Raquel Ortega-Argilés

The University of Manchester

This paper analyses the evolution of regional innovation policy into the mainstream of public policy. The paper examines the empirical and theoretical developments which have shifted much of the focus on innovation-related issues to matters of economic geography. As well as academic material we also review the literature on the subject produced by...

This paper examines the arguments underpinning the smart specialisation concept, an idea which originally emerged from the sectoral growth literature, and one which has recently been applied with to the regional policy context. The shift from a sectoral to a regional context appears prima facie to be quite straightforward but this paper explains th...

During the last 2 decades, Europe's economy experienced a productivity slowdown whereas the United States (US) economy exhibited a marked acceleration. The result is that since the early 1990s the relative productivity levels between the two regions have continuously diverged, leading to a transatlantic productivity gap. Much of the explanation for...

This paper constructs a Regional Entrepreneurship and Development Index (REDI) that captures the contextual features of entrepreneurship across regions. Using both institutional data and survey data weaknesses in the incentive structure that affects regional development can be identified. The entrepreneurial disparities among regions are analysed a...

The literature has pointed to different causes to explain the productivity gap between Europe and United States in the last decades. This paper tests the hypothesis that the lower European productivity performance in comparison with the US can be explained not only by a lower level of corporate R&D investment, but also by a lower capacity to transl...

In this paper, we review recent research on the impact of public procurement with a focus on methods and data. The growing interest in mobilizing procurement for strategic purposes, such as innovation, economic growth, social value, and sustainable development, has brought to light significant knowledge gaps on the impact of public procurement on p...

Regions are currently facing a twin transition, involving a shift towards more environmentally friendly economies as well as the digitalization of economic activities. Against this backdrop, this paper examines the geography of green, digital, and twin economic activities in the UK, utilizing a novel dataset that captures these emerging sectors thr...

The paper examines how Brexit has impacted on Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers in the UK Midlands, and to what extent such firms are reconfiguring their supply chains with the increase in trade barriers with Brexit. To do this, the paper aims to add to macro studies in the area by using a mixed-methods approach that combines de...

This paper examines the challenges associated with fostering regional innovation via place-based innovation policies in a context where a country previously had little or no real place-based thinking or policy-framing. The UK displays a combination of both high interregional inequalities and a highly centralisation and top-down governance system. F...

Conceived in the framework of regional studies on Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) development, this special issue strengthens research efforts oriented towards assembling a technology-enhanced approach to S3 policymaking. First, it sheds light on fundamental methodological limitations that affect S3 development and reports on the digital support...

This article draws upon novel survey evidence to examine the possible regional impacts of Brexit as a ‘disruptive process’ to manufacturing operations and logistics in the automotive industry, in the context of the regional resilience literature. The current Brexit (and Covid-19) context, along with the sector’s need to re-orientate towards electri...

In the last two decades, entrepreneurship policies have gone through a radical transformation in many parts of the world. New theoretical and empirical approaches have helped to identify better the drivers of entrepreneurial creation, the main actors in the process, and the significant contribution of entrepreneurship to socio-economic prosperity....

We examine the regional mortality rates associated with the spread of Covid-19 in Europe. In particular, we analyse the potential contribution of the country’s geographical and institutional features in shaping the virus's interregional spread and resulting local death rates. Our analysis is based on information from both pandemic waves from March...

This paper explains the background to the notion of the ‘geography of discontent’ in the context of UK interregional inequalities and political shocks. The paper then examines how the geography of discontent has bound conflicting political and economic narratives together in ways, which makes the correcting for these regional imbalances all the mor...

With a sample of 268 European Union (EU) regions and multilevel modelling, we demonstrate that different technological diversification measures measured as coherence and entropy-variety have different non-linear effects on regional productivity growth. These non-linear effects work in opposite directions to each other. Our analysis shows that highe...

