Is regional innovative activity path-dependent? An empirical analysis for Germany

No 1058, Kiel Working Papers from Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel)

Abstract: Based on a standard idea-based model of endogenous growth we test the hypothesis that regional innovative activity is path-dependent, and investigate the geographical scope of knowledge spillovers. Using data for West-German regions, two alternative indicators of the stock of knowledge are specified. One is based on patent applications, the other on numbers of researchers. With patents as indicator the path-dependence hypothesis is rejected, and knowledge spillovers from neighboring regions appear to be irrelevant. With numbers of researchers as indicator, by contrast, there is evidence for both path-dependence, and the relevance of interregional knowledge spillovers. Several extensions and refinements are discussed which may help resolving these apparent contradictions.

Keywords: knowledge spillovers; path-dependence; endogenous growth; spatial econometrics; Germany; regional innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 O31 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/2612/1/kap1058.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:1058

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Kiel Working Papers from Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().