EMPLOYMENT IMPACT OF FIRMS’ INNOVATION: WHAT IS THE ROLE OF REGIONAL INSTITUTIONS? EVIDENCE FROM ITALY

Luca VOTA

Ph.D student, Department of Economics and Statistics (DISES) of the University of Salerno, Italy

lvota@unisa.it

Abstract

Employment effect of firms’ innovation is a widely studied topic at both cross-country and national level, while still few contributions deals with the local dimension. Moreover, the role of the institutional factors is still unexplored. In this manuscript, the author estimates the impact of private firms’ R&D spending, institutional quality and their interaction on the employment rate of the Italian regions. To accomplish his task, the author proposes two dynamic panel models and computes them through the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Fixed effects (FE) and System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM-SYS) regression tecniques. The obtained results suggest that the employment impact of firms’ innovation is negative, while the ability of the regional institutions to attract, support and cooperate with the innovative companies and the R&D investment programs jointly financed by regional governments and private firms positively affect the employment rate. The author has deduced appropriate policy implications from the provided evidence.

Keywords: Employment impact of firms’ innovation, R&D activity, Regional Economics

JEL classification: O30,R10, R11

 pp. 11-24

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AGGLOMERATION ECONOMICS IN REGIONS: THE CASE IN THE RUSSIAN INDUSTRY

Svetlana RASTVORTSEVA

World Economy Department – National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia, http://www.hse.ru

Srartvortseva@gmail.ru

Abstract

The paper deals with the issues of economic activity location in the Russian regions, that is influ-enced not only by factors “first nature” – the presence of minerals, fertile land, favorable geographic position, but also factors of a “second nature”, in particular, the agglomeration effects and the econ-omy of scale. Analysis of geographic concentration and regional specialization reflects the general trend of the location of industrial production, investment and human resources, provides the necessary information basis for a balanced economic policy.

Keywords: New Economic Geography, Regional Economics, Location Theory, the Geographic Concentration of Economic Activity, Regions of Russia

JEL classification: R11, R12

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