This chapter aims at providing an overview of the EU Cohesion Policy. The origins of the EU Cohesion Policy are discussed and so are the main changes, such as the shift in policy-thinking and policy-logic leading to the place-based approach in the aftermath of the Barca-Report. The chapter discusses three major challenges shaping the interregional...

In this paper, we examine the challenges and opportunities facing the UK’s industrial and regional policy in the context of the policy decisions made over recent decades. We argue that the overly centralized and sectoral logic of the UK governance systems has led to a lack of clarity in thinking through place-based issues. This, in turn, has result...

This study systematically investigates the geography of employment polarization in the Netherlands between 1999 and 2012. Our comprehensive approach first determines that the asymmetrically polarized employment growth at the national level is also substantially represented across local labor markets. Secondly, based on uniquely detailed panel datas...

Whilst the importance of internet-related technologies and digitization practices to economic performance is well documented, little is known about the long-term effects of the early adoption of such technologies. We use novel, geolocated data about the volume of online content from the Internet Archive to approximate the active engagement with dig...

This paper explores the perspectives of expert analysts and policy-makers on the implications of Brexit for different parts of the UK economy. For local and regional areas, the need for such expert voices to be heard is urgent, given the fact that UK subnational and substate governance authorities have been effectively blocked out of all Brexit-rel...

Any form of Brexit will impact heterogeneously in terms of sectors and regions on the competitive position of firms in both the UK and Europe. The ongoing uncertainty about the conditions under which the UK will be leaving the EU creates difficulties in structurally estimating these impacts. Using uniquely detailed interregional trade data on goods...

This paper explores the nature and scale of inter-regional and inter-urban inequalities in the UK in the context of international comparisons and our aim is to identify the extent to which such inequalities are associated with strong national economic performance. In order to do this, we first discuss the evolution of UK interregional inequalities...

This paper examines the regions that have chosen tourism-related strategies as a priority of smart specialisation (S3) policies within the reformed EU Cohesion Policy. The paper collects data provided by the Smart Specialisation Platform ([email protected]) from 2013 to 2018 for 191 EU regions to investigate regional determinants affecting the prob...

This paper demonstrates how the Regional Entrepreneurship and Development Index (REDI) can be used to optimize local entrepreneurial discovery processes, in a manner which can support Smart Specialization Strategies (S3). While S3 industry prioritization is based on the identification of local strengths, regional improvement can be achieved by impr...

We live in turbulent times, but when has this not been the case? The history of regions and the ‘regional studies project’ has always had at its core concerns relating to new and increased social and spatial inequalities resulting from economic and political change. Whatever change has occurred to cause this turbulence, some people and places have...

Technological progress and trade potentially affect wages and employment. Technological progress can make jobs obsolete and trade can increase unemployment in import competing sectors. Empirical evidence suggests that both causes are important to explain recent labour market developments in many OECD countries. Both causes are often mentioned in ta...

This paper examines the role of local industrial embeddedness on economic resilience in UK Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS2) regions. The 2008 financial crisis had a profound effect on the socioeconomic conditions of different places. UK regions had significantly divergent experiences based on their capacity to avoid or overc...

This paper discusses the various potential impacts of Brexit on UK regions and outlines the sub-national governance challenges these potential impacts raise. In the light of these, the types of activities that UK sub-national governance bodies have initiated in preparation for Brexit are then reviewed. The conclusions suggest that the UK sub-nation...

Any form of Brexit will impact heterogeneously in terms of sectors and regions on the competitive position of firms in both the UK and Europe. The ongoing uncertainty about the conditions under which the UK will be leaving the EU creates difficulties in structurally estimating these impacts. Using uniquely detailed interregional trade data on goods...

Recent literature documents the pervasiveness of job polarization in the labor markets of the developed world. However, relatively little is known about polarization on a sub-national level. We exploit extensive data on both genders from Statistics Netherlands to confirm polarization as an important trend in the Dutch national labor market between...

