Do clusters generate greater innovation and growth?

The analysis of clusters has attracted considerable interest over the last few decades. The articulation of clusters into complex networks and systems of innovation - generally known as regional innovation systems - has, in particular, been associated with the delivery of greater innovation and growth. However, despite the growing economic and policy relevance of clusters, little systematic research has been conducted into their association with other factors promoting innovation and economic growth.

This paper addresses this issue by looking at the relationship between innovation and economic growth in 152 regions of Europe for the period between 1995 and 2006. Using an econometric model with a static and a dynamic dimension, the results of the analysis highlight that: a) regional growth through innovation in Europe is fundamentally connected to the presence of an adequate socioeconomic environment and, in particular, to the existence of a well-trained and educated pool of workers; b) the presence of clusters matters for regional growth, but only in combination with a good 'social filter', and this association wanes in time; c) more traditional R&D variables have a weak initial connection to economic development, but this connection increases over time and, is, once again, contingent on the existence of adequate socioeconomic conditions.

About Andrés Rodriguez Pose

Andrés Rodríguez Pose joined the Department of Geography and Environment of the London School of Economics in 1995. He is the current holder of a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship and of an IMDEA Social Sciences Professorial Research Fellowship. He has a long track record of research in regional growth and disparities, fiscal and political decentralization, regional innovation, and development policies and strategies and has acted as consultant on these fields to several Directorates of the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank, the Cities Alliance, the OECD, the International Labour Organization, and the Confederación Andina de Fomento, among others. He directed a major World Bank/Cities Alliance report entitled 'Understanding Your Local Economy' and has also been visiting professor at a number of universities, including the College of Europe (Belgium), Cambridge (UK), and Hanover (Germany). He has served as Secretary of the European Regional Science Association (2001-2006).

He is the only social scientist to have been awarded the Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award. Other past academic awards include a Philip Leverhulme Prize and a Royal Geographical Society Gill Memorial Award, both for his contribution to our understanding of regional disparities and development. Among his books, we could highlight are: The Dynamics of Regional Growth in Europe (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998), The European Union: Economy, society, and polity (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002), and Local and Regional Development (London, Routledge, 2006). He has also published more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals, is the joint managing editor of Environment and Planning C, and sits on the editorial board of 16 scholarly journals.