Impact of Support to the Information and Communication Technology Cluster in Córdoba, Argentina

The Impact Evaluation of Cluster Development Programs Methods and Practices

IDB

Año: 2016; p. 151 - 166

Do cluster development programs work? Do they fundamentally encouragethe essential inter-firm linkages and coordination? Do they lead toenterprise development, larger employment, and export growth, and if so,after how long? Do other firms benefit from these programs? This book offersinsight into quantitative methods that help answer these questions.The chapters argue that enterprise clusters and the programs to supportthem are diverse and multidimensional processes that require a variety ofinstruments to be fully understood and assessed. The book as a whole gathersvarious methodological essays and quantitative tests of complementary toolsand approaches, emphasizing their usefulness and effectiveness in coordinationwith one another. Most importantly, it asserts that policy evaluation is crucial?inparticular when it comes to cluster development programs?to ensure the bestuse of public resources and the accountability of policymakers, and most of allto feed the necessary learning to improve the design and implementation ofpublic policies for enterprise development.The editors and authors have developed this volume as a collective andmultidisciplinary effort to increase the understanding of productive developmentand test the impact of specific tools to support it. Cluster developmentis a form of modern industrial policy that is spreading across the world to helpexploit the externalities emerging from geographical agglomeration and interfirmcoordination.The editors and authors would like to thank the Institutional CapacityStrengthening Thematic Fund (ICSF) for funding the study, as well as severalcolleagues for their essential comments and support along this journey, includingGregorio Arevalo, Elias G. Carayannis, Michele Clara, Rafael A. Corredoira,Claudio Cortellese, Gustavo Crespi, Emiliano Duch, Eduardo Fernandez Arias, Kurt Focke, Mukesh Gulati, Jordi Jaumandreu, Natalia Laguyas, GeraldMcDermott, Flora Montealegre Painter, Manuel Pacheco, Fabio Russo, AdnanSeric, Ernesto Stein, and Christian Volpe. Preliminary drafts of the chapters werepresented at the Inter-American Development Bank and the U.S. Departmentof Trade in Washington D.C.; the International Trade Center in Geneva; the?Global Conference on Changing Paradigm of Cluster Development: Learningfrom Global Experiences? in New Delhi; the TCI Conference in Monterrey,Mexico; the UNIDO General Conference in Lima, Peru; the National University ofCórdoba in Argentina; the University of Chile in Santiago, Chile; and the II LocalDevelopment Economic Forum in Foz de Iguazu, Brazil.Sarah Schineller efficiently coordinated the production process. JulianaArbelaez, Laura Baensch, Leonardo Ortega, Sjobhan Pangerl, and María ClaraUquillas provided skillful research assistance.