Job Creation on a Budget: How Regional Industry Clusters Can Add Jobs, Bolster Entrepreneurship, and Spark Innovation
Mark Muro, Kenan Fikri
First published January 2011
The usual recipe of tax credits, R&D, training programs, and physical infrastructure is not sufficient, by itself, to spur ‘organic’ job creation. States also need to cultivate their industry clusters—geographic concentrations of interconnected firms and supporting organizations. Properly designed, cluster strategies are a low-cost way to stimulate innovation, new-firm start-ups, and job creation by helping to link and align the many factors that influence firm and regional growth.