Publication: Regional Inovation Policy and Multilevel Governance in Developing Countries: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Date
2014-10
ISSN
Published
2014-10
Author(s)
Guimon, Jose
Abstract
Innovation policy is increasingly
conceived as the shared responsibility of national and
subnational governments, yet most countries are struggling
with multilevel governance. This paper provides an overview
of how different countries are dealing with regional
innovation policy and of the institutions and tools used for
national-regional coordination. The focus is on discussing
the policy implications for developing countries, which have
decentralized their innovation policies more recently than
developed countries, but face more acute challenges with
respect to critical mass and institutional capacity. These
challenges call for a sequential and cautious approach to
decentralizing innovation policy, seeking economies of scale
and avoiding wasteful duplication across regions, while
introducing methods to ensure that devolution of power is
accompanied by capacity building in regional governments.
Governments of developing countries are also advised to be
cautious when using a regional innovation policy approach as
a tool to reduce cross-regional income gaps. This is because
policy efforts to counterbalance the natural trend toward
agglomeration of innovative activities in core regions might
lead to inefficient allocation of public funds.
Citation
“Guimon, Jose. 2014. Regional Inovation Policy and Multilevel Governance in Developing Countries: Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship
policy note;no. 6. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23655 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”