Tom Broekel

Broekel T. Do cooperative research and development (R&D) subsidies stimulate regional innovation efficiency? Evidence from Germany, Regional Studies. The subsidization of research and development (R&D) and R&D cooperation has gained in importance in recent years. Building on a rich panel dataset, covering 270 German labour market regions and four industries, it is shown that subsidies for R&D cooperation are a suitable policy measure for stimulating the innovation efficiency of regions. The empirical findings suggest that regions with low innovation capacities benefit the most from cooperation among regional firms and subsidized links to non-regional public research institutes. The subsidization of cooperation with non-regional universities is more important for regions with large innovation capacities. Support for non-cooperative projects is related to negative effects.Broekel T. 合作式研发 (R&D) 补助能否刺激区域创新的效率？来自德国的证据，区域研究。近年来，研发 (R&D) 与研发合作补助的重要性业已增加。本研究根据涵括德国二百七十个劳动市场区域与四类产业的丰富面板资料库，证明对研发合作的补助，是刺激区域创新效率的合适政策方法。经验研究发现指出，拥有低创新能力的区域，从区域厂商和非区域性的公共研究机构之补助连结中受益最多。补助与非区域大学的合作，对具有大型创新能力的区域而言更为重要。支持非合作式的计画，则与负面影响相关。Broekel T. Les subventions aux activités de recherche et de développement (R et D) coopératives, est-ce qu'elles stimulent l'efficacité de l'innovation régionale? Des preuves provenant de l'Allemagne, Regional Studies. Le fait de subventionner la recherche et le développement (R et D) et la coopération R et D a gagné en importance au cours des dernières années. Sur la base d'un ensemble de données riche auprès de 270 zones d'emploi en Allemagne et de quatre industries, on montre que les subventions en faveur de la coopération en matière de recherche et de développement constituent une politique apte à stimuler l'efficacité de l'innovation régionale. Les résultats empiriques laissent supposer que les régions dont la capacité d'innovation est faible profitent le plus de la coopération parmi les entreprises régionales et des liens subventionnés aux institutions publiques de recherche non régionales. Le fait de subventionner la coopération avec les universités non régionales s'avère plus importante pour les régions dotées d'une grande capacité d'innovation. Le soutien aux projets non-coopératifs se rapporte à des effets négatifs.Broekel T. Fördern Subventionen für kooperative Forschung und Entwicklung (F&E) die regionale Innovationseffizienz? Belege aus Deutschland, Regional Studies. Die Subventionen für Forschung und Entwicklung (F&E) und die Zusammenarbeit im Bereich der F&E haben in den letzten Jahren an Bedeutung gewonnen. Ausgehend von einem erweiterten Paneldatensatz für 270 deutsche Arbeitsmarktregionen und vier Branchen wird gezeigt, dass Subventionen für die Zusammenarbeit im Bereich der F&E eine geeignete politische Maßnahme zur Stimulation der Innovationseffizienz von Regionen darstellen. Aus den empirischen Ergebnissen geht hervor, dass Regionen mit geringer Innovationskapazität am stärksten von einer Zusammenarbeit zwischen regionalen Firmen und subventionierten Verbindungen zu nicht-regionalen öffentlichen Forschungsinstituten profitieren. Für Regionen mit hoher Innovationskapazität sind Subventionen für eine Zusammenarbeit mit nicht-regionalen Hochschulen wichtiger. Subventionen für nicht-kooperative Projekte sind mit negativen Auswirkungen verbunden.Broekel T. ¿Estimulan las subvenciones para investigación y desarrollo (I+D) la eficiencia de la innovación regional? El ejemplo de Alemania, Regional Studies. La concesión de subvenciones a investigación y desarrollo (I+D) y la cooperación de I+D ha cobrado más importancia en los últimos años. A partir de un amplio grupo de datos de panel para 270 regiones del mercado laboral y cuatro industrias en Alemania, mostramos que las subvenciones para la cooperación de I+D representan una medida política adecuada para estimular la eficiencia de la innovación en las regiones. Los resultados empíricos indican que las regiones con bajas capacidades de innovación salen más beneficiadas de la cooperación entre las empresas regionales y los enlaces subvencionados con institutos públicos de investigación no regionales. La concesión de subvenciones a la cooperación con universidades no regionales es más importante para regiones con grandes capacidades de innovación. El apoyo a proyectos no cooperativos está relacionado con efectos negativos.

