SSTI Digest

Politics often gets entangled in economic development policy, occasionally around the incendiary argument around who are the “makers” and who are the “takers.” The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) provides data on the amount of government transfers to households including those related to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, income maintenance programs and unemployment insurance. Civic Analytics, based in Texas, composed a data set of these BEA statistics alongside figures on Total Personal Income (TPI) in U.S counties (with the exception of Alaska that does not collect a personal income tax) to inject statistical foundations in the discussion. Read the civic analytics article... Government transfers account for approximately 17 percent of TPI at the national level, but cover a broader range at the county level with figures ranging from 55 percent in Owsely County, KY, to around 5 percent in Douglas County, CO. SSTI has produced a table of these figures by state indexed by total personal income and population. View the table…

Lack of female role models is a key deterrant for women cosnidering entry in S&T fields, according to a recent study. Sociology professor Dr. Catherine Riegle-Crumb of the Population Research Center at the University of Texas investigated why there are comparatively few women compared to men in technology and other STEM fields. Dr. Riegle-Crumb is the principle investigator on an NSF grant to study how high school academic preparation has an influence on the selection of a STEM major in college – which would imply a post-collegiate career in a STEM field.  As part of this grant, Dr. Riegle-Crumb followed 10,000 high school students and found that the gender gap in high school physics, used as a proxy for this scientific gender gap as a whole, varies across the country.  Indeed, in some regions there are more girls in physics classes than boys. Why? After controlling for a number of variables, including family income and educational attainment and school district location (i.e., suburban compared to inner-city), one correlation began to emerge.  Dr. Riegle-Crumb from the NPR interview: “In communities that had a higher percentage of…

Knowing when to implement budget cuts or reserve measures and how to reduce expenditures while minimizing service disruption are valuable best practices that can be shared as a result of the recession’s impact to state fiscal conditions. These messages are among several recommendations from the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) outlined in a new report. Modifying the timing of temporary tax increases is one such example. For many states that enacted tax increases on a temporary basis, the result was continued fiscal stress as the national economy followed a trajectory of slow growth. However, states could better ensure that revenues will recover and budget stability is reached before revenue actions sunset or expire if they were to tie the tax increases to economic conditions or revenue collections rather than the fiscal or calendar year, the report concludes. Examples of state actions are coupled with commentary from budget officers to highlight both the severity of the fiscal crisis across states and the different paths to recovery taken by state leaders. Read the report…

Whether in creating new businesses, developing a skilled workforce, or building stronger connections between universities and regional economies, governors and lawmakers have taken a “grow your own” approach to economic recovery over the past two years, finds a report from the National Governors Association (NGA). The report identifies six trends that have emerged during this time, including states emphasizing job creation from within, strengthening support for advanced manufacturing, and creating partnerships to meet industry’s demand for talent. Read the report.

A new report by the National Science Foundation (NSF) portrays science and engineering employment in the United States as highly concentrated in a small number of states and metro areas. Most states reflected a lower S&E employment intensity than the United States as a whole. As noted in the report, the availability of a skilled workforce is an important predictor of a region’s population, productivity, and technological growth. A highly unequal distribution of creative economy workers leads to a highly unequal distribution of job creation and economic growth. A new report from McKinsey offers policy prescriptions for states and regions to grow their S&E workforce and boost their competitiveness within the knowledge economy.  The NSF report uses demographic, social, and economic data from the 2011 ACS survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The data shows that in 2011, around 5.7 million S&E workers were employed across the United States. However, one in four workers either worked in California, Texas, or New York, the three states with the largest S&E worker population. And half of the total S&E worker population worked in just nine U…

Recognizing startup businesses as a powerful force in building stronger local economies, a number of universities across the country have announced significant expansions in their entrepreneurship offerings over the last few weeks. Universities in Missouri and Virginia have announced new and expanded entrepreneurship programs for students, while a nationwide network of top business schools, including Babson College, Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco, plans to launch an online entrepreneurship program that can be licensed to other schools. The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) has awarded $2.5 million in grants through its 2013 University Center Economic Development Program that will be used to support regional entrepreneurship and innovation. Large private donations spurred the increase in entrepreneurship offerings at Virginia’s Old Dominion University (ODU) and the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). A $10 million gift to ODU from the Strome Family Foundation will be used to create a new entrepreneurial curriculum for the university, along with an entrepreneurship center, mentoring program and a push for cross…