Purpose This paper aims to explain how thinking regarding multinationals, competitiveness and location in cities has evolved over the past five decades and how our current understanding and thinking about future challenges is contingent on these previous shifts. Design/methodology/approach The design of the paper is a conceptual piece linking di...

In recent years, there has been growing attention to service sector in the world economies. This study analyses service sector in Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia and China (BRIIC), which are five of the largest economies in today’s developing world. We examine how the services links with overall economic activities and what drives its growth in...

In this paper we employ an extension of the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) with regional detail for EU countries to study the degree to which EU regions and countries are exposed to negative trade-related consequences of Brexit. We develop an index of this exposure, which incorporates all effects due to geographically fragmented production proc...

Interplay between regional and industrial aspects in the R&D–productivity link: evidence from Europe. Regional Studies. The paper tests the effect of the interplay between regional and sectoral dimensions in the firm-level research and development (R&D)–productivity link. Using a longitudinal database of innovative publicly traded European companie...

This paper discusses the early-stage experience of the smart specialization agenda within EU Cohesion Policy. The analysis examines the types of policy prioritization choices made by different member states and regions and seeks evidence on the extent to which weaker regions, in particular, might be constrained in their choices. The paper then revi...

This paper discusses the ways that European regional policy has been re-shaped in order to build on the role played by entrepreneurship in driving regional innovation. The various lines of re-thinking which have helped to reform the policy draw heavily on modern theories of entrepreneurship and innovation, and these insights have contributed signif...

The paper discusses the origins and emerging ideas of smart specialization, and in particular its translation from a non-spatial concept to an explicitly spatial and regional concept. This discussion is then set in the context of debates regarding the nature, rationale, and role of modern innovation policy, and the governance and institutional issu...

This paper presents a regional application of the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) methodology of Acs et al. (2013) to examine the level of entrepreneurship across Hungary's seven NUTS-2 level regions between 2006 and 2012. The Regional Entrepreneurship and Development Index (REDI) has been constructed for capturing the individu...

Ács Z. J., Szerb L., Ortega-Argilés R., Aidis R. and Coduras A. The regional application of the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI): the case of Spain, Regional Studies. This paper constructs a regional application of the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) that captures the contextual features of entrepreneurship...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that the approaches to smart specialisation being adopted in different European Union (EU) regions are likely to be heavily shaped by the institutional and governance context, as well as the regional economic specifics. Along with the specific regional economic characteristics, these institutional vari...

Our aim is to investigate the relationship between a firm's R&D expenditures and its productivity, looking at sectoral peculiarities. We use a unique longitudinal database consisting of 1809 US and European manufacturing and service firms over the period 1990–2008. Our main findings can be summarised as follows. Consistently with previous literatur...

Jelen tanulmányban a globális vállalkozási és fejlődési index módszertanának regionális szintre adaptálásával vizsgáljuk a hét magyar NUTS2 szintű régió vállalkozási teljesítményét. A komplex, nem a hagyományos vállalkozói aktivitáson alapuló regionális vállalkozási és fejlődési index funkciója a vállalkozási teljesítmények regionális különbségeiér...

Regions economically differ from each other - they compete in different products and geographical spaces, exhibit different strengths and weaknesses, and provide different possibilities for growth and development. What fosters growth in one region may hamper it in another. This highly original book presents an accessible methodology for identifying...

The paper examines the nature, rationale, and logic of the reforms to EU Cohesion Policy. A particular focus of the paper is on the concept of smart specialization and the use of this concept to help facilitate a results-oriented policy agenda. On the one hand, the arguments underpinning the reforms in part relate to modern thinking regarding the r...

This chapter discusses various important elements in the design of place based approach regional development strategies in the case of a reformed Cohesion Policy operating in the context of the Europe 2020 agenda. In particular, we focus on practical ways in which an integrated place-based approach to territorial and social cohesion can be exploite...

