<p>Bakgrund: Klusterbegreppet introducerades under 1900-talet, men fenomenet erkändes redan under tidigt 1900-tal. Trots att marknaderna idag blir mer globaliserade, är klusterbegreppet fortfarande aktuellt. Som exempel på områden som kännetecknas av starka länkar mellan företagen kan Silicon Valley och Sophia-Antipolis nämnas, även kända som ”Industriella Hollywoods”.</p><p>Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera interaktioner mellan aktörer inom ett lokalt ”Industriellt Hollywood” – Mjärdevi Science Park. Hur förhåller sig aktörerna till fördelar med att befinna sig inom ett närområde, i hur stor utsträckning utnyttjas dessa agglomerationsmöjligheter och varför?</p><p>Metod: Denna studie är baserad på djupintervjuer med sexton företagsrepresentanter från Mjärdevi Science Park och en professor från Linköpings Universitet.</p><p>Resultat: Aktörerna verkar vara medvetna om vilka agglomerationsfördelar som föreligger, dock utnyttjas dessa inte i någon större utsträckning. Störst kontakt har aktörerna på det sociala planet, tack vare en gemensam bakgrund samt ihärdiga försök från Mjärdevi Science Park AB:s sida att initiera kontakt mellan företagen.</p> / <p>Background: Porter introduced the concept of clusters in the 1990’s, but the phenomenon has been acknowledged since the beginning of the 20th century. In spite of the fact that markets are becoming increasingly more global today, the concept of clusters is still very much alive. Regional agglomerations of companies, commonly referred to as clusters, are exemplified by so- called ”Industrial Hollywoods”, such as Silicon Valley and Sophia-Antipolis. Purpose: We are intrigued by this paradox development of the markets and want to analyse interactions between actors within the local ”Industrial Hollywood” – Mjärdevi Science Park. This in order to find out whether these actors recognise any advantages of being located in a cluster of companies and to what extent agglomeration possibilities are exploited. Research Method: This study is based on interviews with sixteen actors from companies located in Mjärdevi Science Park, and one professor from Linköping University. We have also used secondary sources. Result: The actors recognise advantages to company agglomerations but do not seem to exploit these advantages to a great extent. However, several of the actors are in some way inter-connected, mostly on a social level due to common backgrounds and continuous attempts by Mjärdevi Science Park AB to initiate contact between companies.</p>

<p>The thesis aims at understanding mechanisms behind knowledge generation and learning in a mature cluster by analysing firms in south-east Sweden engaged in the development and manufacturing of aluminium products. The point of departure is in concepts and assumptions related to spatially concen-trated systems of similar and related firms and industries, such as agglomera-tions, clusters or innovation systems.</p><p>Three sets of empirical analyses have been conducted: a mail survey, a series of in-depth interviews and a register-based analysis. The analyses focus on three themes: inter-firm relations, the embeddedness of the clustered firms in the region, and the role of labour and labour mobility in cluster development. </p><p>It is shown that also in a rather mature and low-tech cluster, firm competi-tiveness rests on continuous knowledge upgrading and innovation. In general terms, firms in this cluster do have business relations with other firms at all different spatial scales. While there are manifold buyer-supplier relations within the cluster, most firms have their most important linkages outside the region. The firms regard themselves as part of a cluster and various mecha-nisms contribute to this. There is a strong sense of trust and loyalty, and this applies in particular to those engaged either in some of the more organized supplier networks or the regional cluster initiative Aluminiumriket. Finally, the cluster does not seem to constitute a very fluid labour market for special-ised skills. Labour mobility between firms in this particular cluster seems to be fairly low.</p>

