Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation,
Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies

No 40: Knowledge Accessibility and Regional Economic Growth

Martin Andersson () and Charlie Karlsson ()
Additional contact information
Martin Andersson: CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology, Postal: Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, Sweden
Charlie Karlsson: CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology, Postal: Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, Sweden, Sweden

Abstract: In this paper, we analyze the relationship between knowledge accessibility and regional economic growth in Sweden. The research question we ask in this paper is the following: can the variation between regions in knowledge accessibility in a given period explain the variation in the growth performance of Swedish regions in the following period? A main assumption in the paper is that the potential for human interaction a various spatial scales transforms into potential knowledge flows. Based upon an endogenous growth framework we show how the potential for knowledge flows at different spatial scales can be modelled using an accessibility approach. An advantage of modelling the interaction potentials at different spatial scales is that we in principle takes care of the spatial auto-correlation in the modelling, and that we then can estimate our models using ordinary OLS. Our results indicate that the intra-municipal and intra-regional knowledge accessibilities are both significant and capable of explaining a significant share of the variation in growth of value added per employee between Swedish municipalities. However, inter-regional knowledge accessibility turned out to be insignificant, indicating that knowledge flows are bounded in space.

Keywords: knowledge; endogenous growth; region; accessibility; Sweden

JEL-codes: O10; O30; O52; R11

22 pages, October 18, 2005

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Published as
Martin Andersson and Charlie Karlsson, (2007), 'Knowledge in Regional Economic Growth - the role of knowledge accessibility', Industry and Innovation, vol 14, no 2, pages 129-149

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