New EDA Report on Technology Development and Economic Development

The Economic Development Aministration has released a new report on technology and economic development. The report finds that:

* Almost all innovation takes place in metropolitan areas. Rural and nometro areas are lagging way behind in this area.

* Less than a fifth of metro areas specialize in patenting (that is, have a share of U.S. metro patents greater than the share of metro jobs). Large metro areas (with over 1 million jobs) are far more likely to specialize in patenting than smaller areas. Two-thirds of large metro areas specialize in patenting compared to 14 percent of smaller metro areas. Larger metro areas have an advantage in the innovation process due to their greater specialization and diversity.

* Public R&D located in large metro areas is far more likely to lead to local corporate technology development than is so for public R&D in rural and small metro areas.

* While innovation activity (as measured by patents and industrial R&D) correlates with higher annual wages, it does not correlate with growth in total regional jobs and income.

* If technology development is a centripetal phenomenon, drawn towards relatively few large centers, commercialization is centrifugal in nature, taking place across the global landscape according to the competitive
advantages of local areas for carrying out particular production, distribution, management, and technical functions.

Download the full report here.