Applications of Evolutionary Economic Geography



evolutionary theorising leaves room for ‘small events’ to have long-lasting effects. Some may
even go a step further to suggest that evolutionary analysis often shows the limited potential of
policy makers to truly influence long-term geographical patterns of economic growth. For
example, Klepper’s (forthcoming) conclusion that the U.S. automobile industry became
concentrated in Detroit for accidental reasons, suggests that efforts to attract new industries to a
particular city or region have a low probability of success. What matters most is to have
competent entrepreneurs, the presence and actions of whom are hard to influence by policy.
Similarly, the success story of Sophia Antipolis (Quéré, forthcoming) suggests that its success is
unique and difficult to copy. The process of regional development was set in motion by external
factors such as climate, the presence of multinationals, the international airport, and one visionary
man. And, in the case of Cambridge, regional development was fuelled by its excellent university
as well as by the benefits of the Greater London area at just one hour from Cambridge (Garnsey
and Heffernan, forthcoming).

Even if policy implications of evolutionary economics are inherently difficult to derive, a
growing number of evolutionary economists are trying to draw some policy implications (Perez
and Soete, 1988; Metcalfe, 1995; Foray, 1997; Nelson, 1999; Lambooy and Boschma, 2001;
Chang, 2003). The point of departure is that the focus on static efficiency in neoclassical
economics is to be replaced by dynamic efficiency (Nelson and Winter, 1982). In other words,
one is not only interested in the allocation of scarce resources present today, but also, in the
opportunities to create new resources in the future.

In the context of economic geography, the question becomes how to design policies that
promote dynamic efficiency at urban and regional levels. Boschma (2005) distinguished between
two types of regional policy: evolutionary and revolutionary (table 1). Evolutionary regional
policy takes the specific local context and industrial structure as the starting point. It is a fine-
tuning policy that aims to strengthen the connectivity between the elements of the regional
system. In these circumstances, local policy makers have few degrees of freedom, yet are more
likely to be successful as long as their actions are localised, that is, focused on reproducing and
strengthening the existing structures. The local environment determines to a large extent available
options and probable outcomes of regional policy.

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