The Role of Government Institutions for Smart Specialisation and Regional Development

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Marco Di Cataldo and Alessandro Rainoldi

No JRC88935, JRC Research Reports from Joint Research Centre

Abstract: Research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation (RIS3) are trying to introduce a new vision of innovation policy in European regions. However, the success of RIS3 policy measures is closely dependent on the capacity of regional government institutions to act as coordinators or facilitators of the interventions. The way in which institutional mechanisms govern innovation processes and provide incentives for the interaction between regional actors remains a largely unexplored area of scientific research. This policy note discusses the importance of sound institutional frameworks for the effectiveness of smart specialisation, presenting an econometric study that investigates the link between government institutions and innovation. The empirical results confirm the key role played by governance structures for technological advances at the regional level, suggesting that the greatest gains in innovative capacity from institutional reforms would be obtained in peripheral territories where the initial level of government quality is lower. This analysis has important implications for the identification of the necessary pre-requisites for successful RIS3 strategies in EU regions.

Keywords: European cohesion policy; Structural Funds; smart specialisation; Innovation Union; Regional Policy; Institutional Framework; Coordination; Governance Structures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2014-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-geo, nep-ino, nep-knm, nep-sbm and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc88935

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