European regional growth, technology gap and R&D efforts

Since the early days of European integration, one of the central goals for the European Union has been greater equality in income and productivity among member states and regions. This goal was realised for a long time since form the early 1950s onwards, differences in GDP per capita within European regions declined steadily. However, more recently, THE PROCESS OF EUROPEAN ECONOMIC CONVERGENCE HAS CONSIDERABLY SLOWED DOWN and, according to a widening group of economists, has CEASED AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL after 1980. The paper we wish to present aims to explain the different PATTERNS OF CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE in terms of GDP per capita of the European regions. Is it reasonable to think that catching up will occur for all European regions? What role does the technology gap play for the catching up process? What are the mechanisms and policies to be implemented to upgrade social capability which is a major determinant of catching up? In order to answer these crucial questions we have built a MODEL OF CUMULATIVE GROWTH - a SIMULTANEOUS SYSTEM OF EQUATIONS. In this model, and according to the technology gap literature, one of the major determinants of catching up is the existence of a TECHNOLOGY GAP. The latter offers a potential for faster growth if SOCIAL CAPABILITY is sufficiently developed. In our model, social capability is measured in terms of highly and moderately qualified working population, R&D activity and physical infrastructure endowment. Industrial and service activities as well as innovative output are endogenised in the simultaneous equations framework. Our model is tested onto a sample of European regions that is considerably larger than those used by authors publishing in related fields. Whereas the latter generally use NUTS I samples (about 60 observations), our sample is essentielly based upon NUTS II regions and the NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS TOTALS 153 REGIONS. If this extended sample constitutes clearly one of the INNOVATIONS of this paper with respect to the existing literature, another originality is the chosen approach to explain the different trajectories of convergence and divergence. Indeed, our approach permits to CLUSTER the European regions with respect to their steady state levels of GDP per capita and, more important, enables to identify for each cluster the appropriate policy measures.

L'intégration de l'Autriche dans l'Union Européenne: risques et enjeux pour les structures industrielles régionales

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Geographically and technologically mediated knowledge spillovers between European regions

This paper aims at investigating inter-regional knowledge spillovers across European sub-national regions. The basic questions that we wish to answer may be formulated in the following way: do regional geographical and technological proximities matter for the creation of new knowledge within the European regional landscape? After a review of the related literature, we consider a regional knowledge production function that allows for extra regional innovation-generating inputs. Accounting for regional specific “social capability”, this knowledge production function is applied to an extended sample of 153 European sub-national regions over the period 1989–1996. Interregional knowledge spillovers are shown to exist between geographically close regions and between regions displaying similar technological profiles. However, technological proximity and geographical proximity coincides to a certain extent. Knowledge spillovers are mainly driven by the private business sector. If knowledge spillovers occur within a given country, the national border turns out to seriously hamper interregional spillovers on the European scale. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2003O31, R10, H41,

The innovation process of European régions

This paper aims at investigating the innovation process of European regions in taking into account potential feedback relations between university and private business research and development (R&D). After a review of the related literature, we construct a simultaneous equation model based on a knowledge production function framework. The model is tested onto an extended sample of 153 European regions and highlights that the European region's knowledge creation heavily depends on private business and university R&D efforts which, in turn, influence each other. However, the European landscape is characterised by important disparities in terms of knowledge creation capacities. Since the innovative capacity of "objective 1" regions is extremely weak, we attempt to identify by means of dummy variable estimations the specific components of the innovation process that should be fostered by an adequate S&T policy.Special issue.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Inter- and intra- regional knowledge spillovers: evidence from European regions

Is the knowledge creation process linear or characterized by feedback relations among actors involved in the regional innovation system? How can the innovation process of 'lagging' regions be strengthened? What is the role and extent of inter-regional knowledge spillovers? The paper aims at providing satisfactory answers in investigating a knowledge production function framework adapted to the specific questions and which is tested on an extended sample of European regions. On the basis of the results, concrete policy measures are derived aiming at upgrading the knowledge creation capacity of European regions. © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

European regional growth, technology gap and social capability

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Innovation, catching up and convergence of european regions

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European regional growth, technology gap and R&D efforts

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe