Enhancing Rural Innovation in the United States
When it comes to high-tech innovations, the United States leads the path amongst OECD economies. However, in the context of the national record-breaking activities in high tech innovation, there lies distinct and growing geographical disparities. This report dives into strategies for better understa...
| Formato: | Libro electrónico |
|---|---|
| Idioma: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Paris :
Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development
2023.
|
| Edición: | 1st ed |
| Ver en Biblioteca Universitat Ramon Llull: | https://discovery.url.edu/permalink/34CSUC_URL/1im36ta/alma991009786726806719 |
Tabla de Contenidos:
- Intro
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and acronyms
- Executive summary
- Productivity gains, associated with innovation adoption, is stronger in rural areas
- But the scale and scope of support for innovation in rural areas needs to go beyond R&
- D investment
- Ensuring quality access to public services such as digital infrastructure and education is critical
- Polices to support innovation need to consider rural demographic trends
- Supporting rural innovation in the United States
- Key Recommendations
- Improving policy design and implementation for rural innovation
- Improving access to high-quality broadband, skills and education for entrepreneurship
- Better track and measure innovation relevant to rural areas
- 1 Assessment and recommendations
- Assessments
- Rural counties are growing but disparities between places are increasing.
- There is convergence in productivity between rural and metropolitan counties
- However, structural change is impacting rural counties...
- …and, productivity growth is coinciding with a relative decline in employment
- Productivity gains, in part due to innovation adoption, is stronger in rural areas…
- …and, there still remains a margin of opportunity to invest in innovation in rural counties
- Equal opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship across metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties is critical
- The share of persistently poor counties is 5 times higher in rural counties than in metropolitan counties
- Workers in rural counties are ageing faster
- The scale and scope of innovation in rural areas in the United States
- Innovation in rural America is supported by direct and indirect funding and support from federal agencies
- However, the focus on direct support for technology-based innovation is at odds with how rural innovation occurs.
- Eligibility for federal programmes varies across spatial scales, which hinders participation of local governments
- Rural innovators' barriers to finance can be overcome by involving a wider pool of stakeholders
- Non-bank financial intermediaries can help overcome barriers for access to finance
- With more support, non-governmental organisations (NGO) and community-based organisations can continuously contribute to foster community development
- Broadband connectivity is an important condition for innovation, yet there are substantial gaps to high-quality broadband access in rural and Tribal Land areas, in comparison with urban areas
- Rural areas in the United States have lower broadband coverage, less choice of internet providers and lower speed rates than urban regions
- The United States government has recognised the importance of broadband connectivity for all, regardless of where they live
- Access to quality education has been a barrier for many rural counties
- Access to education in rural counties is more expensive and of lower quality than in urban counties
- Skills training needs to match local labour market demands
- Higher education and R&
- D institutions can have a positive impact on local innovation
- Recommendations
- Improving policy design and implementation for rural innovation
- Promoting a broader view of innovation policy for diverse rural areas
- Implementing programs in accordance with different scales of intervention
- Ensuring effective co-ordination mechanisms across levels of government and capacity for multi-level governance
- Building a culture of experimentation in rural entrepreneurship
- Improving access to high-quality broadband in rural areas
- Better assessing the state of broadband connectivity.
