Knowledge Coherence, Variety and economic Growth: Manufacturing Evidence from Italian Regions

This paper elaborates a view on knowledge as a result of a combinatorial search activity, so as to investigate its effects on economic growth at the regional level. Empirical estimations corroborate the hypothesis that knowledge coherence and variety, besides the traditional measure of knowledge stock, matter in shaping regional economic performances. The check for spatial dependence suggests that cross-regional externalities exert additional triggering effects on growth, without debasing the effects of knowledge properties. Important policy implications stem from the analysis, in that regional innovation strategies should be carefully coordinated so as to reach a higher degree of internal coherence and trigger economic performances.

[1]  R. Boschma,et al.  Why is economic geography not an evolutionary science? : towards an evolutionary economic geography , 2004 .

[2]  Ha Henny Romijn,et al.  Innovation, Networking and Proximity: Lessons from Small High Technology Firms in the UK , 2002 .

[3]  M. Weitzman,et al.  Recombinant Growth , 2009 .

[4]  Arthur F. Burns,et al.  Production Trends in the United States Since 1870. , 1934 .

[5]  Dolores Añón Higón.  The impact of R&D spillovers on UK manufacturing TFP: A dynamic panel approach , 2007 .

[6]  O. Sorenson,et al.  Technology as a complex adaptive system: evidence from patent data , 2001 .

[7]  Moses Abramovitz,et al.  Resources and Output Trends in the United States since 1870. , 1957 .

[8]  P. Thompson,et al.  Patent Citations and the Geography of Knowledge Spillovers: A Reassessment , 2005 .

[9]  Thomas M. Smith,et al.  A History of Mechanical Inventions , 1961, Nature.

[10]  Maureen McKelvey,et al.  Considerations about the Production and Utilization of Knowledge , 2004 .

[11]  L. Anselin.  Spatial Econometrics: Methods and Models , 1988 .

[12]  J. Schumpeter,et al.  Business Cycles: A Theoretical, Historical, and Statistical Analysis of the Capitalist Process , 1940 .

[13]  Zvi Griliches,et al.  R&D, Patents, and Productivity , 1981 .

[14]  Zvi Griliches,et al.  Patents and R&D: is There a Lag? , 1984 .

[15]  F. Quatraro.  Innovation, structural change and productivity growth: evidence from Italian regions, 1980–2003 , 2009 .

[16]  Jacques Mairesse,et al.  Productivity and R&D at the Firm Level in French Manufacturing , 1983 .

[17]  G. V. Furstenberg.  Capital, efficiency, and growth , 1980 .

[18]  C. Freeman,et al.  The Economics of Industrial Innovation - 3rd Edition , 1997 .

[19]  F. Quatraro,et al.  Pecuniary Knowledge Externalities: Evidence from European Regions , 2008 .

[20]  L. Nesta.  Knowledge and productivity in the world's largest manufacturing corporations , 2008 .

[21]  Pier Paolo Patrucco,et al.  Productivity Growth and Pecuniary Knowledge Externalities: An Empirical Analysis of Agglomeration Economies in European Regions , 2011 .

[22]  W. E. Silver,et al.  Economics and Information Theory , 1967 .

[23]  Zvi Griliches,et al.  Issues in Assessing the Contribution of Research and Development to Productivity Growth , 1979 .

[24]  Pier Paolo Saviotti,et al.  Coherence of the Knowledge Base and the Firm's Innovative Performance: Evidence from the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry , 2005 .

[25]  Dale W. Jorgenson,et al.  Productivity, Volume 1: Postwar U. S. Economic Growth , 1995 .

[26]  R. Gray.  Entropy and Information Theory , 1990, Springer New York.

[27]  C. Freeman.  Economics of Industrial Innovation , 1975 .

[28]  Jan W. Rivkin,et al.  Complexity, Networks and Knowledge Flow , 2002 .

[29]  F. Quatraro,et al.  Recombinant Knowledge and Growth: The Case of ICTs , 2010 .

[30]  F. Lichtenberg,et al.  R&D Investment and International Productivity Differences , 1992 .

[31]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning , 2007 .

[32]  P. Cooke,et al.  Regional innovation systems: Institutional and organisational dimensions , 1997 .

[33]  Jan Fagerberg,et al.  A technology gap approach to why growth rates differ , 1987 .

[34]  H. Bathelt,et al.  Clusters and knowledge: local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation , 2004 .

[35]  Bart Verspagen,et al.  Knowledge Spillovers in Europe: A Patent Citations Analysis , 2002 .

[36]  J. Paul Elhorst,et al.  Specification and Estimation of Spatial Panel Data Models , 2003 .

[37]  Z. Griliches,et al.  Patents and R and D: Is There a Lag? , 1986 .

[38]  G. Dosi.  Technological Paradigms and Technological Trajectories: A Suggested Interpretation of the Determinants and Directions of Technical Change , 1982 .

[39]  F. Perroux.  Note sur la notion de "pôle de croissance" , 1955, Économie appliquée.

[40]  S. Winter,et al.  Understanding corporate coherence: Theory and evidence , 1994 .

