Innovation policy is increasinglyconceived as the shared responsibility of national andsubnational governments, yet most countries are strugglingwith multilevel governance. This paper provides an overviewof how different countries are dealing with regionalinnovation policy and of the institutions and tools used fornational-regional coordination. The focus is on discussingthe policy implications for developing countries, which havedecentralized their innovation policies more recently thandeveloped countries, but face more acute challenges withrespect to critical mass and institutional capacity. Thesechallenges call for a sequential and cautious approach todecentralizing innovation policy, seeking economies of scaleand avoiding wasteful duplication across regions, whileintroducing methods to ensure that devolution of power isaccompanied by capacity building in regional governments.Governments of developing countries are also advised to becautious when using a regional innovation policy approach asa tool to reduce cross-regional income gaps. This is becausepolicy efforts to counterbalance the natural trend towardagglomeration of innovative activities in core regions mightlead to inefficient allocation of public funds.
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
