Universities and Regional Development in the Periphery

Abstract

SynonymsCivic university; Engaged university; Entrepreneurial university; Third missionDefinitionEmbeddedness of universities in regional settings they participate to shape.IntroductionThe mythology is that the regional development issue began as a bet within the Senior Common Room of a Scottish University, St. Andrews (the myth was first heard by the authors in 2003 as far as they can recall in St. Andrews, at the Regional Science Association International British & Irish Section conference.): two academic economists could not agree which was more significant for the town, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club or the university. They set out to settle the wager the only way they knew how, by measuring the impact of both institutions and then comparing the answer. The way that they achieved this measurement was in the application of a very basic equilibrium approach, estimating the ways that what came out of each institution, the university and the golf club, created local impacts. According ...