Research Projects | Public Governance and Management

Organization, implementation, and governance of state economic development cluster strategies. This research project identifies and evaluates the different models and structures of implementing strategies of industrial clusters among states in the United States. The first set of results indicate there is a high degree of variation among states in which organizations and actors have responsibilities and authority, the degree to which clusters are identified and targeted by economic data analysis versus local experts, sources of funding, and degree of coordination with other approaches and strategies for regional economic development. Rather than one model of ‘best practice’, there appears to be many that depend upon state economic and industrial structure, political culture, and the analytical capacity of economic development staff.

Role of universities in regional governance. Universities, as institutions, can ‘bring to the table’ high levels of specialized expertise and know-how, as well as certain types of moral authority and concern for the ‘public good’ that potentially can be employed to contribute to the solution of local and regional problems, and to provide leadership in helping elected officials move their regions forward in terms of innovative strategies, policies, laws, and institutional arrangements. The questions we ask in this project is to what extent are universities fulfilling this role, what are their motivations for doing so, what are their relationships with other actors in regional governance, and are there particular models of university involvement in regional governance that seem most effective for the promotion of regional social and economic development. The project, just underway, will be based upon a series of regional case studies.

Success factors in job re-training programs: the case of the Bioworks program in North Carolina, U.S.A. Bioworks is a new, innovative job re-training program designed to prepare workers who have lost their jobs in declining industry sectors such as textiles, tobacco, and furniture production for manufacturing jobs in the biotechnology industry. The program consists of 120 hours of instruction and is located at eight different community colleges geographically distributed throughout North Carolina. Although the curriculum is standardized among the eight colleges, the array of additional services and the relationship of the colleges to employers vary. This research project utilizes a longitudinal database of enrollees in Bioworks to identify the factors that best explain which graduates of Bioworks receive job offers from biotechnology firms and which do not. We use human capital variables, institutional characteristics of the programs at each of the community colleges, regional economic and labor market conditions, and spatial variables to explain job outcomes.

future.scapes - Global change and its influence on landscape and society. Scenarios of future transition and solution strategies to mitigate negative effects (see project website). Global change encompasses multiple fields: climate-, economic-, social-, and land use change. Knowledge about local effects of global change is still scarce and afflicted with high uncertainty. It is a crucial challenge for political and civil stakeholders to develop strategies to anticipate and cope with globally induced changes.
Future.scapes will examine and downscale global change effects to local and regional level. The research will focus on those most pressing economic, societal and landscape transitions. It aims to support practitioners in recognising, understanding and managing change.

Energy efficiency and the real estate economy. The project examines, to what extent energy-saving building methods and / or energy efficiency of buildings are expressed in their market values. Because of lower energy consumption and the associated lower running costs more energy efficient real estate is expected to be preferred by consumers / users and will therefore obtain higher values than less energy-efficient buildings. These higher market prices represent an important market incentive for investment in more energy efficient building methods and utilities. Valuation is an important instrument for the real estate economy. Therefore, first the question is examined whether energy efficiency plays a role in valuation appraisals (and if yes, which). First national and international standards will be examined. Then valuation appraisals, which were used in real estate practice, will be analyzed by means of a content analysis and if necessary a meta analysis. Experts might mention energy efficiency in their appraisals and in the form of anticipated payments consider it in addition to the prescribed elements of the evaluation. (see project details)

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