Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute both theoretically and empirically to the literature of regional economics. We aim to provide theoretical insights and explanations as well as interesting empirical findings which are relevant for the analyses of the regional development.

Chapter two reviews the literature on new growth theory, economic geography, geography of innovation and innovation process. We illustrate connections between these strands of literature from the perspective of technological development and its diffusion. We discuss the role of innovation activity, technological development, and especially knowledge spillovers in economic growth, and clarify their microeconomic linkages to endogenous macroeconomic growth.

In chapter three we shed additional light on the role of intra-regional economies of scale and inter-regional externalities in regional economic growth. Chapter provides interesting theoretical insights and explanations for the analysis of regional development.

In chapters four to seven we analyse how the establishments’ individual characteristics and their R&D cooperation with other firms and organizations as well as sectoral and geographical origins of their labour acquisitions affects the innovation performance of the establishments. We try to isolate the independent role on innovation performance played by knowledge transfers associated with localised human-capital mobility from those associated with inter-firm and inter-organisational tacit knowledge spillovers. No previous studies, as far as we are aware, have been able to empirically identify and distinguish in such a detailed and comprehensive manner as in this dissertation the effects of these two, qualitatively quite different types of knowledge transfer mechanisms on innovation.