, compared to existing regulation, can improve innovation. Reforms that improve market competition, possibly by reducing barriers to entry, increasing the flow of information, or allowing new approaches to comply with existing regulations, can significantly increase productivity by speeding the adoption of existing innovations.

Public Policy in an AI Economy

Austan Goolsbee, NBER
This paper considers the role of policy in an AI-intensive economy (interpreting AI broadly). It emphasizes the speed of adoption of the technology for the impact on the job market and the implications for inequality across people and across places. It also discusses the challenges of enacting a Universal Basic Income as a response to widespread AI adoption, discuss pricing, privacy and competition policy the question of whether AI could improve policy-making itself.

Manufacturing USA and DOE: Supporting Energy Innovation

David M. Hart and Peter L. Singer, ITIF
Manufacturing plays an outsized role in the health of the U.S. economy because of its impact on trade and innovation and its large multiplier effect. Yet, U.S. manufacturing competitiveness has declined over the last 15 years. Accelerating innovation in industrial processes that use energy—and in products used by the energy industry—would strengthen U.S. manufacturing and hasten progress toward national economic, workforce, security, and environmental goals. Manufacturing USA helps fill these gaps. Each of its 14 institutes, 5 of which are sponsored by DOE, is a consortium of large and small companies, academic and nonprofit institutions, and national laboratories that operates in a technological domain that offers significant opportunities to accelerate innovation. These members, with additional support from state governments, provide nonfederal funding that matches or exceeds the initial five-year $70 million federal investment in each institute. This report begins by identifying the national goals that are at stake at the nexus of manufacturing and energy, and explains why federal action is necessary. It then briefly describes DOE’s involvement with manufacturing—both past and present—and its links to the government-wide Manufacturing USA program.

Recent Research: SBIR Funding Influencing Outcomes

SSTI Weekly Digest
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program dubs itself as “America’s largest seed fund.” Three recent research articles add to the existing literature on the program. First, a study finds that SBIR supports high-risk efforts to convert R&D. A second study suggests that SBIR awardees are more likely to locate in denser regions but in less dense neighborhoods in those regions. A third study finds that SBIR awardees from federal agencies with more diverse workforces tend to perform better. For the economic development community, these findings may influence the way SBIR-related services such as entrepreneurial assistance programs and matching grants are delivered.

8th Competition and Innovation Summer School (CISS)

Ulcinj, Montenegro, 28 May – 2 June, 2018
This workshop offers young interested researchers within the fields of the economics of innovation and competition the possibility to intensively discuss their dissertation plans or drafts within a peer group of experienced and renowned scholars, as well as other PhD students and post-doc researchers in a great environment.
CISS offers lectures and workshops on:

• topics of innovation,
• the economics of science and intellectual property rights,
• empirical competition analysis, and
• contemporary issues surrounding theories of industrial organization.

5G and Broadband Connectivity for All

Durban, South Africa, 31 May – 1 June, 2018
WWRF and CSIR are partnering to organize the wireless world research forum meeting WWRF40 in Durban, South Africa. The theme for the research Forum meeting is: 5G and Broadband Connectivity for All. The Organizers therefore invite academics, researchers and industrial representatives to share information and present results on Future Wireless Communication Systems, Networks and Services and to discuss critical business and regulatory aspects, advanced technology findings that will impact the deployment of 5G and enabling broadband connectivity for All. Technical papers describing recent research results and disruptive innovations in technologies, regulatory positions and business models are solicited. Contributions focusing on the WWRF 40th meeting theme 5G and Broadband Connectivity for All, particularly within the areas of WWRF’s existing Vertical Industry Platforms (VIPs) and Working Groups (WG) are welcome.

A World of Flows – Labour Mobility, Capital, and Knowledge in an Age of Global Reversal and Revival

Lugano, Switzerland, 3-6 June, 2018
The 2018 RSA Annual Conference aims to address processes of global reversal and regional revival, in a world dominated by flows of capital, labor, and knowledge. Further it seeks to understand the political, economic and social factors that initiate change and how these changes are finding new expressions as the world’s political and economic system continues to struggle with low rates of global economic growth, the rise of China as an economic super power, the on-going impacts of recession and austerity, and increasing levels of inequality. To study and debate these and many other questions, we warmly invite the regional studies/science and connected communities to join us.

4th ZEW Conference on the Dynamics of Entrepreneurship

Mannheim, Germany, 18-19 June, 2018
This conference is jointly organized by University of Mannheim and ZEW. The aim is to discuss recent scientific contributions to entrepreneurship research. Theoretical, empirical, and policy-oriented contributions from all areas of entrepreneurship research are welcome.

