Knowledge Production and Varieties of Capitalism: Regional Resilience in the Dawn of Economic Turbulence in Europe

Abstract

Departing from the recent evolution of R&D and patent indicators, this paper examines the change in science, technology and innovation with the economic crisis. Based in the innovation systems’ approach and the studies of varieties of capitalism, the analysis estimates an aggregate knowledge production function based in information prior to the crisis (268 regions from the 27 European Union member-states). The production of knowledge, measured by the number of patents, is significantly associated with the level of GDP, educational attainment, R&D, capacity of regional clusters and unemployment. A significant diversity of behaviours in the knowledge production was found when the regions were clustered by varieties of capitalism. There is econometric evidence that the knowledge production in the Mediterranean regions is more sensitive to external shocks in the economic performance and in the labour markets. The article concludes with implications for the resilience of innovation systems.