The tradeoffs of brokerage in innovation networks: a study of Latin American cities

Carlos Bianchi, Pablo Galaso and Sergio Palomeque ()
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Sergio Palomeque: Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Instituto de Economía

No 21-21, Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) from Instituto de Economía - IECON

Abstract: Brokers play a critical role in the evolution of innovation systems. However, accessing and diffusing knowledge into the system imply costs and requires capacities. Using patent data to analyze inter-city networks in Latin America, we revisit the debate on the benefits and costs of knowledge networks. We identify broker cities, differentiating between intra-regional and extra-regional connections, and we estimate the effects of brokerage on patenting outcomes between 2006 and 2017. Our findings reveal that cities holding a central position in the network show higher patenting activity; however, being broker, particularly bridging Latin America with extra-regional cities, negatively influences patenting outcomes.

Keywords: inter-city networks; patents; brokerage; innovation systems; Latin America. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O54 P48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2021-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-ino, nep-lam, nep-net, nep-sbm, nep-tid and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12008/30204

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ulr:wpaper:dt-21-21

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