Just an indication

Ohio is a great place to find doctors and engineers, but struggles to support entrepreneurs and the growth of high tech industries, according to a report the Milken Institute issued yesterday. The 2008 State Technology and Science Index compiles 77 indicators ranking a state’s ability to leverage regional resources, an effort the institute claims is “one of the most comprehensive examinations of state technology and science assets ever compiled.”

Naturally, I was dismayed to see Ohio falling toward the bottom of the list, ranking 36 with an index score of 45.25, presumably out of a perfect 100. Ohio was far below Massachusetts, Maryland and Colorado, which all had scores above 75. However, even more troubling than the current ranking is the fall from grace it indicates. In 2002, Ohio ranked 27th on Milken’s index and in 2004, the state was 24th.

I struggle to believe in the real world accuracy of a 77-point indicator that varies vastly in its placement of states over just a four-year period. I’m not sure that even science and technology move quickly enough to necessitate biannual measurement. That said, I was intrigued to see what Ohio’s rankings could illustrate about economic development.

The 77 indicators were broken into five major categories, including R&D input and size of science and technology workforce, areas in which Ohio ranked about average, and human capital investment, risk capital and entrepreneurial infrastructure, and technology concentration and dynamism, categories where Ohio lagged behind others.

A few indicators of interest:

• In terms of workforce, Ohio was among the top ten nationwide in percentage of its workers engaged as computer and information scientists, engineers, and physicists and among the top 20 in percentage of biochemists, biophysicists and medical scientists (a good sign for Northeast Ohio’s biomedical corridor).
• In the R&D input section, the state excelled in number of SBIR and STTR awards received and in R&D expenditures on biomedical science and engineering.
• Ohio’s education excellence was rewarded with high marks in number of doctoral engineering students per capita, state spending on student aid, average ACT scores, and percentage of science and engineering Ph.D.s among people ages 25-34.
• Unfortunately, Ohio’s entrepreneurship support components did not receive such favorable rankings. Ohio was among the bottom 20 states in SBIC funds disbursed, venture capital investment as a percentage of gross state product and total venture capital investment growth.
• Ohio ranked 49th in both number of startups per 100,000 people and average yearly growth of high tech industries.

Hopefully, the report will be seen as constructive analysis and effective benchmarking, leading to an impressive change in the next two years. Let’s shoot for top 10 in 2010.