Johansson, Sara () (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology)
Abstract
This paper analyzes the influences of human capital and technology transfers from R&D activities on regional export specialization along the range of product quality. Previous literature on specialization and trade in quality differentiated goods concludes that the production of high quality product varieties is intensive in knowledge and R&D. This study contributes to previous research by addressing the influence of spatial knowledge flows on the observed patterns of regional quality specialization. A theoretical model of endogenous quality choice derives regional comparative advantages to the presence of external knowledge flows from R&D activities. These knowledge transfers are modeled by accessibility variables, which deduce the presence of technology transfers from R&D activities to the geographical distribution of R&D activities and the observed patterns of spatial interaction. The impacts of regional R&D accessibility on regions’ revealed comparative advantages in high quality segments are subsequently examined in a two-dimensional cross-regional regression analysis. The results of this empirical work show significant positive effects of human capital and R&D accessibility on the revealed comparative advantages in production of high quality goods in Swedish regions. The empirical analysis also provides evidences of technology spillovers from abroad, as the presence of multinational firms increases the region’s specialization in high-quality segments. These results are robust over four different specifications of above-average product qualities. However, the sizes of estimated coefficients for R&D accessibility rises slightly with the quality level considered. This suggests that technological advantages becomes of larger importance the more superior are the levels of product quality considered.
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Length: 26 pages Date of creation: 11 Dec 2007 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0107
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Find related papers by JEL classification: F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Country and Industry Studies of Trade R12 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography) R32 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - Production Analysis and Firm Location - - - Other Production and Pricing Analysis
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