The paper contributes to the on-going debate about the relative importance of economic and amenity-related location factors for attracting talent or members of the creative class. While Florida highlights the role of amenities, openness and tolerance, others instead emphasize the role of regional productions systems, local labour markets and externalities. The paper sheds light on this issue by analysing the changes in the spatial distribution of four groups of artists over time: visual artists, performing artists, musicians and writers. Little evidence is found for amenity-related factors influencing the growth rates of regional artist populations. Moreover, artists are shown to be a heterogeneous group inasmuch as the relative importance of regional factors significantly differs between artistic branches.

Innovations are inherently connected to knowledge transfers. The need of face‐to‐face contacts to transfer tacit knowledge is commonly argued to cause a regional dimension of innovative activities. The paper presents an alternative explanation based on a model of boundedly rational actors who search for knowledge. It is shown that a regional dimension exists in these processes that results from a

Firms’ embeddedness into knowledge networks has received much attention in the literature. However, little is known about the composition of firms’ ego-networks with respect to different types of proximities. Based on survey data of 295 firms in eight European regions, we show that the ego-networks of firms systematically differ in their geographical and cognitive embeddedness. We find that firms’ innovation

The importance of R&D subsidies for innovation activities is highlighted by numerous firm-level studies. These approaches miss however the systematic regional character of innovation activities and potential firm-spanning effects of this policy measure. The literature on regional innovation performance has widely neglected R&D subsidies so far. This paper analyzes the importance of R&D subsidies as well as the relevance of

A key question raised in recent years is which factors determine the structure of inter-organizational networks. While the focus has primarily been on different forms of proximity between organizations, which are determinants at the dyad level, recently determinants at the node and structural level have been highlighted as well. To identify the relative importance of determinants at these three different

The paper investigates the contribution of cooperative and non-cooperative R&D subsidies to firm growth. Of particular interest is hereby firms’ embeddedness into subsidized cooperation networks. For the empirical analysis we utilize an unbalanced panel of 2.199 German manufacturing firms covering the time period from 1999 to 2009. A dynamic panel estimation technique is employed to control for growth autocorrelation as

In the literature on Sen’s capability approach, studies focussing on the empirical measurement of conversion factors are comparatively rare. We add to this field by adopting a measure of "conversion efficiency" that captures the efficiency with which individuals convert their resources into achieved functioning. We use a nonparametric efficiency procedure borrowed from production theory and construct such a measure for

In the capability literature, studies on the empirical measurement in the functionings space are abundant and a few studies even measure capability to function. We suggest adopting a third measure of welfare relevant to economists, namely the "conversion efficiency" measuring the efficiency with which individuals convert their resources into achieved functioning. We use a nonparametric efficiency procedure and construct such

Although a rich literature has emerged analyzing the impact of localization, urbanization, and Jacobs externalities on regional innovativeness, the findings are still contradictory. Tradi- tional studies differ mainly in the employed data but rely on similar empirical approaches. This paper argues in favor of using in this context production frontier approaches instead of the com- monly employed production function approaches.

A growing body of work emphasizes the role that the spatial component plays in the innovation process. These perspectives brought the region's infrastructure and its endowment with crucial factors into the focus of research. Given that these factors do significantly influence the innovativeness of local firms, it is important to identify precisely which regional characteristics matter. The aim of this

Malte Steinbrink and his students did a tremendous job with their project ‘knotting knowledge in geography’. Our comment makes some recommendations on how future studies may improve on this research. We suggest looking for better indicators to analyze knowledge networks among human geographers in Germany. Co-publication data, while potentially the best of the three indicators, suffers from unnecessary limitation to just six German geography journals. Citation data is a good attempt but the central assumption that citation is dependent on the social interaction between the citing and the cited person is not backed up by bibliometric studies. By far the weakest indicator relates to activities at German ‘Geographentage’. Unfortunately the basic study does not present a proper network analysis, but merely delivers several descriptive statistics and illustrations. Finally, we develop some specific suggestions for a more valid and deeper analysis of the knowledge networks of human geograp...

Abstract Happiness measures, reflecting individuals' well-being, have received increasing attention by policy makers. Policies could target absolute happiness levels when aiming at increasing a society's well-being. But given upper bounds of happiness measures, as well as the possibilities of decreasing returns to happiness resources, we argue that an important measure of interest is the efficiency with which individuals convert their resources into happiness. In order to examine the effects of policies on this efficiency and to better ...