In what ways do research universities interact with regional economies? The answer to this central question can be found in a framework of the interaction of university products and necessary factors for technology-based economic development. The bundled nature of university products makes it impossible to separately assess the impact of universities on their regional economies. The National Science Foundation's ranking of top research universities and retrospective data on academic R&D expenditures are used in regression models to measure universities' long-term effects over the phases of the latest business cycle. The pattern of statistical significance and the signs of the regression coefficients suggest that the presence of research universities has a positive effect on metropolitan economies above cyclical economic changes. The effect differs depending on the scale of university R&D expenditures and suggests that the most prominent research universities have a stronger impact on their regional economies.

Optical science is the study of light and the ways in which light interacts with matter. Although its origins coincide with the earliest scientific inquiry, modern optics is an enabling technology that is applied to a variety of intermediate markets-telecommunication equipment, medical devices, scientific instruments, semiconductors, imaging and reproduction, defense and security, and retail logistics. One difficulty in studying emerging technology is the limitation of current industrial categories and patent classes. This article examines the geography of optical science inventions using a new methodology that can be applied to study other emerging industries. We rely on companies that self-identify as working on optics on the basis of their voluntary membership in the Optics Society of America. We investigate the inventive activity of these companies from 2004 to 2007 and identify a set of International Patent Classes that defines the emergent technology space in optical science. Using this definition, we then analyze all the organizations that are inventing in optical science. We find that inventive activity is geographically concentrated: patenting takes place in 240 urban areas, although 84 percent of the patents were invented in 30 metropolitan areas and almost 50 percent were attributed to 11 metropolitan areas. The article considers the organizations that are shaping the emerging technology and the consequences for geographic clusters. Our results reveal that the geographic distribution of inventive activity does not reflect the location of self-designated regional optics clusters in the United States but suggests a more nuanced understanding of the emergence of industries. We conclude by considering lessons about the development of clusters in emerging industries. Copyright (c) 2010 Clark University.

State initiatives that build innovation capacity by supporting local academic research, attracting eminent scholars, and building research excellence have become prominent among the 50 states over the past 30 years. This article focuses on three programs: University Research Grants, Eminent Scholars, and Centers of Excellence. We include examples for each of the state programs and trace the historical evolution of program attributes. Our objectives are to differentiate program attributes to improve understanding of state science initiatives and to begin to assess how programs contribute to the ultimate goal of creating economic growth. Our empirical analysis demonstrates evidence of the long-term impact of these three programs in building state innovative capacity. The article concludes by outlining how these data may be used in future analyses.

Retrospective data on the academic reputation of PhD programs in the biological and life sciences and engineering are used in regression models to measure the influence of academic quality on the growth in employment and in per capita income for metropolitan areas in the United States over the two parts of the recently completed business cycle (1994 to 2000 and 2001 to 2003). The quality of doctoral research programs in science and technology fields was positively associated with growth rates in employment and per capita income in metropolitan areas during the expansion phase of the business cycle. Regions with quality science and technology doctoral programs experienced declines in employment growth rates following the recession. There was an inverse relationship between academic quality and per capita income following the recession, indicating that regional earnings bubbles built up during the expansion. Strong path dependencies are exhibited in the models.

This article investigates the role of universities in the economic development of American metropolitan regions during the Great Recession (2007Recession ( -2009 and the growth period prior to it (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007). It develops a supply-side conceptual framework on the role of universities in technology-led regional economic development. Specifically, this framework highlights three "university products" that can be explicitly defined and measured: educational services, business services, and new knowledge or technology. The empirical test of this conceptual framework finds that the presence of universities is positively associated with regional economic performance during the Great Recession, mainly via the educational services product. Findings indicate that regions with a higher level of university science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates are more resilient to the economic recession.