Education or just Creativity: what matters most for economic performance?

There is a large consensus among social researchers on the positive role played by human capital on economic performances. The standard way to measure the human capital endowment is to consider the educational attainments by the resident population, usually the share of people with a university degree. Recently, Florida (2002) suggested a different measure of human capital - the “creative class†- based on the actual occupations of individuals in specific jobs like science, engineering, arts, culture, entertainment. However, the empirical analyses carried out so far overlooked a serious measurement problem concerning the clear identification of the education and creativity components of human capital. The main purpose of this paper is to try to disentangle this issue by proposing a disaggregation of human capital into three non-overlapping categories of creative graduates, bohemians and non creative graduates. By using a spatial econometric framework to account for spatial dependence, we assess the concurrent effect of the human capital indicators on total factor productivity for 257 regions of EU27. Our main results indicate that the highly educated creative group is the most relevant one in explaining production efficiency, while the other two categories - non creative graduates and bohemians - exhibit negligible effects. Moreover, a relevant influence is exerted by technological capital and by the level of tolerance providing robust evidence that an innovative, open, inclusive and culturally diverse environment is becoming more and more crucial for productivity enhancements.

Is dualism still a source of convergence in Europe?

This paper aims at assessing whether dualistic mechanisms represent a significant component of the aggregate labour productivity convergence observed across the European regions in the 1980s. The potential of an explanation of convergence based - in part, at least - on the existence of dualism in some of the initially poorer regions has been largely ignored by the literature. We use a dualistic model based on Dixit (1970) and on Mas-Colell and Razin (1973) to obtain hypotheses to be tested in cross-region growth regressions. In particular, we wish to test whether a high initial allocation of labour in agriculture in fact generates -- in each sector as well as at the aggregate level -- the specific impact on productivity growth (and therefore on convergence) implied by the theory of the dual economy. We use the data-base Regio-Eu set up by CRENoS, with aggregate and sectoral data for 109 territorial units from 1980 to 1990. Our cross-section results are consistent with the major predictions of the dualistic model. While part of the influence exerted by dualistic mechanisms is not easily distinguishable from the one exerted by other mechanisms such as technology diffusion, still the former appears to be a significant component of the whole process of convergence. Ignoring such component could lead to misleading interpretations of the relative roles played by each of the forces behind the process, and to inexact assessments of what actions should be taken - if any - by the European regional policy to help the process become more pervasive. Keywords: Dualism, Growth, Convergence, Regions, Europe JEL: O40, O41, O52, R11

Technological enclaves and industrial districts: An analysis of the regional distribution of innovative activity in Europe

This paper explores the spatial distribution of innovative and productive activity across 109 regions of the European Union, thanks to an original databank on regional patents statistics. The main results worth highlighting are as follows. The technological activity in the EU appears to be highly concentrated, although concentration tends to decline over the eighties. This results from the huge differences between southern and northern Europe. As expected, there is a positive association between the regional distribution of innovative activity and labour productivity. Further, contrary to previous evidence on the United States, our data show a significant link between the specialisation in innovation and in production both at the country and at the industry level. This suggests that localised knowledge spillovers and agglomeration economies foster a local economic system towards a specialisation in both production and technology. More surprisingly there appears a negative correlation between technological concentration and aggregate productivity, that is the European regions which enjoy a more homogeneous distribution of their technological capability across different industrial sectors appear to be also characterised by a higher productivity level. This outcome may suggest the presence of positive inter-industry externalities that favour those regions which succeed in covering a broader range of technological activities.

Convergenza e divergenza tra le regioni europee. Implicazioni per lo sviluppo economico in Sardegna

The empirical literature on economic growth has recently devoted increasing attention to the issue of regional disparities. The first part of this paper is devoted to the analysis of the growth process of 110 European regions using an updated version of the database set up by the Centre for North South Economic Research (CRENoS). Applying various statistical tools, it compares the dynamics of both per capita income and labour productivity. The second part of the paper examines more specifically the economic performance of Sardinia, relative to theEuropean regions, and outlines a general interpretation of the economic growth process of this region

The knowledge regions in the enlarged Europe

Since the Lisbon agenda in 2000, Europe stated the goal to become the most advanced knowledge economy in the world relying specifically on the increase and strengthen of its human capital and technological endowments. However, given the presence of localized externalities in the knowledge accumulation process, this policy may produce distortive and unwanted consequences at the territorial level reinforcing the existing high inequalities among regions. Another crucial feature to be considered is the recent enlargement process of the European Union which has brought on stage new players characterized by a low average level of knowledge activity accompanied by a huge degree of internal territorial disparity. The aim of this paper is to identify the “knowledge regions†in Europe and to examine their main territorial features. To this aim we first build, for 287 regions belonging to 31 European countries, a comprehensive picture of the two variables - human capital and technological activity - which constitute the main pillars of the knowledge economy. For each of these two variables we construct several indicators examining their spatial distribution across the European regions. Further, we compute two synthetic indicators for human capital and technology and, on the basis of these two dimensions, we finally identify the knowledge regions.

Spatial spillovers and innovation activity in European regions

This paper explores the spatial distribution of innovative activity and the role of technological spillovers in the process of knowledge creation across 138 regions of 17 countries in Europe (the 15 members of the European Union plus Switzerland and Norway). The analysis is based on an original statistical databank set up by CRENoS on regional patenting at the European Patent Office spanning from 1978 to 1997 and classified by ISIC sectors (3 digit). In a first step, a deep exploratory spatial data analysis of the dissemination of innovative activity in Europe is performed. Some global and local indicators for spatial association are presented, summarising the presence of a dependence process in the distribution of innovative activity for different periods and sectors. Secondly, we attempt to model the behaviour of innovative activity at the regional level on the basis of a knowledge production function. Econometric results points to the relevance of internal factors (R&D expenditure, economic performance, agglomeration economies). Moreover, the production of knowledge by European regions seems to be also affected by spatial spillovers due to innovative activity performed in other regions. Keywords: Innovative activity, Spatial analysis, European regions, Knowledge production function.

Productivity growth in the Old and New Europe: the role of agglomeration externalities

The recent history of Europe is characterized by a dual picture showing the Old and New countries in sharp contrast with respect to their industrial specialisation and economic performance. We aim at analyzing the intertwined performance of regions and industries in New and Old European economies by investigating the effects of local agglomeration externalities (mainly specialisation and diversity externalities) on total factor productivity dynamics. We also analyse the potential influence of regional intangible assets such as human and technological capital. The econometric analysis makes use of spatial econometric techniques to take into account the possibility of cross-border externalities.

Do trade and technology reduce asymmetries? Evidence from manufacturing industries in the EU

Are asymmetric shocks to output less important for industries which are more open to trade and more technology-intensive? Our results, obtained from a correlation analysis between growth rates of value added in thirteen manufacturing industries in eleven European countries between 1979 and 1990, clearly support the hypothesis. This finding suggests that policies which promote trade and technological innovation may help to decrease the importance of the asymmetric components of the business cycle within European countries