toledoblade.com --

FOR at least the last 20 or more years, Ohio's governors, and those running for the office, have broadly agreed on one thing: The need for economic development and job growth. How to achieve those goals was a matter of contention, and included grant funds to boost technology plus Gov. Bob Taft's "Third Frontier" initiative.

According to a provocative new analysis by two economists in the nonpartisan research division at the Cleveland branch of the Federal Reserve Bank, Ohio's leaders, and this year's candidates for governor, are tilting at the wrong windmills.

A concentration on tax cuts and old-line industries will not get the job done. The key is less tangible, though it fuels economic growth. It is ideas, as measured by the number of patents filed.

As The Blade reported Sunday, The Fed economists saw something intriguing. While other states were losing manufacturing jobs, those jobs were being replaced in other segments of the economy.

For example, more than 3 million manufacturing jobs were lost in this country between 2000 and 2006, but the nation saw net job growth overall of 3.4 million in that period.

But in Ohio, it was a different story, with a net job loss of slightly more than 176,000 since 2000.

The Fed numbers give pause for thought on how that bleak picture might be transformed, and should encourage gubernatorial candidates Democrat Ted Strickland and Republican Ken Blackwell to expand their debate and discuss the value of ideas.

However, we don't yet see either candidate talking about new ways to turn around Ohio's economic slide.

Mr. Blackwell shrugs off the Fed report with a dismissive comment, "I've worked with the Federal Reserve Bank, not just the regional bank, over the years … I don't need a think tank to answer these questions for me."

But the fact is the analysis, made a centerpiece of the Cleveland Fed 2006 report, deserves serious consideration. The numbers, collected over a period of almost three years and going back 75 years, tell a persuasive story of what fuels economic growth, or allows for decline.

They show that Ohio's economic stumble matches the decline in the number of patents generated.

The Buckeye State was sixth in per-capita patents nationally in 1954, 11th in 1988, and 20th in 2001. A Harvard University study underscores those data by noting that in 2003 the national average for patent generation was 7.81 per 10,000 employees. In Ohio, the figure was 4.81.

To that must be added Ohio's low level of college graduates - 23 percent of adults in the state, and only 17 percent in Toledo - which ranks the state lower than 37 others.

A pattern is clear. Intellectual property, the patents that are licenses for a monopoly on an idea, generate jobs, income, and growth. Patents are not about fanciful theories but practical ideas that translate into the bricks and mortar of factories and laboratories, into new jobs, and good paychecks.

Ideas fuel growth. Patents produce wealth. These are concepts that should inform the policy platforms of Ohio's gubernatorial candidates.

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