Innovation clusters in European regions Preliminary version

This paper investigates on the presence of innovation clusters in European regions. The analysis is based on an original statistical databank set up by CRENoS on regional patenting at the European Patent Office spanning from 1978 to 2001 and classified by ISIC sectors (2 digit).. We consider 175 regions of 17 countries in Europe, the 15 members of the European Union plus Switzerland and Norway. Firstly, an analysis of the spatial distribution of innovation activities in Europe is performed. Some global and local indicators for spatial association are presented, summarising the presence of a general dependence process in the distribution of the phenomena under examination. The analysis is implemented for 23 manufacturing sectors to assess for the presence of significant differences in the their spatial features. Moreover, the extent and strength of spatial externalities are evaluated for three different periods: 1988-90, 1994-96 and 1999-01. Secondly, this paper contributes to the analysis of the process of spatial agglomeration of innovative activities by investigating directly its determinants. Our main purpose is to identify the extent to which the degree of specialisation or diversity in a region may affect the innovative output in a particular local industry. Other local externalities are also tested such as home market effect and other agglomeration phenomena. Moreover the