Technological enclaves and industrial districts: An analysis of the regional distribution of innovative activity in Europe

This paper explores the spatial distribution of innovative and productive a ctivity across 109 regions of the European Union, using an original statist ical databank on regional parents. The main results are the following. Firs t, technological activity in the EU appears to be highly concentrated, alth ough concentration tended to decline over the 1980s. Second, as expected, t here is a positive association between the regional distribution of innovat ive activity and labour productivity Third, we have shown that spatial and sectoral specialization of innovative and productive activities is signific antly and positively correlated.