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Innovation, like dark matter, cant be measured well, but regional science is getting closer
Anyone reading this article or anyone who decided not to read it, quits in the middle of reading it, or doesn't even know the article exists, is a part of the 5%. Only 5% of the universe is observable and directly measurable. Ue rest of the universe is something of a head scratcher for most of us-dark energy and dark matter.
In a similar way, measuring innovation is a challenge. We'll hear more and more about the importance of innovation in the coming years as a driver of economic growth, especially from political and thought leaders. But talk as they may, few can figure out how to measure it even remotely close to real time. Economists, business analysts and economic developers, to name a few, can observe it after it has happened, but getting a signal as it emerges and produces new products and creates new jobs is tricky.
A common, generally accepted measure for innovation is the count and rate of patent production. Another measure might be the rate of entrepreneurship, or new business formation, especially in the industry sectors that produce and apply new patent technologies. Others interested in the development, application and commercialization of knowledge might look at university or federal research laboratory collaborations with private industry as an indicator of innovation activities. All of these metrics have merit, if one can get good data for them. But even still, there is still a lot of innovation dark matter beyond our ability to measure and understand.
The IBRC has published an innovation index over the last decade (see StatsAmerica.org). Ue first index iteration was rather simple, e.g., counting the number of patents or the STEM occupations in a region. In the second iteration, the IBRC expanded the offerings of measures, including proxy measures for knowledge spillovers from universities or investments in new production facilities. While StatsAmerica will soon publish its next iteration of an innovation index-what we are going to call Innovation Intelligence- this isn't an introduction to the new tool and data. ?at will be announced later in 2021.
This article describes and distills recent research that measures innovation and how we may apply it to...