Knowledge spillovers, related variety and firm heterogeneity

Giulio Cainelli and Roberto Ganau

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Economic geographers and regional economists have traditionally analysed the mechanisms driving learning processes and the diffusion of knowledge among local economic actors. During the past decade, the concept of «related variety» has been frequently used to denote an agglomeration force able to explain knowledge-related advantages for firms and geographically bounded productive systems, and which arises from the heterogeneity of local industries. Besides this concept, more recent studies have emphasised the role of firm heterogeneity as an alternative – but not substitute – mecha-nism for knowledge creation and diffusion. This paper discusses the factors driving the emergence of knowledge spillovers within agglomerative spaces, and conducts a critical comparison between the concepts of industrial related variety and firm heterogeneity as two potential sources of local knowledge externalities, and, thus, of local economic development.

Keywords: agglomeration economies; knowledge spillovers; related variety (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14 pages
Date: 2021-05-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-geo, nep-knm, nep-sbm and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Scienze Regionali, 1, May, 2021, 20(2), pp. 167 - 180. ISSN: 1720-3929

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/114858/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:114858

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().