A micro-founded approach to regional innovation in Italy

Abstract

Recent regional studies have taken a micro-founded perspective to uncover the influence of the external environment on the firm-level innovative performance. Despite the marked spatial disparities, there is a general lack of recent evidence on Italian regional innovation from a micro perspective. This paper fills this gap in the evidence base by estimating regional Knowledge Production Functions using Italian micro-data collected in the Community Innovation Survey. In particular, here we focus on the regional differences in the relationship between innovative inputs and outputs and on the ability of firms to absorb external knowledge. This analysis allows us to outline different regional innovative profiles in Italy.