This important new book takes a critical view on regional industry clusters, in particular their identification and formation, and the policies which help create and support them. The distinguished international contributors comprehensively discuss the important theoretical and empirical issues concerning clusters and cluster policy from a regional economic perspective. Based on a broad range of methods, the authors derive results about the existence and structure of regional industrial clusters and estimate their contribution to the development of regions.As a whole, the book aims to examine the hyperbole that often surrounds clusters by employing sound scientific evidence and rigorous analysis. Academics and advanced students of regional science, regional economics and economic geography will find the academic discussion of spatial concentrations of economic activities to be of much interest. Policymakers will also appreciate the critical approach taken towards the currently fashionable cluster policy.
Contents:1. The Starting PointUwe Blien and Gunther Maier2. Innovation Dynamics and the Structure and Evolution of Industrial ClustersSimona Iammarino and Philip McCann3. First Steps towards a Critical Appraisal of ClustersAndre Torre4. A Network Based Approach Towards Industry ClusteringJuan C. Duque and Sergio J. Rey5. Industry-specific Spatial Agglomerations in GermanyThomas Brenner6. Sectoral Concentration, Business Networks and Innovative Competences in East Germany - An Empirical Approach to Identify Economic ClustersMartin T.W. Rosenfeld, Peter Franz and Gerhard Heimpold7. Clusters and the Spatial Structure of Wages in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil): A Multilevel ApproachLeonardo Monteiro Monasterio8. Measuring Specialisation and Concentration in Regional Clusters - An Empirical Analysis for Eastern BavariaJoachim Moller and Nicole Litzel9. Inter-Firm Relations and Economic Clustering in the Dutch Randstad RegionFrank G. van Oort, Martijn J. Burger and Otto Raspe10. The Contribution of New and Young Firms to the Economic Development of Clusters in Germany: Comparative Analysis of a Growing, a Mature and a Declining ClusterAnne Otto and Stefan Kohler11. On Building Clusters versus Leveraging Synergies in the Design of Innovation Policy for Developing EconomiesEdward Feser12. Geographic Concentration of Sectors in the German Economy: Some Unpleasant Macroeconomic Evidence for Regional Cluster PolicyBjorn Alecke, Christoph Alsleben, Frank Scharr and Gerhard Untiedt13. Clusters and Networks: Their Spell Has By No Means Been Broken!Martin Wrobel14. Cluster Approaches to Local Economic Development: Conceptual Remarks and Case Studies from Lower Saxony, Germany Matthias Kiese