“Regional Policy in a Multiregional Setting: When the Poorest are Hurt by Subsidies” Regional subsidies have a positive short-term effect on the recipient regions, but as they alter migration patterns the long-term effects are less clear. This paper demonstrates using a three-region general equilibrium model that subsidising the poorest region may be to its detriment in the long term and thereby increase inter-regional inequality, if the subsidy draws firms from a nearby region that would function better as a production centre. The result has important implications for the design of regional policies, which are often applied simply according to per-capita incomes.  “Learning to Export and the Timing of Entry to Export Markets” Standard trade models are essentially static and do not explain why entry to export markets would be delayed after the instant a firm is formed. This paper proposes a model that endogenously generates the timing of entry to new markets through a learning mechanism. Firms in the model gain experience by entering markets, which eases entry to subsequent markets. The mechanism motivates delays in entry to some markets. More productive firms are less sensitive to the learning effect and thus enter markets sooner and begin by exporting to larger markets. These predictions are confirmed using Swedish firm-level data.  “Airports and the Production of Goods and Services” This paper estimates the effects of airport infrastructure on local employment in certain sectors, using data from the United States. Airport sizes are instrumented for using the 1944 National Airport Plan of the Civil Aeronautics Administration. Airport size is found to have a positive effect on local employment in tradable services, with an elasticity of approximately 0.1, and a negative effect on manufacturing. There is no measurable effect on non-tradable services. The results are relevant to the evaluation of airport improvement projects, which are often carried out using public funds.

Bakgrund: Klusterbegreppet introducerades under 1900-talet, men fenomenet erkändes redan under tidigt 1900-tal. Trots att marknaderna idag blir mer globaliserade, är klusterbegreppet fortfarande aktuellt. Som exempel på områden som kännetecknas av starka länkar mellan företagen kan Silicon Valley och Sophia-Antipolis nämnas, även kända som ”Industriella Hollywoods”. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera interaktioner mellan aktörer inom ett lokalt ”Industriellt Hollywood” – Mjärdevi Science Park. Hur förhåller sig aktörerna till fördelar med att befinna sig inom ett närområde, i hur stor utsträckning utnyttjas dessa agglomerationsmöjligheter och varför? Metod: Denna studie är baserad på djupintervjuer med sexton företagsrepresentanter från Mjärdevi Science Park och en professor från Linköpings Universitet. Resultat: Aktörerna verkar vara medvetna om vilka agglomerationsfördelar som föreligger, dock utnyttjas dessa inte i någon större utsträckning. Störst kontakt har aktörerna på det sociala planet, tack vare en gemensam bakgrund samt ihärdiga försök från Mjärdevi Science Park AB:s sida att initiera kontakt mellan företagen. / Background: Porter introduced the concept of clusters in the 1990’s, but the phenomenon has been acknowledged since the beginning of the 20th century. In spite of the fact that markets are becoming increasingly more global today, the concept of clusters is still very much alive. Regional agglomerations of companies, commonly referred to as clusters, are exemplified by so- called ”Industrial Hollywoods”, such as Silicon Valley and Sophia-Antipolis. Purpose: We are intrigued by this paradox development of the markets and want to analyse interactions between actors within the local ”Industrial Hollywood” – Mjärdevi Science Park. This in order to find out whether these actors recognise any advantages of being located in a cluster of companies and to what extent agglomeration possibilities are exploited. Research Method: This study is based on interviews with sixteen actors from companies located in Mjärdevi Science Park, and one professor from Linköping University. We have also used secondary sources. Result: The actors recognise advantages to company agglomerations but do not seem to exploit these advantages to a great extent. However, several of the actors are in some way inter-connected, mostly on a social level due to common backgrounds and continuous attempts by Mjärdevi Science Park AB to initiate contact between companies.

The thesis aims at understanding mechanisms behind knowledge generation and learning in a mature cluster by analysing firms in south-east Sweden engaged in the development and manufacturing of aluminium products. The point of departure is in concepts and assumptions related to spatially concen-trated systems of similar and related firms and industries, such as agglomera-tions, clusters or innovation systems. Three sets of empirical analyses have been conducted: a mail survey, a series of in-depth interviews and a register-based analysis. The analyses focus on three themes: inter-firm relations, the embeddedness of the clustered firms in the region, and the role of labour and labour mobility in cluster development. It is shown that also in a rather mature and low-tech cluster, firm competi-tiveness rests on continuous knowledge upgrading and innovation. In general terms, firms in this cluster do have business relations with other firms at all different spatial scales. While there are manifold buyer-supplier relations within the cluster, most firms have their most important linkages outside the region. The firms regard themselves as part of a cluster and various mecha-nisms contribute to this. There is a strong sense of trust and loyalty, and this applies in particular to those engaged either in some of the more organized supplier networks or the regional cluster initiative Aluminiumriket. Finally, the cluster does not seem to constitute a very fluid labour market for special-ised skills. Labour mobility between firms in this particular cluster seems to be fairly low.

