IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa04p154.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Regional effects of universities and higher education: a knowledge overview of Swedish, Scandinavian and international experiences

Author

Listed:
  • Hans Westlund

Abstract

The growing role of knowledge as the base of the economy has meant growing expectations of universities all over the world to function as engines for regional growth. The independent role of universities is slowly being replaced by governmental policies for human capital formation, knowledge dispersion, innovation systems, triple helix, etc. One example is Sweden’s new University Act that added a third task to universities’ two traditional tasks, education and research, viz. cooperation with surrounding society. Theoretically, this change in policy is supported the hypothesis presented by Gibbons et al (1995) of an emerging Mode 2 of knowledge production. Based on Swedish, Scandinavian and international experience, this paper summarizes knowledge of regional effects of universities and higher education. One conclusion is that the “regiment effect” (Florax 1992) seems to be the most obvious regional effect of universities and that hopes for university-led innovative regional development have hitherto seldom been fulfilled. The paper also analyses the obstacles to more intimate cooperation between universities and surrounding society and knowledge production a la Mode 2. This analysis is performed by applying the concept of social capital. Two of the conclusions are that most regions do not have the capacity to absorb the output of the universities (Florida & Cohen 1999), and that the internal social capital of universities is not adapted to governments’ demands, nor are the relations between universities and other stakeholders in regions. Keywords: University policy, Regional effects, Mode 2, Social capital

Suggested Citation

  • Hans Westlund, 2004. "Regional effects of universities and higher education: a knowledge overview of Swedish, Scandinavian and international experiences," ERSA conference papers ersa04p154, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p154
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa04/PDF/154.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roland Andersson & John M. Quigley & Mats Wilhelmson, 2004. "University decentralization as regional policy: the Swedish experiment," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 371-388, August.
    2. A. Varga, 2006. "Spatial Knowledge Spillovers and University Research: Evidence from Austria," Springer Books, in: Innovation, Networks, and Knowledge Spillovers, chapter 10, pages 211-232, Springer.
    3. Andersson, Roland & Quigley, John M. & Wilhelmsson, Mats, 2004. "University Decentralization as Regional Policy: The Swedish Experiment," Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy, Working Paper Series qt81n6b8fb, Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy.
    4. Carla Sá & Raymond J.G.M. Florax & Piet Rietveld, 2003. "Determinants of the Regional Demand for Higher Education," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 03-013/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andersson, Roland & Quigley, John M. & Wilhelmsson, Mats, 2005. "Agglomeration and the Spatial Distribution of Creativity," Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy, Working Paper Series qt1wd73461, Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy.
    2. Roland Andersson & John M. Quigley & Mats Wilhelmsson, 2005. "Agglomeration and the spatial distribution of creativity," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 84(3), pages 445-464, August.
    3. DAUTEL Vincent & WALTHER Olivier, 2011. "The geography of innovation in the Luxembourg metropolitan region: an intra-regional approach," LISER Working Paper Series 2011-38, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    4. Andersson, Roland & Quigley, John M. & Wilhelmsson, Mats, 2009. "Urbanization, Productivity and Innovation: Evidence from Investment in Higher Education," Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy, Working Paper Series qt9b4885mq, Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy.
    5. Olof Ejermo & Urban Gråsjö, 2014. "Accessibility to R&D: a re-examination of the consequences for invention and innovation," Chapters, in: Charlie Karlsson & Börje Johansson & Kiyoshi Kobayashi & Roger R. Stough (ed.), Knowledge, Innovation and Space, chapter 3, pages 51-79, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Andersson, Roland & Quigley, John M. & Wilhelmsson, Mats, 2009. "Urbanization, productivity, and innovation: Evidence from investment in higher education," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 2-15, July.
    7. Bjuggren, Per-Olof, 2005. "Allocation of 3G Rights, Credibility and the Rules of the Game Experiences of the Swedish 3G Beaty Contest," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 41, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    8. Liu, Xiuyan & Zhang, Fan & Wang, Qiao, 2025. "More than a new campus: University's spatial expansion, emerging knowledge cluster, and innovation growth," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    9. Kazuyuki MOTOHASHI & Qiuhan ZHAO, 2023. "University as a Knowledge Source of Innovation: A spatial analysis of the impact on local high-tech startup creation," Discussion papers 23027, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    10. Bo Yuan & Kecen Jing & Yuhai Liu, 2024. "From agglomeration to dispersion: How does China's noncapital functions' relief affect regional development?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(3), pages 595-620, June.
    11. Tasso Brandt & Torben Schubert, 2014. "Is the university model an organizational necessity? Scale and agglomeration effects in science," Chapters, in: Andrea Bonaccorsi (ed.), Knowledge, Diversity and Performance in European Higher Education, chapter 8, pages iii-iii, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Elena B. Dvoryadkina & Elena G. Efimova, 2019. "The spatial aspect of regional policy in the field of the vocational education system development," Upravlenets, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 10(6), pages 28-41, December.
    13. Giulia Faggio & Teresa Schlüter & Philipp vom Berge, 2018. "Interaction of Public and Private Employment: Evidence from a German Government Move," SERC Discussion Papers 0229, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    14. Tasso Brandt & Torben Schubert, 2013. "Is the university model an organizational necessity? Scale and agglomeration effects in science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(2), pages 541-565, February.
    15. Mark D. Partridge & M. Rose Olfert, 2011. "The Winners' Choice: Sustainable Economic Strategies for Successful 21st-Century Regions," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 33(2), pages 143-178.
    16. Neumark, David & Simpson, Helen, 2015. "Place-Based Policies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 1197-1287, Elsevier.
    17. Michaela Trippl & Tanja Sinozic & Helen Lawton Smith, 2015. "The Role of Universities in Regional Development: Conceptual Models and Policy Institutions in the UK, Sweden and Austria," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(9), pages 1722-1740, September.
    18. Seo, Seongmin & Kwak, Do Won, 2024. "The impact of the innovation city project on the local economy: Evidence from Korean Innovation City Project from 2012 to 2014," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    19. Barkley, David L. & Henry, Mark S. & Lee, DooHee, 2006. "Innovative Activity in Rural Areas: The Role of Local and Regional Characteristics," REDRL Research Reports 113802, Clemson University, Regional Economic Development Research Laboratory (REDRL).
    20. Massimiliano Bratti & Luca Benedictis & Gianluca Santoni, 2014. "On the pro-trade effects of immigrants," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 150(3), pages 557-594, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa04p154. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.