[41]  K. Pavitt,et al.  Patent statistics as indicators of innovative activities: Possibilities and problems , 2005, Scientometrics.

[42]  L. Anselin,et al.  Patents and innovation counts as measures of regional production of new knowledge , 2002 .

[43]  James P. LeSage,et al.  “Theory and Practice of Spatial Econometrics” , 2015 .

[44]  Stefano Usai,et al.  Knowledge flows across European regions , 2009 .

[45]  GROWTH POLE THEORY, TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE, AND REGIONAL ECONOMIC GROWTH , 1975 .

[46]  Francesco Quatraro,et al.  Diffusion of Regional Innovation Capabilities: Evidence from Italian Patent Data , 2009 .

[47]  Ron Boschma,et al.  Related Variety, Trade Linkages, and Regional Growth in Italy , 2009 .

[48]  Jan W. Rivkin,et al.  Complexity, Networks and Knowledge Flows , 2010 .

[49]  John Metcalfe,et al.  Knowledge of growth and the growth of knowledge , 2002 .

[50]  R. Nelson.  The Role of Knowledge in R&D Efficiency , 1982 .

[51]  A. Pyka,et al.  Elgar Companion to Neo-Schumpeterian Economics , 2009 .

[52]  B. Verspagen.  R&D and productivity: A broad cross-section cross-country look , 1995 .

[53]  A. Kleinknecht,et al.  Innovative output, and a firm's propensity to patent.: an exploration of CIS micro data , 1999 .

[54]  Pier Paolo Saviotti,et al.  On the dynamics of generation and utilisation of knowledge: The local character of knowledge , 2007 .

[55]  Michael Fritsch,et al.  Cooperation and the efficiency of regional R&D activities , 2004 .

[56]  Edward Lorenz,et al.  Collective Learning, Tacit Knowledge and Regional Innovative Capacity , 1999 .

[57]  Cristiano Antonelli,et al.  Localized technological change , 2003 .

[58]  Pier Paolo Saviotti,et al.  Information, variety and entropy in technoeconomic development☆ , 1988 .

[59]  Elhanan Helpman,et al.  International R&D spillovers , 1995 .

[60]  Davide Consoli.  Localised technological change: towards the economics of complexity , 2009, Technol. Anal. Strateg. Manag..

[61]  Convergence Across Italian Regions and the Role of Technological Catch-Up , 2004 .

[62]  Simon Kuznets,et al.  Secular Movements In Production And Prices , 1930 .

[63]  S. Breschi,et al.  Mobility of Skilled Workers and Co-Invention Networks: An Anatomy of Localized Knowledge Flows , 2009 .

[64]  Pier Paolo Saviotti,et al.  Firm knowledge and market value in biotechnology , 2006 .

[65]  Paul Nightingale,et al.  A cognitive model of innovation , 1998 .

[66]  E. Malecki.  Knowledge, Competence, And Regional Development , 2000 .

[67]  Hulya Ulku,et al.  R&D, Innovation, and Growth: Evidence from Four Manufacturing Sectors in OECD Countries , 2007 .

[68]  Pier Paolo Saviotti,et al.  Considerations about the Production In Competition Policy and Intellectual Property Law , 2004 .

[69]  S. Breschi,et al.  Knowledge Spillovers And Local Innovation Systems: A Critical Survey , 2001 .

[70]  K. Arrow.  Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention , 1962 .

[71]  Pier Paolo Saviotti,et al.  The knowledge-base evolution in biotechnology: a social network analysis , 2011 .

[72]  K. Frenken,et al.  Related Variety, Unrelated Variety and Regional Economic Growth , 2007 .

[73]  R. Nelson.  The Simple Economics of Basic Scientific Research , 1959, Journal of Political Economy.

[74]  O. Morgenstern,et al.  Business Cycles: A Theoretical, Historical, and Statistical Analysis of the Capitalist Process. , 1940 .

[75]  R. Solow.  TECHNICAL CHANGE AND THE AGGREGATE PRODUCTION FUNCTION , 1957 .

[76]  R. Crescenzi,et al.  The territorial dynamics of innovation: a Europe-United States Comparative Analysis , 2007 .

[77]  Michael Fritsch,et al.  Measuring the Quality of Regional Innovation Systems: A Knowledge Production Function Approach , 2002 .

[78]  F. Hayek.  Economics and knowledge , 1937 .

[79]  M. Fritsch,et al.  Innovation, regional knowledge spillovers and R&D cooperation , 2004 .

[80]  Pier Paolo Saviotti,et al.  Evolution of the Knowledge Base in Knowledge Intensive Sectors , 2009 .

[81]  Z. Griliches.  Patent Statistics as Economic Indicators: a Survey , 1990 .

[82]  A. Maddison.  GROWTH AND SLOWDOWN IN ADVANCED CAPITALIST ECONOMIES - TECHNIQUES OF QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT , 1987 .

[83]  Mohsen Attaran,et al.  Industrial diversity and economic performance in U.S. areas , 1986 .

[84]  Francesca Lotti,et al.  Cross Country Differences in Patent Propensity: a Firm Level Investigation , 2006 .