Higher ed spurring economy

The Rockefeller Institute of Government at University at Albany, SUNY, released a study on the increasingly important role of higher education in revitalizing regional and state economies. Authored by David Shaffer and David Wright, the report found that higher ed is:

• Advancing innovation through new technologies, processes, products, ideas, and leveraging knowledge creation to yield tangible economic benefits.
• Helping employers prosper and grow through worker training, management counseling, help for startups, and other initiatives.
• Playing a more vigorous role in community revitalization.
• Continuing its core mission of creating an educated population.

According to the report, the old paradigm for economic development rested on business attraction and retention incentives (infrastructure, tax breaks, etc.), with research, technology transfer, and worker training "thrown in...sometimes as a kind of afterthought." The authors propose a new, "knowledge first" paradigm in which "knowledge is the lead incentive that states offer businesses they want to attract or grow."

A New Paradigm for Economic Development
      Report (pdf, 74pp/588kB), March 2010
      News release, March 15, 2010