Capabilities, Institutions and Regional Economic Development: A Proposed Synthesis
Koen Frenken,
Frank Neffke and
Alje van Dam
No 2318, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography
Abstract:
The capability framework in evolutionary economic geography views regional economic development as a process of related diversification through the acquisition of capabilities that render a regional economy more complex. Using this framework, we synthesize seven theoretical notions that hitherto remained rather disconnected: relatedness, complementarity, variety, complexity, diversification, agents of structural change, and related variety. We formulate a constructive critique of the capability framework, relaxing the overly restrictive assumption that the presence of capabilities in a region is both necessary and sufficient for complex products to be produced in a region. Instead, we argue that the complexity of a regional economy depends primarily on the institutions that support firms to coordinate production in complex value chains within and across regions. The augmented framework allows for closer integration of evolutionary and relational approaches in economic geography, providing new links between the literatures on clusters, innovation systems and global production networks.
Keywords: diversification; relatedness; complexity; institution; value chain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B52 O1 O43 R1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-08, Revised 2023-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-evo, nep-geo, nep-hme, nep-ino, nep-pke, nep-tid and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)
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Journal Article: Capabilities, institutions and regional economic development: a proposed synthesis (2023) 
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egu:wpaper:2318
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