When Regional Innovation Policies Meet Policy Rationales and Evidence: A Plea for Policy Analysis

Susana Borrás () and Jacint Jordana

No 2016/12, Papers in Innovation Studies from Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research

Abstract: In spite of recent advancements regarding regional innovation policy rationales and evidence, there are few analyses about the actual features of existing regional innovation policies. Nevertheless, a policy analysis perspective is important in order to recognise their distinctive patterns across regions, and to understand how rationales and evidence can be translated into policy-making. To this purpose, this paper develops a framework to study the extent to which regional innovation policies have changed during the past few years. Since the mid-2000s there has been an important development of innovation policy rationales, advocating for more specialisation; likewise, greater data availability at the regional level has allowed more sophisticated assessment of innovation performance. Finally, the crisis since 2008 has had ravaging effects in some regions, with job losses and severe economic sluggishness. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect transforming dynamics in regional innovation policies. Against this backdrop, the paper compares the institutional frameworks and budgetary priorities of four Spanish regions during the period 2001-2014: Catalonia, the Basque country, Galicia, and Andalusia. In so doing, it aims at studying the extent to which regional governments have readily addressed past and new challenges related to their regional innovation system, and if so, how.

Keywords: Catalonia; Basque country; Galicia; Andalusia; regional innovation system; smart specialisation; policy change; regional advantage; policy mixes; policy instruments; regulatory governance; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E61 O31 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2016-04-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-ino, nep-mac, nep-pke and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Journal Article: When regional innovation policies meet policy rationales and evidence: a plea for policy analysis (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2016_012

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