Spatial sorting of innovative firms and heterogeneous effects of agglomeration on innovation in Germany

Annekatrin Niebuhr, Jan Cornelius Peters and Alex Schmidke
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Alex Schmidke: Institute for Employment Research

The Journal of Technology Transfer, 2020, vol. 45, issue 5, No 3, 1343-1375

Abstract: Abstract We examine the effects of agglomeration, differentiating between urbanization and localization economies, on four distinct types of innovation in manufacturing and services. Furthermore, estimating multilevel panel regression models, we investigate the sorting of highly innovative firms into dense urban and/or specialized regions by considering both observable and unobservable firm characteristics. The results indicate that spatial sorting is important. A large portion of the regional differences in firm innovation rates is due to firm characteristics. Estimates that ignore unobserved heterogeneity at the firm level still point to a positive and significant impact of localization economies on different types of innovation. However, once we include firm fixed effects and distinguish between manufacturing and services, only some weak indication for positive effects of localization on radical innovations of manufacturing firms remains. In addition, the probability to adopt an existing product by an manufacturing firm seems to be positively influenced by urbanization economies. For the service sector, in contrast, we find adverse effects of localization on different kinds of innovation and no important effect of urbanization.

Keywords: Agglomeration economies; Spatial sorting; Firm innovation; Localization; Urbanization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 O31 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10961-019-09755-8

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