The spatial hierarchy of technological change and economic development in Europe

This paper discusses the possibility of a spatial hierarchy of innovation and growth dynamics in europe. A spatial hierarchy is understood as a geographical clustering of regions, where important differences exist in terms of innovation and growth dynamics between the clusters. The literature on regional growth and innovation is briefly scanned. After this, a database on european regional growth and innovation dynamics is presented. Spatial correlation analysis and spatial principal components analysis are used to explore the possibility of a spatial hierarchy in europe. The results point to a hierarchy consisting of four groups: south europe, east europe, and two groups in west and north europe. Growth and innovation performance in these clusters are discussed, and some policy conclusions are drawn.