Regions Cities Industry Webinar: Global Value Chains and Regional Recovery after Covid-19
Global Value Chains and Foreign Direct Investment create both opportunities and challenges for cities and regions. The pandemic has deeply affected consolidated internationalisation patterns and the local impacts of these global forces. Regional recovery needs to leverage all possible opportunities offered by the new global order. This calls for a re-consideration of existing policy tools and for evidence-based discussions on policies that work on the ground to promote regional recovery and development.
The Policy Panel will discuss how public policies for cities and regions (including Smart Specialisation) should evolve in response to a global economy in constant transformation and how Global Value Chains and FDI can be successfully leveraged by local policy makers.
Speakers:
Professor Riccardo Crescenzi, London School of Economics, UK
Dr. Austin Kilroy, World Bank, Croatia
Dr. Sara Amoroso, European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Spain
Dr. Alexander Lembcke, OECD, Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities, France
Chair: Dr. Peter Wostner, Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development, Republic of Slovenia
Open to all and free to attend, this webinar series aims to bring experts in the field of regional studies, science and policy to you. The webinar can be watched live but will also available on demand. The webinars will run live once a month and feature researcher and policymaker experts. They include time for discussion, questions and comments.
Webinar archive
Past webinars will be available on-demand to RSA members.
We welcome new members to the RSA. More information on membership benefits and how to join the Association can be found at www.regionalstudies.org/about/memberships/
Professor Riccardo Crescenzi is a Full Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics where he is also affiliated with the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) and the Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC). Riccardo is the current holder of a European Research Council (ERC) Grant. He is also an Associate at the Centre for International Development at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Taubman Centre, at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute. Riccardo has provided academic advice to, amongst others, the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Inter-American Investment Bank (IADB), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank and various national and regional governments. Riccardo is the 2017 recipient of the Geoffrey J.D. Hewings Award from the North American Regional Science Council. His research is focused on Regional Economic Development and Growth, Innovation, Foreign Direct Investment, Global Value Chains and the analysis and evaluation of European Union policies.
Austin’s responsibilities as a staff in the Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice in the Europe and Central Asia region have focused on: team leader for an advisory service on regional economic development in Eastern Croatia (involving 90 people from 12 departments of the Bank); team leader for a technical assistance project to approximately 150 municipalities in six countries of the Eastern Partnership; and previously team member for support to the Government of Croatia on cluster competitiveness as part of their smart specialization strategy. Austin joined the Bank in 2010, and since then has worked on lending operations, analytic work, and technical assistance in Europe, Africa, and Asia. He is a main author of the Bank’s report on ‘Competitive Cities for Jobs and Growth’. Before coming to the World Bank, Austin worked in an architectural start-up in Beijing, NGOs in France and the UK, and in politics for the Leader of the Liberal Democrat party in the House of Lords in London. He has a PhD in regional and urban economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, where he was a Fulbright Scholar, and a BA in Economics and Politics from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Sara Amoroso is an economist at the Joint Research Center (JRC), European Commission, Spain, since 2013. Her research focuses on industrial innovation and innovation policy. Her main topics of interest are foreign direct investment, firm dynamics, and innovation networks. She is an associated editor of the Journal of Technology Transfer. Her research has been published in journals such as Small Business Economics, Economics of Innovation and New Technology, and Science and Public Policy. She has recently published a co-edited volume on “Science and Technology Parks and Regional Economic Development: An International Perspective”.
Alexander C. Lembcke is an Economist and Policy Analyst at the OECD’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities where he leads the quantitative analysis of regional and urban business and labour dynamics. His work covers the economic analysis of productivity, transport infrastructure and innovation in cities and regions with a focus on the role of SMEs and entrepreneurship. He occasionally published academically and was and is responsible for several OECD publications including the recent reports on “Productivity and Jobs in a Globalised World: (How) Can All Regions Benefit?”, “Broadening Innovation Policy for all Regions and Cities” and “Benefiting from Accessibility in Cities and Regions”.
Dr. Peter Wostner is an expert on development, competitiveness and territorial policies, EU budget and EU Cohesion Policy where he has been, for over 15 years, directly involved in the EU budget and regulatory negotiations as well as setting up of the programming framework and implementation arrangements, including design of (RTDI, competitiveness and HR) policy instruments.
He has been the driver of setting up of Slovenian clusters, the Strategic Research and Innovation Partnerships in the function of head of the Smart Specialisation Unit responsible for policy coordination of innovation related activities within the Slovenian Government between 2014 and 2019.
Currently he works as senior analyst dealing with productivity, digital and structural transformation as well as territorial dimension at the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development. He is a lecturer, moderator and an author of number of articles, especially on the EU budget, development and Cohesion policy.
Dr. Wostner is also the chairman of the OECD’s Working Party on Rural Policy and Vice-Chair of the Regional Development Policy Committee.