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AbstractThis paper examines the impact of knowledge assets—technological and human capital—on the regional productivity levels within a Cobb–Douglas production function model, which includes the traditional tangible inputs, as well as other territorial and industrial features of the regions. Spatial panel econometric techniques are applied to account for geographical association and to examine the role of knowledge spillovers from the neighbouring regions. We apply our empirical model to a large set of regions belonging to the EU27 plus Norway and Switzerland over the period 2000–2008. Our main results, robust to a wide array of sensitivity checks, show that both knowledge assets exert a positive impact on gross domestic product, with human capital being more effective than technological capital in most cases. Moreover, we find evidence of spatial spillovers directly associated with the two knowledge assets, which turn out to have a larger effect in the regions of the 12 new accession countries. These results underline the central role played by highly educated labour forces in allowing a region to absorb the potential knowledge spilling from the external territories, especially in developing countries, and to ensure its effective use in the production process.

The aim of this paper is to assess the role played by creativity and other components of human capital on the process of economic growth for 257 regions in the 27 member countries of the European Union. We first decompose the regional human capital endowment to distinguish between the educational component (the share of individuals with a university degree) and the creativity component, which considers the actual occupations of individuals in specific jobs like science, engineering, education, arts and entertainment. We define three non overlapping categories of human capital (creative graduates, bohemians and non creative graduates) which are simultaneously included in a spatial model as determinants of regional growth measured by labour productivity. After extending the analysis to control for other relevant factors which may affect regional development, such as physical, technological and social capital, cultural diversity, industrial and geographical characteristics, we provide robust evidence on the growth enhancing effects of graduates, in particular for those of the creative category.

International audience ; This paper investigates on the role played by public capital in increasing the productivity levels in Italy. For the construction of the regional series for the public capital stock over the period 1996-2003, the study benefits from the use of the rich dataset on public expenditure, recently published by the Italian Ministry of Economy. We have estimated panel production functions with the inclusion of traditional factors and also intangible inputs like R&D expenditure, human capital and social capital. The results point out that public capital has a positive and significant effect on production. Moreover, the effects of all production factors vary considerably between the two macro-areas of the country, namely Centre-North and Mezzogiorno. More specifically, while private capital is more effective in the South, labour and public capital exhibits an elasticity much higher in the Centre-North with respect to the Mezzogiorno. The disaggregation of the public capital stock into functional categories indicates a significant different impact in the two macro-areas. In addition, when the analysis is carried out by distinguishing among government levels it turns out that the decentralized administrative bodies are much less efficient in the South in delivering public expenditure.

This paper investigates on the role played by public capital in increasing the productivity levels in Italy. For the construction of the regional series for the public capital stock over the period 1996-2003, the study benefits from the use of the rich dataset on public expenditure, recently published by the Italian Ministry of Economy. We have estimated panel production functions with the inclusion of traditional factors and also intangible inputs like R&D expenditure, human capital and social capital. The results point out that public capital has a positive and significant effect on production. Moreover, the effects of all production factors vary considerably between the two macro-areas of the country, namely Centre-North and Mezzogiorno. More specifically, while private capital is more effective in the South, labour and public capital exhibits an elasticity much higher in the Centre-North with respect to the Mezzogiorno. The disaggregation of the public capital stock into functional categories indicates a significant different impact in the two macro-areas. In addition, when the analysis is carried out by distinguishing among government levels it turns out that the decentralized administrative bodies are much less efficient in the South in delivering public expenditure.

This paper explores the spatial distribution of innovative and productive activity across 109 regions of the European Union, thanks to an original databank on regional patents statistics. The main results worth highlighting are as follows. The technological activity in the EU appears to be highly concentrated, although concentration tends to decline over the eighties. This results from the huge differences between southern and northern Europe. As expected, there is a positive association between the regional distribution of innovative activity and labour productivity. Further, contrary to previous evidence on the United States, our data show a significant link between the specialisation in innovation and in production both at the country and at the industry level. This suggests that localised knowledge spillovers and agglomeration economies foster a local economic system towards a specialisation in both production and technology. More surprisingly there appears a negative correlation between technological concentration and aggregate productivity, that is the European regions which enjoy a more homogeneous distribution of their technological capability across different industrial sectors appear to be also characterised by a higher productivity level. This outcome may suggest the presence of positive inter-industry externalities that favour those regions which succeed in covering a broader range of technological activities.

Are asymmetric shocks to output less important for industries which are more open to trade and more technology-intensive? Our results, obtained from a correlation analysis between growth rates of value added in thirteen manufacturing industries in eleven European countries between 1979 and 1990, clearly support the hypothesis. This finding suggests that policies which promote trade and technological innovation may help to decrease the importance of the asymmetric components of the business cycle within European countries.

Are asymmetric shocks to output less important for industries which are more open to trade and more technology-intensive? Our results, obtained from a correlation analysis between growth rates of value added in thirteen manufacturing industries in eleven European countries between 1979 and 1990, clearly support the hypothesis. This finding suggests that policies which promote trade and technological innovation may help to decrease the importance of the asymmetric components of the business cycle within European countries.