This article discusses the reforms to European Union (EU) regional development policy, or more precisely EU Cohesion Policy, which have been taking place over recent years. Following a discussion of the evolution of the policy, the changes in the rationale, the logic, the architecture, and the outcomes of the policy are examined from the start of t...

This analytical country report is one of a series of annual ERAWATCH reports produced for EU Member States and Countries Associated to the Seventh Framework Programme for Research of the European Union (FP7). The main objective of the ERAWATCH Annual Country Reports is to characterise and assess the performance of national research systems and rela...

The paper sets out to explore the regional entrepreneurship-promotion and innovation- promotion agenda which is a central component of the place-based reforms to EU Cohesion Policy. In particular, the paper examines the logic which underpins the smart specialisation concept, a concept which provides a powerful policy-prioritisation logic to this ag...

How is the R&D-productivity link affected by the environment where firms locate? Are companies located with their registered offices in more R&D favorable environments better able to translate their R&D knowledge into productivity gains? Our paper tries to answer these questions analyzing - in the European context - if R&D performing companies clus...

This paper studies the relationship between different control mechanisms to palliate agency problems and R&D activity. Among the various control mechanisms to alleviate agency problems arising from the lack of identity between ownership and control in decision -making positions, we analyse those focusing on the inclusion of owners in the decision-m...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between a firm's R&D expenditures considered as an investment in knowledge, and its productivity, looking at sectoral peculiarities which may emerge; to this end, we use a large unique longitudinal database consisting of 1,809 US and European manufacturing and service firms over the perio...

The average firm size of the top R&D investors among US-based companies is smaller than that of the EU-based firms. Does this help to explain why the US has a greater R&D intensity, or is the greater firm size in the EU, just as its lower R&D intensity, determined by the sectors in which the top R&D investors are operating? Using data from the 2006...

The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of corporate research and development (R&D) activities on firm performance, measured by labour productivity. To this end, the stochastic frontier technique is used on a unique unbalanced longitudinal dataset comprising top European R&D investors over the period 2000–2005. In this framewo...

The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of corporate R&D activities on firms' performance, measured by labour productivity. To this end, the stochastic frontier technique is applied, basing the analysis on a unique unbalanced longitudinal dataset consisting of 532 top European R&D investors over the period 2000–2005. R&D stock...

Based on the Knowledge Production Function framework given by Griliches (1979), we slightly modify it so that the innovative output depends upon a set of fa ctors related to the firm internal characteristics and are influenced by the environment. Specifically, regarding the firm internal determinants the effect of the concentration of the ownership...

"This paper discusses the link between R&D and productivity across the European industrial and service sectors. The empirical analysis is based on both the European sectoral OECD data and on a unique micro-longitudinal database consisting of 532 top European R&D investors. The main conclusions are as follows. First, the R&D stock has a significant...

We introduce a new hybrid approach to joint estimation of Value at Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES) for high quantiles of return distributions. We investigate the relative performance of VaR and ES models using daily returns for sixteen stock market indices (eight from developed and eight from emerging markets) prior to and during the 2008 fi...

This paper discusses the link between R&D and productivity across the European industrial and service sectors. The empirical analysis is based on both the European sectoral OECD data and on a unique micro longitudinal database consisting of 532 top European R&D investors. The main conclusions are as follows. First, the R&D stock has a significant p...

The average firm size of the top R&D investors among US-based companies is smaller than that of the EU-based firms. Does this help to explain why the US has a greater R&D intensity, or is the higher firm size in the EU, just as its lower R&D intensity, determined by the sectors in which the top R&D investors are operating? Using data on the top-R&D...

The importance of SMEs in Europe’s innovation process can be seen in both the academic and the political arena. Adopted in June 2008, the ‘Small Business Act’ for Europe reflects the Commission’s political will to recognise the central role of SMEs in the EU economy and was the first to put in place a comprehensive SME policy framework for the EU a...