IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/revpol/v24y2007i3p231-257.html

Political Decentralization and Technological Innovation: Testing the Innovative Advantages of Decentralized States

Author

Listed:
  • Mark Zachary Taylor

Abstract

Are politically decentralized states better at fostering long‐run technological innovation than centralized states? Societies with decentralized governments are widely seen as agile, competitive, and well structured to adapt to innovation's gale of creative destruction. Meanwhile, centralized states, even when democratic, have come to be viewed as rigid and thus hostile to the risks, costs, and change associated with new technology, or prone to cling too long to foolhardy or outdated technological projects. Therefore government decentralization is often perceived as a necessary institutional foundation for encouraging long‐run technological innovation. However, in this article, I analyze data on international patent activity, scientific publications, and high‐technology exports, and show that there exists little evidence for an aggregate relationship between government structure and technological innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark Zachary Taylor, 2007. "Political Decentralization and Technological Innovation: Testing the Innovative Advantages of Decentralized States," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 24(3), pages 231-257, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revpol:v:24:y:2007:i:3:p:231-257
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1541-1338.2007.00279.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-1338.2007.00279.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1541-1338.2007.00279.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kassouri, Yacouba, 2022. "Fiscal decentralization and public budgets for energy RD&D: A race to the bottom?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    2. Xinfeng Chang & Kaisheng Fu & Momoh Conteh, 2025. "How Digitalization Impacts the High-Quality Development of the Manufacturing Industry: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-27, June.
    3. CHEAH, Sarah Lai-Yin & HO, Yuen-Ping & LI, Shiyu, 2020. "How the effect of opportunity discovery on innovation outcome differs between DIY laboratories and public research institutes: The role of industry turbulence and knowledge generation in the case of S," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Bryan K. Ritchie, 2010. "Systemic Vulnerability and Sustainable Economic Growth," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13731, August.
    5. Feng-Shang Wu & Hong-Ji Huang, 2024. "Why Do Some Countries Innovate Better than Others? A New Perspective of Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy Regimes and National Absorptive Capacity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-30, March.
    6. Fortuna Casoria & Marianna Marino & Pierpaolo Parrotta & Davide Sala, 2019. "Local Government and Innovation: the case of Italian provinces," Working Papers 1923, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    7. Libman, Alexander, 2009. "Models of market integration in Central Asia – comparative performance," MPRA Paper 17510, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Gao, Yanyan & Zang, Leizhen & Roth, Antoine & Wang, Puqu, 2017. "Does democracy cause innovation? An empirical test of the popper hypothesis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(7), pages 1272-1283.
    9. Shu-Hao Chang, 2017. "The evolutionary growth estimation model of international cooperative patent networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(2), pages 711-729, August.
    10. Chi, Meiqing & Muhammad, Sulaman & Khan, Zeeshan & Ali, Shahid & Li, Rita Yi Man, 2021. "Is centralization killing innovation? The success story of technological innovation in fiscally decentralized countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    11. Emmanuel Muller & Andrea Zenker & Miriam Hufnagl & Jean-Alain Héraud & Esther Schnabl & Teemu Makkonen & Henning Kroll, 2017. "Smart specialisation strategies and cross-border integration of regional innovation systems: Policy dynamics and challenges for the Upper Rhine," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(4), pages 684-702, June.
    12. Muzhou Zhang, 2023. "Trade and the government underfunding of environmental innovation," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 13(4), pages 575-586, December.
    13. Maria João Camelo de Barros, 2011. "Decentralization of public policies for the promotion of firms’ internationalization. A proposal," Economics and Management Research Projects: An International Journal, Open Access International Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 66-78, December.
    14. Libman, Alexander, 2008. "Informal regionalism in Central Asia: subnational and international levels," MPRA Paper 26417, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Feng, Suling & Sui, Bo & Liu, Huimin & Li, Guoxiang, 2020. "Environmental decentralization and innovation in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 660-674.
    16. Jose Guimon, 2014. "Regional Inovation Policy and Multilevel Governance in Developing Countries," World Bank Publications - Reports 23655, The World Bank Group.
    17. Dina Balalaeva, 2012. "Innovations as Public Goods Provision with Negative Externalities: Role of Parliamentarism," HSE Working papers WP BRP 06/PS/2012, National Research University Higher School of Economics.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy
    • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology

    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:bla:revpol:v:24:y:2007:i:3:p:231-257. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ipsonea.html .

    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.