Innovation Policy and Spatial Inequality - A Force for Divergence or Cohesion?

Welcome to a Centre for Innovation Research seminar:

• Date: Thursday November 21^st
• Time: 12:00 - 13:00.
• Room: UiS Campus Ullandhaug, Elise Ottesen-Jensens hus, room EOJ 276/277 and on Teams

Link to Teams meeting, Meeting-ID: 379 608 804 521, Password: YYeGi6

• Seminar speaker: Rune Dahl Fitjar, Professor in innovation studies and Head of Centre for Innovation Research at the UiS School of Business and Law.

• Title of the presentation: Innovation Policy and Spatial Inequality - A Force for Divergence or Cohesion?

Abstract:

The concentration of innovation in large cities is widely understood to have led to increasing geographical disparities. While the effects of the innovation economy on spatial inequality are well-understood, the regional studies literature often ascribe them to the workings of the market, with traditional regional policy being tasked with evening out these disparities. However, regional development policy has largely come to mean innovation policy in the European context, and public investments in innovation often favour core regions.

Knowledge activities are subject to strong Matthew effects, implying that the regions which were already ahead also benefit the most from public investment in research, innovation and other activities which are important in the contemporary economy. Hence, rather than evening out differences created by the market, government interventions tend to reinforce these. Yet, the geography of public investments has received little attention in the regional studies literature, which has tended to focus on overall R&D or on private R&D investments.

This paper examines the geography of public research and development activities in European countries. It explores the spatial concentration of these investments across countries and over time, and examines which regional characteristics are associated with attracting more public R&D.