This national report draws heavily upon the regional studies of five pilot regions (Atlanta, Pittsburgh, the Research Triangle in North Carolina, San Diego, and Wichita) and synthesizes the implications for any region that seeks to improve its economic performance. It examines the composition and performance of regional economies, how industry clusters develop and innovation arises, how clusters affect a region's economic future, and how a region can establish a strategy and action program to drive its economy and clusters forward.

Research shows that having a cluster – a high geographic concentration of producers, suppliers, training centers, and people working in the same field – leads to higher productivity in an industry. This Harvard Business Review article addresses the need for creating an industrial ecosystem and cluster like Silicon Valley for the life sciences industry.

This report from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation suggests that the U.S. can boost its competitiveness by targeting the health of its traded sectors. Offering 50 federal policy recommendations for reviving traded sector establishments with examples including Boeing and Walmart, the report calls for a comprehensive strategy organized around the “4 Ts” (technology, tax, trade, and talent) to strengthen the ability of U.S. traded firms to compete in the global market.

Current economic realities have provided governors with a unique opportunity to assess their economic landscapes and change their approaches to economic development. This white paper and accompanying issue brief by the National Governors Association (NGA) focus on what states are doing—and what they can do—to make their economic development agencies more effective.

This 2012 industry report discusses the maritime business and technology innovation community that has flourished in the coastal city of San Diego, intersecting markets including fishing, ship building, defense and security, and offshore energy. The study shows that the city's maritime industry boasts $14 billion in total revenue and 46,000 direct jobs, with 8,000 in the traditional maritime space and 19,000 in "Blue Tech" or maritime technology.

This paper examines the regional economic performance, composition of regional economies, and role of clusters in the U.S. economy from 1990 to 2000. 

The performance of regional economies varies markedly in terms of wage, wage growth, employment growth and patenting rate. Based on distribution of economic activity across geography, the paper classifies U.S. industries into traded, local, and resource-dependent categories. Traded industries account for only about one-third of employment, but register much higher wages and rates of innovation and influence local wages. 

This paper examines the role of regional clusters in regional entrepreneurship, focusing on the distinct influences of convergence and agglomeration on growth in number of start-ups, as well as employment in such new firms in a given region-industry. While reversion to the mean and diminishing returns to entrepreneurship at the region-industry level can result in a convergence effect, the presence of complementary economic activity creates externalities that enhance incentives and reduce barriers for new business creation.

The state of South Carolina has for years relied on a low-cost economic strategy, but with the rise in outsourcing manufacturing to China, Mexico, and other low-cost based economies, South Carolina has since come to trail the national average in several measures of economic standing. The South Carolina Competitiveness Initiative outlines its strategic vision to build on the existing structures and clusters of the South Carolina economy, capitalizing on the strengths of the automotive, textile, chemical products, tourism, forest products, production technology, and power generation and

This paper evaluates the role of regional cluster composition in the economic performance of industries, clusters and regions. On the one hand, diminishing returns to specialization in a location can result in a convergence effect: the growth rate of an industry within a region may be declining in the level of activity of that industry.

This report sponsored by the U.S. Economic Development Administration explores the fundamental changes within our economies: community, regional, state and national. It provides great insight into the current economic challenges and opportunities that cluster-based projects face in regions throughout the country as they aim for long-term economic prosperity.

Image: Nick Lowndes