Drawing on the example of late-developing countries, especially from East Asia, catching up with established powers, the authors address a new formulation of industrial policy for latecoming, semi-industrialized countries. With contributions from some of the best-known economists currently working in this area, the book will be a valuable guide for economists and international policy-makers interested in development issues.

It is widely recognized that the performance and development of firms are heavily influenced by their environment and that the conditions that prevail in the local or regional milieu seem to be particularly important. Furthermore, the fact that economic, entrepreneurial and innovative activities tend to agglomerate at certain places, leading to patterns of national and regional specialization, is increasingly seen to give important insights into the very process of firm competitiveness and industrial transformation. Drawing on other literature and case study material from selected industries, and elaborating on key concepts such as firms and competencies, industries and industrial systems, and competitiveness and prosperity, the authors set out to answer some broad research questions such as what is competition about in today's economy, and how is the performance of firms and industries related to space and place?; why do geographical areas (local milieus, cities, regions, countries) specialize in particular types of economic activity?; and why do patterns of specialization, once in place, tend to be so tremendously durable?

The period since the World War II has produced examples of late developing countries, especially from East Asia, catching up with and even overtaking established economic powers. This has prompted interest in the policies which have resulted in this success and the lessons which might be learned from them. In this text, the authors address a new formulation of industrial policy for latecoming semi-industrialized countries. They argue that as national economies acquire an unprecedented degree of openness, countries which are at different stages of development increasingly compete in a common arena, but with unequal terms of competition. This book seeks to develop systematic, theoretical arguments about consistent, sustainable industrial policies for latecomers in order to offer the basis for theory and public policy. It contains contributions from international economists working in this area.

The paradigm of mass production, based on a long series of similar goods, the integrated industrial corporation, and the big factory, has given way to radically new forms of organizing industrial production, based principally around the need to foster continuous redesign of products and processes in an attempt to continually keep ahead of potential competitors. These changes, which are designed to engender continuous adaptive learning in production systems, require considerable organizational flexibility. The mass production systems constructed in the early post-war period foundered in the face of competitors who were able to fully exploit these new techniques. "Pathways to Industrialization and Regional Development" brings together the principal theoreticians on these subjects in the principal countries where the debate has unfolded. The papers include investigations into the organization of production, the economics of production, technological change, the international and regional consequences of the new production paradigms, and the possible pathways to industrial and regional development in the 1990s.

Why do some cities grow economically while others decline? Why do some show sustained economic performance while others cycle up and down? In "Keys to the City," Michael Storper, one of the world's leading economic geographers, looks at why we should consider economic development issues within a regional context--at the level of the city-region--and why city economies develop unequally. Storper identifies four contexts that shape urban economic development: economic, institutional, innovational and interactional, and political. The book explores how these contexts operate and how they interact, leading to developmental success in some regions and failure in others. Demonstrating that the global economy is increasingly driven by its major cities, the keys to the city are the keys to global development. In his conclusion, Storper specifies eight rules of economic development targeted at policymakers. "Keys to the City" explains why economists, sociologists, and political scientists should take geography seriously.

Today, the Bay Area is home to the most successful knowledge economy in America, while Los Angeles has fallen progressively further behind its neighbor to the north and a number of other American metropolises. Yet, in 1970, experts would have predicted that L.A. would outpace San Francisco in population, income, economic power, and influence. The usual factors used to explain urban growth-luck, immigration, local economic policies, and the pool of skilled labor-do not account for the contrast between the two cities and their fates. So what does? The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies challenges many of the conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings. The authors argue that it is essential to understand the interactions of three major components-economic specialization, human capital formation, and institutional factors-to determine how well a regional economy will cope with new opportunities and challenges. Drawing on economics, sociology, political science, and geography, they argue that the economic development of metropolitan regions hinges on previously underexplored capacities for organizational change in firms, networks of people, and networks of leaders. By studying San Francisco and Los Angeles in unprecedented levels of depth, this book extracts lessons for the field of economic development studies and urban regions around the world.

Today, the Bay Area is home to the most successful knowledge economy in America, while Los Angeles has fallen progressively further behind its neighbor to the north and a number of other American metropolises. Yet, in 1970, experts would have predicted that L.A. would outpace San Francisco in population, income, economic power, and influence. The usual factors used to explain urban growth-luck, immigration, local economic policies, and the pool of skilled labor-do not account for the contrast between the two cities and their fates. So what does? The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies challenges many of the conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings. The authors argue that it is essential to understand the interactions of three major components-economic specialization, human capital formation, and institutional factors-to determine how well a regional economy will cope with new opportunities and challenges. Drawing on economics, sociology, political science, and geography, they argue that the economic development of metropolitan regions hinges on previously underexplored capacities for organizational change in firms, networks of people, and networks of leaders. By studying San Francisco and Los Angeles in unprecedented levels of depth, this book extracts lessons for the field of economic development studies and urban regions around the world.

Why do some cities grow economically while others decline? Why do some show sustained economic performance while others cycle up and down? In Keys to the City, Michael Storper, one of the world's leading economic geographers, looks at why we should consider economic development issues within a regional context--at the level of the city-region--and why city economies develop unequally. Storper identifies four contexts that shape urban economic development: economic, institutional, innovational and interactional, and political. The book explores how these contexts operate and how they interact, leading to developmental success in some regions and failure in others. Demonstrating that the global economy is increasingly driven by its major cities, the keys to the city are the keys to global development. In his conclusion, Storper specifies eight rules of economic development targeted at policymakers. Keys to the City explains why economists, sociologists, and political scientists should take geography seriously.

This pioneering volume proposes a compelling new theory of how regions have sustained their economic viability in the era of multinational corporations. Unlike traditional approaches, which analyze economic systems in terms of their mechanics (inputs, outputs, prices, technology, etc.), this work views them as systems for coordinating human actions and relationships. Reconceptualizing the role of learning, technology, and local institutions in development, Storper illuminates the key role of regional economies as building blocks of the increasingly connected world.
A thought-provoking and timely work, "The Regional World" carries resounding implications for educators, students, and policymakers in economic geography, economic sociology, and international business. It is an essential primary or supplementary text for graduate-level courses on economic, regional, or industrial development and policy and international business.

This intellectually bold but accessible book seeks to go beyond limitations of the reigning neoclassical and institutional paradigms in explaining the organization of economic activity. It does this by construing "non-economic" factors such as institutions, cultures, and social practices as conventions, which coordinate economic actors by defining specific "frameworks of economic action." In these conventional frameworks, the standard distinction between economic and non-economic no longer exists. The authors explore in detail four basic frameworks--or "possible worlds of production"--which underpin the mobilization of economic resources, the organization of production systems and factor markets, patterns of economic decision making, and forms of profitability. The case studies examine how these possible worlds act to support innovative production complexes in a variety of sectors in several countries.

Storper and Salais show that economic actors coordinate actions with one another and interpret what others are doing in ways that are constructed by convention. The principal challenge to economic policy today, they argue, is to reconcile internally coherent conventions with the external tests of product and financial markets, which tend increasingly to escape jurisdictional borders. There is no single model of growth and efficiency that brings these two sides together around the world today, even in narrowly defined product markets. If policies are to deal effectively with an increasingly unified global system of flows of commodities, money, and people, they must be aware of the diverse, economically viable action frameworks found in different industries, regions, and nations.