Tema: “Evaluation of the French national cluster policy: Some lessons for place-based policies

Introducción

Among the public intervention policies to stimulate innovation, an increasing importance is given to supporting innovation clusters (European Observatory for Clusters and Industrial Change, 2019).

Despite a growing body of literature evaluating cluster policies, the extent to which these policies cope with market and system failures still lacks empirical evidence. Three main sets of questions remain under investigated. Firstly, little is known about the different tools of cluster policies (Nishimura and Okamuro, 2011): Do various tools of cluster policies produce the same impact on firm performance? Secondly, whereas most collaboration-based innovation policies aim at fostering efficient ecosystems of innovation, evaluations of the behavioural impact of such policies remain few and far between (Lucena-Piquero and Vicente, 2019): Do cluster policies make firms more collaborative? Do they favour local ties? Do they induce network additionality? Do they positively shape regional network structural properties? Finally, we lack a systematic evaluation of the “one size fits all” issue: To what extent does the cluster policy impact vary according to the territorial features?

To answer these questions, we focus on the French national cluster programme which is among the most developed one in the world and the largest one in Europe. We use counterfactual evaluation at the firm level and spatial econometrics on regional data, combined with social network analysis. Our results show a greater positive impact on SMEs’ output from informal knowledge exchange at clusters than from cluster R&D subsidies. We also find only partial effectiveness in the ability of cluster policies to tackle network failures. For both market failure and system failure, heterogeneity in the effects of cluster policies occurs, depending on cluster and regional properties.

Tema: “La generación de empleos en las empresas: una misión imposible?”

Introducción

According to a World Bank estimation before the pandemic, 700 million jobs need to be created in the world by 2030 to keep the same level of employment.  The number has probably gone up substantially in 2020 and the largest proportion of them will depend on new enterprises. For several decades, development practitioners, governments and donors worldwide consider MSME as “the engine of growth”, since Birch (1979) claimed that small enterprises generate a “disproportionate share of new jobs” in local economies. Policies of governments and NGOs and even political rhetoric up to our date in developed and developing economies are based on this claim, which places micro, small and medium enterprises as the “engines of growth”. This presentation will critically analyse this view and contrast it view with the logic or rationalities of entrepreneurs creation. It will show that MSME do not create jobs as they are expected, and business graduation to larger scale categories happens rather exceptionally. The study will discuss three policies of enterprise promotion: Microfinance, integration in global value chains and business development services.

Tema: “Telling More with Less: Proposing Productivity as a New Metric of Global Competitiveness Ranking”

Tema: “Inequidades Espaciales y Ciudades en América Latina”

Introducción

Todos los países tienen ciudades más y menos desarrolladas, y dentro de las ciudades también se observan grandes diferencias entre barrios en términos de ingresos, salarios, y acceso a servicios públicos.  Esta ponencia abordará la geografía de la inequidad en las ciudades, empezando por la contribución de las disparidades geográficas a las desigualdades de ingreso salariales del país en su conjunto, y discutirá qué hemos aprendido de la literatura académica reciente sobre las posibles causas, consecuencias, y políticas públicas que pueden utilizarse para mitigar la desigualdad espacial dentro de las ciudades.  En este contexto, se prestará especial atención a las desigualdades espaciales en materia de salud, incluyendo los impactos locales de pandemia de la COVID-19.

Tema: A Helicopter Tour of Spatial Analysis: From the Big Bang to Spatial Econometrics

Introducción

We will start with a bang, i.e., the big bang. Then after a short prehistory, we will begin at the beginning of spatial analysis, around mid-18th century. The introduction will be at a general level of epidemiology. Then we will discuss the concept of spatial dependence, and slowly move to spatial statistics, spatial econometrics, and finally to spatial urban economics.

Tema: Impacto de la Pandemia en América Latina. Proyecciones 2021-2022