We will review some of the major results in random graphs and some of the more challenging open problems. We will cover algorithmic and structural questions. We will touch on newer models, including those related to the WWW.

Random graphs

The paper is concerned with spatial clustering of economic activity and its relation to the spatiality of knowledge creation in interactive learning processes. It questions the view that tacit knowledge transfer is confined to local milieus whereas codified knowledge may roam the globe almost frictionlessly. The paper highlights the conditions under which both tacit and codified knowledge can be exchanged locally and globally. A distinction is made between, on the one hand, the learning processes taking place among actors embedded in a community by just being there dubbed buzz and, on the other, the knowledge attained by investing in building channels of communication called pipelines to selected providers located outside the local milieu. It is argued that the co-existence of high levels of buzz and many pipelines may provide firms located in outward-looking and lively clusters with a string of particular advantages not available to outsiders. Finally, some policy implications, stemming from this argumen...

/pdf/clusters-and-knowledge-local-buzz-global-pipelines-and-the-29bsuyvekg.pdf

Clusters and knowledge: local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation

The author systematically examines one of the important issues of information — establishing the market price. He introduces the concept of «search» — where a buyer wanting to get a better price, is forced to question sellers. The article deals with various aspects of finding the necessary information.

Economics of Information

Social Network Analysis

The 2008 crash has left all the established economic doctrines - equilibrium models, real business cycles, disequilibria models - in disarray. Part of the problem is due to Smith’s "veil of ignorance": individuals unknowingly pursue society’s interest and, as a result, have no clue as to the macroeconomic effects of their actions: witness the Keynes and Leontief multipliers, the concept of value added, fiat money, Engel’s law and technical progress, to name but a few of the macrofoundations of microeconomics. A good viewpoint to take bearings anew lies in comparing the post-Great Depression institutions with those emerging from Thatcher and Reagan’s economic policies: deregulation, exogenous vs. endoge- nous money, shadow banking vs. Volcker’s Rule. Very simply, the banks, whose lending determined deposits after Roosevelt, and were a public service became private enterprises whose deposits determine lending. These underlay the great moderation preceding 2006, and the subsequent crash.

The Economic Institutions of Capitalism

Die Bewertung der wirtschaftlichen Bedeutung von Universitaten steht zunehmend im politischen Interesse, wenn es um die Rechtfertigung des offentlichen Mitteleinsatzes fur Forschung und Bildung geht. Wahrend regionale Wirkungsanalysen bisher meist auf der lokalen Ebene und fur einzelne Einrichtungen durchgefuhrt wurden, bewertet dieser Beitrag erstmalig den monetaren Effekt einer ganzen Hochschullandschaft auf die Wertschopfung und den Arbeitsmarkt eines grosen Flachenlandes in Deutschland. Einige der methodischen Schwachen der Wirkungsanalyse werden hierbei verbessert. Aufgrund einer erweiterten Multiplikatoranalyse, die sowohl produktions- als auch einkommensseitige Effekte integriert, einer differenziellen Analyse der Uberschusswirkung von Universitaten gegenuber alternativen Verwendungen der staatlichen Grundmittel sowie der Modellerweiterung um Ausgabenstrome im System der Sozialversicherungen tragt diese Untersuchung zu einer Weiterentwicklung der okonomischen Wirkungsanalyse von Bildungseinrichtungen auf Landerebene bei. Mithilfe einer prazise regionalisierten Primarerhebung der Ausgaben aller neun Landesuniversitaten in Baden-Wurttemberg zeigt die Analyse, dass die Universitaten in ihrer Gesamtwirkung einen Beitrag zu Wertschopfung und Beschaftigung leisten, der die eingesetzten Mittel der Grundfinanzierung des Landes nahezu verdoppelt. Die differenzielle Analyse ergibt ferner, dass alternative Verwendungen der Grundmittel kaum vergleichbare Wirkungen erzielen. Schlieslich diskutiert der Beitrag wesentliche Faktoren, die die Hebelwirkung universitarer Ausgaben bestimmen.

Die wirtschaftliche Wirkung der Universitäten im Land Baden-Württemberg

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/grow.12362

Institutional context and place-based policy: The case of Coventry & Warwickshire

Knowledge and Institutions

The relationship between geography and the creation, use, and reproduction of knowledge has been at the core of this book series. The previous twelve volumes have focused, among other topics, on the role that creativity, culture, power, networks, science and universities have in cultivating an understanding of how the social process of knowing unfolds in space. They all draw attention to ways in which this process is situated in places and how learning connects people across places. Centering on institutions, volume 13 presents yet another perspective on the spatiality of human knowledge. Across the social sciences scholars have been attributing to institutions a major part in social, political, cultural, and economic development. Although there is agreement on the importance of institutions, there are several understandings of what institutions are and how they influence social life. The purpose of this volume is to examine a rather neglected and only recently acknowledged dimension in institutional theory: the spatiality of institutions, the spatiotemporal dynamics of institutional change, and the role of institutions in the creation and reproduction of knowledge and related social outcomes in bounded territories.

/pdf/on-the-spatiality-of-institutions-and-knowledge-2whdj7e4qk.pdf

On the Spatiality of Institutions and Knowledge

Anstatt Netzwerke nur aus der Sicht einzelner Akteure zu betrachten, richten die Autoren ihren Blick auf die multilaterale Zusammenarbeit. Wissenschaftler, Unternehmens- und Rechtsberater diskutieren Konzepte wie Netzwerkgut oder laterale Governance, auf deren Grundlage Netzwerke ausgestaltet und ihre Innovationskraft gefordert werden kann. Auch die Wahl der Rechtsform, der Controllinginstrumente sowie der Einsatz von Kommunikationstechnologien werden thematisiert. Erfolgsfaktoren arbeiten die Autoren anhand detaillierter Fallstudien heraus."

Johannes Glückler

Papers

Die wirtschaftliche Wirkung der Universitäten im Land Baden-Württemberg

Institutional context and place-based policy: The case of Coventry & Warwickshire

Knowledge and Institutions

On the Spatiality of Institutions and Knowledge

Unternehmensnetzwerke : architekturen, strukturen und strategien