Do EU regions benefit from smart specialization?

David L. Rigby, Christoph Roesler, Dieter Kogler, Ron Boschma () and Pierre-Alexandre Balland

No 1931, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: Smart specialization was conceived as a “bottom-up†framework to identify new growth paths connected to the existing knowledge cores of regions. Operationalization of smart specialization has proven difficult, though a recent “mapping†of technologies in terms of knowledge relatedness and complexity suggests a useful cost-benefit framework. We extend these ideas, locating EU cities in a smart specialization space and tracking their development of alternative technologies over the period 1981 to 2015. Panel models show employment growth and GDP growth are faster in cities that exhibit a logic of technological development consistent with the tenets of smart specialization.

Keywords: smart specialization; policy; complexity; technological relatedness; European Union (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O25 O38 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-11, Revised 2019-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-geo, nep-ino, nep-sbm and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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