Population retention and growth is a concern for cities, towns, and rural municipalities across Canada, and population change is one of the best available indicators of economic prosperity and community success. As such, it is important to understand the factors driving the location decisions of Canadians, and to use this information to help communities develop strategies to ensure their longevity and to comprehend the various features influencing future prosperity. The results of this study clearly show that local community characteristics do indeed influence local population growth. Important factors include economic indicators, the presence of different types of amenities, and the proximity of the community to urban areas. <p> Previous research has been completed on the topic of community population change and amenities in other countries, but Canada has not been examined until now. This study utilizes census data at the municipality level to examine these issues. The analysis consists of an econometric model with population change as the dependent variable, and a number of local factors as the explanatory variables. In general, the results of this study complied with theoretical predictions. Communities with favourable amenities and economic factors were found to have higher population growth. Also, different age groups were found to value different bundles of amenities and economic opportunities. <p> Amenities were found to be important factors affecting population growth. Communities with higher average housing prices and lower average incomes had higher population growth. Although this is seemingly a contradictory result, it implies that amenities have been capitalized into incomes and housing prices over time and thus more than income appears to be determining the pattern of housing values across Canada; an outcome predicted by the theoretical framework of the study. Medical amenities were found to be more important for older segments of the population, though all ages valued being near large acute care hospitals. Communities with high rates of violent crime tended to have lower population growth rates. Natural amenities such as mountains and pleasant weather, and the presence of water did not consistently result in higher community population growth. <p> Economic factors such as industry diversification, high local employment rates, and growing employment prospects were very important in influencing population growth, especially among younger segments of the population. However, economic and financial opportunities do not appear to affect migration decisions of the elderly, who are influenced more by medical amenities. Except for youth, local employment opportunities were not as important as having opportunities in surrounding communities. The presence of agriculture and resource extraction sectors tended to result in lower population growth. Finally, proximity to larger urban centres and population size appeared to be beneficial for communities. <p> Overall, the results of this study provide insight for community leaders, policy makers, and others interested in the dynamics of community population change, and will help governments efficiently allocate resources to communities and form strategies to deal with declining community populations.

Geographic space is an important friction preventing the instantaneous matching of unemployed workers to job vacancies. Cities reduce spatial frictions by decreasing the average distance between potential match partners. Owing to these search efficiencies, theories of agglomeration predict that unemployed workers in larger labor markets find employment faster than observationally similar workers in smaller markets. Existing studies rely on cross-sectional variation in aggregate unemployment rates across spatially distinct labor markets to test for scale effects in job search. A major difficulty with these studies is that the unemployment rate is, at any given time, simultaneously the incidence and duration of unemployment. Therefore, conclusions about unemployment exits using the unemployment rate are confounded by transitions into unemployment. This dissertation examines the relationship between market scale unemployment duration for permanently laid off workers in the U.S. Using a large sample of individual unemployment spells in 259 MSAs, proportional hazard model estimates predict a negative relationship between market scale and the hazard of exiting unemployment. This effect is strengthened when space is explicitly controlled for and measured with greater precision. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that search efficiencies lead workers to increase their reservation wages. 2SLS estimates show that re-employment earnings for permanently laid off workers increase with market scale after controlling for endogenous search duration. These effects are robust to standard controls, as well as controls for local labor market conditions. These results challenge the view that search efficiencies lead to lower unemployment rates through faster job-finding rates.

This paper investigates the effect of the reduction of transport cost Oresundsbron has caused between the two subregions of the Oresund-region. The paper utilizes the the Helpman (1998) model and the procedure used by Hanson (2005) for estimating this equation. The paperbrings a clear inside into the method and thus provides an excellent start-ing position.

Population retention and growth is a concern for cities, towns, and rural municipalities across Canada, and population change is one of the best available indicators of economic prosperity and community success. As such, it is important to understand the factors driving the location decisions of Canadians, and to use this information to help communities develop strategies to ensure their longevity and to comprehend the various features influencing future prosperity. The results of this study clearly show that local community characteristics do indeed influence local population growth. Important factors include economic indicators, the presence of different types of amenities, and the proximity of the community to urban areas. <p> Previous research has been completed on the topic of community population change and amenities in other countries, but Canada has not been examined until now. This study utilizes census data at the municipality level to examine these issues. The analysis consists of an econometric model with population change as the dependent variable, and a number of local factors as the explanatory variables. In general, the results of this study complied with theoretical predictions. Communities with favourable amenities and economic factors were found to have higher population growth. Also, different age groups were found to value different bundles of amenities and economic opportunities. <p> Amenities were found to be important factors affecting population growth. Communities with higher average housing prices and lower average incomes had higher population growth. Although this is seemingly a contradictory result, it implies that amenities have been capitalized into incomes and housing prices over time and thus more than income appears to be determining the pattern of housing values across Canada; an outcome predicted by the theoretical framework of the study. Medical amenities were found to be more important for older segments of the population, though all ages valued being near large acute care hospitals. Communities with high rates of violent crime tended to have lower population growth rates. Natural amenities such as mountains and pleasant weather, and the presence of water did not consistently result in higher community population growth. <p> Economic factors such as industry diversification, high local employment rates, and growing employment prospects were very important in influencing population growth, especially among younger segments of the population. However, economic and financial opportunities do not appear to affect migration decisions of the elderly, who are influenced more by medical amenities. Except for youth, local employment opportunities were not as important as having opportunities in surrounding communities. The presence of agriculture and resource extraction sectors tended to result in lower population growth. Finally, proximity to larger urban centres and population size appeared to be beneficial for communities. <p> Overall, the results of this study provide insight for community leaders, policy makers, and others interested in the dynamics of community population change, and will help governments efficiently allocate resources to communities and form strategies to deal with declining community populations.

Any one organization or agency, whether for-profit or non-profit organizations that are seeking to enhance their efficiency, improve production technology, thereby achieving the goal of improving productivity, with a view to the current competitive environment. Efficiency measurement is very important, it can help decision makers understand whether the organization achieve technology progress and innovation objectives. In recent years, the government and civil organizations devote themselves to measure the change of organizational efficiency and productivity. Academia constantly research and develop various models of efficiency and productivity analysis, and application to actual cases analysis. Efficiency and productivity analysis has leapt to the mainstream of production economic studies. This empirical study adopts the census data of the classification of the Chamber of Commerce and industry of manufacturing in Taiwan, using two-stage approach to explore dynamic agglomeration externalities of 2-digit manufacturing. In the first stage, we apply dynamic network data envelopment analysis and Malmquist productivity index to calculate static efficiency and dynamic efficiency of 2-digit manufacturing. In the second stage, we apply Tobit regression analysis to verify a manufacturing geographical concentration effects on productive efficiency. We also adopt two-stage least squares methods (2SLS) to validate dynamic agglomeration externalities effects of manufacturing. Based on the results of this empical study, we propose some specific practical policy alternatives and management strategies. In the last 20 years, the strctures of Taiwan manufacturing industries have significant changes, the livelihood industry and of the sharp decline in industry, the chemical industry, electronics industry, metal machinery industry is growing fast. There is an obvous agglomeration tendency toward northern Taiwan region. In static efficiency, labour-intensive manufacturing industries tend to be diminishing return to scale rendering, while knowledge-intensive industries are rendering the increasing trend. The scale efficiency of eastern region manufacturing is very low, resulting in their productive efficiency significantly lower than the northern, central, southern regional manufacturing. In dynamic efficiency, the total factor productivity (TFP) of Taiwan manufacturing industries are rendering the growth trend, achieving the goal of innovation effect. However, the technical efficiency of manufacturing are rendering decline trend. This study found that the most important impact factor on production efficiency is the internal economies of scale. Localization economies, urbanization economies, and other static agglomeration economies external effect gradually reduce. Moreover, this study also found that Taiwan manufacturing industries have notable MAR professional dynamic external economics and notable Porter regional competitive dynamic external economic effect. Besides, Taiwan manufacturing industries has noticeable human resource dynamic external economics, but we also found low wages is beneficial to regional economic growth. We should not expand to explain Taiwan manufacturing-sweatshops. This phenomenon may be caused by high salaries, high rents, high land costs and high labor costs, these factors offset the interest of agglomeration economies. Finally, Taiwan and mainland China signed a cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) in Chongqing on 29 June 2010. Taiwan manufacturing inevitably be impacted and influenced by ECFA. This is an important topic worthy of further study and discussion in the future.