The New Economics Of Innovation, Spillovers And Agglomeration: Areview Of Empirical Studies

Abstract

This paper reviews recent empirical studies of location and innovation. The objective is to highlight the questions addressed, approaches adopted, and further issues that remain. The review is organized around the traditions of measuring geographically mediated spillovers and productivity studies that introduce a geographic dimension. The first part identilies four separate strains in thc empirical spillover literature: innovation production functions; the linkages between patent citations. defined as paper trails: the rnobility of skilled labor based on the notion that knowledge spillovers are transmitted through people; and, last, knowledge spillovers embodied in traded goods. The second part considers the composition of agglomeration economies, the attributes of knowlcdge, and the characteristics of firms.Innovation, Geography, Spillovers, Location JEL Classification: 03, L2,

What do we know about geographical knowledge spillovers and regional growth?: A survey of the literature

“…As the literature reviewed by Feldman (1999) shows, these spillovers often occur through direct interaction on the individual level, and Schrader (1991) shows that the frequency of interaction of R&D employees from different firms has a positive impact on the frequency of innovations in these firms. In order to set up these interactions, it was shown to be of pivotal importance that the individuals expected the relationship to be reciprocal regarding the quality and quantity of knowledge that was to be exchanged.…”

Do clusters really matter for innovation practices in Information Technology? Questioning the significance of technological knowledge spillovers

“…Within this context, it has often been claimed that the nature of tacit knowledge, knowledge which is highly contextual and difficult or even impossible to codify (Gertler, 2003), is decisive (Breschi and Lissoni, 2001b). Because it requires direct face-to-face interactions, regular co-presence and a shared local social context, the transfer of such tacit knowledge is argued to be highly localised (Feldman, 1999;Maskell and Malmberg, 1999). Face-to-face is often argued to be a critical medium for knowledge exchange (Morgan, 2004;Storper and Venables, 2004).…”

“…Furthermore, there have been more empirically oriented approaches of 'new economics of innovation' (Audretsch and Feldman, 2003;Feldman, 1999) which have emphasised the importance of local technological knowledge spillovers. Here, knowledge production functions (Audretsch and Feldman, 1996) or patent citations (Jaffe et al, 1993) have been used and proposed as indirect indicators of technological spillovers.…”

The Impact of Long-term Scientific Mobility on the Creation of Persistent Knowledge Networks

“…physical proximity -between individuals through more or less extended periods of time. Physical proximity is generally accepted to be critical for knowledge exchange (Feldman, 1999), particularly when the knowledge being transmitted has a strong tacit component, as is the case with new scientific discoveries (Zucker et al, 2002); or when knowledge is highly complex, in which case even codification may not guarantee complete comprehension and reproduction (Dasgupta & David, 1994).…”