Rural Knowledge Clusters: The Challenge of Rural Economic Prosperity. Reviews of Economic Development Literature and Practice: No. 12

摘要

The increasingly integrated and competitive global economy has pushed economic and community development practitioners, both urban and rural, to search effective models of successful regional economies. Consequently, industry clusters have become a popular device for organizing economic development efforts. The industry cluster concept borrows heavily from existing theories of agglomeration, urbanization, and localization economies, while incorporating more recently developed ideas of 'new growth theory,' social capital, and firm strategy. A body of recent research examined the application of the industry cluster concept to rural economies, confirming generally beneficial impacts on rural economic and wage growth. However, increased rural specialization can also accelerate decline, and cluster strategies may be ill suited to some rural economies. The evidence from rural clusters suggests that localized knowledge embedded in people and institutions may be an instrumental factor behind their success in overcoming disadvantages of rural location. Preliminary evidence from three innovative rural Minnesota industry clusters lends support to 'rural knowledge clusters' as a model of high-performance rural clusters. This is the twelfth of a series of reviews of economic development literature and practice conducted for EDA beginning in 2000.