OECD Regional Development Studies Building Competitive Regions: Strategies and GovernanceOECD Publishing, Jun 17, 2005 - 142 pages In recent years, the main focus of territorial policy has been on sustaining growth, not only to address relative decline, but also to make regions more competitive. Putting this in practice is complicated because different regions have different characteristics (urban, intermediate, industrial, rural, etc.), which imply specific policy and investment needs. This report assesses the strategies pursued by OECD member governments to address the competitiveness of regional economies and the accompanying governance mechanisms on which the implementation of these strategies rests. The report is principally based on findings from the series of reviews undertaken by the OECD Territorial Development Policy Committee at national and regional levels. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
action activities actors advantage agencies agreements amenities approach areas arrangements associations attract authorities benefits bodies building central government centres clusters co-operation co-ordination communes competences competitiveness concerned contracts contribution costs countries create creation cross-border cultural economic effects enterprises established example firms framework France functional funding growth impact implementation important improve incentives increase industrial infrastructure initiatives innovation institutions integration inter-municipal interest investment involved issues Italy knowledge linked located measures mechanisms metropolitan ministries municipalities networks objectives OECD operations organisation participation particular partnerships planning potential PPPs practice private sector problems production programme projects promote public services regional regional development representatives responsibilities result role rural sector share Source specialised specific strategies strong structures successful territorial transfers transport types universities urban
Popular passages
Page 41 - MIT research activity organised by area of expertise to make it easier to track down by specific interests, faculty visits and expert meetings for companies that often result in consultancy or research sponsorship. The programme is particularly attractive to companies because it is managed by a panel of Industrial Liaison Officers (ILO), each one being responsible for a focused portfolio of companies with the responsibility to serve their unique interests and needs. While...
Page 91 - ... remains to be done on this issue. 4. A Note on Jurisdictional Boundaries The treatment to this point has implicitly taken as given a pattern of boundaries that divide the nation-state into a set of jurisdictions for decentralized governance. The existence and magnitude of spillover effects from localized public policies clearly depend on the geographical extent of the relevant jurisdiction. One way to deal with such spillovers is to increase the size of the jurisdiction, thereby internalizing...
Page 133 - ... Governance Indicators for 1996-2004", report, Daniel Kaufmann, Aart Kraay and Massimo Mastruzzi, Washington, p. 61. World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), "Our common future", Brundtland Report, Oxford University Press. Young, S. and R. Brown (2002), "Globalisation and the Knowledge Economy", in N. Hood, J. Peat, E. Peters and S. Young (eds.), Scotland in a Global Economy: The 20:20 Vision, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke. OECD PUBLICATIONS, 2, rue Andre-Pascal, 75775 PARIS CEDEX...
Page 133 - Confusing Clusters? Making Sense of the Cluster Approach in Theory and Practice", European Planning Studies, Vol.
Page 133 - Regional Knowledge Capabilities, Embeddedness of Firms and Industry Organisation: Bioscience Megacentres and Economic Geography", European Planning Studies, Vol.
Page 94 - ... public outputs. There it was argued that competition for new firms and jobs may lead to public budgets that are too small, and to overly lax environmental standards. In contrast, the thrust of this section has been on the beneficial effects of competition as a disciplining force that restrains the tendencies in the public sector towards excessive spending and other forms of fiscal misbehavior. One's view of the role of intergovernmental competition clearly depends on how one views the operation...
Page 63 - Ultimately, nations succeed in particular industries because their home environment is the most dynamic and the most challenging, and stimulates and prods firms to upgrade and widen their advantages over time.
Page 50 - OECD work across a range of different region-types demonstrates that the presence of efficient physical infrastructure and related services remains a key to economic development. The expectation that improvements in physical infrastructure will generate productivity gains for local businesses and increase the attractiveness of an area for investment has been a recurring theme in OECD reviews of specific regions.
Page 100 - ... privatisation of the merged establishment) and is applicable to transport, drinking water, waste and sanitation, etc. Sometimes agreements lead to the initiation of a sort of trade exchange between neighbouring towns. The supply of public services is concentrated in some jurisdictions, which receive compensation from other jurisdictions benefiting from the services. This approach has been implemented is Switzerland, in particular in the area of hospital care services (more at an inter-cantonal...
Page 70 - Expenditure 1 . Revenues include direct and indirect taxes as well as non-tax revenues received by regional and local governments and are expressed as a share of revenues received by the general government. Expenditure correspond to total expenditure by regional and local governments expressed as a share of general government expenditure. Transfers between governments are netted out. The country ranking in this figure does not necessarily correspond to the comparative fiscal autonomy of sub-national...