A recent report by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) dubbed American universities the “unsung heroes in the economic recovery.” Through licensing and startup activity, universities and other groups earned more than $2.6 billion total income from royalties and other sources in FY12 alone, according to the report highlights. Research universities often garner more attention for their role in product and company development. Such is the case at the University of Washington and University of Minnesota, where officials posted a record number of spinoffs from university technology over the past year. At the University of Washington, officials announced 17 startups were formed in the past fiscal year based on university technology – the school’s most productive year for startup formation. The pace is faster than expected with nearly double the amount of companies created on average in each of the previous five years. University of Minnesota technologies were used to launch 12 startup companies in FY13, breaking the university’s previous record of nine. Over a seven-year period, 52 companies have been created under…

Recently, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced a statewide Regional Prosperity Initiative — a voluntary, competitive grant process for existing state-designated planning regions and metropolitan planning organizations. The plan will divide the state into 10 zones with the intent of empowering local and regional partners to develop a consensus vision and implementation plan for economic success. Under the initiative, all state government departments also will begin serving the 10 regions, enhancing service delivery and encouraging communities to collaborate on a regional basis. Although specific details still are being worked through, starting in 2014, regions will compete for grant funding to support economic development efforts including establishment of regional prosperity collaboratives, councils and boards. The Initiative was signed into law as a part of the state’s FY14 budget (59 PA 2013). Read the Regional Prosperity Initiative FAQ… Michigan joins New York and Tennessee as states that have shifted their economic development efforts to focus on regional zones. In April 2011, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers agreed to establish a regional…

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) annual report for FY12 includes a summary of some of the major regional programs and grants that have been awarded over the year, summaries of EDA activities in each state, and a breakdown of EDA investments in each state as well as their specific recipient. SSTI has prepared a table from the data reported. (Note: SSTI received EDA funding in FY12). The EDA is highlighting three competitive initiatives designed to support “business growth and job creation.” These are the Rural Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, the Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, and the i6 Challenge. Under the Rural Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, $9 million was granted to 13 rural partnerships to leverage additional local funding and support industrial activities in the regions.  The Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge awarded $20 million to 10 public-private partnerships to support job development through service provision, inter-company connections, and the commercialization of research. The i6 Challenge, the third round of these awards, this year…

U.S. research universities have launched several new initiatives to impact international development across Africa by leveraging their institutional knowledge to support tech-based economic growth on the continent. The African Development Bank, a regional multilateral development bank, also announced that it will commit $45 million for the creation of a Pan African University consisting of five thematic institutes focused primarily on science, technology and innovation. In partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Johannesburg Centre of Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits University announced a new tech entrepreneurship training program according to ventureburn.com . The partnership, funded by a grant from Google, will help more than 30 engineering and computer science students develop real-world mobile service startups. Through a six week incubator program, students will receive access to curriculum materials, software technologies, online platforms and professional networks. Since 2000, MIT has launched 16 similar efforts (eight of those in Africa) to encourage tech development in emerging markets through the MIT International Science and…

Although universities are not always at the forefront of the discussion on job creation and economic activity, they saw a sizable increase in licensing and startup activity during FY12, according to a survey by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). Respondents reported $36.8 billion in net product sales from licensed technologies and startup companies from 70 of the surveyed institutions employed over 15,000 full-time employees. Highlights from the survey are available now, and the full report is set to release at the end of the year. Read the report…

A new chair of the National Governors Association (NGA) also means a new challenge and opportunity to improve state economies. This week, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, newly elected NGA chair, announced a year-long initiative designed to improve the capacity and effectiveness of states’ education and workforce training systems and to align those needs with the needs of employers. The initiative kicks off with an intensive effort among six to eight states that will develop and implement a policy agenda to build and strengthen education and workforce training. Referring to a degree or certificate as the “new minimum” in order to gain access to opportunity, Gov. Fallin also hopes to elevate the importance of postsecondary education through the initiative. Read more about America Works: Education and Training for Tomorrow’s Jobs