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Journal of Geographical Systems
Published in: Journal of Geographical Systems 4/2019

26-07-2019 | Original Article

The nexus between inventors’ mobility and regional growth across European regions

Authors: Roberta Capello, Camilla Lenzi

Published in: Journal of Geographical Systems | Issue 4/2019

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Abstract

The role of the spatial mobility of skilled individuals and knowledge workers on the innovative capacity of the recipient region has largely been highlighted, measured and proved in the literature, by positing a direct link from mobility to innovation. This paper enters this literature by explicitly examining and verifying whether innovation generated by inventors’ mobility is enough to enhance growth and whether such link depends on the innovative context. In fact, areas in which inventors can more easily enter, integrate and complement existing consolidated knowledge bases can be more easily affected by incoming inventors.
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Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Footnotes
1
For a recent review, see Lissoni (2018).
 
2
For a similar discussion, see Breschi et al. (2010).
 
3
A more detailed discussion of the differences and novelties of the regional innovation pattern approach with respect to existing regional innovation frameworks is developed in Capello and Lenzi (2019).
 
4
For further details on the variables used in the cluster analysis implemented to detect innovation patterns in European regions and the variables representing the key territorial features of the different groups of regions, see Capello and Lenzi (2013a).
 
5
It has largely been proved that each pattern has an efficiency in generating growth and therefore has a reason to exist and be maintained over time (Capello and Lenzi 2013b). Nonetheless, the complexity, in terms of new knowledge produced and innovation developed, is certainly different across patterns and increases from the imitative to the science-based innovation patterns.
 
6
IIA is the acronym of Imitative Innovation Area, SCDA of Smart and Creative Diversification Area, STAA of Smart Technological Application Area, ESBA of European Science-based Area.
 
7
For a similar approach, see Capello and Lenzi (2016).
 
8
Traditionally, patent data have been used to track inventors’ mobility flows across firms and in space (see among others: Agrawal et al. 2006; Breschi et al. 2017). Even if this approach is not free of criticisms (Ge et al. 2016), it remains a valuable choice for detecting the spatial diffusion of knowledge and its potential impact on recipient economies. Additional descriptive evidence on inventors’ mobility by regional innovation patterns and on the top 10 destination regions of inventors’ mobility is available in “Appendix” (Tables 7, 8). Moreover, Fig. 3 displays the inventors’ mobility variable in European NUTS-2 regions, where the zero category refers to the case of no inventors’ mobility detected in a specific region.
 
9
Country group dummies are defined as follows: South (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain); North: (Denmark, Finland and Sweden); West (France, Ireland and UK); Center (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg and the Netherlands); Central and Eastern European Countries, the reference case (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia); Romania and Bulgaria; Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), Malta and Cyprus; Eurozone dummy variable, which takes value 1 for regions in the Eurozone countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia (Lithuania was excluded because adoption of euro occurred in 2015, after the period under consideration); European Financial Aid, which takes value 1 for regions in the following countries: Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, which received financial assistance from European institutions during the crisis period.
 
10
The rate of convergence in the two models has been computed by using the following formula (Abreu et al. 2005; Le Gallo and Fingleton 2013): s = − ln(1 + Tβ))/T, where s is the average yearly speed of convergence, β the coefficient of the initial GDP per capita level and T the number of years over which the growth rate of GDP per capita is computed. In the present case, T is equal to 9 and β in Models 1 and 2 amounts, respectively, to − 0.0112 and − 0.0117.
 
11
This is consistent with Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995).
 
12
Faster convergence, once controlling for inventors’ mobility, signals a negative overall effect of their moves on the convergence process; inventors, in fact, by moving selectively across space, contribute to increase rather than to narrow regional gaps. On the other hand, as commented by Arbia et al. (2005), in a standard converge framework, factor mobility should lead to regional convergence and a decrease in the value of the convergence parameter. We thank an anonymous reviewer for highlighting this point.
 
13
See Mitchell (2012) and Brambor et al. (2006) for a similar discussion.
 
14
We thank an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion.
 
15
The period 2009–2012 is more volatile presenting both recovery and decline with respect to others (Fig. 1 in “Appendix”). The other periods instead present a clearer trend and are therefore preferable as they enable a clearer interpretation.
 
16
See Breschi and Lenzi (2016) for a similar approach.
 
17
The test for the endogeneity of the innovation patterns dummy variables allows excluding a relevant concern of endogeneity also for these variables; the C statistic is χ2 = 4.862 with p = 0.30. Being both the inventors’ mobility variable and the innovation patterns dummies exogenous, it is reasonable to conclude that their interactions are not seriously affected by endogeneity concerns and for this reason they are excluded from the first-stage equation.
 
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Metadata
Title
The nexus between inventors’ mobility and regional growth across European regions
Authors
Roberta Capello
Camilla Lenzi
Publication date
26-07-2019
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
Journal of Geographical Systems / Issue 4/2019
Print ISSN: 1435-5930
Electronic ISSN: 1435-5949
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10109-019-00308-z

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