Regional Economic Policy
The Role of Universities in Regional Economic
Development
TORONTO’S CLUSTER OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
Semester Paper
July 2004
Preface
Within
nations, scientific and technical competencies vary strongly among regions.
Some regions within countries concentrate a disproportionate share of the
capabilities of all developed and developing nations. Moreover, regions tend to
concentrate competencies on a few domains of expertise. This is what literature
calls "agglomeration effects": companies active in the same field of
technology tend to cluster geographically. They do so in order to share a
common labor pool, and to obtain ready access to research institutions such as
government laboratories and universities, or to key markets and customers, such
as large assemblers or government facilities (Feldman et al., 1999). The
specialized literature calls these institutions and key markets/customers
"entry attractors" (Swan et al., 1998).
This paper will
explore the role of universities in regional economic development and focus on
a case study: Toronto’s
cluster of biotechnology.
