Evaluations of Regional Competitiveness: Making a Case for Case Studies

1. Evaluations of Regional Competitiveness: Making a Case for Case Studies David L. Barkley Clemson University Clemson, South Carolina

2. “In my opinion, the law of comparative advantage does not hold in the case of confrontation among local economies and, consequently, the conclusion that each region will always be granted some specialization and role in the interregional division of labor is not valid.” Roberto Camagni “On the Concept of Territorial Competitiveness” Urban Studies (2002)

3. “…there is no particular reason to expect a region whose traditional industries are faring badly to attract new industries.” “…weak and lagging territories risk exclusion and decline to a larger extent than in the past.”

4. Evaluations of Regional Competitiveness Definitions, conceptualizations, and measures Advantages and Disadvantages of Strategy Estimation of Indices of Competitiveness Benefits and Shortcomings of Indices

5. Regional Competitiveness Defined “…the ability of an economy to attract and maintain firms with stable or rising market shares in an activity while maintaining or increasing standards of living for those who participate in it.” (Storper, 1997) “…ultimately competitive regions and cities are places where both companies and people want to locate and invest in.” (Kitson, Martin, and Tyler, 2004)

6. Conceptualizations of Competitiveness The Porter Diamond Framework (Porter, 1998)

7. NCC Competitiveness Pyramid Source: National Competitiveness Council

8. Firm level Economy level region nation Activity-complex economies Localization economies Urbanization economies Enhanced Economic efficiency Enhanced productivity X-Efficiency Source: Budd and Hirmis, 2004

9. Measures of Competitiveness Inputs (Development Report Card for the States) Human resources Financial resources Infrastructure resources Innovation resources Amenity resources and natural capital

10. Outputs (Krugman, Porter) • Output per worker • Output per unit of capital and labor • in traded sectors Outcome (Kitson, et al. and Budd and Hirmis) • High rate of employment among labor force • High quality and high income job opportunities

11. Advantages of a Competitiveness Provides appreciation of current local economic environment Identifies weaknesses in the local economy Encourages a longer term perspective on economic development process May lead to new marketing and promotional programs for the region

12. Disadvantages of Competitiveness Strategies May contribute to wasteful competition among regions May result in a re-allocation of resources from low-visibility programs to high-visibility programs May contribute to widening social inequalities Used as justification for policy makers pet programs

13. Rankings, Grades, and Indices Development Report Card for the States (CFED) 67 measures 15 sub-indices 3 indices no weights State New Economy Index (Atkinson and Correa) 27 indicators 5 indices weights selected to reflect relative importance

14. Rankings: 50 Largest Metro Areas aRankings for 363 Metropolitan Statistical Areas. bRankings for 200 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas. cRankings for 50 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

15. Rankings: 50 Largest Metro Areas aRankings for 363 Metropolitan Statistical Areas. bRankings for 200 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas. cRankings for 50 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

16. Problems with Indices and Rankings Inclusion of relevant variables, and only relevant variables Selection of appropriate measures for the variables Selection of weights used to combine the variables Is the index a good predictor

17. Problems/Shortcomings(cont.) Ignore the region’s historical development process and industrial legacy Suggestive of formulaic solutions for complex economic development problems Provide little room for alternative visions in the policy discussion May stigmatize lagging regions

18. Road Trips Ireland Portland Madison Raleigh/Durham Austin

19. Regional • Scientists • Conceptualizations • and Models • Discourse on • Competitiveness • Strategies • Rankings and Indices • Discourse on Rankings • and Indices • Policy Makers • and • Economic Development Agencies • Road Trips • Best Practices

20. How Can Regional Scientists Help Develop indices and benchmarking methodologies that more accurately reflect competitiveness - Variables selected - Measures/data used for variables - Weighting of variables in indices

21. 2.Selection of Target Cities

24. 3. Applications of Lessons Learned Provide interpretations of lessons learned on road trips Help identify characteristics unique to the visited region that enhanced competitiveness Provide insights into characteristics of “home” region that may impede or facilitate the transfer of policies Provide detailed analysis of the economies of the visited and home regions

25. Case Study Research Definition: “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomena within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomena and context are not clear.” (Yin, 2003)

26. Case Study Research Strategy Development of theoretical model Research model design Data collection and analysis

27. Data Collection Individuals associated with “case” Review of literature (industry, government, popular press, and academic papers Secondary data on regional economy Multiple cases, multiple units of analysis

28. Why So Few Case Studies? Case studies are expensive and time consuming Skeptical of information collected through interviews Not confident in use of findings by policy makers Perceived to be more difficult to publish in journals

29. Benefits of Case Studies to Us Case studies can be fun Provide new information and perspectives Useful in developing or refining hypotheses Useful in testing hypotheses Policy makers love case studies

30. Conclusions Case studies and best practices will be used in developing policy We cannot attend every meeting of policy makers We can improve the pool of good case studies We can provide leadership in the design of case studies and interpretation of findings