Local Universities as Engines for Innovation and Regional Development in Southern Economies with Reference to MOROCCO

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to show that universities can be engines for local development in Southern economies. Previous contributions to the literature on this subject have already shown the positive effects of regional sources of tacit knowledge on local development. Using data on developed, developing and emerging countries, regression analysis is pursued with the available data. The attained results show that developing economies do have room for local development as this can be further provided by regional universities and schools. These potential gains have been expressed to be higher for developing and emerging countries. These results imply that developing and emerging countries can enhance their local and overall development through the promotion of local universities and schools but these sources of skills and knowledge need to be tied with the local needs of the population as in developed countries. The case of Morocco illustrates the potential and positive effects of regional universities on local development. The transmission channel includes encouragement of skills, access to patents and intellectual property rights protection besides enterprise creation and implementation. These trends are likely to be accelerated within the regionalization process and the role of regional knowledge centers.