- Extending connectivity by easing barriers to infrastructure deployment and complementing measures through local bottom-up approaches
- Making the most out of existing funding and programmes for broadband connectivity
- Supporting students in skills development and entrepreneurship training
- Improving skills needed for the local labour market and for higher education
- Promoting education for entrepreneurship
- Tackling the challenge of measuring innovation in rural areas
- References
- Notes
- 2 Understanding innovation in rural United States
- Setting the scene for rural innovation in the United States
- Understanding economic activities and rural well-being in the United States
- Sector dynamics across US territories
- Innovation in the United States
- Individuals as drivers of innovation
- Firm-based innovation: Competition, higher education and research institutions
- Promoting equitable opportunities for innovation
- Innovation, inequalities and demographic change
- Trends in inequalities
- Trends in population and demography
- Population and employment
- Aging workers
- Gender diversity
- Foreign-born workers
- Persistently poor counties
- Innovation outcomes for non-metropolitan counties
- Drivers of high-tech innovation, employment and productivity
- Annex 2.A. Defining rural geographies
- Annex 2.B. Rural proofing innovation
- Annex 2.C. Patentable occupations
- Annex 2.D. Education and patent intensity
- Annex 2.E. Understanding explained and unexplained differences between two groups through a counter-factual exercise: The Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition
- References
- Notes
- 3 Policies and programmes for innovation in rural areas in the United States
- Policies and programmes that impact rural innovation in the United States
- The federal government plays a significant role in fostering rural innovation.
- The USDA has a formal responsibility for the co-ordination of rural policy
- The EDA is the only agency with an explicit focus on place-based economic development
- The Department of the Interior manages public lands and upholds Federal trust responsibilities to Indian Tribes and Native Alaskans
- The Small Business Administration provides support for new entrepreneurs and for small businesses seeking to expand
- Different types of support for rural innovation
- A holistic approach to rural innovation is important
- Rural innovation in diverse rural regions: opportunities and challenges
- About the regions - Pine Bluff, Gallup, Columbiana
- Pine Bluff, Arkansas
- Gallup, New Mexico
- Columbiana, Ohio
- Innovation as part of rural community economic development
- Prominent role for developers and the private sector
- Major differences in what can be accomplished due to size authority and fiscal capacity
- Role of the federal government varied across the three cases
- High level of local government innovation
- Strong commitment to enhancing workforce skills
- Maximising opportunities and mitigating challenges to rural innovation
- Integrating geographic constraints into rural policy
- Co-ordinating to support rural innovation and ensure equity
- Co-ordinating to consider all the factors needed to support rural innovation
- Co-ordinating to ensure equity for marginalised populations in rural innovation
- Improving access to finance
- Funding rural development and innovation
- Rural non-bank financial intermediaries
- Broadening the definition of innovation in OECD rural regions
- Domains and sources of rural innovation
- Conclusions
- Annex 3.A. Additional descriptions of case study areas
- Columbiana, Ohio
- A former steel town facing population decline
- Collaboration and engagement
- Key assets and opportunities.
- Examples of innovative private enterprise
- Pine Bluff, Arkansas
- An industrial and agricultural economy facing population decline
- Key assets and opportunities
- The Go Forward Pine Bluff (GFPB) development approach
- Fostering entrepreneurship
- Gallup, New Mexico
- A city deeply connected to the Navajo Nation in the midst of energy economy transition
- Collaboration and engagement
- Key assets and opportunities
- References
- Notes
- 4 Improving broadband connectivity and access to education in the United States
- Broadband connectivity to boost rural innovation
- Setting the scene: The importance of connectivity for the digital transformation
- Going "rural" in the United States: Access to broadband to boost rural innovation, a bottom-up perspective
- State of broadband connectivity in the United States
- Broadband subscriptions and performance
- Existing territorial connectivity divides
- Bridging connectivity divides in the United States
- Promoting competition and incentives to invest in broadband networks
- The importance of granular data on broadband availability and quality
- Easing infrastructure deployment as key element to boost investment in networks
- The role of local governments to ease broadband network deployment
- Making information available for operators to increase deployment efficiency
- Promoting efficient spectrum management to bridge connectivity divides
- Community networks and local ISPs connecting rural areas
- Towards "digital equity": Fostering broadband adoption among disadvantaged groups
- Affordability, a key obstacle for broadband adoption by disadvantaged groups
- Digital literacy and its role in bridging digital divides
- Connecting small and medium firms
- A window of opportunity: Broadband infrastructure funding in the United States.
- Enabling Human Capital Assets for Innovation: Education.
