R&D productivity in Europe: towards a regional taxonomy in the European Union

Abstract

Research, development and innovation activities have become key sources of competitive advantage, which is one of the main factors behind the wellbeing of citizens living in a given territory. Being aware of this fact, public administrations at different administrative levels have encouraged the production of innovations through public policies. If we focus in Europe, regional disparities in the amount of innovation inputs and outputs are very high.

In this paper, the authors will measure the productivity of research and development activities performed by all regions in the EU. In order to do so, authors will take into account some indicators to measure innovation inputs and outputs at the regional level. Using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) authors will measure regional productivity in the field of R&D and then compare this productivity outcome between regions in the EU. After explaining this first DEA model, authors will use cluster analysis to achieve a typology of regions regarding their productivity in R&D activities. With all these results, policy makers could compare the situation of their own regions and adapt policies of efficient regions to their own institutional and economic background in the field of R&D.