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Mapping a nation of regional clusters

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      Are you hoping to effect change in the economic landscape through federal, state, or local government policy choices? Then follow our Policymaker path.

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      Are you interested in learning more about clusters and conducting action-oriented research? Then follow our Academic or Researcher path.

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  • Cluster
    • Data by Cluster

      A cluster is a regional concentration of related industries that arise out of the various types of linkages or externalities that span across industries in a particular location. The U.S. Benchmark Cluster Definitions are designed to enable systemic comparison across regions. View and compare clusters across the U.S.

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    • Frequently Asked Questions

      How do I compare different clusters on a national level?

      How do I find my region’s strongest cluster(s)?

      How do I identify which cluster my industry belongs in?

      How do I compare local vs traded clusters?

      Are there overlaps between the clusters?

  • Region
    • Data by Region

      A region is broadly defined as a county, economic area (EA), metro/micropolitan statistical area (MSA), or state. The U.S. Benchmark Cluster Definitions use the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis defined economic areas. View and compare regions across the U.S.

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    • Frequently Asked Questions

      How do I compare different regions?

      How do I build a region to meet my needs?

      How is my region doing, especially in comparison to its peer regions?

      How do I find subregions related to my region?

      How do I use the map view to visualize economic data across the country?

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    • Resources

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    • Community

      The Community of Practice enables practitioners to share Resources, post Blogs, and find partner Organizations. View and contribute content of interest to the cluster based economic development community.

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Harvard Business School U.S. Economic Development Administration
Academic Research

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  1. Resources
  2. Resources
Academic Research

Report of the Commission on Inclusive Prosperity

by Lawrence H. Summers, Ed Balls, Center for American Progress January 20, 2015

History tells us that societies succeed when the fruits of growth are broadly shared. Indeed, no society has ever succeeded without a large, prospering middle class that embraced the idea of progress. Today, the ability of free-market democracies to deliver widely shared increases in prosperity is in question as never before. The primary challenge democracies face is neither military nor philosophical.

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Academic Research
Tools and Technical Documents

U.S. Cluster Mapping Launch Event Presentation: The U.S. Cluster Mapping Project: A New Tool For Regional Economic Development

On September 29, 2014, Professor Mercedes Delgado from Temple University's Fox School of Business and Professor Scott Stern from MIT Sloan School of Management delivered a presentation at Mapping the Midwest's Future, a conference held in Minneapolis and hosted by the University of Minnesota that officially launched the new U.S. Cluster Mapping tool. Their presentation focused on the underlying research and methodology behind cluster mapping, and the relevance of clusters to economic development, resilience from recessions, innovation, and improved regional economic performance.

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Academic Research

Industry clusters and economic development in the Seventh District’s largest cities

by Rick Mattoon and Norman Wang, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago July 21, 2014

In works such as Glaeser (2011) and Porter (1995), prominent economists have suggested that metropolitan areas are the key to economic growth. In this article, we examine the economic development strategies and performance of the largest metropolitan areas in the five states of the Seventh Federal Reserve District—Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The cities, from smallest to largest by metro population, are: Des Moines, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Chicago.

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Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Academic Research

The Character of Innovative Places: Entrepreneurial Strategy, Economic Development, and Prosperity

by Maryann P. Feldman, Small Business Economics May 28, 2014

Why do investments in certain places yield jobs, growth, and prosperity while similar investments made in seemingly identical places fail to produce the desired results? Starting with the observation that innovation clusters spatially across a broad spectrum of industries, my work seeks to understand the mechanisms and institutions that promote the creation of useful knowledge.

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Economic Policy
Academic Research
Tools and Technical Documents

Clusters and Cluster-Based Development: A Literature Review and Policy Discussion

by Hal Wolman and Diana Hincapie, George Washington Institute of Public Policy April 14, 2014

Cluster theory and its application and cluster-based economic development policy, have been in the forefront of regional economic development theory and practice during the past decade. Cluster theory suggests that firms that are part of a geographically defined cluster benefit from being a part of that cluster and that these benefits result in growth in economic output for the region. It is important for policy makers and practitioners to understand how and in what ways they do so and what actions they can take to enhance economic growth through generating additional cluster benefits.

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Academic Research
Tools and Technical Documents

Zooming In: A Practical Manual for Identifying Geographic Clusters

by Juan Alcácer and Minyuan Zhao, Harvard Business School Working Paper April 14, 2014

This paper takes a close look at the reasons, procedures, and results of cluster identification methods. Despite being a popular research topic in strategy, economics, and sociology, geographic clusters are often studied with little consideration given to the underlying economic activities, the unique cluster boundaries, or the appropriate benchmark of economic concentration. Our goal is to increase awareness of the complexities behind cluster identification, and to provide concrete insights and methodologies applicable to various empirical settings.

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Regional Economy
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Academic Research

Unraveling the Cultural and Social Dynamics of Regional Innovation Systems

by Mary L. Walshok, Joshua D. Shapiro, and Nathan J. Owens, University of California, San Diego March 28, 2014

America’s research capabilities, entrepreneurial spirit and industrial prowess are poised to be focused and, in many cases, repurposed to realize the economic and employment returns many innovative technologies promise. However, if we are to be successful in assuring that all Americans share in this success, we need to expand the ability of many more locales to leverage their centers of basic research and related public and private R&D enterprises to enhance regional economic growth and competitiveness.

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Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Academic Research

Beyond Tech Transfer: A More Comprehensive Approach to Measuring the Entrepreneurial University

by Mary L. Walshok and Josh D. Shapiro, Advances in Entrepreneurship, Firm Emergence, and Growth March 28, 2014

Over the last 30 years, researchers across the country have been documenting the shifts in university policies and practices enabled in no small part by the Bayh-Dole legislation of the mid-1980s, and the establishment and growth of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. These major shifts in national policy created an environment in which universities were free to manage their IP in ways that would support knowledge transfer as well as commercialization of new companies, along with an increased availability of private sector risk capital to support promising start ups.

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Economic Policy
Academic Research

The Competitive Advantage of Nations

by Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business Review March 25, 2014

National prosperity is created, not inherited. It does not grow out of a country's natural endowments, its labor pool, its interest rates, or its currency's value, as classical economics insists.

A nation's competitiveness depends on the capacity of its industry to innovate and upgrade. Companies gain advantage against the world's best competitors because of pressure and challenge. They benefit from having strong domestic rivals, aggressive home-based suppliers, and demanding local customers. 

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Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Academic Research

Clusters of Entrepreneurship

by Edward L. Glaeser, William R. Kerr, and Giacomo A.M. Ponzetto, Journal of Urban Economics March 21, 2014

Employment growth is strongly predicted by smaller average establishment size, both across cities and across industries within cities, but there is little consensus on why this relationship exists. Traditional economic explanations emphasize factors that reduce entry costs or raise entrepreneurial returns, thereby increasing net returns and attracting entrepreneurs. A second class of theories hypothesizes that some places are endowed with a greater supply of entrepreneurship. Evidence on sales per worker does not support the higher returns for entrepreneurship rationale.

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Copyright © 2018 President and Fellows of Harvard College.
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The U.S. Cluster Mapping Project is led by Professor Michael E. Porter at the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Business School.

This project is funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration.