Ederer, P, Schuller, P, & Willms, S. Human Capital Leading Indicators: How Europe’s Regions and Cities Can Drive Growth and Foster Social Inclusion. The Lisbon Council, 2011.

The newest report issued by the Lisbon Council examines human capital indicators and their performance at the local and regional level, and reviews seven broadly conceived regions (Bratislava [SK], Emilia Romagna [IT], Helsinki [FI], Navarra [ES], Sofia [BG], Stockholm [SE] and West Midlands [GB]) to offer insight into which policies work best.

The four key indicators used in the report to forecast the correlation between performance and local prosperity are:

• the number of complex jobs in a region or city;
• the number of jobs available for young people and the ease with which young people can find employment;
• the ability to get the unemployed back to work (thereby avoiding high levels of long-term unemployment); and
• the intensity  of investment in research and development and the volume of local patent applications, a proxy for “innovativeness” of the region.

The report also draws attention to innovation as a key driver of economic and social growth. In particular, it includes a league table of over 260 localities ranked by innovation, which is measured in this instance as public and private research and development as a percentage of overall gross domestic product as well as patent applications per one million inhabitants in 2003.

The Lisbon Council