List of Topics (non-exhaustive)

̶  Impact of industrial dynamics (entry and exit) on aggregate productivity dynamics
̶  Direct and indirect contributions of entrepreneurial firms to innovation
̶  Personality traits and motivation of entrepreneurs
̶  Human capital of founders and employees
̶  Entrepreneurial teams
̶  Socio-demographic aspects of entrepreneurship (e.g. ethnic entrepreneurship, migrant entrepreneurship, and female entrepreneurship)
̶  Digital entrepreneurship
̶  Incubators, corporate and academic spin-offs
̶  Scale-ups, gazelles and unicorns
̶  Financing young firms: (corporate) venture capital, business angels, crowdfunding, and banks
̶  Employment, wages, and workplace quality in entrepreneurial firms
̶  Impact and efficiency of public entrepreneurship policies
̶  Impact of entrepreneurship on established firms
̶  Entrepreneurship in aging societies

Toronto: The Accidental Metropolis

Toronto, 20 June, 2018
Toronto is evolving with a style and character unique in the world, widely recognized for its livability. Now its economic power and its critical and largely successful function as a crucible of immigrant settlement is becoming more and more evident. Remarkably, the emergence of Canada’s cities on the world stage, and Toronto’s rise to the top dozen in global status, has been largely accidental. How did this happen? At this event, Joe Berridge will explore what makes a successful global city, trace Toronto’s trajectory as “the accidental metropolis,” and talk about where Toronto – and Canadian cities generally – are headed in the years to come.

Triple Helix XVI Manchester

Manchester, UK, 5-8 September, 2018
Across the world, states and city regions are facing huge societal, economic, environmental, and political challenges whose solutions require concerted new efforts and innovative partnerships. The 2018 International Triple Helix Conference brings together academia, government, business, and community to share effective practices and to advance the frontiers of knowledge about collaboration for economic progress, social development and sustainability, and the role of cities and regions as enabling spaces for these interactions.

Call for Participation: International PhD Course on Economic Geography

Utrecht, The Netherlands, 11-14 September and 30 October-2 November, 2018
The course aims to provide an introduction to contemporary research perspectives and approaches in economic geography. The core questions of this discipline – related to the role of place and space in processes of economic development – have in recent years attracted interest not just from geographers but also from economists and other social scientists. This course will debate recent theoretical developments (with special attention to evolutionary and institutional economic geography), and will discuss recent advancements in methodology and empirical analysis in economic geography.

2018 European Week of Regions and Cities – Masterclass on EU Cohesion Policy for PhD Students and Early Career Researchers

Brussels, Belgium, 7-11 October, 2018
As part of the 16th European Week of Regions and Cities (EWRC), the biggest event worldwide on regional and urban development, the Master Class on EU Cohesion Policy will be held for PhD students and early-career researchers for the sixth time. Applications are being sought from PhD students and early career researchers (defined as being within five years of the date on their PhD certificate or equivalent) undertaking research related to European Cohesion Policy to attend the 2018 University Master Class. The Master Class is a unique format to connect aspiring researchers and will include presentations of papers by the participants as well as lectures and panel debates with policymakers, EU officials and senior academics to improve understanding of, and research, on EU Cohesion Policy. In particular, the Master Class will serve to

• discuss recent research on European regional and urban development and EU Cohesion Policy;
• enable PhD students and early career researchers to exchange views and network with policymakers, EU officials and senior academics;
• raise awareness and understanding of the research potential in the field of EU Cohesion Policy.

 The Master Class is organised and led by the European Commission, DG for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO), the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the Regional Studies Association (RSA) in cooperation with the European Regional Science Association (ERSA) and the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP).

TCI 2018 – Unexpected Connections: Collaborating to Compete – Clusters in Action

Toronto, 16-18 October, 2018
Cluster success is often the result of collaboration, more than just the agglomeration of anchor firms, R&D labs, incubators and accelerators, and disrupting organizations. Regions with clusters that actively collaborate within and between one another are more competitive. As firms continue to face new challenges from technological, economic, and political shifts, clusters remain a driving catalyst that can create sustainable levels of innovation and economic growth. Firms, at the heart of active clusters, with the support of those within the cluster ecosystem, can weather the changing dynamics of the global marketplace. TCI 2018 explores the collaboration that is happening within clusters and the opportunities to work together towards shared prosperity.